Research based articles to help martial arts instructors coaching children in martial arts classes.
The knowledge of the physical stages of development is a priority if you want to maximise the development of your martial arts students. Sometimes we may feel we are not very good at delivering sessions to the young children in our care. They don’t always listen and sometimes they ‘just don’t get it’. In other […]
Physical stages of development for young children practicing martial arts Read More »
I often hear of coaches talking about fun martial arts games or karate games for kids. A common theme is when one coach talks about a drill they love and the other coach says ‘Yes, our students used to love that game but we haven’t played it for ages.’ This is often down to the
Creating a system for categorising martial arts games for kids Read More »
When anyone mentions strength training for children some coaches will get a picture in their head of a young child trying to use the weights you would expect to find in an adult gym. This picture generally describes weight lifting rather than strength training but as these terms are often used interchangeable, it is easy
Is strength training for children healthy? Read More »
Introduction Children’s martial arts programmes have been available since around the year 2000 when Melody Johnson (was Shuman) introduced her Little Ninja’s programme and Kimber Hill (now Tyee) released her Lil Dragon programme (2001). These two coaches created a new sector within the martial arts community by writing programmes specifically for children. While other instructors
Lil Dragon vs Skillz VS MAPLE Read More »
Often abbreviated to FMS, FUNdamental Movement Skills describe the ability to move the body in specific patterns using different body parts. They cover both gross and fine motor skills and are usually broken down in to three groups; locomotion, balance and object control. These skills are the building blocks the children will need to be
FUNdamental Movement Skills for children’s martial arts Read More »
We all want the best for our young ninjas but how do gradings help us develop the children? Developing their skills, physical abilities and positive physiological characteristics are at the top of our list of goals. So how do we use gradings to build these traits? Should we be using the gradings to measure competency
Gradings for young children in martial arts – are you comparing apples with oranges? Read More »
The answer to the question in the headline is ‘Of course they do, they motivate children to want stickers’. Though the answer to the question may not be what we want when trying to motivate children to try harder, pay attention or even stop playing with that dam equipment…… sorry, I was just having a
The Curse of Knowledge is when we make decisions based on the presumption of prior knowledge. While this can often happen when we are working with children, it is also common when you have been working a field for a long time. You can be blind to your sector specific expertise. This often manifests itself
The curse of knowledge – the presumption of foundational skills and understanding Read More »
MAPLE stands for Martial Arts Physical Literacy Engine and is the framework Coach Phill Payne has been working on for over a decade. The term Physical Literacy was first coined in in the 1920s but it was really brought back to life by Dr Margaret Whitehead in the early 1990s. Physical Literacy is basically the
