I am going to take over my MA school's children program after the Christmas break, and would like help developing a good warm up and cool down. I am coming from a TMA school that still does a lot of the static stretching at the beginning of class. If I have a program that shows improvement I can use that to change the thinking of other instructors. Feel free to give multiple suggestions/ routines, as this will probably help me design my own in the long run.
Warm ups should never include stretching, I keep my to an actual warm up, and then some mobility drills, warm down I again hit mobility drills and end with stretching, but for kids excessive stretching isnt desirable.
I run a class for children and help teach another, the one I run the kids are 4-6 and the other one they are 6-11. I try never to have the same warmup for two classes in a row, but I have a couple go to warm ups. 1- I play something called "three walls". I call out a number 1-3 that corresponds with a wall and the name of a stance. They run to that wall and take that stance, then I have them do a few techniques. Usually things like horse stance/blocks, or karate stance/punches. 2- regular jumping jacks, then running in place with knees up while punching. 3- I send them all to one side of the room, and give them all a number. I'll stand in the middle with a pad and call out numbers. When someone hears their number called, they run by me and do whatever technique I say and run right to the opposite wall. After a few fast pace rounds of that they're ready to stretch.
i would say switch the static stretching for moderate ROM, slow and steady mobility work. that way you can still say you're making them "stretch", when you're actually simply making them move through the ROM by their own power. say, instead of making them do something like a cossack stretch and stay there, have them stand with their legs a bit over shoulder width apart, slowly go down into a shallow cossack on one side and then rise, repeat on the other side, repeat a couple of times and try again with the feet a bit further apart. that way no one's actually staying in the stretched position, and no one's going to their ROM limit right off the bat, but they're still passing through it and getting the warm-up benefits of high-ROM movements. cossacks, bodyweight squats, windmills and glute bridges are the types of movements that i'd consider optimal for this sort of thing. with those four, a few upper body/waist/hip rotations, and some light cardio, you can get a good 10-15 minutes of effective warm-up with no static stretching involved.
@ raaeoh: Under 12 @ Fusen: Black belt in ITF TKD, Blue belt BJJ (I'm mostly just adding the Gracie Games from GracieKids.com) @Grass Hopper: Sounds like some interesting warm ups. @Fish of Doom: Thanks for the ideas.