Teaching pre-school children martial arts takes patience, training, and a program that helps the children have fun and build good character. As a role model to these very young children, martial arts instructors must keep their students attention by keeping control of the class with carefully selected curriculum for this age group. This paper will discuss tips for training preschoolers and provide ideas to make strength training, cardio training, and balance training fun for these young students.

TIPS FOR TRAINING PRESCHOOLERS

It�s important to understand what�s going on in the mind of a preschooler. Here are a few tips to help communicate with and motivate preschool students and keep the class under control.

Q:    What is the average attention span of a five year old? A:    15 to 20 minutes

Tip #1: Depending on the interest level of the activity, fifteen to twenty minutes is probably about the extent of patience that a child of that age has to stay with a given task, particularly if it isn't self-selected. No matter what activities you choose to do with small children, watch for fatigue or loss of interest. Once they lose their focus, there's no point in continuing the activity because it will lead to frustration and learning will not be possible. Make it fun for them, but try to limit it to small increments so that they will be able to enjoy and maximize their learning time. This age group is full of energy so use a program of dynamic movements for training. Teaching sparring stance techniques for a few minutes and have the students demonstrate with reaction drills keeps their bodies moving with punches and kicks and their minds active, almost as if playing a game of tag with the target pads.

Tip #2: Use your Assistants. Brief your assistants on the class activities. Intermediate level SWAT assistants who are also children younger than 12, will require the instructor's attention as well. Ensure these younger assistants demonstrate proper behavior at all time or you may need to dismiss them from your class to maintain control. Use your assistants to break out the class into smaller groups and have each assistant to run one particular drill or section when a variety of activities are available during class.

Tip #3: Maintain Control. Group activities may need to be broken into groups of six or smaller. Activities labeled as a group activity does not necessarily mean to involve the entire class at one time. One way to maintain control is to have the students sit down cross legged with their hands on their laps. This works well for line drills or group discussions. For line drills, the only student standing up will be front student participating in a drill. Once that student is done with their activity, have them go to the back of the line and sit down.

Tip #4: Document Student Progress. By documenting capabilities, both the students and the parents can see the student�s progress in writing. Do not use this to compare students capabilities but as a way for students to do their own personal best. Students are excited to see how much better they have become over time. Another way to use tables is to challenge students to go faster or longer on a certain task then they did the first time.

Tip #5: Provide positive support and motivation to preschool students. Tell your students what you expect of them. Carefully word what you tell your students. The following statements are confusing or provide negative information:

• If I catch you doing -----, then I�ll ___ - the student may think it�s all right to do something as long as they�re not caught; avoid �if-then� statements
• That�s a great technique, but it could be better if� - Don�t use �but� statements, this collapses your students esteem and confidence
• Tell your students what you want them to do. It is a mistake to tell them what not to do since little students will focus on the negative
• Watch what words you use to discuss students with parents � they have a tendency to become what you believe they will become. If a parent describes their student in a certain negative way, do not let that influence your expectations as an instructor to what that student can become.

Small children are still developing their muscles. There will be a big difference between the three year old and a five year old. Here are a few drills that have proven to be successful with the preschoolers.

Strength Training

Army Crawl Drill - Line all the children up and have them stand in a horseback stance. The front person will crawl through the horseback stance tunnel and go to the end of the line and stand in a horseback stance. Another variation is to have kids line up feet together, shoulder to shoulder, bend at the waist, and touch the ground holding their bodies in this triangle position. This is good for stretching as well as developing chest and shoulder muscles. Have each student army crawl through this tunnel. Make sure the students are not using their hands and knees but are on their bellies pulling themselves forward with their elbows and bringing their legs forward while maintaining contact with the ground.

Wheelbarrow Drill - This is simple to master and kids love doing this exercise. Have the child lie face down on the floor. Ask older assistants or the parents to grasp child's ankles and lift upwards. Ask the child to push up with his or her arms until they are straight. With his head up, the child should walk his hands forward. The child's body should not sag. This develops chest, shoulder, and abdominal muscles.

Jumping Drill - Jumping uses the child's own weight to build strength. Jumping is a superior aerobic exercise. Lay a jump rope or towel in a straight line on the floor - or draw a line on the ground with chalk. Ask your child to pretend the line is a river. Challenge the students to jump from one side of the river to the other. The student should be landing with knees bent and heels coming all the way down to the floor. When they're ready, you can "widen the river" by using two ropes, side by side, or a towel.

