Teaching a Kids Class

[Sharla]

All good thanks Canvas back - i think I'll laminate (to waterproof them) some cards so if I'm ever stuck for an activity I'll just grab one rather than relying on my brain and risking drawing a blank.

[Scrap]

Dont train them in water Sharla to risky for the young. Can damage the upper vertabrae.

[Sharla]

Oh yeah I remember you saying something about it only being safe with water up to a certain height. Thanks for reminding me Scrap I'll keep that in mind!

[Andre]

Dont train them in water Sharla to risky for the young. Can damage the upper vertabrae.

Still wont let me rep you for a while!

Good pick up for the young, thanks.

How old are they by the way, Sharla?

[Chris Nagel]

Hi Sharla et al, it's been a while hasn't it.

How many kids do you have under wing now? If it's a decent sized group you can try out the mass boxing approach like the army guys would do. In the beginning it'd have the feel of an aerobics class, but you can't go wrong with the structure of it and where it leads to.

For starters you could run them through the stance/posture and on guard position. Make sure you emphasise and demonstrate the position of their hands, elbows, feet, hips and head. Good posture is so fundamental that when balance and movement is taken care of, finess and magic can grow from it.

Once they stand well enough to look like boxers, have them go to the next step by making them move like boxers. The simple idea to make them realize is that moving forward is accomplished by pushing off of their back foot, and not a step and drag motion that would put them off balance. Once they understand the "why" everything else will make sense no matter if they are stepping left/right, forward or backwards.

Just be on the look out for mistakes, and spend plenty of time to work on the mechanics of movement. There are a lot of good posts on this board that you can refer back to in order to give you a better idea.


P.S. Have you ever wondered what it'd be like to try to swim while wearing boxing gloves?

[Sharla]

Hi Chris

I think it is possible to swim wearing boxing gloves just not very well and not if you love your gloves!

Thanks for the input Chris. To be honest I haven't started training these kids yet because I've been too flat out with uni work!

Hopefully things will ease up for me at uni soon and I can get started.

I don't think it will be happening too often since it's just cross training from their usual swimming so I doubt I'll be able to train them as thoroughly as I might kids who are training to learn to box but I will try to make it fun.

I will be coming back to this thread probably next week to draw up a plan and get started with them then.

[nutrick]

hey there sharla, how's this going? i'd hella join your kid's class if i could =P

[Sharla]

Hi nutrick,

I've been to busy to commit to anything just yet!

I really want to help them out and I do have teaching a kids class down on my 'bucket list' (things I want to do before I kick the bucket) but I think it's just not going to happen for a while unfortunately!

I'm going to keep all the suggestions I've got here in mind though so I can offer to help out later when things are not so hectic though!