Welcome to the first post at Kicks with Kids. My intention here is to create some thought and even a little debate about how we teach karate to our kids today. If you have trouble posting a comment, write me at kickswithkids@aol.com.

In this first posting I want to start, as I do when I teach a seminar, by posing this question:
What are you trying to accomplish with the time you spend teaching students ranging in age
3 – 13±?

Having posed the question: here is my answer:
I want to create the opportunity for a practitioner to become strong, smart and capable enough to stand up for him (or her) self, while being simultaneously courteous, patient, and self-disciplined enough not to abuse his (or her) skills.

This is a lofty goal by any measure. To accomplish this, I need to know my students for many years. Changes and growth of that proportion won’t happen in 6 months or a year. Even though most children don’t make it all the way to black belt (For those of you who do not know it, I teach in a Japanese system where a student must be 17± to test for a black belt.). If I can allow karate to influence their lives for 4 – 6 years, they have a chance of attaining strength of body, strength of technique, and strength of character.

Years ago, when I realized that my goal was to keep, influence, and affect this person (people really) for years, I began thinking how the boring redundancy of old fashioned repetition can cause children to walk away before they have learned the many things that karate has to offer them. (You have probably changed up your teaching routine, just because you got tired of the sameness… Do you know what I mean?)

Future postings will detail changes you can try -- changes that can be made without losing the integrity of the dojo. I will also detail how teaching kids 3 – 5 years old is significantly different from the students that are 6 – 10 years old. Last, but most difficult, I’ll brainstorm ideas on holding the attention of the elusive 11 -15 with the attention span of a gnat (unless they’re playing video, right?)

Today’s thoughts are about general class structure and management:
Each one of us has to find our own voice. I like to teach with laughter:(without letting the students start talking and joking among themselves and without making jokes at the expense of the students. What works best for you? Try different approaches for example:

• Sometimes let the students copy you and sometimes let them work independent of you.


• Yell to elicit a strong spirit but not to humiliate. Then go immediately to a quiet voice and watch the kids strain to listen and stay with you.


• Be consistent in your discipline. An inconsistent example I see often is a boy and a girl do the same crime but don’t get the same punishment. Fit the punishment to the crime. Remember that pleasing the karate teacher is tantamount to most of these kids. Some of you could be having the opposite problem (animals running the farm). I can go to that on another post, ok?


• Make breaches in courtesy as important (or more important) than movement mistakes. That will begin the character development of the student.


• When you are in a stand off with a student over some sort of dojo etiquette, try to find a way where you can both win. Try to stay away from the “if / then” type of solution. Instead, try to come up with an idea where the person can choose which destiny he (or she) wants. Here is an example: In our dojo, you have to call the sensei “Sensei”. A student loses his temper and turns on me and says “yeah”. A few assistant instructors correct him by saying “Yes Sensei” and the child stares at me, unyielding. I can say “If you don’t say “Yes Sensei you have to do 50 pushups.” Or I can say “Johnny, you choose: say yes Sensei in any voice you need to and let’s all move on, or don’t say yes Sensei, do pushups, and then spend the rest of your night mad and bored – it is up to you.” The out I gave him was that he could stay in his hostile voice and that the decision was his. I’ve never had anyone choose not to say the correct words in the incorrect voice. I immediately do something that makes us all do some pushups. Johnny has a chance to get rid of some of his anger with the exercise and we all try again. I will tell you, this one is a little difficult, but it is worth it.

My teacher taught me to teach with benevolent dictatorship.

That ought to be enough to start some interesting conversations. I welcome questions and comments. Instead of just keeping on punching, let’s keep on letting our kids punch!