High Technology Aikido for Children
This online web page is the complete document set of the unique,
successful, and innovative approach for Aikido for Children of
Kenji Ota Sensei, Goleta Aikido with Ki, Goleta (Santa Barbara),
California. You'll see amazing Aikido
by children via JPEGs and Quicktimes, that you too could achieve with
your children's classes. This information is based on
35+ successful years of excellence in teaching Aikido, Judo, and
Ballroom Dancing by Ken Ota to both adults and children, using a
complete physical / emotional / psychological approach.
As always, no written article can truly capture the full flavor
of what's available. For more information, please take
advantage of Ken Ota's open invitation to call or visit him at
anytime (see the web site URL below). He would love to share
with you what he has learned so that you may enhance your own
Aikido, ukemi, and ability to teach Aikido to children.
Kenji Ota Sensei
Goleta Aikido with Ki
255 Magnolia
Goleta, California 93117
(805) 967-3103
http://www.west.net/~aikido/
Draft article written by:
John Sing
singj@us.ibm.com
August 25, 2001
(Note: each of the
following web pages have many Quicktime movies.
Please allow time for the movies to load. Click here to
go to the Quicktime Player download website.)
Table of Contents
Introduction
What's Possible in Aikido for Children (JPEGS)
What's Possible in Aikido for Children
(Quicktime 4.0 movies)
Importance of Teaching Aikido to Children
Testimonials from Aikido Children
Our Goals for Aikido Children
What's In It For You!
The Children Will Teach You Far More Than
You Will Teach Them
Fundamental Philosophies and Suggestions
for Effectively teaching Aikido to Children
A Suggested Agenda and Flow for Aikido
Children's Class
Overall Summary of Flow, Tempo,
Warm-ups, Discipline and Safety Guidelines
A word on energetic pace for Aikido
Children's classes
Start with Ukemi
How to teach Ukemi to Children using
Pads/Barriers/Drills
Step 1: Teaching Basic Ukemi
Step 2: Teaching High Roll Ukemi
Step 3: Teaching Advanced Ukemi
Essential Importance of Ukemi to Aikido
Children's classes
Teaching Ma'ai To Children
Bringing Adults down to Kid's Size
Use Hopping, Turning, Ma'ai drills
Child Modifications to Aikido Techniques to
bring out Full Effectiveness
Table of Contents Part 2
Using Backleading to Teach Aikido to
Children
What is Backleading?
Photo Sequence Backleading
Ikkyo
Photo Sequence Backleading
Iriminage
Exploring Backleading further
Teach a Basic Set of Aikido Children
techniques
The Basic 3
The Basic 6
The Basic 8
Descriptions of Backleads
Fun Aikido Technique Drills
Warm ups/Body Conditioning/Judo Drills
Fun Aikido Warm-up Drills for Children
Fun Body Warm-up Drills for Children
Fun Children Aikido Games
Fun Children Aikido Cool down Games
Being a Team Captain Develops Leaders
Warm-up Relay Race Games to teach Motivation,
Teamwork, and Leadership
Handicapping System in Warm-up Relay Race
Games
How to Run a Fun Warm-up Aikido Children's
Relay Race
Developing a child's healthy self
confidence, without ego
Belt System for Child's Motivation
Role of Adults and Senior Students
Summary: Aikido For Children
Where to buy gymnastics Pads and Barriers
There are a large number of great Quicktime 4.0 movies on this web
page. You can click here to
download a free Quicktime player from
www.apple.com.
Introduction
Ken Ota Sensei, Goleta (Santa Barbara), California, has a well
deserved 35 year reputation for remarkable results in teaching
Aikido to children due to his innovation, creativity, and overall
approach.
Pictures will say more than a thousand words. To get an
idea what is possible with Aikido with Children and why this
article was written, view these introductory photographs and
Quicktime Movies, showing young children doing amazing Aikido.
What's Possible in Aikido for Children
(JPEGs)
Using high tech
gymnastics pads - (Caitlin helping Leyla learn ukemi (148K))
Overcoming
fear of high falls (Caitlin high roll over barrier (135K))
Overcoming fear of breakfalls
(Neil airfall on pad JPEG (147K))
Return to Table of Contents
What's Possible in Aikido for Children
(Quicktime 4.0 movies)
High falls over
barrier pad drill on pads Quicktime 4.0 movie (600K)
Andreas
taking iriminage ukemi for kid Quicktime 4.0 movie(312K)
Caitlin nikyo Quicktime 4.0
movie (476K)
Caitlin shihonage Quicktime 4.0
movie (613K)
Young
white belt doing sankyo on Andrew Quicktime 4.0 movie (347K)
Neil kotaegeshi on
Brandon Quicktime 4.0 movie (708K)
Orange
belt
Robby
doing nikyo and shihonage on Caitlin (2.9 MB)
Orange
belt
Robby doing kotaegeshi on Caitlin (1.6 MB)
Orange
belt Robby doing sankyo on Caitlin (1.1 MB)
Basic 8 Aikido
techniques performed by older kids Quicktime 4.0 movie (4.6 MB)
- note hopping, ma'ai, smooth speed
12 year old Caitlin doing full
randori drill (2, 3, 4 ukes) Quicktime 4.0 movie (2.6MB)
Children
ukemi crossing drill Quicktime 4.0 movie (1.0 MB)
Mario started as a child, here he
does 'no hands' Quicktime 4.0 movie (3.2 MB)
Joseph started as a
child, here he does Judo with Hubert Quicktime 4.0 movie (2.5
MB)
Return to Table of Contents
I hope you liked what you saw! You too can
accomplish this and much more with your Aikido for Children
classes. This article describes detailed, proven successful
methods and suggestions from Ken Ota Sensei for increasing your
fun and effectiveness in teaching Aikido to Children. We'll
discuss:
- Fundamental ways to keep children's interest (Flow,
Tempo suggestions)
- Importance of teaching and focusing on great ukemi as first
priority, including philosophy, tools and drills to teach great
ukemi
- Warm-up games and drills
- Teaching children through their bodies with a minimum of
talking (Backleading)
- Backleading the basic 8 techniques
- Discipline and safety guidelines, games, and suggestions
- Movement drills
- Safe randori for advanced children
- Cool down games
- Role of adults as models and instructors
Importance of Teaching Aikido to Children
The future of all of our society, our way of life, and ultimately
our planet is in the attitudes, perspectives, and abilities that
we adults bestow upon each of the children in our lives. In
today's incredibly fast paced world, a child's path to growing up
represents vast challenges to:
- Become confident
- Become capable
- Build a healthy sense of self-esteem, community
- Develop willingness and ability to help, lead, and teach
others
- Appreciation of value of discipline and ability to focus and
achieve
- Ability and willingness to work hard to achieve worthy goals
Ken Ota says, "Young minds are like gelatin. We want to put in
good things before their minds firm up and harden for
adulthood. We must put good principles in their mind before
that mind becomes set". Aikido for Children offers a powerful
tool to teach these life lessons to our children; this article
documents technologies to give children real skill in Aikido at a
young age. Giving them an experience of Aikido blesses
them with profound gifts for the future and all the people they will
touch...... in ways we'll never know.
