Hi there,
I'm starting this thread hopping to share and learn new excercises
For me, there's nothing worst than a boring, tedious and repetitive warming up.
Warming up should be (at least a little bit) different from each session to another, and as funny as possible (once you've past the usual warming of joints, wrist, knees, shoulders etc). Funny doesn't mean inneficient, or easy or this kind of stuff. It's just that when you're smiling because the theme of the excercice, or concentrate on the competition of a game, you can do a lot better and a lot much than 'usual' calisthenics workout.
Let's have an example : what I call Panther Walk (or Spiderman, for youngst). The goal is, without having your knees on the floor, to 'walk' on your feet and hands, with your whole body as low as possible. Seems nothing, but very hard to do, good for coordination and muscle work.
I tried without the theme : just the exercise for the sake of exercise, no panther or spidey. First : very hard to explain what I wanted and get attention long enough. And then : adults gave up after few walks, children didn't even start.
With the theme : at least children tried (and felt and tried again, "spiderman !"), adults liked it and it was easier to correct positions ("panther, no elephant guys !") and motivate people.
I totally can get how people wouldn't think this as a proper way to train, but for me and for the public we have, it works very well and I'm looking for other exercices / games / ways of calisthenics without being boring. And it's totally in the spirit of my dojang and my master (even like this, people think I'm a little bit too severe and 'traditionnal' on other parts ^^). If you want to discuss this issue, I would ask to open another thread for it and keep this one for idea of exercises, thanks
I'm starting as instructor for my master ... you know, those times when he let you lead a class, lurking around with a strange smile and a mysterious face ? And you're so stressed and anxious to make it right and see in his eyes he's proud, and in the same time having the class (sometimes they're even your trainmates) enjoying the training and learning stuffs... yeah, stressfull situation
I have some notes, with all exercises I learnt (in my dojang, but also in others, when I do hapkido, when I try other MA, etc) to help me remember them, and planning meaningfull sessions and constructed lessons. I'm always looking for new ideas to improve this base of knowledge, and I hope you guys would agree to share some with me.
Sharing means both ways, so here are some example of what I like to do, to hide the workout aspect :
- a classic : everyone running everywhere on the mat. Say 'one' for sitting, 'two' for lying on the bellie, 'three' for lying on the back. You can 'punish' people too slow and mistakes, asking for going back standing without using hands, adding crawling or others, etc. [good for cardio : running, stop, running, stop. good for speed of execution, obeying the order. good for people to never forget how to say 'one, two, three' in korean, chinese, japanese or else. ^^]
- by two, hold your partner's belt and resist as he's trying to run forward (you can do the same with side walk), being careful to stay with a straight back
- leapfrog (cultural fun fact : in french it's sheep, not frog ^^) : one student start in position, everyone hop over him. The second immediately take the position (the first stay), so the third has to hop twice, then take the position, etc. When everyone has jumped, the very first one start hopping again, and take position at the end, etc.
- same as before, but one every two stay standing with legs apart. He would not be jumped over, but crawled below (good occasion to work jutsumseugui or equivalent position). So people will jump, crawl, jump, crawl etc.
-Instead of the whole group doing this, you can have students by pair : one is standing , the other is jumping over, then immediatly turn back and crawl on the bellie, then immediatly turn back and crawl on the back, then standing in position and the other will work.
- throw a lot (a lot !) of stuff in the middle of the mat (or area where you train). Make teams, starting in each corner, with a small base materialized by some plots, or something. At signal, everyone has to run toward the pile in the center, take one item and carry it back to their base, and repeat. When nothing is left in the middle, you can start taking stuff in other's base [very very good for cardio and endurance, and if your teams are well balance, it can last forever ... until everyone is dead for oxygen and water ^^]
The whole stuff is to be used in TKD lessons for me, but in fact, it's calisthenics, so re-usable in a lot of MA.
I think you can have this kind of exercise with specific techniques of one MA, but ... in fact, as much as I like this way of doing for generic workout, I just cannot stand it for technical moves :s I just don't do it. Taekwondo is Taekwondo, and when I teach it, there's no more spiderman ^^ but this is only my point of view, and if you like it yourself, please don't mind me
I hope what we can do with this thread is a collection of exercises like this, so that if one day you need to train a specific muscle or chain of muscles and are looking for a cool way to do it, you may find some piece of training here. Just hoping ...
