Kids class questions

[Eddie Bravo]

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

[Dawna]

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.

These are great, thanks!

[Sammy Jones]

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.

[jaywatkins67]

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.

[Matt Wallace]

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

[SHAOLINMONK]

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?

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

[Hashashin1904]

steal the bacon

[bonnie]

"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.