The children tell it best, click below to see what they have to
say:
Testimonials from Aikido Children
Kid's Aikido
Testimonial #1 (JPEG 59K)
Kid's Aikido
Testimonial #2 (JPEG 62K)
You might even say the future of Aikido rests within our
children; the manner and effectiveness with which we can
pass along real, effective, fun Aikido to them will have a
significant effect on the way Aikido grows and is practiced in the
future.
Return to Table of Contents
Our Goals for Aikido Children
The vital, effective skills that we want to teach our Aikido
children: what to do BETWEEN the techniques (whether
on the mat or off). The techniques themselves are not as
important as what happens in the time between the techniques, just
before them, or just after them. On the mat, these
between-the-technique skills are:
- The ability to move, and lead, and always stay just out of
reach of their attackers (this produces real skill and
effectiveness regardless of size differences)
- Constantly sense their surroundings accurately and easily
- Be able to naturally perform quick, effective, spontaneous
Aikido movement
- Naturally and spontaneously perform Aikido techniques
spontaneously with grace, power, and speed
- Do everything in a kind, gentle, yet powerful way
Sound like a lot? It can be done! Here's some examples:
Orange
belt
Robby
doing nikyo and shihonage on Caitlin (2.9 MB)
Orange
belt
Robby doing kotaegeshi on Caitlin (1.6 MB)
Orange belt
Robby doing sankyo on Caitlin (1.1 MB)
12 year old Caitlin doing full
randori drill (2, 3, 4 ukes) Quicktime 4.0 movie (2.6MB)
When this level of Aikido skill is attained, then at the same
time, a REAL experience and skill is available in their lives for:
- Harmony in relationship,
- Grace and poise under pressure,
- Positive attitude
- Confidence under fire
These Aikido experiences can become a reality for our
children. We do them a disfavor if we only give them
theoretical ideas or slow speed drills that do not translate to real
Aikido skill on the mat or in life. We want our children to
perform Aikido philosophy in life ......
this is what Aikido training is for.
Return to Table of Contents
What's In It For You!
Teaching Aikido to children is not purely magnanimous. Ota
Sensei suggests that in order to complete your Aikido training, you
must be able to powerfully transfer your Aikido skills to
children. Teaching Aikido to children is not
really about teaching Aikido techniques (although you do that and
learn more than you ever dreamed possible about your own technique
in the process), it is about you learning about how you appear and
who you are as a person and a human being to the most honest people
on the planet: young children.
Return to Table of Contents
The Children Will Teach You Far
More Than You Will Teach Them
The children will be your ultimate teachers about yourself as a
human being. The children will test and prove your
knowledge and effectiveness of your Aikido teaching skills and your
ability to apply Aikido principles and philosophy to
life. Children are honest, they don't lie; if they like
you, if they learn quickly from you. If they don't, they
don't come back. Koichi Tohei Sensei has said, "Doing
10-man randori is not impressive if no one in your life likes
you. When everyone in your life loves you, when you create
Loving Harmony everywhere in your life, when children always like
you, THAT'S Aikido".
Ota Sensei says, "To complete your own Aikido training, you must
give back to others. Someone helped you when you first
started. When you start to help others, and especially
children, you yourself will then know how well you have
learned the lessons that were passed on to you. You
will find infinitely pleasurable ways for further refinement."
This article is designed to help you achieve and bolster your own
Aikido training as much as possible, quickly, effectively, and
providing you as much pleasure as can be.
- If you can teach children quickly, using very little talking,
then your effectiveness teaching and practicing with adults will
be vastly improved
- Teaching adults well is very much same in principle as
teaching children. In fact, almost all of the adult
class drills that Ota Sensei has developed originated in
children's class. The children have been our best
innovators and creators.
- You will learn far more teaching the children, about both
your own Aikido and your own life, than they will
- You will learn to teach their bodies, and their bodies will
then teach it to their minds in good time, far more effectively
than you ever could
So let's get to the suggestions by Ota Sensei.
Return to Table of Contents
Fundamental Philosophies and
Suggestions for Effectively teaching Aikido to Children
Introduction: Fundamental Requirements of Children's Aikido
classes
There are really very little differences between children and adults
teaching methodology. Adults are grown-up versions of
children, and the blocks to an adult learning Aikido, are most
often simply some subtle adult version of a child's attention
and interest span. So, teaching effective children's
classes is really experimentation to see what adult-ized versions
could be done in adult class.
Almost all of the innovations that Ota Sensei uses originated in
his children's classes. It is no small feat to keep 40+
children entertained, interested, learning new skills, for a 2
hour period. What works with children, made adult-ized, can
work very well for the adults.
Return to Table of Contents
A Suggested Agenda and Flow for Aikido
Children's Class
We do 2-hour children's classes, and our time duration is as follows
(we do Judo also, so that timing is included below). Of
course, adjust as appropriate for the time you have allotted for
your children's classes.
- Ukemi Warmup (15-20 minutes, 18% of class time)
- Warmup/Conditioning Relay Race Games and Drills (20-25
minutes, 21% of class time)
- Aikido Techniques and Aikido drills (including time for
randori, older kids, etc.) (25-30 minutes, 25% of class time)
- Judo techniques as appropriate (25-30 minutes, 25% of class
time)
- Cool down games: 4-corners (takes 15 minutes)
or Back-To-Back (takes 10 minutes) (remaining 12.5% of
class time)
- Close
Compared to adult classes, clearly there are some specifics unique
to children's class. Here's what we've found:
- Kid's attention span, ability to learn, and physical ability
/ weigh is different, hence, shorter attention span means a
faster , more varied class pace than adults.
- Make learning an entertaining game, don't let them pause to
let them think too much
- Adapt drills and technique teaching accordingly
(note: if the drills are good, they work as good or
better in adults!!!!!)
See the following chapter below for a more complete discussion.
Return to Table of Contents
Overall Suggestions for Flow,
Tempo, Discipline and Safety Guidelines
Here is an summary overview of Ken Ota's tips for Aikido
Children's class. We'll go into more detail on each topic in
the chapters that follow.
- The flow of the class moves at a fast and varied pace,
so that the children never have too much pause to think.
The class only slows when children need to catch their breath,
then we rev it up again. Keeping the children's class
moving, keep the children entertained by the pace and experience
of Aikido.
- Keeping children safely moving is especially important to
remove the time for the mind to create fears about falling or
not being good enough. Rather, by moving the class along at a
good pace, and specifically having the younger ones intently
watching and being coached by the senior children , the fast
class pace raises all children's pace and learning.
- Teach great ukemi from the beginning to allow the speed to
come up. Use ukemi pads.
