Wednesday, January 28, 2009
A Slight Delimma...
So I had another night where no new students showed up but I did have a note waiting for me when I got there tonight. A mother left a note asking if I would consider teaching Aikido to her 13 year old daughter. Most of you are probably saying "so?" well here's the problem...the Fugakukai doesn't teach Aikido to those under 16 years of age. Normally I'd just say "sorry, I'm not allowed to teach your daughter", but if I don't get a regular student each night I won't have a class anymore. If I DO teach her daughter I can't rank her or even have a higher ranked member rank her (and parents generally want to see progress for their children in the material form, namely belt colors). Also, I have no idea how I'd teach Aikido to a 13 year old. I could do the wrist releases and flowing excercises but I certainly couldn't do kote gaeshi or kote hineri. I could really use some suggestions soon. I feel like I'm between a rock and a hard place. Oddly enough, 13 is the age I realized I wanted to study Aikido and close to the target age range I'd like to start teaching anyway. Kids at 13 seem to absorb things like a sponge and have pretty good control of their appendages at that age. Any advice would be most welcome...ANY
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5 comments:
I understand your position, my style (a break off from Karl) limits teaching to 15 or 16 and above.
What could she learn?
Walk, Releases, Ukemi
1-5, 10, and 15 of Ju Nana Hon Kata
1-5 of Owaza Ju Pon
2 and 4 of Koryu Dai San No Kata.
Talk it over with your Sensei and get some guidance.
What happened to Rigney coming back for another lesson?
Dumb question: what's a fugakukai? And if teaching someone under 16 against it then isn't your choice made for you?
I know I really don't know any of this stuff, so I'm sure these are obvious questions to most of the people reading this.
Still, feeling like enlightening me?
There was a guy in Oklahoma City teaching Aikido to children. He worked on the walk, releases, ukemi and 1-5 of the 17. I can try to get you in touch with him if you'd like.
Actually Kyle that would be great. I could certainly use the pointers. Jenn, the Fugakukai is the name of the organization under which we practice.
Aikido kids classes are great! We have almost 100 kids on our role, in the 7 - 13 age range.
We don't get to throw them as hard as some of them deserve, but most of the ones that transition to the adults classes really shine.
You'll find plenty of adults that you can't throw hard, so you adapt and still teach and still make it fun. Same with teaching kids.
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