Teaching Martial Arts to Children (Cont.)

Added to the aforementioned ideas there are others which further enhance our movement. We call these ideas the Beneficial Dimensions of movement. These are not essential to each and every movement as those listed above. They can be used in and eclectic fashion to enhance our abilities. These are included in the Suey Bing Fa principles because they are part of all self defense and when practiced with the basics above they will produce an individual with excellent ability. They are listed as follows:

1. Situational Analysis 2. Judgement 3. Decisiveness 4. Stress Tolerance 5. Attention Diversion 6. Economic Use Of Energies 7. Visualization and Theatrical Response 8. Sensitivity

These terms are not all self explanatory. They are concepts which need to be practiced in order to have value. An expert practitioner has made these ideas such a part of his art that they flow rapidly with little effort into his thinking and motion. Children cannot incorporate all of these ideas win what they learn. They must be taught as they come up in training. The students must know there is a great deal more to the art than what they understand as children.

Situational Analysis takes place many thousands of times each day. In a confrontation Situational Analysis plays an important part by assessing each aspect of the situation and choosing an option then acting in accordance with the prime directive, the eighty percent rule and all of the essentials of movement to create the appropriate defense or counter attack. It is the method we use to select our action. During a confrontation we use situational analysis to determine the status of our opponent. Feedback from them will let us know how we are doing and we change our response according to our goals.

In simple terms we assess our options and opportunities available. An important step in selecting our next action. We choose which target to attack and which weapon to match it with. (Options being weapons and opportunities being targets.) It should elude no ones perspective that while we analyze the situation, our opponent is doing the same. It is therefore in our best interest to include the whole perspective in our Situational Analysis understanding both his options and ours. We must remember the prime directive as we proceed.

Following an action we have a new situation and must analyze it, choose a response and act, which creates a new situation. As you can see, the Situational Analysis occurs quickly and at each slight pause between movements.

It is this analysis which defines the self defense concepts in Suey Bing Fa. Our goal is intelligent purposeful action for a definite effect. This is achieved by including Situational Analysis with our motion. The result is an appropriate response to our opponent.

Many martial artists use only a pattern of techniques learned in a specific sequence. It is a practice in Suey Bing Fa to break down sequences into basic movements and reassemble them using intelligent response and safety concepts. This will make the most of our motion in these circumstances. We want to respond knowing the application and effect of our movement. The aim is to create a student of motion capable of responding in a pro-active manner. Moving always from a position of strength and control. Moving from where we are to where we need to go.

Beneficial Dimensions have an effect on our thinking and motion. Each brings to light important aspects of self defense and how we might enhance our abilities. The others, judgement, decisiveness, stress tolerance and management all teach thinking skills which translate into good habits through training. Attention diversion and economic use of energies keep the training tight and our opponent off guard. Visualization and theatrical response are good tools for training to involve our senses in the situations. Imagining the actions of our opponent allows us to train without real partners and when we do have a partner they can use theatrical response to imaging and perform possible movements we can expect from our opponents. The last on the list is sensitivity which teaches us to be in touch with ourselves, trusting our senses, motions and intuitions. Certainly these are not all of the possible beneficial dimensions within the martial arts but they are good topics of discussion. Students are encouraged to look closely at their art to discern other dimensions existing within their system. The study of all aspects of these issues will enhance martial ability in any student

Understanding Children

Similarities for children

Young and old alike are interested in trying out a variety of activities. We all want to seek alternatives. Not every one is drawn to the martial arts; karate, judo, wrestling, boxing, fencing, shooting or other pursuits. Most of us are interested in learning something about one or more of these activities. Many people combine their interest in several of these hobbies and develop proficiency in each. In this children and adults have similar interests and aptitudes.

Some people participate in an activity for a period of time in their life and stop. They partake of the smorgasbord of available activities. Some see martial training as sport and others use it as exercise. Some see training as skill building and others learn for information it as they would attend a lecture or read a book.