- Given good ukemi skills, use drills accelerate the learning
and speed of the children students
- Warmup games to drain off excess
energy while developing their bodies
- Choose the training partners for the children, so that
you match the appropriate older children with younger ones for
best results from both. Older more advanced children get
to be 'on stage' to give them extra work, and to give them
recognition!
- Run the class with 'rules' that help the children learn
discipline and the value of promptness in their lives. Our
suggestion: use the philosophy of Vince Lombardi
Time for everything (i.e. always be early for
everything). Specifically in class, use a '5,4,3,2,1'
countdown to motivate the children to line up quickly - you'll
be amazed how quickly they learn to be alert and move
fast. Failure to do so means a small number of
pushups or sit-ups. This teaches children and adults the
value of being alert and being early. Vince Lombardi
, the famous Green Bay Packer NFL Football coach, used to talk
about how in today's society, we arrive at work, take
coffee, talk, we take our time (and that of others) far too
casually. The problem is, however, in Aikido randori
and in life, that being outstanding means being on or ahead of
time in everything. So we train the children from the
start (smile!)
- Count repetitions in different languages. Have children
that speak other languages count out loud, so that all children
learn there is much more to life than English.
- Remember that you are really in the entertainment business
when teaching Aikido to children
Adult instructors have the primary responsibility to watch for the
children's safety at all times.
Always allow the children to be children. While keeping
good discipline, we must always be non-fussy and kind with their
techniques. As they grow older, they will naturally modify
and refine their techniques to the proper level in beautiful ways
you would never imagine. Why? Because their minds and
their teachers told them they were doing it well at every stage of
their young lives. They learn they can always improve, but
that to try and start is always met with kindness and
encouragement.
Return to Table of Contents
A word on energetic pace for Aikido
Children's classes
Ota Sensei suggests that truly effective Aikido teaching to children
cannot be attained through slow pace talking, lecture, or slow pace
drills. He says, "Ki is very dynamic, you must be at realistic
speeds to truly appreciate its flowing power". So, we suggest
it is important to create very entertaining classes that cater to
children's shorter attention span, keep their minds and their bodies
busy continuously, and in the process, do fun drills and games that
teach the actual Aikido techniques.
In order to do this, Ota Sensei suggests that all Aikido for
Children teaching methods must be truly dynamic and full of
movement - aimed at giving the children the experience
of Aikido movement at a safe (but effectively fast)
speed. Rather than using conversation as a teaching
tool (especially for younger children who do not yet have adult
conversations), we have a collection of drills to help the
children experience their bodies, learn to move and use their
bodies, in productive, dynamic Aikido ways. Ota Sensei
believes we are in a very real sense in the entertainment
business when teaching Aikido to children, as their fastest
learning will occur when the flow and tempo of the class
captivates their desire via interest, wonder, and excitement.
We aim for the child Aikido student to gain true, usable skill
that can be delivered at any time under pressure, with accuracy
and effectiveness. Beliefs and attitudes of life are experiences
that cannot be learned out of a book. Today's
education system should be in the business of giving life and
skill experiences. After all, life itself does not teach
us by lecture or in classrooms. Life just sort of pushes our
minds and bodies around through experiences. Real skill in living
are best birthed in the interactions, experiences, and
relationships that we can give our Aikido children through the
drills, games, and methods described below.
Return to Table of Contents
Start with Ukemi
We suggest starting all Kid's Aikido classes with safe, fun ukemi
drills. Ukemi warm-ups allows children to burn
off excess energy and makes their young minds open and present to
learning the Aikido movements and techniques that will follow in
the class.
More importantly, ukemi is the major determinant on how much you
can accomplish in the rest of the class, how quickly the children
can progress, and how safe the class can be. Therefore, the
primary skill we suggest focusing teaching children is ukemi.
In order for the children to learn this, we teach them advanced
ukemi from the beginning - using warm-up and practice with ukemi
on PADS. You'll find that with pads, the kids will love
it..... because we have removed fear from their minds and fear of
injury from OUR minds. Everyone is born with a fear of
falling. But, children also don't know what they "can" and
"can't" do. So, in this chapter we will give them ways that
they can do it, and they do.
We spend more time teaching ukemi than many people spend teaching
Aikido. This is how important we suggest advanced ukemi is.
We always watch the children very carefully, never letting them
feel fear. The older child students ukemi acts as role
model.
Return to Table of Contents
How to teach Ukemi to Children
using Pads/Barriers/Drills
In this chapter we will discuss teaching suggestions for Aikido
Ukemi for Children:
- Use ukemi pads with constant supervision for Safety
- Use soft barriers to teach high rolling skills. Soft
barriers provide motivation (Quicktime 4.0 movie 309K)
- Use various kokyunage timing throws to teach leading,
blending
Key to our ukemi success is teaching using the pads and at a very
safe but eventually high speed. If the child practices too
slowly, they will always have time to develop fear. Rather, we
lovingly coax them into having fun on the pads (safely), and the
children discover they can do it dynamically.
What age to start airfalls (breakfalls)?
- Anytime after the basic rolls and roll and slap
- As long as the child is taught properly and safely, their
young bodies and young minds will quickly take to doing these
fall
Why teach breakfalls (and other advanced ukemi)?
The key point about teaching ukemi is always SAFETY, both on and
later off the mat. Safety is mostly in the attitude of the
class and teachers, supplemented by proven safety high technology
training methods adapted from gymnastics. In summary, to
achieve advanced ukemi:
- Constant supervision by adults
- High technology soft landing pads and barriers using proper drilling
- Proper weaning of children onto the regular mat, no child
does fall before he/she is ready
The instructors are constantly saying, "when you reach the right
level, then you can go do that fall". Go step by
step, we must never let the children get ahead of their
own ukemi skill level!
In addition to the adult instructors teaching the ukemi, young
children watch the advanced older children and learn by
imitation. The speed and skill of older children's ukemi
determines the pace of the ukemi and of the class. When good ukemi
skills are present, the pace is good and sufficiently fast;
then, the younger children never have a chance to pause too
much. This is important, because when children stop, they
develop fear of injury they never had before). By seeing
what other older children can do in ukemi, this reverses the
situation; young children don't know they "can't" do it, and
instead they do learn to do it by watching and imitating.
Using the methods touched on below, we have been able to teach
our children to do SEVEN different types of ukemi:
The following sections give suggestions and shows Quicktime 4.0
movies of ukemi drilling and teaching:
Return to Table of Contents
Step 1: Teaching Basic Ukemi
We start by rolling on pads, assisted at every step by older
children and adult instructors:
Rolls on pad drill warmup
Quicktime 4.0 movie (330 K)
Senior children help
juniors roll on the pads (JPEG 147K)
As necessary, the very new beginners are segmented to their own
pad with their own instructor to learn the basics. Safety is
always first and never compromised in the search for energetic
pace.