Wall Push-Ups - Wall push-ups gives very young children an introduction to adult push-ups. Child should stand about an arm's distance away from a wall with his legs together and should place his hands on the wall just a little wider than his shoulders. Children should lean forward and touch their nose to the wall and then push back to starting position, making sure to keep the body in a straight line and heels on the floor. See how many they can do. Like regular push-ups, this exercise works the chest and arm muscles. As little students graduate from this exercise, move them to floor push-ups starting with the knees touching the ground. Eventually, five year olds can develop their muscles to do full floor pushups.

Cardio Training

Hula-Hoops and Jump Rope Drill - Cardio training is an important part of a child's fitness development and kid-friendly games like hula hoop and jump rope are great for keeping kids in shape. Hula Hoop works the abdominals and jumping rope develops hand/eye/foot coordination and is excellent cardio training. Challenge younger students to learn one of these activities at home and demonstrate in front of the class.

Jumping Drill - Have the students imitate a jumping bean. The child should begin bouncing on both feet. After a bit of bouncing, the child should progress to jumping up and down. Stop after a few minutes, rest, and then start again. Children should try this hopping on one foot and then the other. Vary the speed to increase the intensity of the workout. This exercise is great cardio and helps develop coordination and explosiveness. This polymetric exercise also works the lower body muscles. Polymetric exercise consists of rapidly stretching a muscle and immediately following with a contraction of the same muscle. This improves power output in the muscle. It improves reaction time because the muscle is trained to be more explosive.

Balance Training

Balance Comes with Practice

Beanbag Balance Drill - Developing balance and coordination are just as important as strengthening little muscles. This exercise works well with all ages. Place a beanbag, or soft toy, on the child's head. Ask the child to walk from one place to another without dropping the beanbag. To make it easier, have the child hold the beanbag in place. To make it harder have the child walk under or around things. For variation, place the beanbag on another body part, like the back of the hand, shoulder, or elbow. Use a different toy or more than one toy. This exercise helps develop balance and coordination.

Standing on One Foot - From a sparring stance, have the students bring the front foot up and hold for 10 seconds. Bring up back foot and hold for 10 seconds. Switch stance and repeat. Change duration depending on the students� ability. For variations on this balance exercise try the following:

• Introduce a small number of hops while one foot is up.
• Try foot up, hop, switch feet (raised foot down, grounded foot up) hop, switch feet, etc.
• Add a front snap kick: foot up, hop, switch feet, front snap kick with the foot that was grounded, then keep that foot up; repeat

Games

Sensei Says - Play this body-parts identification and motion game without any elimination! To include fitness factors, have "Simon" issue challenges to jog or tiptoe in place, bend and stretch, or bend and straighten knees. This game could have all students in a sparring stance with a light bouncing motion to keep the kids in motion and work on sparring skills. Continue to stack additional techniques for repetition to help build muscle memory.

Balloon Games - Break the class up into groups of about three to four students and have them keep a balloon up in the air using just their feet.

Obstacle Course � This game is limited only by the instructor�s imagination. Using equipment found in most dojos, you can set up a variety of obstacle courses to get the students to practice their techniques or to do other training. Some suggestions are setting up zigzag running courses with orange sports cones, stopping at a Wavemaster cylindrical pad for three sets of four punch drills, jumping over a series of blockers or square pads, ducking and jumping with an assistant moving blockers at head and foot level, stopping for 10 pushups, stopping at the next station for 10 kicks with an assistant carrying a heavy pad, and then crawling through a tunnel set up with floor mats.

SUMMARY

This paper provides martial arts instructors with tips on how to teach preschoolers martial arts. By combining martial arts with kid games to keep their minds engaged and keeping their bodies in motion, the younger student has fun and does not get frustrated. The instructors must understand the short attention span of young children requires an exciting presentation of new material and a fun way to practice this material. With a good preschool martial arts program, you help develop a life long appreciation of martial arts and develop these young students into the next generation of role models.

REFERENCES

1. Ernie Reyes, Lil� Dragons Curriculum, Century Vision, DVD Vols. 1 & 2
2. Kimber Hill, Lil� Dragons Curriculum, Century Vision, DVD Vol. 1
3. John C. Graybeal, The Art of Empowering Children, Empower Press, ISBN: 0-75290-134-61-889309-00-1, 1998
4. Sang H. Kim, Teaching Martial Arts: The Way of the Master, 2nd Ed., Turtle Press, ISBN: 1-88033-615-4, Copyright 1997
5. URL: http://www.4kicks.com, iTips Martial Arts Instructor Tips, circa 2003
6. iVillage Parent Soup, Identifying Behaviors You Want to Improve, URL: http://www.parentsoup.com/lessons/behaved/articles/0,,272901_408640,00.html
7. CBS News, Exercise Tips For The Preschool Set, 3 Jun 2002, URL: http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2002/05/30/earlyshow/contributors/minnalessig/
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