skribs113 133
Grandmaster
Recently I made a thread about ideal coach-to-student ratios. One of the main reasons is that while we have plenty of coaches in the older/later classes, the earliest class at our gym focused on the youngest students is often just me and one other coach. This is the most difficult class to keep on-task, and features the widest range of attitudes from the kids that literally will not move a muscle unless you micro-manage them, to the kids that move every muscle unless you micro-manage them. (And a group in the middle that are easier to work with).
What we've done in the past is allow kids to break into pairs (or sometimes groups of 3) and work on technique. This worked great when we had 3-4 coaches for 8-12 students. But now that we may have 2 coaches for 20 students, it's difficult to make sure all of the kids get the required attention in class. It's difficult to keep them on-task, and on top of that help those that need it.
What we're doing lately is more structured. Everyone gets a partner. The partners line up. One side does the technique step-by-step as the instructor calls each step. Then we reset and the other side goes. Then the second round of technique we combine steps together, and so on.
While this has worked very well for managing the class as a whole, we run into a few problems:
This new method reminds me a lot of the kids classes in Taekwondo, where we often would practice self-defense in line together. However, because this was more scripted, and mostly stand-up, it was easy to have the students practice without a partner if needed. We also usually had a higher quantity of assistant instructors that could partner with a student if needed.
I am going to talk to my Professor, but I wanted to see if anyone else had experience running classes like this. What have you done for the odd kid out?
What we've done in the past is allow kids to break into pairs (or sometimes groups of 3) and work on technique. This worked great when we had 3-4 coaches for 8-12 students. But now that we may have 2 coaches for 20 students, it's difficult to make sure all of the kids get the required attention in class. It's difficult to keep them on-task, and on top of that help those that need it.
What we're doing lately is more structured. Everyone gets a partner. The partners line up. One side does the technique step-by-step as the instructor calls each step. Then we reset and the other side goes. Then the second round of technique we combine steps together, and so on.
While this has worked very well for managing the class as a whole, we run into a few problems:
- What to do with an odd number of students?
- What to do when a student needs to step off the mat for a bio break?
- What to do when a pair of students need to be separated (either because they don't get along or because they get along too well)?
This new method reminds me a lot of the kids classes in Taekwondo, where we often would practice self-defense in line together. However, because this was more scripted, and mostly stand-up, it was easy to have the students practice without a partner if needed. We also usually had a higher quantity of assistant instructors that could partner with a student if needed.
I am going to talk to my Professor, but I wanted to see if anyone else had experience running classes like this. What have you done for the odd kid out?