Return to Table of Contents
Step 2: Teaching High Roll Ukemi
We then proceed to build high falls, one step at a time:
- Start by low barrier, to get child to go over straight and
gain height.
- Once they are going over properly, we introduce 'roll and
slap' without a lot of barrier height.
- After that, we slowly start to raise the barrier in
gradual steps (we have several increments of barriers).
- IMPORTANT: any time that we raise the barrier , we
raise the landing pad (i.e. doubling the
landing pads Quicktime 4.0
movie 598K)). This is critical to
assure we remove fear as the young student knows that there is
no 'drop' to the pad. If the student never develops
fear (and we watch and wean them like a hawk every step of the
way), they will learn to do advanced ukemi in a matter of months.
Most of our orange belt children can do most of the advanced
ukemi, and certainly by the green belt level they all can.
We have found all children of all body types are wonderfully
flexible and acrobatic, given the right safety training and
encouragement.
- JPEG of
high barrier and double landing pad (Caitlin going over high
barrier (JPEG 135 K))
- Quicktime
4.0 movie (597 K) of the high barrier and double landing pad
- Only
the
advanced upper belts (Quicktime 4.0 movie 649K) get to go
over the very high barrier, the white belts need to "go
around". This is a very motivational goal for the lower
belts, as we tell them, "when you earn your higher belt you'll
get to do this too!":
In this way students get used to being in the air; they get the
expertise to start combining 'roll and slap' with height.
Return to Table of Contents
Step 3: Teaching Advanced Ukemi
After basic ukemi, we specifically have drills to teach children
airfalls (breakfalls), side slaps, full body, and kick-outs.
Only when the student has proven expertise in going over high
barriers straight and true, only then do we slowing allow them to
start doing airfalls on the pads
Airfall on pads (Neil - 146K)
Airfall drills on pads Quicktime
4.0 movie (1 MB)
Instructors very specifically monitor the progress of the
students - no student is allowed to go past his or her skill level
in ukemi before their time.
Learning the other six falls follows the same progression:
Senior children help juniors
learn other falls pads Quicktime 4.0 movie (Caitlin helping
Leyla learn kick out (612 K))
Basics of learning
kickout fall Quicktime 4.0 movie (730K)
Basics of
learning full-body fall Quicktime 4.0 movie (568K)
With those drills in place, we slowly work up to the following
higher speed advanced ukemi drills, only as the children are
ready. You'll like what you see:
High Kickout JPEG (139K)
High Kickout drill on pad Quicktime
4.0 movie (218K)
High Full Body
over pads Quicktime 4.0 movie (561K) - note the double pads
Ukemi crossing
drill Quicktime 4.0 movie (1.0 MB)
Return to Table of Contents
Essential Importance of Ukemi to
Aikido Children's classes
Why do we advocate the teaching of these advanced ukemi?
Did you know that the #1 reason for injury for children / young
people getting hurt or dying is falling? And of that,
falling and hitting one's head? Hitting one's head
is on the playground, falling of bicycle, etc.......... ukemi skills
will save children's lives. Excellent ukemi at high realistic speeds
is giving the children an agility level and and survivability skill
that far exceeds that of almost any other children's activity
(except probably for gymnastics).
Advanced ukemi was discussed in more detail in Ken Ota
interview in Aikido Today Magazine March/April 2000.
We believe advanced ukemi to be a real requirement to create
advanced Aikido rhythm and timing for effortless power.
Advanced Ukemi is an essential element to allow safely teaching
Aikido skills at realistic speeds, movement, and pace; and
allows our children to experience realistic drills.
We owe it to our children to give them with an ability to perform
Aikido at realistic speeds on the playground. Otherwise, at
some point the child will self-discover that his Aikido activity
hasn't given him real life skills. More importantly, at
realistic speeds, children also learn realistic wisdom and
maturity to use Aikido wisely, including not using it at all if
necessary. We very strongly feel we have
responsibility to the children and parents to instill this level
of skill. Ukemi is the essential foundation element to
achieving this.
Start class by teaching the children Excellent Ukemi. They
will just love it.
Ukemi
crossing drill Quicktime 4.0 movie (1.0 MB)
Return to Table of Contents
Teaching Ma'ai To Children
After ukemi, the next major essential element is to teach children
proper ma'ai.
Aikido children need strong hopping, skipping, movement
skills so they can maintain ma'ai against much larger and
stronger ukes. We have specific drills to teach
hopping (Quicktime 4.0 movie 449K), in order that the
children learn distance and ma'ai. As their hopping
skills grown, they are able to maintain ma'ai naturally, easily at
all time, even at very dynamic, high speeds, see the results here:
Caitlin
doing
shihonage on Andrew Quicktime 4.0 movie 613K.
The children then attain full effectiveness at realistic levels
against adult ukes. As you can imagine, this is a tremendous
confidence boost and source of satisfaction. Let's have a
look at what's possible:
Orange
belt
Robby
doing nikyo and shihonage on Caitlin Quicktime 4.0 movie (2.9
MB)
Orange
belt
Robby doing kotaegeshi on Caitlin Quicktime 4.0 movie (1.6 MB)
Orange belt
Robby doing sankyo on Caitlin Quicktime 4.0 movie (1.1 MB)
Shihonage
and kotaegeshi by Caitlin Quicktime 4.0 movie (2.2 MB)
Iriminage by Caitlin
Quicktime 4.0 movie (895K)
Sankyo by Caitlin Quicktime
4.0 movie (1.3MB)
Ma'ai removes the need for Aikido Children to have to fuss much
with the technical aspects of Aikido locks until they are much
older and bigger. Small children especially benefit from our
suggested emphasis on Aikido dynamic movement with the whole body:
- Because of children's smaller size, in order to be effective,
they must really be able to move large distances, fluidly
and easily.
- Use these ma'ai games or fun drills as the main teaching
methodology, especially with young children less than 10
Return to Table of Contents
Bringing Adults down to Kid's Size
Because of kid's shorter height, whenever working with children,
adults or older children should come down to the younger's ones
height level by doing things on your knees (it will also improve
your suwariwaza!):
- Take ukemi on your knees
- Attack or defend from your knees
- to equalize: be on knees, one foot, hand behind back,
no hands, etc. to get you to kids level
- Teach by backleading
- Lead by example
Return to Table of Contents
Use Hopping,
Turning, and Ma'ai drills
We believe that it is fully possible for Kid's Aikido is to be
effective in reality against large real life adult's size and
weight. This is not a fantasy. The key is that the children
have full ability to move large distances quickly with spontaneous,
powerful Aikido movement. It is this ability to keep smoothly keep
ma'ai at high speed against large adult ukes that generates off
balance and allows children to actually perform effective powerful
technique.
The added advantage of good ma'ai is there is no need (especially
with young children) to be overly fussy about the technique, what
is most important with children is teaching a DYNAMIC aikido
movement in which fluid, powerful ma'ai generates the power at
full realistic speeds.
