They winge, moan, carry on like pork chops, start crying when you yell

at them....no discipline ...KIDS! Bless em! Without teaching them our

beloved sport, it wont develop, in fact they are our future...

only in the past few years I've been seriously teaching kids classes at

bulldog, when I first started it was only for a favor for a student who

wanted his kids to learn and I must admit I hated it, but began to see

the future of the sport developing so kept on going, now we teach a few

schools and colleges, go out to other private schools for self defense

and anti bullying seminars which have proved to be so popular I've had to

give some away to other clubs in the area to handle!

STARTING KIDS CLASSES

Firstly having a good simple grading system in place is very important,

keep it simple with easily attainable goals for them to achieve , I think

a cloath badge and certificate system is best, they get a little sew on

badge awarded when they complete the relevant grading, all the kids love

that and compete amongst themselves to get as many as they can, you can

make it as complicated as you wish with even learning the thai names and

words to go with the gradings, also fitness gradings work well too, how

many kicks in a minute , timed runs that sort of thing, but a main point

I'd stress is try hard to keep them interested as they do get bored easy,

I started with letting them play games now and then but it ended out not

good as after a short time that's all they wanted to do so I had to ban

any games at all, the only game now is" takraw" the thai ball game the

fighters play a lot in thailand which involves kicking a ball over a

net, great for foot to eye co ordination and flexibility, they beg me

too let them play this, and only let them if they achieve certain goals

in class.

THINGS TO WATCH

I find most equipment that we use a bit too hard for the kids to kick

and punch, I only let them work on soft pads as their bones are not well

developed yet and injuries can occur.

I tend to not let them "freestyle" box too much as they get confused and

don't seem to understand the concept of technique, so lots of working in

lines on certain punch/kick knee combos, certainly at the ages of 7-14

very little or no contact between them (free sparring)

But all the hard work you put in you get a lot out, I now have lads who

have been at bulldog for 7 years now and are absolute machines,

no doubt that kids minds are like sponges and absorb so much at an early

age and they pick it up quick.

Once a year we have a kids display team and to get picked for this is

the ultimate for the nippers class, a lot of tears and sulks if they

don't, but they love getting on the stage in front of 800 people at a

kickboxing show and doing their stuff.

Worst bit of a kids class...

One young lad pooded his pants! Poor kid was so embarrassed, never came

back

Best bit...

Getting a home made xmas card signed by 40 kids and a six pack of beer

from them last year.

NICK STONE