Teaching the boring bits to young kids

My son trains at the same school as me (it's family friendly, but the kids are on one side of the hall with adults on the other). He's coming on well.

Trouble is, while he can do the stances and guard etc, he tends not to. And this is holding him back. I've noticed other young kids are the same.

So outside of class, any ideas how I can help him develop the habit of using his stances and keeping his guard up?

Some kind of game seems like the way to go, but I'm struggling to think one up.

 

ID just leave him to it man. Make sure he enjoys the training and doesn't worry too much about actual training. Loads of time for that later in life. It's not really important is it? He's not competing or fighting any time soon right?;

It'll come naturally.

 

If you keep punching him in the face he'll soon get the idea

Seriously though, how old is he?

 

All true. But, he is kind of in limbo. He wants to be promoted. He learns the actual techniques. Then goes in for the pre-test and comes out upset without his grading application forms. Instructors then come out also upset because they hate upsetting kids, and tell me there was no sign of stances and no guard.

He's quite a few belts in but is stuck because no credible instructor can promote him to the more senior grades when his stances are not there and there's no guard, but he's good at everything else (for his age and grade) and he wants to progress.

 

He's only 7.

 

Shadow box with him.

Correct him as you go.

 

Everyone wants their kid to be a natural but you've done enough by making the effort to take him to class and encourage him.
Better to leave the coaching to the instructors . I know it might seem frustrating when he's dropping his hands or his stance is wrong but a seven year old has finite attention and patience ( don't we all ! ) and you run the danger of being a negative influence for all your good intentions.
Help him by practicing together the drills he's been taught/shadowboxing , but on his terms. Encourage him by pointing out his good points rather than focusing on what needs to be put right and be sure he's enjoying what he's doing rather than just trying to make you happy.

 

That was the exact age when I started my MA training. IMO, "1 step 3 punches" is a good solo drill for his age. Also by using the "rhino guard" to protect his head not to be punched can be a good defense skill if you are willing to work with him as his training partner.

 

Thanks all. You've been very helpful and have helped me to realise a fault on my part, as well as a simple plan to fix it.

He also trains aikido. Our aikido club is different to our karate club. At aikido, adults and kids are completely segregated so I have no idea what he trains like, but I'm told he is doing well.

I'm going to stop trying to encourage him, for fear of sickening him off.

I started judo when I was 8 or 9. I enjoyed it and went enthusiastically for a few months. Then something put me off. I stopped going. Didn't stop me getting back into martial arts later.

I'm going to remind myself that he's a kid. It's his job to have fun and change his mind. If he decides to show off his skills at karate and make progress, cool. If he loses interest and stops going, also cool. If he turns to me and says he wants to try out the BJJ club that's in town, or the taekwondo or judo that his friend goes to, fine. Although I will be disappointed if he drops martial arts entirely, because I personally think it's such a valuable thing in terms of self respect and discipline it should be part of the national curriculum.

 

So much this! I like that attitude!

Stances and such are just boring for most kids his age.
We have like two kids in all who don't get bored after a minute doing that.
As long as it has movement that's not *too* regulated it's mostly okay, but too much kihon and the kids lose their attention quite fast, because there's not enough action and fun in it.
I myself had a hard time to force myself through this; now I look at it as an exercise for discipline and at least try to have some fun, but that's an adult view.

I managed to motivate a kid, 6, for like 20 seconds, who usually doesn't concentrate on it at all.
He told me "Hey, look, I'm a zombie", so I told him "But zombies to their kihon".
Those 20 seconds were worth it

Personally I don't like that way at all, but our main kids coach "reminds" them regularly: "If you don't do this and that, there will be no grading".
Again, personally, I dislike this way, because it makes even 4 years old only seeing the next belt.
Especially in that age it takes a quite while though and I don't want them to train for the belts, but because they enjoy what they do.

kids can learn (self) respect and discipline in nearly every sport, if taught well.
Be it MA, soccer, rugby, ballet, gymnastics, ...