Hopping basics:
Turning basics (ude-furi-choyaku-undo):
- First step in choyaku is the essential one, to gain proper
distance against large ukes and create centrifugal force
- Teach choyaku is the primary element of iriminage for
children
Return to Table of Contents
Child Modifications to Aikido
Techniques to bring out Full Effectiveness
Listed below are the specific modifications to aikido techniques
that specifically facilitate children (or for that matter, small
nages!) to do truly effective Aikido in every way against much
bigger ukes. As you can see, hopping is a vital and
essential modification and skill for most of the techniques for
children:
- Katedori Ikkyo, omote: Hopping to maintain ma'ai,
using vertical uke hand 'bouncing' to off balance uke,
hopping to gain enough forward movement
- Katedori Ikkyo, ura (tenkan): nage must cross step
to gain needed distance to get behind uke
- Katedori Nikyo, omote: bounce
motion
(Quicktime 4.0 movie 2.9MB) uke forward and back, up
and down, to allow nikyo to work
- Katedori
Nikyo,
ura
(Quicktime 4.0 movie 2.9 MB): nage must cross-step
to gain needed distance to get behind uke, use bounce motion
- Yokomenuchi Shihonage
(Quicktime 4.0 movie 613K), irimi (with pin), and
tenkan: effective hopping to gain required initial
distance and keep ma'ai
- Shomenuchi Iriminage
(Quicktime 4.0 movie 895K): very large distance
ude-furi-choyaku-undo will make this truly
effective. This turning drill teaches the required deep
distance that makes this work against large ukes
- Munetski
Kotaegaeshi
(Quicktime
4.0 movie 2.2MB), with pin: very large
distance hopping tenkan, big bouncing of uke's hand.
Use the 'T pad 3x' drill, which teaches the timing and rhythm
for this technique.
- Ushiro
(grab)
Kokyunage (Quicktime 4.0 movie 464K)
- Ushiro (choke and hand)
Sankyo (Quicktime 4.0 movie 1.2MB): make sure the
sankyo comes down low to touch floor, use the
forward throw finish (Quicktime 4.0 movie 486K)
At the level of Aikido for children, we must not be fussy
with their techniques; we must allow the children to be
children. Proper movement, hopping, turning, and ma'ai
is much more important at their young level.
As they grow older, they will naturally modify and refine their
techniques to the proper level in beautiful ways you would never
imagine. Why? Because their minds and their teachers
told them at they were doing it well at every stage of their young
lives from the very beginning; and armed with natural quick Aikido
movement and ma'ai, they refine their own technique very easily.
Return to Table of Contents
Using Backleading in to Teach Aikido
to Children
Have you ever noticed how verbal explanations can never do the
complete job in teaching Aikido? Aikido is a visceral feeling
in the body, and therefore, Ota Sensei suggests adopting the
technique of backleading to show children (and adults) the movements
that will be the foundation of their Aikido.
Why is backleading important? Because young children, by
their very nature, must learn first and foremost through their
bodies (their minds have not matured yet). (Adults basically
learn through their bodies too, by the way). Children of 6,
7, 8 years old (at the exact age that we most wish to mold them in
a positive way) can't even be spoken to in adult
terms. Yet at that young impressionable age, the
attitudes that the children will carry for the rest of their lives
are being created and imbedded in stone within their characters.
The challenge (and the opportunity) for us all becomes to teach
them Aikido at this early age, and through Aikido, all of
fundamental philosophies of life. All without any
ability to do much talking to them. So how do we
accomplish this?
The solution is Backleading. We can teach them
everything they need to know through their bodies.
By using Backleading, children as young as 7 and 8 years old have
been able to learn eight basic Aikido techniques, and to be able
to apply them at realistic speeds.
Return to Table of Contents Part 2
What is Backleading?
Adopted from ballroom dancing, backleading involves moving the
student through the positions without talking, with the 'uke' doing
the leading. Uke (who already knows the technique well) moves
the nage through the various positions. Especially for
young children who are not even yet capable of much conversation,
this method teaches them Aikido techniques magically!
- Backleading is where the uke, acting in the role of teacher,
leads the student nage's body through the body movement motions
for any particular technique
- Backleading leads to participation even by "unwilling" first
time students
- Backleading eliminates the need for very much talking at all
(very useful for children of all ages, but especially the
youngest ones).
To see what backleading looks like, watch carefully the
following videos and especially the hands. In
these videos, the uke is actually leading the nage through the
throw by moving nage's body through the proper positions!:
Sarah
backleading kotaegeshi Quicktime 4.0 movie (384K)
Sarah
backleading
kotaegeshi
reverse angle Quicktime 4.0 movie (363K)
Neil
backleading
shihonage, iriminage, kotaegeshi Quicktime 4.0 movie (1.6 MB)
Backleading is our primary teaching methodology, especially with
young children. The effect that backleading has on the
overall class is magical. Using the backleading teaching and
helping ability of the more experienced students in place,
dramatic increases the learning pace of the entire class
organically occur. Backleading skills in place gives
you at least ½ a class worth of instructor
assistants.
We further make backleading teaching skill a requirement
for belt advancement. Students become excellent teachers of
lower belts in this way, and they also learn their own techniques
in powerful ways that they wouldn't otherwise. More
experienced students quickly learn that if they can't teach and
backlead a technique to someone else, they themselves don't
understand the technique that well. It is also a very
interesting mental exercise to figure out how each backlead could
be done, communicating by placing nage's body, arms, legs, and
hands in proper places, without talking.
Return to Table of Contents Part 2
Photograph Sequences of
Backleading - Ikkyo
Following is a sampling of what backleading ikkyo looks like, watch
carefully the following pictures and especially the hands.
In these photos, the uke is actually leading the nage through the
throw!:
2
3
4 
5 
6 
7 
Return to Table of Contents Part 2
Photo Sequence of
Backleading - Iriminage
Following is a sampling of what backleading iriminage looks like,
watch carefully the following pictures and especially the
hands. In these photos, the uke is actually leading the
nage through the throw!:
1
2 
3 
4 
5 
6 
Return to Table of Contents Part 2
Exploring Backleading further
The objectives of Backleading are:
- We do not confuse the mind but teach the body (which learns
quickly)
- Backleading directly addresses the subconscious mind (which
is fast), conscious mind is too slow - if you have to think
about it, it's already too late. By backleading, we teach
through the body, and the mind catches up in plenty of time
later
- Backleading gives student feel for rhythm and timing of the
technique
- After the young student becomes familiar with the movement,
then more precision can be added as they get older (they then
understand and are motivated to learn the precision because they
already understand the 'why' and the overall feeling of the
technique)
Ota Sensei suggests that the older children students learn to
backlead and teach the younger students as part of daily
training. From their very first yellow belt test, every child
student in Ken Ota's school is testing not only on their Aikido but
also on their backleading ability. This translates into
all students being able to help each other progress at very very
fast rates, which dramatically raises the skill level of the
children's class as a whole.
