Training someone with no body awareness??

[SAConner]

Hello all,

I'm looking for tips on training someone with little to no body awareness.
I'm a student teacher in a Gung Fu class and we have a student with very little awareness, a great example of some who never learned how to use their body as a child. The student has a lot of drive and really weants to learn so any advice would be very helpful!

Thanks all!

 

[kuniggety]

Patience. There's not a lot else to it. If they've got the drive, they'll eventually get it. It's just on you to have the patience to teach them.

Even having taken karate for a couple of years as a kid, I had no real body awareness until I was an adult. For me it was in 2009 when I started running and ran the Okinawa marathon and afterwards got back into martial arts, doing calisthenics, and a variety of weight/strength training that I really started to learn me body. It's a never ending journey... It's just how far along you are.

 

[Touch Of Death]

Hello all,

I'm looking for tips on training someone with little to no body awareness.
I'm a student teacher in a Gung Fu class and we have a student with very little awareness, a great example of some who never learned how to use their body as a child. The student has a lot of drive and really weants to learn so any advice would be very helpful!

Thanks all!

When you find out, let me know. I had an employee, I was supervising, and that guy would walk into people; if he was coming, you had to move. I remember thinking he needed Karate lessons, but he was just to much of a liability to keep, (or try to save when he messed up). As For helping an actual martial arts student, he is in the right place. One method, I find very helpful, is to verbally announce the basic-move, announce its return motion, and, announce the next move. It will make doing a technique or Form a long drawn out process, but, it is that attention to detail, that is needed.

 

[JowGaWolf]

Hello all,

I'm looking for tips on training someone with little to no body awareness.
I'm a student teacher in a Gung Fu class and we have a student with very little awareness, a great example of some who never learned how to use their body as a child. The student has a lot of drive and really weants to learn so any advice would be very helpful!

Thanks all!

Do a lot of basic training. People who are like you described have not developed basic coordination skills that allow them to develop that type of awareness. Incorporate exercises that require him the student to maneuver their body through various types of obstacles. Things like the footwork drills that football and soccer players do will help build better body awareness. Boxing slip rope training, or even just have that person learn to maneuver between 4 or 5 people will help to improve body awareness. The more one uses the body the more aware they become, but it always starts with basics. One of my kung fu brothers is learning how to dribble a basketball to help build up his coordination and awareness. Basketball is one of those sports where you are always moving among other bodies, sometimes with the ball and sometimes without. It also forces you to be aware of who is around you.

 

[WaterGal]

Do you mean that he doesn't know where his body is relative to other people/things, or that he doesn't know how to make his body move in different ways? Like, is the issue that he's terrible at sparring because he can't figure out distancing, or is it that if you say "do the technique like this: [demonstrate]" he can't ever figure out how to make his body do that?

 

[SAConner]

Do you mean that he doesn't know where his body is relative to other people/things, or that he doesn't know how to make his body move in different ways? Like, is the issue that he's terrible at sparring because he can't figure out distancing, or is it that if you say "do the technique like this: [demonstrate]" he can't ever figure out how to make his body do that?

Actually I mean both, she has a difficult time judging and moving in a space while also moving very robot like.

 

[JowGaWolf]

Actually I mean both, she has a difficult time judging and moving in a space while also moving very robot like.

My wife was like that, to the point where she looked like a kung fu robot. For her it just took time and a lot of reminders that the movements should flow. Eventually she was able to make the movements flow. People like that tend to think of movement as Step 1-> Stop -> Step 2 -> Stop -> Step 3 Stop. This will change as over time as long as you remind your student of how the movements should be. The other part about judging and moving in a space just takes practice. For some people it seems to come more natural, but that may be the result of growing up doing activities that require them to be aware of judging and moving in a space. Like climbing trees as a kid.

 

[GiYu - Todd]

You may have to teach the same technique several different ways to find what helps her learn best.

We have a guy like that training with us. Great guy, but not physically gifted other than being big and strong. He's failed several tests, but has persevered and continues making progress. One thing that helps him is to start with exercises designed to tire his muscles out so he won't rely on strength. This forces him to use good technique, and seems to smooth his movements.

Think of her as a challenge to help you learn how to become a better teacher.

 

[Gnarlie]

I would suggest teaching new motions through pre-exercises which focus on the gross motor stuff only. For example, for a standard down block, split into steps:

1) Have the student touch their left shoulder with the palm of their right hand, then their right upper thigh with the palm of the right hand. Change hands. Don't worry about the reaction hand. Repeat many times.

2) Repeat, but emphasise the edge of the hand against the shoulder. Repeat and drill.

3) With closed fists

4) The reaction hand only, no twist

5) The reaction hand only with twist

6) The block and reaction hand staggered, i.e. block first then pull the reaction hand

7) The block and reaction hand simultaneously.

This way you can teach the whole block with next to no verbal explanation and the student has a chance to understand the components that make it up, in isolation, before trying to coordinate the full motion.



Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk

 

[oftheherd1]

My wife was like that, to the point where she looked like a kung fu robot. For her it just took time and a lot of reminders that the movements should flow. Eventually she was able to make the movements flow. People like that tend to think of movement as Step 1-> Stop -> Step 2 -> Stop -> Step 3 Stop. This will change as over time as long as you remind your student of how the movements should be. The other part about judging and moving in a space just takes practice. For some people it seems to come more natural, but that may be the result of growing up doing activities that require them to be aware of judging and moving in a space. Like climbing trees as a kid.

I was taught some military movements that way in junior ROTC. So when I took TKD and was taught that way it seemed right and natural. It kind of didn't work when I began studying Hapkido.

Patience. There's not a lot else to it. If they've got the drive, they'll eventually get it. It's just on you to have the patience to teach them.

...

Yep, lots of patience, and compliments on how she is getting better. Lots of other good suggestion already too. Everyone is different. Some things will work better than others, some not at all, and some will need to be followed by others. Again, patience.

I hope you will get back to us in the future to let us know what seemed to work best, at least for her.

 

[SAConner]

Thanks for all the advice! We'll keep at it as long as she wants to keep learning!

 

[Danny T]

Make it focused, simple, specific, and continuous.
It will take patience and time. The student needs have a clear explanation of what you want or need them to do. The thing is that must be communicated in the 3 major modes of learning; Audibly, Visually, and Kinestically.
Then have the student perform the move slowly and as smoothly as they are able. Repeat, repeat, repeat. If the student can not keep up with the rest of the class have another student work with them at the rate the student can do the move/s properly.
Patience, Time, Focused specific moves and continuous repetition.

 

[Rayrob]

Dyspraxia is the usual name of this condition and it can have varying severity.

I had a young lad who was with in a friends Boy Scout troop, he was, along with a dozen other lads of around the same age trying to get a scouts martial arts badge. For this they had to learn the first form and pass the first grading. I am sorry to say that after six weeks of two lessons per week he couldn't do the simplest of moves. When you seemed to make progress you would find yourself back to square one by the next lesson. I am a very tolerant and patient person, so if I was finding things frustrating how must his life have been? I asked him what he would like to do as a job when he left school and he replied "pilot" and laughed. I am still friends with his old Scout master and he said that the boy went on to Uni and now has a very good job, thankfully not as a pilot.

 

[Tony Dismukes]

Speaking as someone who started out my martial arts training extremely uncoordinated and with very little body awareness, there aren't any quick and easy answers. Even us clueless guys can learn body awareness, but it takes time and patience.

Some things that can help:

Breaking movements into small pieces. Emphasize those movement patterns which come up in many different techniques.

Slow down.

Teach as many different ways as possible - visually, verbally, conceptually, hands on, etc.

Other forms of body work can help. I learned a lot through Yoga, Rolfing, Feldenkrais, and Alexander technique.


It took me a few years just to get to the point where some more naturally athletic people start out in terms of body awareness. On the plus side, I think it makes me a better teacher. When I have a klutzy student I can usually spot exactly what they are doing wrong and how to fix it - because I've been there and done that.

 

[yak sao]

Break everything down into individual steps. If it's a movement that involves footwork plus hands, show the footwork only first. If it's a compound movement that uses both sides, show one side at a time.
As an example, I've had people in the past who had trouble with throwing a punch, so I would hold my hand out in front of them and have them simply reach out and touch my hand with their fingers in the most economical way possible. Then I would have them close their fist and do the same thing, over and over, slowly working on bringing their punching mechanics along until finally they had a nice smooth punching motion

 

[Jenna]

Dyspraxia is the usual name of this condition and it can have varying severity.

I had a young lad who was with in a friends Boy Scout troop, he was, along with a dozen other lads of around the same age trying to get a scouts martial arts badge. For this they had to learn the first form and pass the first grading. I am sorry to say that after six weeks of two lessons per week he couldn't do the simplest of moves. When you seemed to make progress you would find yourself back to square one by the next lesson. I am a very tolerant and patient person, so if I was finding things frustrating how must his life have been? I asked him what he would like to do as a job when he left school and he replied "pilot" and laughed. I am still friends with his old Scout master and he said that the boy went on to Uni and now has a very good job, thankfully not as a pilot.

Thank you for highlighting this condition. There is a nice ending to that story too

 

[Andrew Green]

Hello all,

I'm looking for tips on training someone with little to no body awareness.
I'm a student teacher in a Gung Fu class and we have a student with very little awareness, a great example of some who never learned how to use their body as a child. The student has a lot of drive and really weants to learn so any advice would be very helpful!

Thanks all!

I'd focus a lot on supplemental exercises that develop that sort of awareness. For example agility ladder drills, exercise balls, bosu training, etc.

Be patient, recognize that things that are as easy as breathing to you may be challenging and don't try to push to far to fast.