Kids class questions

I’d like to find some more games I can use for my little guys but obviously I want them to be relevant to technique.
What are your favorite games you play with the kids? Can you please describe them for me?

Also, how do you explain the theory of jiu jitsu to your tiny guys, like under 7? We have a new little guy I’m struggling to help understand submissions. He understands when to tap, and when to let go when someone else taps, but it’s like he’s struggling with why we’re hurting each other. I’ve never had to explain it to someone this young and I’m just not sure how to word it. Any thoughts?

Hey Dawna-

My tried and true game for kids 4-10ish is Simon Says. With all kids spread across the space shoulder to shoulder you can lead them through any all sorts of "Simon says _____." I'd use this game usually as warmup, so Simon would say to touch your toes, ect- leading through a stretch, and then get the kids heart rate up a bit. The rest of the game for me tends to mostly consist of "Simon says breakfall, Simon says stand up in base. Simon says breakfall, Simon says shrimp to the back wall, stand up in base. " Forward roll, back roll, cartwheel.... all those things. The idea obviously isn't to "get kids out' of the game, but to encourage critical listening.

Also Red Light/Green Light.

Hey Dawna ,

Congrats on choosing to hang in those nasty legpositions... and on winning that horrible and creepy show onnit 6.
That show gives me the creeps... the whole vibe is off...
did you feel it while competing?

I dont thing you should say anything to a kid that young involving choking people to sleep :D
Much more if you are trying to make him love choking people :D
Dont you guys just do armbars till like 11-12 years old?

You can aways say that getting the tap is like air... aint that big of a deal till you aint getting any
And that you grow to love it very very much but if you dont feel it its ok too.

have you seen the think JIU JIT SU game we play this alot at our gym

Oh yeah , i remember we played basketball with takedowns and no dribble that was tons of fun ...

@ Tim, I like that. I do something similar but not with a Simon says. The little guys might like that context though, thanks!

@lattamoney I’ve heard of it but didn’t know it was good for kids, thanks!

@LuT of course we teach chokes that young, our kids are awesome and we always have someone monitoring everything they do. This is the first kid I’ve seen struggle with the concept but imagine it will come up again sometime.

Not sure what about Onnit you would find creepy. What makes you say that? The experience of being there was pretty amazing. The gym itself is like a dream gym for functional performance and the mats are 10P, so it felt like home. As for the comp itself we were treated wonderfully and it was cool as fuck to be able to compete there and rep 10P. Even though I’d go back and do some things different in my matches, it was still one of the best experiences of my life. Definitely 10/10

@Dawna

I always though that you are suppose to get into 1 submission and build your game around it , trying to get that submission from all positions and learn the fine points of it, but im probably wrong. Thats very cool that you guys teach everything that young.
You got great believe in those kids and thats very frosty to see from an instructor.

About onnit... did they make you wear those rush guards? Something felt very off in it maybe it was the lights i dont know
i could not go through the whole event , just watch your matches and a couple more. Felt like aliens would show up and be disgusted.

Have you seen the Gracie Bullyproof dvd's? They have a bunch of good games in there for the youngsters. Crazy horse is a favorite of our class. Start with back control and have the other person try to buck them off like a horse.

We also do a lot of sumo wrestling and sock wrestling to work on good wrestling fundamentals and controlling positions. Kids love it.

We play a bunch of different types of games...the most popular is Crab Soccer (just like regular soccer, but you have to be in the crab position). Two on One Tage (you have to establish a 2 on 1 grip on your opponent...works fighting for control and grips). Toe Tag (just like tag, but you can only tag them from the knee down...works the take down game). And a few more...trying to get my kids instructor to chime in with more.

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Originally Posted by Gary Meek

We play a bunch of different types of games...the most popular is Crab Soccer (just like regular soccer, but you have to be in the crab position). Two on One Tage (you have to establish a 2 on 1 grip on your opponent...works fighting for control and grips). Toe Tag (just like tag, but you can only tag them from the knee down...works the take down game). And a few more...trying to get my kids instructor to chime in with more.

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Those sound like tons of fun :cool:

Dawna, I recommend sitting in on a couple classes at dawn Barnes Karate kids in Sherman Oaks. They run an insanely tight kids ship. From how the kids get on the mats to how they get off the mats, it’s super impressive. I’m eventually going to incorporate much of what they do at 10phq

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Gary Meek

We play a bunch of different types of games...the most popular is Crab Soccer (just like regular soccer, but you have to be in the crab position). Two on One Tage (you have to establish a 2 on 1 grip on your opponent...works fighting for control and grips). Toe Tag (just like tag, but you can only tag them from the knee down...works the take down game). And a few more...trying to get my kids instructor to chime in with more.