After Backleading is established in the older students, when
introducing a new technique, the older student then simply tells
the younger student:
"Let's learn this without talking, I lead you through it and
you'll learn it very quickly! Let's just do it"
Return to Table of Contents Part 2
Teach a Basic Set of Aikido Children
techniques
We teach children 3 different sets of techniques:
- The Basic 3
- The Basic 6
- The Basic 8
The Basic 3:
Return to Table of Contents Part 2
The Basic 6:
Return to Table of Contents Part 2
The Basic 8:
Return to Table of Contents Part 2
Descriptions of Backleads
Describing backlead is very difficult, it is best to watch the
Quicktime movies and observe how uke is leading nage through the
backlead. In a future edition of this web page we'll have much
more detailed movies of each backlead.
- Katedori Ikkyo, omote, with pin - hold ryote-dori, hop
nage forward, hop nage back, place nage's hand properly
on your wrist, hop nage forward to 'take uke down'
- Katedori Nikyo, omote and ura, with pin - same as Ikkyo, but
backlead the nikyo
- Yokomenuchi Shihonage, irimi, tenkan - hold ryote-dori, hop
nage forward, hop nage back circular back,
place nage's hand properly in shihonage grip, spin nage in
proper direction, take the fall.
- Shomenuchi
Iriminage
(Quicktime 4.0 movie 312K) - cross the hands in front
of you. Whichever hand is on top, that is the side
you pull nage into choyaku (turning drill) on that side.
Using choyaku movement, move them behind you, and place their
hand behind your own neck. Rotate yourself around nage in
the proper direction. Show nage how to raise arm for the
iriminage.
- Munetski
Kotaegaeshi,
with pin (Quicktime 4.0 movie 384K) - cross the hands
in front of you. Whichever hand is on top, that is
the side you pull nage into tenkan on that side. Move them
deep behind you with their tenkan. Place their hand on
your wrist for kotaegeshi. Show them how to turn and move
as you fall.
- Ushiro
(grab)
Kokyunage (Quicktime 4.0 movie 464K)
- Ushiro (choke and hand) Sankyo
Following is a sampling of what backleading looks like, watch
carefully the following video and especially the hands. In
these videos, the uke is actually leading the nage through the
throw!:
Sarah
backleading kotaegeshi Quicktime 4.0 movie (384K)
Sarah
backleading
kotaegeshi
reverse angle Quicktime 4.0 movie (363K)
Neil
backleading
shihonage, iriminage, kotaegeshi Quicktime 4.0 movie (1.6 MB)
Summary:
By backleading, young children in Ota's school learn basic 8
techniques before they are barely old enough to hold an adult
conversation (a real feat!).
We recommend to really use teaching by Backleading. It is
useful, effective, and you'd be amazed at what children can learn
THRU THEIR BODIES without talking at a young age!
Return to Table of Contents Part 2
Fun Aikido Technique Drills
Once we have done all the above, we have a fun foundation for really
being able to do Aikido techniques at a much higher level.
This foundation allows the children to really be ready to
absorb Aikido techniques, safely, quickly, and effectively.
But we don't suggest just traditional Aikido teaching at this
point either! We use older students as primary helpers to
help teach, and we do a large amount of drills as a primary
teaching vehicle.
Here are some of the drills we use that are very fun for the
Aikido children:
- Practice each Basic 3/6/8 attack with it's primary Aikido
defense drill, over and over, with two ukes per one nage,
until it's ingrained. This keeps more children busy at the
same time, keeps the pace and energy higher, and the older
children in each group get to practice teaching and help you
move the class along.
- The older students then get 'rewards' for this teaching in
the form of additional drills that are only for them, such as
'Two-on-one randori' drills, more advanced techniques just for
them (while the lower belts watch, rest, and get motivated)
- We have a variety of kotaegaeshi, tai otoshi drills,
including one hand / one finger / no hands (because you
sometimes have things in your hands or you for some reason
cannot use both arms/hands
- T pad 3x drill - great for kotaegeshi, and then can
proceed to shihonage breakfall (cool!)
- Line drills for repetition
- One finger throws for timing, very essential for
developing true centrifugal force and power in Aikido throws
- Spacing drills (three iterations of the hopping/ma'ai,
3d hop is the throw) - this helps uke get the rhythm and timing
- Push nage into back roll, followed by one of basic attacks,
nage defends
- Randori drills (Quicktime 4.0
movie 2.6 MB) - we start slow, then build up; child only
has to get out of the way and ukes take rolls for them as long
as the child is moving properly. This teaches children to make
quick decisions about Aikido movement and then go with
them. As the children get older, being able to move
properly makes the addition of the actual kokyunage and irimi
throws very easy!
Return to Table of Contents Part 2
Warmups/Body Conditioning/Judo
Drills
This chapter has many ideas for fun body warmup and aikido
conditioning drills for children.
Fun Aikido Warmup Drills for Children
A sampling of tools and Aikido techniques using the length of the
mat for children to do:
- Forward rolls
- Backward rolls
- Hopping and Skipping (both forward and backward)
- Turning drills (ude-furi-choyaku-undo)
- Stone crawls (very important to develop the skills
and strength for children to extricate themselves if they're on
the ground and another child jumps on top of them)
- Lobster crawls (very important to develop the skills
and strength for children to extricate themselves if they're on
the ground and another child jumps on top of them)
- Elephant walks (squats)
- Frog hops (develops leg strength)
- Samurai walks (shikko)
We also do a fair amount of Judo:
Return to Table of Contents Part 2
Fun Body Conditioning Drills for
Children
A sampling of tools and conditioning exercises for children to do
without moving on the mat:
- Pushups
- Situps
- Leg-overs (preps them for backward rolls)
- Frog hops (jumping squats, builds their legs for
doing ukemi over high barriers)
- Mountain climbers, bicycles, jumping jacks (for foot
agility and coordination)
- Grasshopper jumps (it's a jumping into a near
handstand but not going over, builds upper body strength and
sense of balance while inverted)
- Double helicopters (like leg raises or leg splits but
with arms going at same time. For upper belt children, the
arms' direction must go perpendicular to the legs'
direction, which really challenges their minds to develop new
neural pathways in terms of body movement)
- Dance steps: That's right, dance steps.
Play a dance tune and at the far end, the child must do
repetitions of a dance step. We recommend samba tunes because
they are easiest to get and sufficiently fast to challenge the
children. We do this not only for fun variety, but because
it teaches rhythm, timing, footwork, balance, speed, grace,
etc. Children get extra points for staying on beat.
The children love this challenge!
