Martial Arts-Teach Kids Through Games
Teaching childrens martial arts classes can be extremely challenging at times. It is especially difficult for instructors who lack creativity and imagination. Children respond better to instructors that are creative and imaginative. Although some children relate better to their instructors using strict fear tactics a majority of children respond better to opposite. Kids actually love discipline; no matter how much they say they don’t they like things to be systemized and structured. They like it that way because they don’t have to think too much. The trick for instructors is to find a way to systemized and structured their class without teaching kids through fear.
The best way to do that is to incorporate games in childrens martial arts classes. It is surprisingly easy to convince children to do something if you put it in the form of a game. There are warm-ups that require children to run. Of course you’ll get a child or two who are running slowly or their attention is gone. A strategy to get those kids engaged and to start running is to make them believe that something is chasing them. Another way is to incorporate the use of a plastic dodgeball. Instructors will tell their students that if they get hit by the ball they have to move to the side so they can do 10 pushups then gets back to running. Realistically any exercise would work, but most kids hate doing push-ups. You’ll be amazed how quickly kids respond to these techniques.
Depending on what type of childrens martial arts classes they partake in will determine what kind of games to incorporate into your teaching routine. Instructors should always save the big games that the kids like till the end of class because if they misbehave you can take it away from them.
