Teaching Children

[Kiki]

Our dojo has a large amount of children. All beginners, mostly second to fifth graders. They have lots of energy and seem to be having fun. They are also improving. However, keeping them focused and motivated can be a real challenge. Especially when the, shall we say, not so disciplined kids start acting out because they are getting bored. I guess my thread has two aspects:

1. Creative teaching suggestions.
Please take in to account most of them are not wearing gi, none are in bogu. Most likely they will not advance to bogu for at least a year or longer either due to age/skill or financial reasons.

2. Discipline

Domo arigato!
K

[Confound]

Kiki,

There is a section over at the ebudo forums (http://www.e-budo.com) about running a dojo and teaching. Maybe there is some information there?

c

[Kiki]

Thanks, I'll check it out.

[William Honda]

Kiki,

Kids are tough, attention spans are short. How old are the kids you are talking about?

One of the senseis – just to make it fun (and a change of pace for the kids) fights three on one. The kids have a lot of fun doing that, they are running around and giggling.
It is very rambunctious but they do appear to enjoy it. I would not suggest it as a regular item. Use it sparingly as a surprise treat.

Our younger ones seem to have more energy after practice than during practice.

[William Honda]

Kiki,

Ooops, sorry- I no read too good. You did mention age range.

[JSchmidt]

The class that I used to help out with, was mainly Japanese kids, which I think made discipline a little easier, but here's my 2 cents anyway:
Whatever you make the kids do, you do: This includes warm-up, suburi, whathaveyou.
Try to make the 'smaller' things a game, ie reigi, running back to the queue. I would often race them back to the line, when I was motodachi. (Usually with my shinai prodding them gently along).
For the kids without bogu, it was pretty much alwas the same practice:
Suburi (of varying length), then on motodachi: Kirikaeshi, kihon and uchikomi.

The time it took for them to get into bogu varied depending on age and ability...most of them were scared shitless the first time anyway :).

Often I found that 1 hour with the kids was harder than the 1 hour adult session with had afterwards, as you have to work to make them look good. I learned an awful lot about recieving from the kids classes.

Jakob

[kendomushi]

I've never heard anyone here mention it, but in Japan, we start from 10 kyu and work up. I've only heard anyone from overseas mention starting at 6 kyu. Starting from 10 gives the kids tangible goals to help keep some motivation going. Many dojo even give them an adhesive number to put on their do starting at 8 kyu to show their level, like a mon just for them.

[Old Warrior]

http://kumdo.co.kr/kendoacademy/

We also start at 10. With each grade they give out a certificate and an "iron on stripe" like a "hash mark". It also helps because the kids then know where they are to stand in line. I always find it humorous when I see 12 year old kids with a sleeve full of stripes and I have but 3. Of course, their form is superior and they've been at it for years - but they're still kids.

[alexpollijr]

We have a load of problems training kids here ( by 'kid' I mean up to 14 years).

Since the training method we use was handed to us by our former japanese police sensei, it's very straightforward, and the kinds seem to get quickly bored by it.

Besides, most of them show up because they've seen some samurai fiction (i.e Rounin Kenshi) and they want be good, and quick. That seems to hamper their progress since they want to do it Y way instead of X way, because it looks nicer.

What JSchmidt says is true. The yudansha who's teaching the kids has to do all the stuff with them. Otherwise they'll slack off. We've had that experience also.

So we're also trying to figure out some sort of teaching method that'll teach them what they need to learn, but up to this day only two kids out of many who passed through the dojo doors have got into bogu.

- Alexandre

[Stan]

What I have noticed from others who are good at teaching kids is:

1. They usually played some kind of game(not neccessarily kendo related) that the kids chose for the warm up. The keiko was held in a gym and there was usually a couple of different balls laying around so soccer or basketball usually just developed.

2. While doing any drill, waza etc. explain the fine points once. Do not keep harping on the finer points.

3. For discipline one Sensei gave one kid a very light tap on the side of the men. This brought the kid back to earth. I want to emphasize that this was by no means some kind of corporal punishment. A very light tap to get his attention. If one does get angry and perhaps needs to raise ones voice I would suggest to use this tactic very sparingly otherwise it will lose its effectiveness(the latter part is my own comment).

4. Smile...Smile..and smile. If you are having fun then the kids will have fun. It is contagious.

In truth, our club has just gotten our first kid and we are all terrified that we will %$?& something up. So thank you for this post I too am learning something.

Stan

[KhawMengLee]

The keiko was held in a gym and there was usually a couple of different balls laying around so soccer or basketball usually just developed.

Oh My God...hahaha we do that as a warm down sometimes. Picture 17 full grown men( and 3 women) playing soccer in full gi and hakama....:D

[Paburo]

i wish i knew more and enough to give you (and myself) advice.

a couple times i had to give the class to the kids in my dojo(mostly japanese) in the absence of my sensei.

about discipline.... well, i know most of the kids in my dojo and joke with them sometimes, but in class i had to be more severe and disciplined (but not too much haha, who wants a boring senpai!)

after a couple of kihon drills i notice that this japanese girl named mana does the drills better than me! surpassed my ki ken tai ichi! also, she and another kid achieved an almost perfect dou after i barely explained them how it was.

i guess kids emulate naturally and as you guide them, they can eventually improve a lot. even a cheap senpai like me can make them do something good! (unbelieveable i know)

anyway, ganbare!

[Kiki]

Thank you all for giving your input. I will pass all this on to the sensei who teaches the little kids. He’s been doing it for about 6 months and I know he will be encouraged to hear all of your experiences and appreciate the new ideas. Here are some of the things we do with the kids

Besides working on the basics. They play various circuit games. One for example is a suriashi race, then 10 suburi - counting in Japanese, then suriashi back. Kiai contests between individuals or boys vs girls. Sometimes he also reviews warm up exercises because many of them don’t understand how to stretch properly and we all know bad form can lead to injury. Heck, some of them are not sure of left from right. We have two dummies a tall one and a short one which they love to hit.

We were thinking about getting some nerf bats so they could spar a bit without bogu but thought it would not be a good idea unless we also got some protective eye wear.

When one of them starts acting out and is not responding to warnings they get sent to the “penalty box”. It’s up to the kid to decide when he/she is ready to behave properly. Fortunately, this doesn’t happen very often and usually it only takes a minute before they came back with a new attitude. Sensei always make a point to welcome them back with encouragement and a smile.

Our kids also have boundless energy before and after keiko. Even sweeping the floor can turn into and interesting game of tag. The floor may not be too clean but they get warmed up really well. After keiko the basketball comes out. They are building team comradeship in a natural way.

One more thing I’ll share from the e-bogu site Confound recommended was this student pledge:

“‘I am a martial artist. I train with spirit, honor, integrity, and courage. I train to master myself, not others. I will do my best to honor myself, my family, my instructors, and my dojo, by using the skills I learn for defensive purposes only.’
We also teach the meanings of the words as they learn the pledge.”

Thanks again and I hope more people will continue to add their ideas and experiences to this thread.