Both adults and children want and desire to "do" as others do. They are captivated by what they see other people do and want to do likewise. Sometimes the children want to train so they can be like the adults in their lives. Some adults want to train to experience that which they see the younger set doing. I find it interesting that potential students of any age ask many of the same questions. If they are young they ask if they are too young. Older students ask if they are or too old or infirm to train. The answer is most interesting. Truth is that students who want to learn will do what ever it takes to learn and those who are looking for an excuse to quit always seem to find it.

Students of all ages have similar reasons for training. They want to get into shape or learn to kick the gooey out of someone. They want to gain flexibility or learn to keep up or compete with their younger (or older) relative. They want to join because their friend talked them into it. They have trained in other arts and want to learn the one you teach. These reasons for training seem to cut across all age groups.

Another thing that cuts across all ages is that they have similar reasons for quitting. They stop training for a variety of reasons. They can no longer afford it or feel they are not progressing. They have a scheduling conflict or lack the transportation. They leave to pursue other interests or their knee is acting up. They usually leave without a word. Some with the courage to discuss their departure will not and probably should not be dissuaded. In this young and old are the same.

What all ages have in common is the human brain and body. How they function and how they learn are most similar of all. There are some exceptions but all others have much the same function and learning abilities. Some are quicker or more talented in some areas, but most of the students require the same exposure, repetition and variety of curriculum. Self defense involves training both body and mind. "Scientists have estimated that a person needs forty to sixty repetitions of complex psychomotor skills to take the movement from the brain to the body. To program the brain and body to work in complete coordination requires many more repetitions." (Michelle Dwyer P.48)

Self defense involves detailed description of motion to understand and write down the required motion. The complex motion of matching parts of our bodies with that of our opponent it is very difficult for the new student of any age. There is a slight advantage for the older students in this due to the experience they have with the control of their bodies and their familiarity with language. Accuracy and precision of movement is difficult if not impossible for the novice to absorb. To make progress in learning close attention must be paid by all students. They must learn to connect their mind and body in defending themselves Understanding the reasons for the training movements is not particularly a strength of any age group. Teachers must move at the pace of the students.

Younger students are generally more ambitious than older students but not more determined. The students with the most drive will learn the best. They want to know and are willing to ask questions and try new things. No student due to age will be better able to have the interest and attention needed to learn about self defense. When the student wants to do it they do well. There is no substitution for good practice.

Differences for children

The most obvious difference between adults and children is the amount force involved in their self defense training. Children use much less force and respond to small amounts of force against them to a greater degree of reaction. They lack control of their force and do not know how much force to use while training with a partner. It is important for the teacher to show proper use of force for training. Children forget easily and get very involved in their actions therefore they must be reminded often of the proper amount of force needed in each learning activity.

Another difference between children and adults is their ideas about fighting and self defense. Many adults have been involved in fights, military training and even other forms of martial arts. It is safe to say they bring a greater level of experience to the training than the children. The children usually have not fought with anyone except their brothers and sisters. Their fighting and self defense is a form of rough play. They get by protecting themselves by ducking, covering up against the mild blows of their playmates and showing submissive body language to the aggressor. Even those children who are the exception and have experienced physical violence or abuse have not experienced success in defending themselves. They are not schooled in using controlled aggression to obtain their safety. For most self defense is full of new ideas and new experiences.

Another difference related to age is the political and social status of the students. Young people are not able to command the same position within the group as older people. There is a great disparity of power that cannot be overcome by the younger student even if they learn to kick and punch with the best. Martial art instructors must consider the attitudes of the children as they relate to others. This disparity of power has an influence on the thinking of the children. It limits them in what they think is possible. While these limits are useful in socializing the children they must learn that blindly following some rules may sacrifice their safety. They must learn that following some orders given by an adult will also jeopardize them. Learning when their safety is more important than following the rules is a crucial concept. It is one of the important ideas the teacher of children must convey.

