Steve Williams
4th August 2000, 20:33
A few questions:
What is everyones opinion of teaching children?
Do you have a dedicated childrens class or are they taught in the adult class?
Do they continue to train for many years?
If there is a drop out age is it the same for boys and girls, or different?
If you have a dedicated childrens class then do you include "games" as part of training?
Does anyone have any good games to use which are possibly Kempo/ martial art orientated?
Just to start the ball rolling, here are my answers:
I think that childrens classes are a great potential for growth of shorinji kempo (with the addition of university clubs), children have a unique view of training and can improve any instructors teaching style.
I teach a dedicated childrens class and have done for a number of years, it takes place immediately before the adults class (means a hard 3+ hours of training for me and my assistant instructors), we have 25+ children train, ages from 6 to 14, roughly 60/40 split boy/girl.
Many of them have been training for 3 years or more, and don't seem to drop out at any set age, although more of the girls seem to stop in their early teens than the boys.
Many of my students have gone on to the adults class and still train, one of my young Japanese kenshi returned to Japan, continued training and is now 3rd dan, so although some drop out there are many who continue and thrive.
We do play games as part of the lesson, usually finishing the class with a game of "British Bulldog" or an impromptu sumo tournement. We sometimes have a "who can kick highest"/ "who can punch fastest/hardest" contest which is done in a very relaxed game-like manner.
One advantage is that some of the parents after days or months of bringing their children to train decide to start themselves, this is another way of promoting Shorinji Kempo by creating a strong positive impression of martial arts in general and Shorinji Kempo in particular.
Any thoughts at all on the subject then let us hear them.
What is everyones opinion of teaching children?
Do you have a dedicated childrens class or are they taught in the adult class?
Do they continue to train for many years?
If there is a drop out age is it the same for boys and girls, or different?
If you have a dedicated childrens class then do you include "games" as part of training?
Does anyone have any good games to use which are possibly Kempo/ martial art orientated?
Just to start the ball rolling, here are my answers:
I think that childrens classes are a great potential for growth of shorinji kempo (with the addition of university clubs), children have a unique view of training and can improve any instructors teaching style.
I teach a dedicated childrens class and have done for a number of years, it takes place immediately before the adults class (means a hard 3+ hours of training for me and my assistant instructors), we have 25+ children train, ages from 6 to 14, roughly 60/40 split boy/girl.
Many of them have been training for 3 years or more, and don't seem to drop out at any set age, although more of the girls seem to stop in their early teens than the boys.
Many of my students have gone on to the adults class and still train, one of my young Japanese kenshi returned to Japan, continued training and is now 3rd dan, so although some drop out there are many who continue and thrive.
We do play games as part of the lesson, usually finishing the class with a game of "British Bulldog" or an impromptu sumo tournement. We sometimes have a "who can kick highest"/ "who can punch fastest/hardest" contest which is done in a very relaxed game-like manner.
One advantage is that some of the parents after days or months of bringing their children to train decide to start themselves, this is another way of promoting Shorinji Kempo by creating a strong positive impression of martial arts in general and Shorinji Kempo in particular.
Any thoughts at all on the subject then let us hear them.