Return to Table of Contents Part 2
Fun Children Aikido Games
- Follow the leader (for any footwork, ukemi, whatever
you want)
- Simon
Says (for ukemi) (Quicktime 4.0 movie - 1.5 MB) -
when their ukemi skill is high enough and you can go fast, this
is a wonderful motivating tool for both kids and parents
alike. Use front and back rolls, airfalls, side slap, full
body, kickout, and roll sideways (this is essential to
avoid gun attacks)
- Mirror games: feet, tenkans, follow the feet,
- Push/pull together
- Hara tag
- Rolling tag
- Back and Forth - a pair of students alternate
attacking and defending (it gets interesting remembering who is
who!)
- Throw the Circle - form a circle. First student
starts around the circle throwing each of the others. Can
get multiple children going around the circle to maximize time
efficiency. Builds repetitions
- First One To Eight - do relay races where the race
is to see which team of students can complete 8 repetitions of
one of the Aikido techniques the fastest. This teaches
repetition, rhythm, timing, relaxation, movement
- How Many Can You Do in 1 Minute? - same as 'First One
To Eight', except now we're counting to see who can get the
highest number of smooth but quick repetitions. Really
requires lots of good ukes (who get tons of ukemi practice in
the meantime!)
- Advanced
Ukemi
Crossing Drill
Fun Children Cool down Games to
complete their children's energy
- Four Corners Sumo Wrestling - object is to
off-balance partner to the ground or move partner out of the
'four corners'
- Back to
Back Quicktime 4.0 movie (1.3 MB) - multiple small
kids vs. one older kid - older child is responsible for their
safety and to teach the smaller ones to work together to pin the
older child
All these games give the children opportunity to interact with each
other in positive way (they are going to interact with each other
anyway), and gets the maximum drilling and conditioning done in the
minimum amount of time. This is the purpose of the
warmup games.
Return to Table of Contents Part 2
Being a Team Captain develops
Leaders
We recommend to always nominate a 'Team Captain' to monitor and
teach each group of 3 for your children, the older children are the
ones that qualify for the honor of being the team captain.
Tell the team captains they are the role models for the younger
ones, and they are responsible to help the younger children to
practice safely, to learn, stay in order, and become good
students.
Return to Table of Contents Part 2
Fun Warmup Relay Race Games to teach
Motivation, Teamwork, Leadership
Ota Sensei uses friendly, properly regulated,
teach-you-about-competitive-realities-of-life warmup games in Aikido
Children's classes after we finish ukemi practice. These
games serve as an excellent teaching tool for basics like rolling
and hopping, and provide body conditioning for the children.
Most importantly, the warmup games burn off excess child energy so
they can be present and calm enough to enjoy learning Aikido
techniques.
The following benefits are derived from using warmup relay races:
- Teach basic skills (ukemi), start low, slowly build up so
your body / back / arms / etc. all learn how / when to do
it right
- Develop their bodies and coordination (exercises)
- Teach children to become a leaders, teach humility, being a
model for the younger belts
- Teach healthy motivation
- Value of hard work
- Value of Recognition
- Value of Teamwork
- Value of Leadership
Return to Table of Contents Part 2
It is unfortunate that competition has a bad name in our society,
especially as it pertains to children's education. For this
reason, and also because O'Sensei clearly prohibited competition
in Aikido, there is significant resistance to competition in any
way within Aikido. We understand this.
However, Ota Sensei suggests that in the specific case of warmup
relay race games, the spirit of healthy fair competition is usable
and invaluable in teaching life lessons to children. To
maintain fairness and accomplish these objectives, we use a very
specific handicapping system in the warmup relay races. This
handicapping system transforms the warmup relay race games into a
superior tool for teaching healthy self-confidence and
independence; it teaches the children to let go of ego.
Ota Sensei believes the relay race warmup games are in no way in
conflict with the concept of non-competition for Aikido, because
the games are not about competing with the Aikido techniques.
Return to Table of Contents Part 2
Handicapping System in Warmup Relay
Race Games
Ota Sensei uses a 'handicapping system' in the warmup relay
races. They are the essential key element that makes
the relay races useful by continually equalizing the teams and their
chances to win.
In this way, no child's ego hurt by too much losing, nor is
anyone's ego inflated by overconfidence of winning. Children
learn that the warmup games are not about who is 'stronger,
faster, weaker, slower'. Rather, they know that if
they work really hard, they all have an equal chance to win a
reward. The best team doesn't always win (in some cases, by
design of the instructors). Strong, fast children need
to learn that life is like this. Small, less coordinated
children sometimes win, IF they work really hard up to the level
of their ability.
This promotes a healthy self-confidence and image in all.
The small reward is not the prize, of course, it is
the recognition that motivates the children. These
important life lessons are the real gifts that we are trying to
give our children, and we're just using Aikido as a
tool. For many children, this is a experience
missing from the rest of their lives in school , elsewhere on the
playground, or even in competing with their brothers and sisters
for attention from their parents.
Return to Table of Contents Part 2
How to Run a Aikido Children's
Warmup Relay Races using Handicapping System
The fundamental warmup game is a race. Here are the steps:
- Count the number of children and divide 3. 3 is optimum
number of children per team. This will give you the number
of teams and the number of 'team captains' that you need.
- Select senior children as 'team captains', and call them to
line up in the front of the dojo.
- The team captains then select, one by one, the members of
their team. Children learn about selection
processes, how it feels to choose and be chosen, learn about how
others are perceiving them.
- These senior children learn to be leaders, they are the model
and are responsible for helping the younger children on their
team, as well as keeping them well disciplined.
- The teams then line up, and the instructor calls out the
first race. Example of the first race call:
"forward rolls to the end of the mat, then 20 pushups, then
forward rolls back".
- A scorekeeper (an adult or senior child who is not
participating - assists the instructor using a notepad and
pencil) writes down the name of each team captain and prepares
to keep score.
- Each team sends one of it's members to the opposite end of
the mat, to hold each adjacent team accountable
to the proper number of exercises at the far end,.
Everyone learns to play fair, and young children even learn to
count. The teams must stay alert, as the
'counter' must exchange places with other members of
his / her team as the race progresses.
- The instructor calls out, "On your mark, get set,
Go!" The relay races are on!
- The 'relay race' naturally motivates the children in ways you
would not believe! They do more exercise in shorter time
than you could ever imagine because they are competing in a
healthy way.
- As each team completes it's relay, they race up to the
shomen to report in to the scorekeeper (a adult
who is assisting the instructor using a notepad and pencil) who
records who finished in what order.
- The instructor then calls out the next relay race.
Example: "back rolls, then 'xx' situps, then backward
rolls back". The 'xx' repetitions , however, is a different
amount for each team, to assure equal ability for each
team to compete. The number of repetitions
is computed as follows (it's the scorekeepers job to track it).
- Let's take an example. If there are 7 teams of 3, then
whoever finished first in the previous race, needs to do 70
repetitions; the 2nd place team needs to do 60; 3d place
needs to do 50; 4th place does 40; etc. As you can tell
the last place team in previous race only needs to do 10
repetitions, so they'll finish much faster and thus everyone
knows that everyone has an equal chance to compete.
