anyone have kids kung fu classes?

Wai Jia: The Kung Fu Forum Kung Fu Forum
1

Hi. I want to know if anyone here have experience with teaching kids kung fu and what are some good methods of teaching that can make it fun for the kids and on the other make them get a workout as well.

The reason I ask is because I was asked to teach these little kids 6-12 years old some basic kung fu stuff at the community center. Now there are 21 of these little kids. :eek:

So any tips or advice would be great. OH yeah I haven’t taken up the offer yet because I’m not sure if it’s something I can handle.

Thank you.

2

I have seen some kids classes before. One of the warmups was a game like dodgeball but using gloves and headguards. There was a lot of competition which kept everyone interested eg. who can kick the highest. Mostly everything was just turned into a game and a competition.

3

dude, make sure you have some help.

make sure you get paid well too. kids are harder work than adults. you should be getting a minimum of $5 a kid per class…and I say that because w/ 21 you’ll need at least 2 assistants

6-12 is a pretty broad age group. 6 and 7 years olds vary so much in their maturity. some can still essentially be 5 year olds and others can handle being with older kids fine.

I separate my kids into 5-7 year olds and 8-12 year olds. at 13 I evaluate the kid and see if he would do adult class fine.

K.I.S.S. do the most basic stuff you have. let them kick and hit the bags (light bags/shields/focus mitts) a lot.

don’t actually expect to teach the youngest ones ‘kung fu’. some may surprise you and actually ‘get it’.

most will be playing.

4

THanks for the input. I really have no teaching experience, but because the person that was teaching is leaving somewhere and I’m covering for them for a month and a half.

NOt sure how I should run the class. Should I have them do the basic, like horse stance, punches and stuff like that? Any other idea would be great.

5

Police check

In the UK any adult working with children has to be Police checked by Law to ensure your not a Charlie Chester - Child Molester.

Don’t forget adequate insurance. Always make sure a seond adult is present to to provide a witnes, just incase god forbid a flase allegation is made. This is also usefull for insurance purposes should a child be hurt, again the witnes can testify to events.

If Police checks are not mandatory, why not volunteer yourself for one, and then use it as a selling promotional tool that you have been checked and are proud to be cleared. Rest assure parents their child is safe in your hands…so to speak:-)

How many childrens martial art school advertise they are and have been checked ??

6

Here are some threads you may find helpful:
http://ezine.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?t=36916&highlight=teaching+kids

http://ezine.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?t=34763

-123

7

I think insurance is taking care of, I’ve already filled out background check. It’s being taught at the community center, and it’s only 1 day a week for 1 hour so it’s not too bad. But 21 kids from 6-12 years old is just plain nuts!! There will be 3 recreation leader there who are 15 and 16 that will be watching.

How does that sound? Does anyone have a somewhat safe game that the kids can play that is fun, but also give them a workout? We already going to do animal walk and spider tag. Any ideas are great.

Thanks.

8

What kind of Kung Fu will you be teaching these children?

My recommendation is to have them do nothing but stance training for the first 3 months. Especially horse stance. It will build strength they will need. Of course, you run the risk that most of your students won’t come back. But with 21 students, which you indicate may be too much, it might be a good thing. Weed out the weak.

But you can always teach the western way and teach them basic techniques first. Of course, the aggregate result of this won’t guarantee they all stay. They may get frustrated because they can’t hold their stances, or feel they lack the requisite strength to do a horse stance or a snake. Sort of ironic, isn’t it?

9

Wow

This is why martial artists are poor! I cannot believe what I’m hearing regarding teaching, much less teaching kids! You guys need to learn how to do this, not just jump in with both feet. The responsibility of teaching is HUGE! And not just a background check. People ruin the industry of CMA by just opening up a school and declaring that you are a teacher. And I don’t care that someone higher than you says “Now you are a teacher”. That’s BS! You have to learn how to teach, to communicate your MA to kids and adults. You have to learn drills that build the skills of a good martial artist. You need a structured curriculum and lesson plans so that your students are consistent with what they learn, thereby actually getting results. If you don’t know how to teach or run a business, THEN GET HELP FIRST. Are you trying to fail? Do you think that just because a guy knows how to make Hero Sandwiches that he can be successful in selling them? Or in a business. GET PROFESSIONAL HELP! And not from a bunch of KF guys on a forum. Seek out PRO organizations or leaders in the industry. You found a mentor in martial arts, find one in martial arts business. Get serious about this profession. UG! This is why Karate and Tae Kwon Do schools have more students and more studios than KF guys. It’s a shame.

