Throwing children

[kung_fu_monkey]

I've been taking a fairly active role assisting in the kid's classes this month and I'm finding it's getting a tiny bit easier in understanding how to teach them. Some of the kids are around 7 years old, some are early teens, and just a few are about 4 or 5, so I have to try to be flexible enough in my teaching style to reach all of them while also

Comments

[toosuto]

Kid's class is my biggest challenge (and not just because it is currently half of my training time). Some days everything flows pretty well and we can actually do technique. Some days they are all over the place in terms of attention and focus and just physically all over the place.

I don't know how you guys teach rolls, but it's a BIG part of we do: we work on having a good solid wheel (their arms with their head in the center of it) for them to roll around. If someone is really having trouble I like to make them go very slow: get down on one knee, then move forward until their shoulder is on the mat (while reaching and looking back with the forward (knee up) hand and then going over their shoulder.

And the touching thing is a big deal (especially with those pre-teen/early teen girls), again I think we really work on only touching for technique if we can help it: it also sets a good example for the kids so they aren't doing anything else to each other on the mat besides technique.

[toosuto]

Also: hooray for teaching: when it works it's super fun!