Tuesday, November 10, 2009

Theme of the month November 2009: Fun and games

It's a busy time of year. Qualification contest, gradings and kata competition are all coming soon. So let's lighten things up with some fun and games.

In the last month I've taken my young son to a few kids' judo classes, and I've been stealing ideas for my regular class. Naturally, adults like a bit of fun too. Here are some of the activities and games that I've either tried, or plan to try soon:
  • Dive rolls over increasing numbers of class mates (arranged like sardines)
  • Rolls using big gym balls
  • How many throws can you do in thirty second seconds (racing back and forward between two ukes)
More generally, this month I'd like to leaven competition and grading preparation by bringing a bit of playfulness and game elements to our training. For example, with qualification judo contest coming up, I'd like to try some mock bouts in which points are awarded to pairs of participants for the most breakfalls, to encourage an attacking (and safe) approach to judo competition.

How about you? What are some fun activities that both kids and grown-ups look forward to in your classes?

1 comments:

Littlefair said...

I like to improve the kids' confidence and ability to kihap by having them in a circle around me while I throw a large ball at them (bounce it actually) and ask them to palm it away with a ferocious cry of 'STOP!'.

This really helps them with kihaping which some of the younger more timid kids find hard to do- it's a good transition. Also I hope to give them some confidence and an 'easy' technique to think about when faced with aggressors...

What's the large ball roll you do? (I really should do more breakfalls in my class!)