10

One more thing

Weed out the weak? Are YOU kidding? Where and who did you guys learn from? Maybe good martial artists, but I will say NOT good Instructors!

How do you measure a teachers value? Hmmm..

BY THE NUMBER OF SUCCESSFUL STUDENTS! HOW ELSE? BY ACTUALLY GETTING YOUR STUDENTS TO PROGRESS! TO GET BETTER. NOT TO QUIT!

It is an instructor’s responsibility to teach students, not to make them quit. I’m sure if all of our grade and high school teachers used this method, we’d be pumping gas our whole life and using pictures on cave walls to communicate.

I have owned and operated successful schools since 1991. I started a CMA business thread. Maybe you guys should start getting involved.

11

actually I won’t be called Sifu, I would introduce myself as senior student or si-hing and I’ll just be running the kids class for a month and a half. Just because I don’t know how to teach doesn’t mean I don’t know my basics.

Like I’ve mention before, there was someone else teaching that class, not my sifu, but another senior student who has a lot more experience teaching kids, but this was a short notice, because that person is leaving somewhere for a month and a half so I’m just taking that person place for now, then after that I’m off the hook for teaching.

This is why I came to this board to ask for advice on teaching. As martial artist we should help each other out, instead of criticizing, but if you were not criticizing then accept my apology.

12

Lama Pai Sifu,

I saw your website, sorry but no offense, how come your school looks more like a karate or tae kwon do school, then kung fu? What’s up with the karate gi? Your school looks like a mark up for business, which is fine, considering you gotta pay the bills and make some money for yourself. Thats good for you that you know how to run a business, but we are martial artist not businessmen.

I guess many school are out there JUST TO MAKE MONEY.

By the way the kiddie kung fu that I’m going to run only cost $13 bucks for one and half month. I don’t think many place can beat that.

I still give you props for knowing what you are doing. Everybody do things a little different, so think about that before critizing.

13

Lama Pai Sifu,

Dude I saw your broadsword form your site, you wanna talk trashed dude, your kung fu form really sucks, you need to work on it. Its sad you said 24 years of experience, but you look nothing but garbage kung fu. You may know how to run a school but your kung fu sucks.

Stop trash talking.

14

Props?

Hey..$13 for a month and a half of class? Good for you! You are right! I don’t think anybody could beat that! You probably have the lowest tuition in the country! WHO WOULD WANT TO BEAT THAT? Hey…don’t forget boys and girls, you get what you pay for!

As far as criticizing my school because we use frog button and cross over uniforms; I could be in a clown suit and still teach great KF.

I’m sure there are schools out there that only want to make money and have no integrity. I KNOW that you are not infering that I am one of those schools. I mean, how could you? You have never seen me teach, or my instructors or been in my schools, right?

And of course people do things different. Some are successful and some are not.

There are professional people in this industry. They keep thier promises to their students, they don’t go out of business and re-open somewhere else every 8 months, they retain students for long periods of time and they get their students to be good at their art. And, they earn a great wage, so that they can support their family and show thier students that KF training can turn you into a leader and a successful person. Those are the professionals.

Then, there is everyone else.

Just use this advice from a seasoned verteran, who is a PROFESSIONAL, and see if it can’t help you to decide what kind of instructor you want to be.

LET ME REPEAT THIS:
Q> How do you measure the value of worth of an instructor:

A> By the amount of students they progress through the ranks. Your job is to get people to learn and experience the benefits of MA. That is why your students hired YOU in the first place. When they quit, they are firing you! If you don’t have a lot of students, if you don’t get people to black belt, black sash, or whatever level you choose to call it, you are not being the best instructor you can be. And you are truly not a professional.

Although the things I state here are my opinion, it doesn’t change the fact that they are true.

AND, if you are going to teach martial arts, take the responsibility seriously. Learn about HOW to teach and WHAT to teach. I am not doubting that you are a competant martial artist. But Professionals like myself are always getting hurt becuase of inexperienced people trying to do our job and failing at it. They open and close, they discourage kids AND adults with their harsh teaching. It makes it harder for the serious professionals.

Just some advice, not meaning to get all crazy on you, just want to let people know how it is.

15

Imparting Knowledge

Lama Pai Sifu,
I like your writing style and appreciate your passion for the MA teaching.
I’ll take a good look at your stuff.

Kevin

16

dude your pretty messed up!! I came here asking for tips and advice, you call yourself a master and you go and critizes me when asked for help! That’s a shame!