The children who are students have a unique relationship with their peers. No adult is in the same relative position to their peers as the young student is. A good instructor learns to use peer pressure when teaching the students. The teacher must always be aware of the students position to those around them. They will do or not do things in class due to this pressure. In most cases the teacher can perform well on this point if they remember that they are teaching the entire class rather than individuals within the class. Individual training can be targeted at a student during class but It is important to remember the perspective of the on-looker and the judgement of the students' peers.

One difference between children and adults is that children love to play. This can be both frustrating and enjoyable for the instructor. Teach adults to repeat a motion to learn to perform the movement and they will see it as a drill. Their attention span is longer than that of the children so they usually get more out of the drill than the children would. The shorter attention span of young people require a class composed of several short lessons. If you can teach the children the repetition as a game they will work on it in a playful fashion and perform it without question. Children quickly adapt to the rules of the game. If you set out the task to be done as a chore they will put little effort into it and lack enthusiasm. If you can set out the task as a game they will willingly perform the task and perhaps expand on the lesson by including something the instructor had not thought of.

While children are quick to play it takes a special effort to make them take seriously the important issues of their safety. They sometimes get so involved in the activity of the game that they ignore or forget the reason for the activity. Children have a tendency for over statement and over compensation. Teaching them games can produce wonderful benefits but staying on the lesson is a bit harder in the martial arts than in some other subjects. They are learning about defending their lives.

"Children respond well to a structured, disciplined class and to various occupations and games that reinforce the same theme. Children need a variety of fun things to do. If they are interested, they can learn fast and are fearless mimics." (Michelle Dwyer P.48)

When a child shows enthusiasm for their training they enjoy including all of their being in the effort. It is important for the teacher to remember the children include all their muscles, nerves, emotions and thinking with their actions. I call this whole body training.

"High energy, short attention, imagination, play, mood swings occurring in a short time, serious to inattentive to playful. Exploring their limits. Fun in a learning environment, seriousness of fighting mixed with learning through laughter" (Michael Fried P.60)

Adults are usually capable of understanding the dynamics of situations. It is possible to explain the relationship between offender and defender, muscularity and neurology, and between legality and morality. This is lost of children to a very large extent. They have their own

Body of a child

One of the goals of instruction in the martial arts is to attain a degree of physical coordination. Most of our learning comes from our five senses. Teaching motion to children can be interesting. When ask them to control their bodies we are asking them to learn about their physical senses. Teaching motion alone is not enough. Learning what makes a motion useful creates knowledge. Perhaps some martial artists learned only motion and not the reasons for it until many years of training had come and gone. Children being curious want to know the reasons for the motion and how to make it effective. They have a vested interest in knowing this and are bright enough to learn. Their fractional size, weight, soft bones, small targets, delicate nerves with their emotions attached make easy understanding of target locations. Showing them is important. Making them find target locations on their training partners is even more enlightening. Learning of this nature has a strong impact. Their bodies remember, better than most adults, what they should do to produce effective target contact. It is useful to practice repetition of effective motions as it teaches this body knowledge beyond doubt.

Use of the body against another human allows for several interesting outcomes. Training partners and dummy opponents need to be trained in how to be useful in their tasks. They need to make their targets vulnerable for their partner to access and understand the attack. The offensive training needs to control their weapons to limit harm while showing ability to strike with speed, strength and intent. A great deal of practice must take place learning to forge an effective partnering relationship between students. They will stumble and occasionally make fools of themselves. It is a good practice share all foibles, students' and teachers' alike. It is important to provide a safe environment to make fools of themselves while learning to use their physical senses. Changing sensory habits changes abilities.

They quickly get attuned to the nonverbal language they are creating. Senses affect behavior by causing us to be afraid or secure in knowing how we relate to the world. They learn the language of the body demonstrates feelings and attitudes. The respect for others and themselves can be shown with this language. To teach children about the use of their physical abilities growth must come from those who have a plan. The plan is to include most of the possibilities within the training program and let the children sort out their strengths with instructor support. Find a child's strong points and nourish them.

