Lack of Attention
In the last article of this series I talked about how games are an excellent way to keep kids attention while still providing them with useful skills. This trend of not being able to pay attention is something that you will encounter over and over when trying to teach children. In this final article of the series, I would like to highlight a basic strategy I use to effectively teach karate to children.
Focusing on Concepts Instead of Techniques
If you have ever tried teaching a child the intricate details of punching someone, you know there is only so much that they can soak up. When teaching an adult, I might emphasize a straight wrist, a twisting motion, hikite, targets on an opponent, different types of punches for various situations, and how to make a stronger punch. With children – they will be overwhelmed quickly, so I need to emphasize the important parts rather than the intricate details.
Below are some various examples of how to keep classes broad, simple, and children friendly.
Technical vs Strategy
Avoid trying to teach children specific grappling techniques and rather have them practice very basic strategies of grappling like controlling an opponent, building a good base to keep from getting flipped over, and most important to their safety, that there is no punching when grappling. It is quick to see the difference. Give kids a good base knowledge of the strategy and then, later, when they have that in their minds, work on giving them specific techniques to apply.
Complicated vs Simple
Pressure points are a great way to frustrate children as they have trouble memorizing a big list of locations on the body. Supposing they do figure it out, it is much harder to actually find these pressure points on another person. Instead why not give them a much simpler concept like raising your guard as you approach an opponent. When you are close it is harder to kick and more beneficial to block your face. This is easy to understand and even easier for them to practice and learn. Keep it simple and they will learn more.
Long vs Short
The history of Karate is a great topic. The problem is that it takes a long time to explain and talk about. If you are talking more than 5-6 minutes, kids are normally completely distracted by the time you finish. Why not give them a very short story with an important takeaway. You can teach a ton of philosophy, morals, and strategy in short stories, but have the added benefit of the higher level of focus from the children when telling a short story compared to a long one.
Specific Scenarios vs General Concept
When teaching children things like blocking, it is better to have them focus on broad ideas like blocking their face, rather than giving them specific scenarios like “when someone throws a hook punch at your face, it is more effective to block with an outside block than a high block.” This goes along with the first points, but it is more effective to get them into the habit of “high punches vs low punches” rather than trying to identify the punch and then use the “best” block. This is going to get them overwhelmed and ineffective. Later when they are good at the general idea of blocking, then move them into specific techniques.
Conclusion
They are kids. Using the KISS method is going to be the best way to do anything with them. Keep It Simple Stupid! There are some who will be able to learn faster – great – move them on, but start slow and build them up rather than trying to teach them like a normal adult class. Do you have any tips on how to teach kids?
Basics…Children don’t need to learn details as you have stated. We focus on the basics. Our children’s class is for 4-9 year olds and only teach basics. Basic punches, blocks, kicks, stances. If a child wants to succeed and one day make it to their black belt this is the best way to have them start. Basics are like the foundation to a house without it nothing else will work. We keep it simple and do a lot of drills that incorporate all the basics they have learnt. It is also a good idea to kind of ‘hide’ karate in what you are doing with them. Don’t always make it obviously they are practicing karate or being taught. Keep it light, fun and focus on the basics.
I love it Maddy. Do you think 10 years old is when they are ready for the adult class? It was 13 when I was growing up, but I joined the adult class at 9 with minimal problems. I definitely think there are some adults who are more difficult than people under 10 lol. Do you have another class after your 4-9 for people say 10-18?
I definitely agree that some adults are more difficult. The way our club is set up is we have what we call our little dragons/little warriors which is 4-6 one night and 6-9 another night. We have been finding that the there is a huge difference between children 4-6 and 6-9 that it was best to divide the two groups. Then we have our beginner class which is for anyone 10 and up with belts white- blue, following this class we have our intermediate class which is blue-brown (really everyone over a blue belt shows up) the last class of the night is advanced and adult so belts brown and black and then any belt level of an adult which we age 16 and up but usually ends up being adults 20 and up. The 4-9 year olds train and receive at the end of the program a purple and black belt which we call the little dragon black belt just to show that they have completed the program and they are then moved up to beginner class which they begin at white again. Our kids classes never learn any actual katas only basic moves. I actually found that the best way for me to teach them is by using drills. We usually spend the class in a circle facing each other and I use the skills they already know – stances, kicks, punches, blocks – and create small drills that they can follow along. They find it challenging and fun and I think almost view it as a game. My number one rule for other teachers at our club is to be positive with children. There is no sense in being negative it will only scare them off from trying something new.
I have classes 4-7yrs and 8 through 14/15 in juniors, particularly the
Littles enjoy games, it is hard to keep there attention!! When teaching very
Basic techniques , instead of line drilling them, I run them around, shout stop!
Fighting stance and run through the technique, I use this alot and build or
Introduce new techniques as we go. When I do have to stop them for a period of time
I let them know there is a game at the end of it, this helps with there attention!
Saying all this though, it depends on what sort of day they have had
Before they get us!
Brilliant. Giving them a short term reward for staying attentive makes a lot of sense. I can also picture a large handful of 5 year olds loving that game where you shout stop. Similar to red light green light. Thanks for sharing Phil.