I gave you props for knowing what you are doing but I still feel like your putting me down!! I’m not no master, I’m 20 years old student who was ask to cover someone place for a month and a half.

Like I say this is run out of a community center, so of course, the government subsized the rest of the money for the people in the community to learn.

All I ask was how come your school looks like a karate or tae kwon do school, I was not trying to critize you or judge, but it seems like what you are doing is good market and its many students. It was just a plain question that had no bad meaning. Since you claim to be a professional, I thought its better to ask a PROFESSIONAL.

But when you critize me who’s probably a lot younger than, especially when I was just asking for tips, that makes you look really bad as a martial art instructor? What happened to integrity and helping out others who are martial artist?

We are not here to make money off kung fu, we all have full time jobs that pay well. My kung fu instructor works for Microsoft as a multimedia engineer so he doesn’t care about getting pay lots of money through kung fu.

Some are wimps and they quit early on, not because of bad instructor. Kung fu isn’t for everyone you know and if you can’t do it then kung fu isn’t for you. That’s why there are so many mediocrorer martial artist. (I’m not saying you are one of them just so you know)

And since you keep on giving me the thumbs down I"m gonna give you the MIDDLE FINGER!

17

By the way I’ve been practicing kung fu for almost 9 years so I know my basics, and we have a circulum in the regular adult class. I help show my juniors in the adult class, all I ask was HOW TO TEACH LITTLE KIDS!!!

I didn’t say I went out to open a **** kung fu school. So you need to read the **** thing before jumping to conclusion MR. PROFESSIONAL.

I saw your broadsword on your website, is that your best form? I like to see something different. It’s like pretty normal, nothing impressive!

I’m out

18

When I first started teaching, I also used cross over uniform tops as opposed to frog buttons. My reasoning was, one-the cross over tops are a heckuva lot more durable, and we like to grab. two-our art was developed by Ming loyalists, and the frog button tops are maderin style(ching), whereas the crossover style was pre-ching, hence, Ming. Boy, did I get flak from the so-called traditionalists, as if they could judge the effectiveness of my teachings by what uniform I wore-da noive! However, I did change, and only because my students really liked the frog button tops-(they’re just so much more Kung-Fu-ish!") My Sifu told me, “Give them what they think they want, while you give them what they need” I like to make my students happy-within reason. And if a little thing like that adds to their enjoyment of CMA, then fine. Whatever floats yer boat. We end up practicing more in t-shirts, when all is said and done. Go figure.
Well, as it turns out, I found a good company-Superior, that can make more durable frog button uniforms, so now we are both happy. Yea!
Bottom line-as Sifu Parella stated, you can be wearing a clown suit, and it wouldn’t change the effectiveness of the teachings.
There are alot of things that Chinese Martial Arts instructors can learn from Karate schools. They have been teaching to the public alot longer than we have and it is better to learn from those that are making it work, rather than floundering on tyour own. Some examples of this are,;
more regimented classes, high energy drills, a well thought out curriculum with a ranking structure, periodic testing, uniforms.
If you look at the successful Karate schools, such as JKA, you will see across the board a high standard of excellence. If you take this a step further, and look at successful Martial Arts schools that are making it on a large scale, such as Steve LaValle,Tiger Shullman, Kovar’s Karate, Ernie Reyes, Buzz Durkin’s Uechi Karate-Do, you will see quality, and professionalism. It’s time that we, as CMA instructors stop holding ourselves back with our delusion that Sifus are supposed to be these starving artists. I have trained over thirty years in the Martial Arts. I think I deserve to get paid for my efforts as well. Don’t you? Or do you not value yourself as a teacher, as a person? What is your worth? What is the worth of your teachings, or the time and effort you as a teacher put into your students?

19

you said Give them what they think they want, while you give them what they need"

that makes a lot of sense.

I’m sorry for my irrationale statement, I said some harsh stuff because I felt like Sifu Parella was putting down on my Sifu’s school and I wasn’t gonna let that happen. I just thought that everyone could be more friendly instead of open attack.

Again I apologize for my previous statement.

20

Sifu Parella said it best!

Some nice advice to teachers, instructors and other sifus who plan to open a school to teach martial arts commericially in todays society. A lot of Chinese Martial Arts teachers and instructors are too busy trying to be like “36 chambers of Death” inside of operating a well run school. Traditional doesnt mean act like the shaolin temple it means a martial arts school that is organized, structured and disciplined. From the time you enter to the time you leave. The way students put their weapons away to the way they are dismissed should be done orderly.