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These are great, thanks!

Hey Dawna. I've been teaching kids for almost ten years, but only Jits to kids for about a year under Sensei Frank. I've got tonnes of kids games, but a couple of Jits specific ones I like to play are:
Drag Race - Drag your partner from A to B by the ankle/foot. It's basically just the leg drag from H3 to get to knee belly, over and over again. Pairs can race each other, switching top to bottom on the way back.
Quarter Chasey - Inside a small area (I use the rings on our mat). One person sits, one stands. The sitter is basically butt scooting and baseball sliding to try and snatch up quarter clinch. The stander tries to avoid (without jumping). When they catch quarter, top partner tries to pull out so that bottom partner must work their squeeze, then releases. Go for 1min. I encourage them not to just run and turn their back. To make it easier, they can use their hands to establish the clinch, harder, no hands to clinch.

As for explaining submissions and "why we’re hurting each other" to your 7yo. I'd maybe try explaining it in terms of 'strong to be useful'. Maybe someone they care about is being bullied, or hurt, a little brother or sister, a friend at school, they can use their skills to help someone they care about, they can maybe stop someone from being hurt.

Hey Dawna, Sean Applegate introduced me to the sock game in which the kids tuck in a sock in the rear of their shorts and the objcet for the kids is to remove it like in flag football. The kids will instictively not give up their back and they also learn to change change levels in attempts at removing the sock. Plus, it's a great warmup. Kids absolutely love it.

Tons of great ideas here! We don’t use games very often in Kids Jiu Jitsu, but we do in their Kickboxing classes. We use Freeze Tag & when they get frozen they have to perform a technique properly with an instructor to get out/unfrozen. This is really popular and I bet there’s a way to modify it for Jiu Jitsu. One I used to use a lot in the past has to do with fighting for top position. You have 2 kids lay on the floor parallel and close to each other, facing up. When the instructor says go, they scramble to see who can mount or get to side Control first. Best of 3 or of 5 etc wins. Other kid does pushups (if you find that appropriate). To make it fun, you change their orientation every few times. Start side by side exactly the same, then flip them parallel north/South, then one kid is face down & the other is face up and you can combine face up or down with where the feet and heads align. The game mentioned about steal the sock is a fun one also. Another one we tried a few months ago we borrowed from 10p Dublin, I believe, is where you have a balloon tied to a string around each child’s ankle (you then pair them up) and they both try to smash it through takedowns, lunging, armdragging and even into rolling until one of them gets their balloon popped. Coach Tony Oviedo and I did this one half practice and did it tournament style where they kept going until there was a Grand Champion & gave them a little plastic medal you can get at the dollar store. You would think we gave them the EBI belt! Kids are great. They also have fun working live drills pretty frequently.

One last thought. Not sure what the impetus is for the games but it’s always good to change it up. I find too often in many schools that the work is not separated from the play or at least not presented that way. We have 4 distinct stages of class with the last being the rolling. That’s considered the dessert of the hour & we always frame it as they “get” to roll and if they don’t focus, pay attention, behave, etc, they don’t “get” to roll as much. For our 5-10 yr olds, that’s ultimately why they are there: to grapple/wrestle. We had 26 of them on the mats last night and to a “T” they all are there to roll. As instructors we are just there to make their play functional :-) Hope some of this rambling was of some use! LOL

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Originally Posted by Dawna

I’d like to find some more games I can use for my little guys but obviously I want them to be relevant to technique.
What are your favorite games you play with the kids? Can you please describe them for me?

Also, how do you explain the theory of jiu jitsu to your tiny guys, like under 7? We have a new little guy I’m struggling to help understand submissions. He understands when to tap, and when to let go when someone else taps, but it’s like he’s struggling with why we’re hurting each other. I’ve never had to explain it to someone this young and I’m just not sure how to word it. Any thoughts?

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watch the episode of seinfeld where kramer joins a little kid karate class

steal the bacon

"Toe Tag" basically two kids are down and have to try to take the other kids down (single legs, double legs, etc). If a kid is taken down, then they stay down to get the rest of the little humans down. *Note, remind them not to jump, we usually have at least one bleeder and one cryer before the game is over. It's worth it. Toughen them up.
We also play King of the Hill - line them up by height/size and start with the two smallest. First take down stays in, loser goes back in line.