How long is a class?

[jks9199]

A couple of threads have made me curious...

How long does a typical class last? I teach for about 2 (sometimes a little more) hours in a "regular" class; I'll do longer classes on occasion when scheduling permits. We do break our youngest kids (preteen) out after about an hour, due to attention spans, but otherwise, I have a hard time figuring out how to do warmups, demonstrate/instruct, then drill in less than 2 hours.

 

[Sukerkin]

We have three hour classes with a 'break' in the middle that can be of variable length and sometimes is indistinguishable from training apart from the prescence of a cup of tea at hand rather than a katana :lol:.

 

[MBuzzy]

We only go for about an hour....which means that after warm ups...about 45 minutes. Depending on who does warm ups, sometimes less.

 

[MJS]

A couple of threads have made me curious...

How long does a typical class last? I teach for about 2 (sometimes a little more) hours in a "regular" class; I'll do longer classes on occasion when scheduling permits. We do break our youngest kids (preteen) out after about an hour, due to attention spans, but otherwise, I have a hard time figuring out how to do warmups, demonstrate/instruct, then drill in less than 2 hours.

Adult classes are usually 1 hr. Kids classes vary depending on age. Kids that range in the 4-6 category would usually be a 1/2 hr due to their short attn. span. The teens would be 45min.

For myself, I'd usually try to have something already planned, to use as a rough outline. Of course, that 'lesson plan' is subject to change depending on who shows up for the class.

IMHO, the kids really didn't require too much warmup time, and most of the adults would arrive early and start to warmup/stretch, so I really didn't do more than 10 mins. worth of warmup. I wanted to get to the meat of the class.

Mike

 

[Brian R. VanCise]

I like an hour and a half. For me that is an ideal training time. I will do intensive training for a couple of hours and of course seminars for quite a bit more. However, day in and day out an hour and a half seems to work really well for adults when training.

 

[Tames D]

We have always gone 1 1/2 hours. But recently have gone to 2 hour classes. We get more done in 2 hours but I prefer 1 1/2 hour classes. There seems to be a little more burnout in the last half hour for most of the students.

 

[Blindside]

2 hours, the first half hour is a warmup, calisthenics, bodyweight exercises, and stretching.

 

[Fushichou]

Most schools I've been to have had about two hour classes. Some have had an hour and a half. A few have had one-hour, which seemed too short (by the time you've warmed up and got going, it's time to stop).

I've had some longer classes, but there comes a point where people get too worn out to keep going as intensely as they could before.

I think there is a sweet spot you reach, of how long can you practice before you (or the bulk of the class) tires out. Less time than that and you feel like it's incomplete, more time than that and people start to get worn out and class becomes less productive. In my experience that hovers around two hours.

 

[Steel Tiger]

An hour and half to two hours depending on the core subject matter for the class. This gives us about an hour to an hour and a half of training time.

 

[Kacey]

1 1/2 hours, including 15-20 minutes of stretching/calisthenics - although I'm always willing to stay after and help anyone who asks me to.

 

[MarkBarlow]

45 minutes of training and 10 minutes of games (if they've given me a good workout) for the ankle biters and 90 minutes for adults.

 

[tntma12]

I teach about 1 1/2 to 2 hours depending on who shows up. I too find an hour to be too short.

 

[jks9199]

Responses so far have been enlightening...

As a loose rule, I've found about 2 hours of training following about 30 minutes of warmups is a good balance for adults. Our current situation works best if we end after about 2 hours total (mostly teens; they've got school the next day...). As I said, the younger kids (7 to 12) burn out after about an hour -- and you've got to keep them moving during that hour.

In terms of seminars/clinics, I've noticed that if folks don't get a break after about 2 hours, they lose focus. Give 'em a break, and they can go for another 2 hours or so... (Oh... and if it's classroom/lecture... most people get seriously squirmy after about an hour.)

 

[stone_dragone]

In my classes at home we would have a 2 hour practice. Minimum of 30 min (sometimes 45) for warm-up and conditioning and the remainder for kata, drill and sparring or self-defense, grappling and sparring.

When I moved to alabama and later to Tennessee, I found that most of the schools that I attended hold about 1-hour classes.

My father-in-law (MT Member Shiho)'s aikido class is an hour and half, I think...might be 2 hours, it went by so fast it was hard to tell.

 

[terryl965]

Childern classes 1 hour, teenager and adults and fight team1.5 hours. Saturday classes are two hour for everybody Sunday is devoted to God and the church.

 

[JadecloudAlchemist]

Typical class for me is about an hour. Though private lessons sometimes are the ones that do it for me because sometimes a person wants to practice for 4hours or I have to talk for 4hours straight!

 

[tshadowchaser]

usualy a class runs about 1 - 1 1/2 hours. private classes from 1 -3 hours.

speacial classes or get togeathers all day

 

[meth18au]

2-2.5 hours for my classes, usually it is somewhere between these times. The fighters at my gym go for at least 3 hours though.


It is 1 hour total warm up, stretch, ab work....etc etc. Then the rest of the class for us is shadowboxing, pad work and sparring. Which takes the other hour to hour and a half of our time up.


Tonight was 2.5 hours- I'm absolutely spent...bedtime after I check all the forums!!!

 

[CoryKS]

Regular classes at our school are one hour. Privates are 1/2 hour, but they tend to go longer if no one has a lesson scheduled immediately following. We can take as many regular/private lessons as we wish, but we are expected to attend at least two regular classes a week and make up any that we miss.

 

[jus_dann]

i had a group of adults i would teach about 2.5-4hours.
some complainned of the time frame and wanted an hour class.
i found they were not ready to train so little.
seems to take an adult a good 10-15 minutes to warm up, which leaves 45 minutes. teaching multiple arts, this left very little time to really work on anything. it was 5 minutes for this, 10 for that, 3 for this,etc. personaly i like a 3-3.5 hour class with a break in the middle. typically when i taught for more than 2 hours, we would have a cooldown and more "mental" teachings to go with the physical ones. i thought that worked best for myself and others alike. but trying to serve up 2 hours of hard trainning in one hour, my guys started dropping like flies, LOL, go figure...