Creative Class Ideas

Thesemindz

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I was working on some upcoming classes, planning themes and drills, and I thought it might make an interesting topic. So here's a list of some of the classes I'm working on.
Dragging an opponent to the ground and kicking him

Reaching out with Forward Palm Strikes to Jam Opponent's weapons

Moving to Opponent's Back using Parries, Grabs, and Stepping

Digging through Opponent's Guard with Hooks, Parries, and Grabs

Grappling with Opponent's Shoulder's, Long Range

Striking Inside Opponent's Arms, Long Range

Blocks and Parries to Grabs, Pushing Opponent's Guard to Clear Zones for Striking

Explosive Takedowns, Slamming Opponent into the Ground
I'm working on drills and exercises for each of those themes. For instance, the first class, Dragging an Opponent to the Ground and Kicking Him, includes these activities,
kicks and stomps to the ground and low targets
entries for takedowns
takedown techniques
kicking a moving opponent on the ground
falls
counters for entries and takedowns
defending against kicks while laying on ground
grabbing opponent's legs while lying on the ground
getting back up from ground
keeping opponent from getting up
I'm working on drills for the other classes, and have several prepared.

So what ideas do you guys have for classes? What drills or exercises are you working on? Do you also teach the students the reverse side of your material? To attack and defend against your techniques?


-Rob
 

Gaius Julius Caesar

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I plan my classes in clusters of 3 or 4 classes following several themes or techniques.

I'll give an example of the last 3 I taught.

Last 3 Tuesday's @ the Woodbridge Dojo, Combined Martial Studies Group/ Armatura Ryu Jujutsu.

Sensei Thomas teaching.

7:30-7:45pm Mats down

7:45-7:55 Strecth out

7:55-8:05 Ukemi (Falls)

PART 1 Thorws (Jujutsu/Judo)

8:05- 8:20 Drill the following throws - Osoto Gari, Koshi Garuma, Hiza Garuma, indepently and as combos.

8:20-8:35 Seo nage and Drop Seo Nage (I had our 1st Dan run this part to build his teaching skills- He is also killer with these 2 throws.

All the above throws work nice in combos. You go for Osoto and he pulls his leg back, you go for Koshi and so on.

PART 2 Basic Boxing/ Fighting (To gain an understanding/reveiw of Boxing and Boxing style punches, less for our students to use in comabt than for them to be better training partners for each other, as most people will emulate Boxing in a fight, wheter trained or not. Also to teach our students who don't PT that they might want to PT instead of sucking wind durring this and the next section.)

8:38-8:55 Coach F, one of our Brown Belts Boxed out of Geeson's Gym in NYC for many years, so we let him teach basic boxing.
We have been working on Jab, Cross, Hooks, Coach uses Shadow boxing and Focus mits in rounds.

8:55- 9:10pm Work on sheilding, blocking, slipping, parrying above strikes and enter in and take them out.

PART 3 Fundemental Jujutsu Technique

9:12-9:30 Ikyu, from cross wrist grab, more to work the fundemental technique from a basic learning position than any "Grab my Wrist." stuff. (Although it sometimes happens)
Ikyu from backhand club and or Knife slash.
Ikyu from face punch/high stab.

Part 4 Combatives/ Assult drills

9:30-9:45pm Gun or close in gun defenses (My last 3 before had this as the main theme, so we are drilling on those techniques.

9:45-? Debrief, Q&A.

I break this into sections for a few reasons. I tend to bring back techniques, especially fundementals alot (So they build muscle memory) so I don't need to follow our old Sensei's drill 1-3 techniques for the whole night to death but maybe not train the same technique for a few weeks or more thing. You will drill the same techbniques (with added elements and what not ) for 3-4 classes, and will see them in and out in the next sereis.
I try to balance good , hard focused training with some varity. This way if your working a technique that you don't take to, your not spending the whole class frustrated or bored. You work it and then move on to something else.

I also like to make sure that I rotate Throws, Strikes, Joint Locks, Training drills, Sparring drills and weapons training and defense in most of my classes. I want you to burn in good mucsle memory.

Working 1 thing for almost 2 hours actually builds in alot of trash. Short, and to the point, drill it, and then move on is a well respected treaining methodology in strength and conditioning, Athletic skills and learned movemnt training circles.

My partner does much the same thing ( Thursday), but in his way. On Saturdays we co teach, put the Jr.s on the spot or ask the guys what they want to do.

Now sometimes I might do 2 classes of a series on Tues and then do a Random class and then go back to the series the next Tuesday.

We also try to make sure our Shodan gets an hour to teach or a whole class every month. Friday's the advanced guys meet and we spend 20-45 minutes on Pekiti Tarsia ( I have croostrained alot with Dave Wink, my partner activly trains with them 3-6 times a month for the last few years.)
Then we might do assult drills, spar,stick fight, knife fight, do some combative fitness training or actually try to work the more dangerous Jujutsu techniques in a limited sparring manner. This is the class where except fo the first part, we don't focus on teaching, we focus on our own training, hence why it's not open to those with under a year with us, to easy to get hurt.

BTW I like some of your ideas, I just shared some of mine so to be honest, we are Borg and the ideas might get asssimulated.

Thank you and SHUGYO!
 

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