I'm not a fan to stick those values to martial artists; always feels as if we are better people, because we choose MA as a hobby instead of tennis or swimming, which is wrong (obviously; I'm not saying you meant it like that).
There are idiots among martial artists as well as everywhere else where people meet and train something.

I can see why you would prefer it though.
It's just normal that parents hope that their kids will like the same.
I would hope that my kid (if I had one; luckily for the kid I don't have one ) would like Judo when it's little and finds another MA or stays with it when it would get older ^^

 

It's not that martial arts is superior to sport, or that I want my kids to like what I like. I'd be fully supportive if he asked me if he could join some sports club.

I see sport and martial arts as two sides of the same coin really. Both share many commonalities. I just think that if you train to understand violence and violent intent, then firstly you're less likely to initiate it because you understand how serious it is and secondly, if somebody else initiates it for real, although for real is different to the relative safety of training, you at least have a chance of defending yourself rather than freezing up.

 

Personally this is why when I've had parents of younger kids ask me if I would teach their kids I usually tell them to go take them to a BJJ class. They won't be bored by forms, it's more "play" in training, and grappling is a hugely underrated skill.

 

IMO, you should try as hard as you can to keep him to be interested. MA training is good for self-defense and fun, it's also good for health. If you want your son to be able to live 100 years old, you should help him to develop "workout habit" at his young age.

MA training is like book reading. If you don't build up a good habit when you were young, you won't continue do that during your old age.

 

Better than that, people need to model the behaviour for their children. It burns my butt when parent sit on the sidelines when they could be training too and providing a positive example for their kids.

 

My kids all started very young. My oldest went from what his instructor called a natural to at 8 an absolute mess. Since I took over he is coming back, my youngest who is now 6 just recently started to actually train and out of the gate he could do.every single technique and kata.to 8th kyu. My daughter has always given 100% it is her goal to be black belt by 10. I don't have the heart to tell her she cant until 14.

My point is that all kids are diffrent. The will sometimes regress. And even if they don't seem to be paying attention they probably are. Training with them is encour aging to them. They want to make their parents happy....... Most of the time. He is 7. Don't worry.

 

There are some such parents at our club. I've tried to enlist a few of them if they've shown even a passing interest.

It drives me mad when they make excuses like 'oh I'm not fit enough any more' or 'I can't do that spinny round jumpy thing I see you all do' or 'I'd struggle to even do one pushup '.

They've been watching classes since their kid started, so surely they must have seen other people sweating, struggling with basic stuff, but gradually improving.

As an aside. I remember one time when I was only one or two grades in, we were doing our warm up, stretches and balance exercises. Me being still fairly new to it, I was having a right job balancing on one leg and was wobbling around all over the place. I became a bit self conscious when I heard one of the mums on the benches behind me tittering. But then I thought, I might not be able to do this yet, but at least I'm trying, and will keep trying until I can. Unlike the rather lardy lady who chooses to sit on her butt, laughing at people that are at least trying to improve themselves.

 

Maybe you just looked absolutely hilarious?

 

I have no doubt I did. I probably still do. I don't care though.

Nowadays I take the stance that if I was worried about looking silly, I wouldn't get sweaty in my pyjamas in front of about 40 people.

 

I'm fairly certain I look equally as silly with my hair smeared across my face with sweat, gasping for air under knee on belly... Certainly tragi-comic at the very least.

Best to accept we look ridiculous and perhaps not judge the person laughing too harshly? Just because they are fat and don't do karate doesn't mean they don't respect personal betterment or pursue it themselves in ways you might not be interested in.

 

Starf fighting is fantastic for teaching the practical benifits of stances in kunf fu and karate.

You dont want a wooden staff covered in foam (potential dangerous too much mass deliver too much power) you want a plastic pipe covered in foam (lighter yield during striking so do not deliver full power). You need a head guard. You will quickly find that good stances make you way better at beating the other guy.

and who doesn't enjoy hitting people with big sticks. ?

[ame="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mPfmEBccqs8"]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mPfmEBccqs8[/ame]


Note: The above post is intended to show the use of stance combined with sticks (which it does) and to show that stick fighting looks cool and is fun to do (which it does). It is not posted as an example of good technique.