Learning the how to support a child comes from observing how the relate to their senses. Musical ability and rhythm sense is an attribute of the hearing child. Voice play is an attribute of the hearing-speaking child. Sounds are heard differently by each of us. Some may be painful or irritating to children. Auditory children may miss lessons which employ maps, drawings and physical lessons because they are concentrating on the sound of something nearby or a new word they heard and are trying to assimilate by repeating the sound to themselves. Auditory children will note applications of voice as a weapon.

A seeing child may relate to light, color, shapes and forms or design. They are good at crafts, drawing, visual arranging, and other activities that require hand-eye coordination Seeing children are good at cleaning house. Dusting and arranging furniture are specialties for them. Visual orientation relates to "map sense" where spacial orientation referring to place is important. Writing is usually done well by the visual child. Visual children may be distracted and withdrawn easily because of their focus on things going on around them. Adjustments in the training room may be required. They sometimes communicate poorly their ideas because so much in going on inside their heads. Small things require seeing well. Science, collecting and social skills relating to the ability to draw conclusions from what is observed is a strength of the visual child.

Tactile children are able to do theater, art, crafts and music. They have scientific and technical aptitudes. Kinesthetic children like the outdoors, running, jumping, climbing, sliding and falling. Nervous parents are those of kinesthetic children worried about them hurting themselves but the child is learning about his world. They get on well with jumping, balancing and timing of their movements. Physical sensation is their test of things. Jarring, banging, leaning and general control of physical pressure. They are well coordinated and physically balanced They can have problems when their bodies are confined. Likely to be less able to do small intricate things.

Working on building sensory skills must be done with children as play. A game for touch recognition is "Touching without seeing". Use a bag of fruit and vegetables let them choose by texture what they are, potato, beet, apple, orange, peach. The same exercise can be done to distinguish objects by size or shape or other attributes like sharpness or hardness. Once they have learned to describe these familiar objects have them, blindfolded or eyes closed, describe a grab or body position of their opponent. Let them see how their senses are used in self defense. Practice letting them tell you what you are saying by touching them. Sit down, stand up, move to the side, use your other hand, be quiet.

There is safety in the ability to verbalize to adults what is happening. Learning martial arts by writing down and verbalizing what they are doing for motion, tactics & strategy and use of mental concepts will be a great strength. I cannot overstate the importance of sensory skills to naming. Verbal identification of parts of the body as weapons and targets and verbal description of motion involved with techniques and katas lead to the important connecting of ideas to order and syntax. Awareness of movement (kinesthetic perception) is a kind of internal touching sensation. It is what we feel in our joints, muscles, tendons as they work. Children will learn about their sense preferences and abilities through learning motion. Sensory aptitudes are related to work. Sensory aptitude is related to intelligence and problem behavior. Senses communicate and communications returns through the senses.

It is not necessary to stick to the specific curriculum every single lesson. Many games not related to the martial arts can be helpful in skill building. The task is to first teach the skills them relate them to martial issues. Movement games involve tracing patterns, stretching, imagining with the body such as becoming animals or weather through movement and observing movement of others to determine their rhythm or attributes of their bodies. Manipulating objects for their proper use is a learned skill. Handheld weapons can be taught with other benign tools. Once the idea is in the students' mind they can adapt the motion to new uses.

Long lists of activities can be generated. Entire hosts of games can be created but none will improve on those we all remember as children. All of the following activities can be used to improve physical skills. Any instructor can choose what to do. They are listed here as a reminder of what we once did when we were young.

General: jump hop & skip march step-slide and gallop basic fall somersault hoop activities

Balance: jump board or small trampoline walking board forward, sideways, backward (2 x 4 on its' side) balance board (board balanced on a fulcrum)

Body Image: identification of body parts imitation of movement angels-in-the-snow stepping stones animal walks obstacle course

Eye-Hand Coordination: bean bag activities ball activities vertical and horizontal lines double circles (chalk board) developmental drawings suspended ball eye pursuit movements ( follow opponent or partners' hand with ours) (reference hand) eye movements - near & far pegboard designs

Sensory Perception: tactile discrimination (touching objects) auditory discrimination (voice, sound games)