Class age difference

[tshadowchaser]

Just wondering what the age difference in your classes are. Do you have preteens or even youth (kids 5 or 6) in a class with adults ( 21-35) (35-50) 50+ ? How dose it work.
Do the adults and old ones object to learning with kids that may be undisciplined at times?
If you had more students would you separate the ages?

 

[Dirty Dog]

We have no age/gender separation, only beginner, intermediate and advanced - which is very loosely defined. We will let a 9th geup come to the advanced class, if they want. We just tell them to do the parts they've been taught, and repeat them when the class is doing things they've not been taught.

Currently, our youngest student is 5 or 6, and our oldest is 70.

We've not varied this in the past as class sizes fluctuate, and I see no reason to think we will in the future.

 

[Danny T]

We have a:
4-6 yrs program
7-12 yrs program with Beginners, Intermediate, and Advanced levels
13 yrs and up Beginners, Intermediate and Advanced levels
Fighters 16 and up (must have been through at least our Intermediate level training.

 

[donald1]

it varies there are young i cant tell with some of the young ones but 6 or 7 is the lowest i would guess, and for adults mostly young adults some older

Ive never heard any adults disagree with working with undisciplined children. usually if someone not mature the instructor will tell them to do pushups, bow them out for the day, or possibly worse if it happens often

both sides to separating the class or not are both persuasive, but personally i would probably not separate them

 

[jks9199]

Just wondering what the age difference in your classes are. Do you have preteens or even youth (kids 5 or 6) in a class with adults ( 21-35) (35-50) 50+ ? How dose it work.
Do the adults and old ones object to learning with kids that may be undisciplined at times?
If you had more students would you separate the ages?

Tried mixing adults and kids at one point. Didn't work out so well... Running a class that works for the kids and one that works for adults at the same time just ends up frustrating them all. Early teens on seems to work out OK in adult classes.

 

[K-man]

Currently I have two fourteen year olds and one sixteen year old and that is working ok. I really don't want kids younger than that. In the past I did have a juniors class with kids up to 12. Most of those could not have coped with an adult class. Having said that, my son was only 8 when he started with me in an adult class. The question then becomes how jo you grade these guys. To be honest I am rarely impressed by little boys in an adult class with black belts even if they do have a stripe designating junior.
:asian:

 

[Blindside]

My groups are pretty small, but 12-17, 18+. The split is there because it looks a little weird to parents to show a 12 year old how to knife someone, the youth class is called "Filipino Swordsmanship" and focuses on the long blade, because showing a kid how to hack someone with a machete is apparently much more palatable. Go figure.

 

[WaterGal]

For TKD we have a 3-5 year-old class, a 6-12, and a 13+. We're not real strict about the times, though - we have a couple 6-7 yrs with behavioral issues in the 3-5 class, and a couple of families that'll take the 6-12 or 13+ class all together rather than split up. For HKD and Kumdo the classes are all ages, but we don't take students under 8. I think in the next year or so we might divide HKD into 8-12 and 13+, since we've started to get a lot of the younger ages signing up, and they need something a little different.

 

[tshadowchaser]

I personally have always had trouble with having young people in adult classes. I tend to give more excersises to adults and demand much more from them.
Having said that I do have a kids class at this time that I am encouraging the parents to attend. everyone is a beginner and I want the parents to know whats going on and to know why I have someone go to the side and sit out the class for behavior problems. I also want those parents to be able to help out the kids at this stage .

 

[Tony Dismukes]

At my gym we have a kids class for pre-teens which is very fun and games oriented. Everyone else (including teens) is in the adult classes.

 

[Brian R. VanCise]

I personally like this kind of a break down.

8 to 12 kids
13 to 17 Teens
18 on up.
Additional Classes for Women, Military, Law Enforcement

I find it really hard to teach appropriately if the kids, teens and adults are mixed together. Each group has different needs. I would however make some exceptions for really mature 17 year olds going in with the adults. (with parents permission of course so that they understand what is being taught) Still during adult scenario based training or self defense the f and the mf word and more will come out. (certainly not appropriate for kid's and young teen's) Then there is always the problem showing hand gun defenses, long gun (shotgun, AK 47, AR 15/M16) and all of the blade training that we do. Not really appropriate for the younger generation until they mature! Each group has their own needs! Just like Women have some different needs and probably need some separate classes to address those. (ie. Women's Self Defense) Though of course they should still be training in with men during regular classes. Men have separate needs as well particularly when you have military or law enforcement training. What about civilian executives going overseas into dangerous areas. They have specific needs as well.

Lumping everyone together doesn't address everyone's needs in my opinion!

 

[TKDTony2179]

Tried mixing adults and kids at one point. Didn't work out so well... Running a class that works for the kids and one that works for adults at the same time just ends up frustrating them all. Early teens on seems to work out OK in adult classes.

What is your system if I may ask?