I'm starting this thread hopping to share and learn new excercises
For me, there's nothing worst than a boring, tedious and repetitive warming up.
Warming up should be (at least a little bit) different from each session to another, and as funny as possible (once you've past the usual warming of joints, wrist, knees, shoulders etc). Funny doesn't mean inneficient, or easy or this kind of stuff. It's just that when you're smiling because the theme of the excercice, or concentrate on the competition of a game, you can do a lot better and a lot much than 'usual' calisthenics workout.
Let's have an example : what I call Panther Walk (or Spiderman, for youngst). The goal is, without having your knees on the floor, to 'walk' on your feet and hands, with your whole body as low as possible. Seems nothing, but very hard to do, good for coordination and muscle work.
I tried without the theme : just the exercise for the sake of exercise, no panther or spidey. First : very hard to explain what I wanted and get attention long enough. And then : adults gave up after few walks, children didn't even start.
With the theme : at least children tried (and felt and tried again, "spiderman !"), adults liked it and it was easier to correct positions ("panther, no elephant guys !") and motivate people.
I totally can get how people wouldn't think this as a proper way to train, but for me and for the public we have, it works very well and I'm looking for other exercices / games / ways of calisthenics without being boring. And it's totally in the spirit of my dojang and my master (even like this, people think I'm a little bit too severe and 'traditionnal' on other parts ^^). If you want to discuss this issue, I would ask to open another thread for it and keep this one for idea of exercises, thanks
I'm starting as instructor for my master ... you know, those times when he let you lead a class, lurking around with a strange smile and a mysterious face ? And you're so stressed and anxious to make it right and see in his eyes he's proud, and in the same time having the class (sometimes they're even your trainmates) enjoying the training and learning stuffs... yeah, stressfull situation
I have some notes, with all exercises I learnt (in my dojang, but also in others, when I do hapkido, when I try other MA, etc) to help me remember them, and planning meaningfull sessions and constructed lessons. I'm always looking for new ideas to improve this base of knowledge, and I hope you guys would agree to share some with me.
Sharing means both ways, so here are some example of what I like to do, to hide the workout aspect :
- a classic : everyone running everywhere on the mat. Say 'one' for sitting, 'two' for lying on the bellie, 'three' for lying on the back. You can 'punish' people too slow and mistakes, asking for going back standing without using hands, adding crawling or others, etc. [good for cardio : running, stop, running, stop. good for speed of execution, obeying the order. good for people to never forget how to say 'one, two, three' in korean, chinese, japanese or else. ^^]
- by two, hold your partner's belt and resist as he's trying to run forward (you can do the same with side walk), being careful to stay with a straight back
- leapfrog (cultural fun fact : in french it's sheep, not frog ^^) : one student start in position, everyone hop over him. The second immediately take the position (the first stay), so the third has to hop twice, then take the position, etc. When everyone has jumped, the very first one start hopping again, and take position at the end, etc.
- same as before, but one every two stay standing with legs apart. He would not be jumped over, but crawled below (good occasion to work jutsumseugui or equivalent position). So people will jump, crawl, jump, crawl etc.
-Instead of the whole group doing this, you can have students by pair : one is standing , the other is jumping over, then immediatly turn back and crawl on the bellie, then immediatly turn back and crawl on the back, then standing in position and the other will work.
- throw a lot (a lot !) of stuff in the middle of the mat (or area where you train). Make teams, starting in each corner, with a small base materialized by some plots, or something. At signal, everyone has to run toward the pile in the center, take one item and carry it back to their base, and repeat. When nothing is left in the middle, you can start taking stuff in other's base
[very very good for cardio and endurance, and if your teams are well balance, it can last forever ... until everyone is dead for oxygen and water ^^]The whole stuff is to be used in TKD lessons for me, but in fact, it's calisthenics, so re-usable in a lot of MA.
I think you can have this kind of exercise with specific techniques of one MA, but ... in fact, as much as I like this way of doing for generic workout, I just cannot stand it for technical moves :s I just don't do it. Taekwondo is Taekwondo, and when I teach it, there's no more spiderman ^^ but this is only my point of view, and if you like it yourself, please don't mind me
I hope what we can do with this thread is a collection of exercises like this, so that if one day you need to train a specific muscle or chain of muscles and are looking for a cool way to do it, you may find some piece of training here. Just hoping ...