Cool, eh? Fairness, competing against yourself, .... so
many positive lessons can come from this simple repetition
modification.
- Remember, the teams send one of their members to opposite end
of mat to count for an adjacent team. Since all 3
team members have to race, the team captains have to remind
their team to switch the counters. This added little
complication also keeps the children on their toes and keeps
them moving.
- Depending on the exercise, sometimes you divide the
repetitions in half because the exercise would be too difficult
otherwise.
- Click
here
to see a JPEG (58K) of the typical score sheet, you can see
how the race evolves
- A team gets bonus points if they do a exercise really well,
and loses points if they are talking or messing around when
they're not racing
- This process is repeated, usually we do 4 relays or so.
- As the warmup races continue, the children get their blood
moving, bodies loosened, and most importantly, their excess kid
energy gets channeled into positive body conditioning ,
self motivation and practice of fundamental Aikido or judo
skills
- We constantly remind all team members to support their other
team members, this develops teamwork
- Once the races are complete, the children move on to Aikido
techniques.
- We don't announce any results until the end of class, so
there is nothing to brag about during the rest of class
- Only at the end of class, at closing, do we announce the
winning team and the losing team. The winning team gets a
Coke or other appropriate small reward, (it's only about the
recognition and recognizing that in life, there is great value
to challenging yourself to be the best you can be!). The
winning team also gets to tell the losing team what exercise
they have to do around the room (it's not about punishment, it's
about recognizing the realities of life and motivating children
to do their best so they are less likely to be the last place
team).
- As a final kicker, a team member who brought another child
guest gets 200 bonus points per guest. That's a big
amount, and really helps children encourage their friends to
come to class. (again, just teaching the children
about real life)
Return to Table of Contents Part 2
Developing a child's healthy
self confidence, without ego
Ota Sensei feels all these games, including the healthy, regulated
warmup games with fair competition, are vital to help the children
experience and develop a healthy self confidence without ego.
Because of the handicapping systems, the relay games become a
primary tool to help the child learn to compete with the child's
self. The games encourage them to be the best that they can
be.... and not to be better than someone else.
When children start to learn that they are the only ones that hurt
their own chances... and that each of them are the responsible
ones for helping their team........... then we have given them a
powerful tool to determine their own destiny! We have given
them an experience of competing and winning in a fair and
honest manner.
Properly done, these warmup games are especially beneficial to
young females: helps them develop their independent spirits
and be able to take care of themselves, to realize their own
potential , develop their own self-confidence, to see that their
gender does not in any way limit them from achieving their
potential.
Children learn leadership, learn to support and interact with
their teammates and their friendly competitors in a positive
manner. Friendly competition, properly applied, results in
children interacting with each other and highly motivating each
other in natural ways that cannot be done sole by teachers.
Return to Table of Contents Part 2
Belt System for Child's Motivation:
- The best motivation for children is when they see other
children their own age doing things that are good. In a
healthy way, this subtle competition invokes their internal
desire to improve.
- The other thing that motivates children is recognition.
To achieve this, we provide many levels of
multi-color belts with many levels, so that they always
advance in true proportion to their skills, and instructors have
many degrees of granularity to help give children accurate
feedback on how they're progressing.
- Children are thus always motivated and can see their own
progress without ambiguity.
- Ota's belt system for
children #1 (JPEG 120K)
- Ota's belt system for
children #2 (JPEG 120K)
- Ota's belt system for
children #3 (JPEG 120K)
All of these principles could be adult-ized for your regular classes
as appropriate.
Return to Table of Contents Part 2
Role of Adults and Senior Students
Ota Sensei specifically trains adults and upper belts to be very
effective as one-on-one teachers to the lower belts. He has
said many times, "if you can't teach a technique quickly, kindly,
and effectively to a lower belt, then you don't know it
yourself". To facilitate that, in all classes, the
senior students are charged to go find a lower belt in order to
raise the overall skill of the dojo as quickly as possible.
If the technique is particularly new or difficult, sometimes Ota
will have just the upper belts practice with each other so that
they get the technique down and have some good practice among
themselves before teaching the lower belts. Or, after
teaching the lower belts, the lower belts sit and watch the upper
belts practice among themselves - very motivational for all
involved and a reward, recognition, and hard practice for the
upper belts.
- Upper belts teach lower belts one on one
- Raises the overall level of the dojo's skill as quickly as
possible
- The upper belts really learn the techniques only when they
can pass it on to someone else!
- Upper belts gain confidence that they are capable, receive
recognition for their skill, and are able to enjoy the
responsibility of being a leader
In summary, we see the role of Aikido children teacher as follows:
- Set tone, pace, variety for the class
- Give interesting, parental 'lectures' as necessary
- Oversee pacing, rhythm , and safety of class
- Let kid energy play when necessary, play the proper balance
between being stern, disciplined, and allowing them to be
children
- Assure enough safe repetitions to develop automatic fast
twitch muscle memory, rhythm, timing, relaxed
Return to Table of Contents Part 2
Summary: Aikido for Children
Aikido for Children, specifically highly tuned through advanced high
technology methodology and innovative drilling behind it, is a
beautiful tool to teach life skills to children. Children
properly taught and highly motivated at this young age will
naturally develop great Aikido at the same time.
We owe it to our children to not only give them Aikido
philosophy, but also the true Aikido ability to be able to
appropriately, wisely, and powerfully use Aikido for real on
the playground or in real life danger situations if they ever need
to.
Some of the ideas in this article may seem quite a bit out of the
ordinary. However, we suggest that the world our children
are growing up in has radically changed, but education and
teaching methods haven't necessarily changed with it.
Therefore, as parents or as role models, we need to be open to new
and bold, effective ideas. In over 35 years of
teaching, Ken Ota's methods have graduated over 30,000
students. We offer those ideas and methods here for your
enjoyment and use.
Aikido is a powerful tool for all of us is to develop the
ATTITUDE of self-confidence with kindness, power with gentleness,
speed with grace. To give to our children the ability to
see, learn, and do Aikido in both spirit and relationship will be
a gift for their lifetimes.
Return to Table of Contents Part 2
Return to Table of Contents
For more information, please take advantage of Ota's
invitation to call or visit him at anytime. He would love to
share with you what he has learned so that you may enhance your
own Aikido, ukemi, and ability to teach Aikido to children:
Kenji Ota Sensei
Goleta Aikido with Ki
255 Magnolia
Goleta, California 93117
(805) 967-3103
http://www.westnet.net/~aikido
From all
of us in Goleta Aikido with Ki (JPEG 109K), Thank You
for visiting this article.
(Ken Ota is seated in the front row on the left, with his wife
Miye to his left).
Article written by:
John Sing
singj@us.ibm.com
August 25, 2001
Where to buy gymnastics Pads and Barriers
You can get the kind of gymnastics landing pads and jumping barriers
that we use from:
American
Athletic,
Inc. - Mats
American
Athletic,
Inc. - 'Action Shapes'
