It's not funny

[Manny]

It's not funny when the teens don't pay attention and gooffy around when self defense techs are in course.

Last night I was in chanrge so I knew the teens need to practice basics (even they don't like them at all), my point was... How you want to become a better fighter (sport) or martial artist IF your basics are poor, so it was good for me to teach proper technike, the blocks must be hard enough not only to deflect but to hurt and this is when a defense becomes an offense.

Afther basics, we did hanbon kyorigi, basic hanbok kiorugy (one steps) and then the kids again fooling around with techs so ugly and so not eficient that I have to tell them to retunr to the basics we were doing before, stick with the basic, why you want to do flamboyant moves if here in dojang those are clumsy and not efective? Stick to the basics..... all changed when I grab a wooden tanto.

When I grabed the wooden tanto I told them, whell.... we are going to use the same dinamics BUT using a weapon, if you don't use proper tech and comon sense you will be stab.

Again we got back to the basics and did one steps using trusting and slashing, in the begining the kids were scare about kick the hell out of them to try to put out of combat their enemy so I have to play the bad guy this time so I grab the tanto and told them... I'm going afther you in full charge so you must deflec the blow and try to aply a technique to diseable me and then try to disarm me.

Again the fear but they realize they can kick me as ahard has they want, they can hot me the hard as they can and slowly got in set to do the exercise.

At trhe end of class I cherish two girls black belts and two black belt boys they overcome their fears and do the exercise very well, the only thing I told them was to use full force to overcome the other one.

I think the use of the wooden tanto was a good thing, it was something diferent and the kids got motivated.

Manny

 

[Troubadour]

I've known a few students who just didn't care. No energy, not responding to the instructor or giving respect. Just going through the motions looking bored. My only thought is them being pushed into it by parents, which I'm sure does happen, but it's still rude and disrespectful.

 

[Dirty Dog]

Kids are kids. That means that, on average, they have the attention span of a gnat. Mixing things up is a good way to keep them focused.

What concerns me most in your post is that you're talking about black belts. I expect this sort of behavior from kids, but not from Dan ranks. This reinforces my view that kids, as a rule, should not be black belts.

 

[donald1]

It's not funny when the teens don't pay attention and gooffy around when self defense techs are in course.
Manny

i guess teens just want to do the cool fun techniques and win medals but when it comes down to it so many down want to shut up and train. improvements can be made if they are willing im certain to that. best of luck teaching; keep us posted.

 

[tshadowchaser]

Looking at the teens involved and saying something to the effect of " Your parents just paid a lot of money for me to tell you to go sit in the corner facing the wall and shut up the rest of the night. The next time I tell you to sit in the corner your parents will have paid for you to do so the next 5 classes you attend. If you want to be here smarten up and act like you want to learn"
Any parent watching class will most likely have a talk with their child after class

 

[Manny]

I think that teens (they must be a little more mature than boys/girls, aren't they?) think that because they do martial arts they are inmune to bad things or bad people, they think because I am an advance belt or even a black belt nobody can't touch me! end they are completly wrong! Even a mature guy with a black belt is not inmune or bullet proof so the people must realiza that the cances are very few if you want to defend yourself so then train like you mean it!.

Those days in the dojangs/dojos/karate studios we tend to protect the kids and we don't allow strong technikes tpo be used to not hurt our clasamates but as I told to Aldo (a blue belt or around 200 punds and 6 feet tall who has a little box training), you don't have to broke a rib or a nose to do the techs right, you can use suficient force to do the things right without killing your partner.

You must use enough force and comitment to make things work inside dojang becaue if not you are only fooling yourself. You can not imagine my surprise when I told the guys to defend themselves and see how they try to do fancy karate/movie/tv moves instead to use the basics I just already teach them!!! I must to reset them and ask them to go back to baisc because they simply work period.

Well got to go to dojang I catch you latter.

Manny

 

[Daniel Sullivan]

It's not funny when the teens don't pay attention and gooffy around when self defense techs are in course.

Last night I was in chanrge so I knew the teens need to practice basics (even they don't like them at all), my point was... How you want to become a better fighter (sport) or martial artist IF your basics are poor, so it was good for me to teach proper technike, the blocks must be hard enough not only to deflect but to hurt and this is when a defense becomes an offense.

Afther basics, we did hanbon kyorigi, basic hanbok kiorugy (one steps) and then the kids again fooling around with techs so ugly and so not eficient that I have to tell them to retunr to the basics we were doing before, stick with the basic, why you want to do flamboyant moves if here in dojang those are clumsy and not efective? Stick to the basics..... all changed when I grab a wooden tanto.

When I grabed the wooden tanto I told them, whell.... we are going to use the same dinamics BUT using a weapon, if you don't use proper tech and comon sense you will be stab.

