teaching horror story (my first)

[Jester]

Not really a discussion topic just thought I'd post this for reading value. I teach a small group of children (freestyle kickboxing) and way we were training last night and I turned my back for a second. Grace one of our "problem children" decided to start spinning around randomly with her hands outstretched before I could notice this and give her a telling off one of the little five year olds decided to go running across the room, straight into the path of her twirling fists.

I looked up just in time to see this poor little kid going smashing into her fist and going down like a sack of potatoes. I rushed over and helped him up and noticed there was a lovely squirt of blood coming from his nose, this wasn't just a dribble but a full on gush, so bad was it that in the time it took me to send someone for some tissues, the whole of the front of his tee shirt was red and there was a nice pool on the floor.

To make matters worse this was only the little boys second lesson, so after we had got the bleeding stopped and cheered up the little fella I still had to not look forward to explaining things to his mother :-(. It also made me so mad that this had happened that it as good as messed up the rest of my class.

Anyway it all worked out ok the mother was very understanding and said he is prone to nose bleeds anyway, but that was my horror story from yesterday. Who'd teach kids, I must be nuts .

Thanks for reading.

 

[theletch1]

I'll vouch for you being nuts But really, don't ya get a kick out of the way their face lights up when they finaly "get it" on a technique? We've had a kid or two that will get a nose bleed from just overheating. Head wounds always bleed alot more than other wounds so they look a lot worse than they really are.
All in all though, I'd have to say that kids can be a lot of fun to work with. Glad the mother took it o.k.

 

[Jester]

No I was only kidding I do like working with the kids, the class is relativly new and we are at the stage of trying to set that line between dicipline and fun. I think we are nearly there and it's great seeing them starting to focus in class and their techniques beginning to improve as a result of that fact.

 

[theletch1]

If you can find that line between discipline and fun send me a map to it! My school has been doing kids classes for a little over three years and I still don't think we have a good grasp on where that line is. The head instructor is a bit more "fun-loving" while I and one of the other helpers are former Marines and tend to be a little more no-nonsense. The kids still have their days where they try to push it but WE'RE learning