Again we got back to the basics and did one steps using trusting and slashing, in the begining the kids were scare about kick the hell out of them to try to put out of combat their enemy so I have to play the bad guy this time so I grab the tanto and told them... I'm going afther you in full charge so you must deflec the blow and try to aply a technique to diseable me and then try to disarm me.

Again the fear but they realize they can kick me as ahard has they want, they can hot me the hard as they can and slowly got in set to do the exercise.

At trhe end of class I cherish two girls black belts and two black belt boys they overcome their fears and do the exercise very well, the only thing I told them was to use full force to overcome the other one.

I think the use of the wooden tanto was a good thing, it was something diferent and the kids got motivated.

Manny

Basics wins fights. Basics makes champions. Kudos to you for sticking to your guns and coming up with a creative way to teach the lesson!

 

[Gorilla]

I agree that these kids probably should not be BB's if they are behaving as described...but let's not paint every young BB with this brush!

 

[Daniel Sullivan]

I agree that these kids probably should not be BB's if they are behaving as described...but let's not paint every young BB with this brush!

Chodan/ildan: Congratulations! You've just earned a degree that says you've learned the basics. Hardly a proclamation of maturity and mastery.

If a school has a self proclaimed standard that says otherwise, congratulations! You have awesome blackbelts. But don't impose your standard on everyone else.

In the time that belts have been in use, they've gone from a simple tool to track progress, to having mystical qualities and old wives tales, to being a method for competition bracketing, to being an income source for commercial schools. All this is a nanosecond in the history of martial arts.

Just train, and if you're training kids, accept that they're still kids and will sometimes act like kids.

 

[Manny]

Basics wins fights. Basics makes champions. Kudos to you for sticking to your guns and coming up with a creative way to teach the lesson!

Yestaerday was a GREAT evening, the new sabonim let me take care of children class... OMG the boys and girls are... well... so I took the challenge and with disipline and using loud comands and playing the thing... The best child will be awarded with a citation and aplause I manage the class with aplomb and just two kids were not cooperating at all but nothing a few sets of situps will cure, the class behave very well, their yelling was LOUD their attitude was like seniors, they do all the basics very well,. no goofing around pure attitude, and the end I told them they beheved like warriors and that I will hope the next class they were truly gentelmen and be mnore positive than that evening.

Next was the teen/adult class again basic-basics- and basics and kicking the shield with authority ending with crunches.

I was amazed the way I taugh the childrfen class.

Manny

 

[Dirty Dog]

I agree that these kids probably should not be BB's if they are behaving as described...but let's not paint every young BB with this brush!

You do understand that "as a rule" and "every" are not synonymous, right?

 

[TrueJim]

...they've gone from a simple tool to track progress, to having mystical qualities and old wives tales, to being a method for competition bracketing, to being an income source for commercial schools.

This is conjecture on my part, but I wonder if the "mystical qualities" aspect is a Western invention, and in particular a Hollywood invention. I agree with you 100%...when you watch old TV shows or movies they make it sound as though having a Black Belt means you're practically like Kwai Chang Caine -- listened for he cannot be heard; looked for he cannot be seen. The instructors at the school that my son and I attend are native Korean and I never get the sense that they attribute anything to Belts other than a level of proficiency with certain techniques - there's no connotation that the belt-holder is more-or-less mature than anybody else, more-or-less a better teacher than anybody else, etc.

Speaking of the old Kung Fu television series, here's a fun taekwondo trivia fact: the ITF form Do-San is named after Ahn Chang-ho, the father of Philip Ahn, the actor who played master Kan in that television series. Quickly as you can, snatch the pebble from my hand.

 

[Manny]

Yestrady afther a good kicking session and before ending the class one of the students wanted to practice self defense and one girl wanted exercise/workout, I told them to ask the other studentes (12 in total) what they want and the cardio ending won against the self defense techs .... OMG!!! Well we fishing doing stages (4 stages) of exercises againt the clock. Well self defense will be the next class.

Manny

 

[WaterGal]

I think that teens (they must be a little more mature than boys/girls, aren't they?) think that because they do martial arts they are inmune to bad things or bad people, they think because I am an advance belt or even a black belt nobody can't touch me! end they are completly wrong! Even a mature guy with a black belt is not inmune or bullet proof so the people must realiza that the cances are very few if you want to defend yourself so then train like you mean it!.

Yeah, sometimes they need something to wake them up and make them realize they're not Bruce Lee just because they have a green or blue belt. We have one of our younger Hapkido students (12 or 13 years old?) that got lazy and had a bad attitude and didn't want to come to class, until he got attacked by another kid after school and really had to use his training. That made him see the importance of martial arts and now he's a lot more serious.