Episode 813 - Kid Games for Martial Arts
In this episode, Jeremy and Andrew talk about the different Kid Games for Martial Arts and how it benefits everyone.
Kid Games for Martial Arts - Episode 813
Games are not only for children but also for kids at heart. The reason why everyone loves to play is because of our innate love for enjoyment. This trait makes games a tool for martial artists to learn and develop their skills. Do you incorporate games in your dojo? In this episode, Jeremy and Andrew talk about the different Kid Games for Martial Arts and how it benefits everyone.
After listening to the episode it would be exciting for us to know your thoughts about it.
Show Transcript
You can read the transcript below.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Hey, what's going on everybody? Welcome. This is whistlekick Martial Arts Radio, and on today's episode, Andrew and I are talking about games. Games for kids, kids of all ages. We're going to give you some examples of games that you might consider implementing in your classes and we're also going to talk about why games are so important. If you're new, let me welcome you. Thank you for coming by. Thank you for joining us here at whistlekick. Our goal is to connect, educate, and entertain the martial artists of the world. And the first thing I should do to connect with you is to let you know who I am. I'm Jeremy. Jeremy Lesniak, founder of whistlekick, host of Martial Arts Radio. And I am joined by my amazing producer and off-co-host, Andrew Adams. Hello, Andrew.
Andrew Adams:
Hello, Jeremy. What's going on?
Jeremy Lesniak:
We're gonna talk about games. I'm excited. Maybe that's why I'm being extra goofy at the top here. I'm not sure.
Andrew Adams:
Yep. I mean,
Jeremy Lesniak:
Well.
Andrew Adams:
It's important. Kids come in all shapes and sizes. I've often…
Jeremy Lesniak:
We are.
Andrew Adams:
I've often said growing old is mandatory. Growing up is optional.
Jeremy Lesniak:
I approved that.
Andrew Adams:
Yep. That's all.
Jeremy Lesniak:
That was a short joke. You missed it.
Andrew Adams:
What did I miss it? You're right. What did you say?
Jeremy Lesniak:
I didn't really grow up.
Andrew Adams:
Oh, that's fair. That's fair.
Jeremy Lesniak:
It's a miracle we get anything done.
Andrew Adams:
But we do.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Go to whistlekick.com, see all the things that we're doing to connect, educate, and entertain you, the traditional martial artists of the world. And if you find something in our store that you like, that's one of the ways you can support us. Use the code podcast15, it gets you 15% off a hoodie or a t-shirt or some protective gear or a training program, or any number of other things that you'll find over there. Now, what if you really like the show? You're like, man, this is the best show ever and I wanna listen to every single episode that's ever been. Well, you could check out your podcast app, but you could also go to whistlekickmartialartsradio.com. It's the place where you're gonna find all kinds of great stuff related to this episode including every episode we have ever done. And while you're there, you can sign up for the newsletter, you can leave us a tip. So lots of good stuff there. If you like what we do, if our mission to get everyone in the world to train for at least 6 months resonates for you, if you agree that martial arts brings out better versions of ourselves, please consider supporting us. Whether it's buying something or sharing something. Maybe you wanna recommend somebody for the show.
Andrew Adams:
Maybe you wanna buy me a beer.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Maybe you wanna buy Andrew a beer through our Patreon. patreon.com/whistlekick. And we could indirectly say that yes, that money can flow because if you choose to buy a beer, absolutely. Cause yeah, yep.
Andrew Adams:
For sure.
Jeremy Lesniak:
That's where you go. patreon.com/whistlekick. Okay, I had to pull it back. You can get it for as little as two bucks a month at $5 you get start getting bonus episodes and merch and it goes up from there. We work really hard to make sure there's great content stuff you're not gonna find elsewhere in the Patreon. But if you want the whole list, all of the things that you can do to support whistlekick in our mission, go to the family page, whistlekick.com/family. Weekly updates and additional exclusives and I don't mean like exclusive is like, we'll put it on Patreon and we'll put it on the family page and we put it in these other places cause it's not on the podcast. I mean no, all of these places get different contents. So go check out the family page. Kids, as you said, come in all ages.
Andrew Adams:
Yep.
Jeremy Lesniak:
You can be an adult kid, you can be a mature kid. You can be a big kid. You can be immature kid.
Andrew Adams:
All of these…
Jeremy Lesniak:
I think for you and I, and for a lot of people initially, we think kid, we think child.
Andrew Adams:
Yep.
Jeremy Lesniak:
But I think the term has changed. I think there's a more colloquial version of the term kid that applies to someone with youthful spirit.
Andrew Adams:
Yep. Yep. I think listening of the show, Steven Watson said it perfectly when he said there is a difference between childish and childlike. And when he said that, I was like, oh, I love that quote and it's very true.
Jeremy Lesniak:
To be a kid is to be childlike.
Andrew Adams:
Yep.
Jeremy Lesniak:
And what is it about a kid that I think so many of us don't wanna let go of? It's a sense of wonder of discovery, of play, of valuing things that we are often told, oh, but you know, someday you have to grow up and stop doing that. As if the role, the entire experience of adulthood is…
Andrew Adams:
Meant to not be fun.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Necessitates being, yeah, it can't be fun. It has to be serious. It's all work all the time and well, if you work well or efficiently, there's plenty of time to play.
Andrew Adams:
Absolutely. And why would we wanna, I mean, why would we wanna do that in karate class or whatever martial art class you're teaching? We're there to learn how to punch and kick and do techniques. Why should we play games?
Jeremy Lesniak:
We've talked about this on the show a bit and every single expert that I've ever seen recognizes that when enjoyment becomes a component in the education, people learn more. They learn faster, they retain better, however, you wanna look at it. And it is also a very natural way of learning to play.
Andrew Adams:
Especially if those games, which we will talk about throughout this episode, if those games have a martial component to it. Just because it's a game doesn't mean it has to be devoid of learning. That's the thing I think that many instructors don't get. They're like, the kids don't come to my karate school and learn how to play games. They learn how to do karate. Well, why can't they do both?
Jeremy Lesniak:
Every school I've ever been in, actually no, I won't say that I have been in schools that didn't play any games. I can say for a fact that the schools that utilized games appropriately, there are two things I could say about them. They had better retention and the people learned more.
Andrew Adams:
Yep.
Jeremy Lesniak:
We as human beings want to have fun. It is instinctive. If you have a choice between doing two things, one that is enjoyable, one that is not, you will choose the one that is enjoyable. Everything else being equal, because why would you not, right? Animals, if you observe animals, watch any young animals, they play. And guess what? The parents will play with them too. Why? Because it's a way of them learning.
Andrew Adams:
They're teaching.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Any predators, teach their kids how to prey by mocking up a predation scenario in a similar way that we teach self-defense with freeform scenarios like smart. If anyone does not see the correlation there, I don't know what else I can say. To me, it's very clear.
Andrew Adams:
Yeah. Yeah. And I think most people will get that.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Now, keep in mind, because a lot of people are resistant to change, and you may be listening to this, it maybe you're an instructor and you're thinking, well, okay, I'll concede Andrew's point that yes, there could be some value in some games, but I still need to teach serious things. We're not suggesting that your class has to change entirely.
Andrew Adams:
Yeah.
Jeremy Lesniak:
We're not suggesting that you go from bowing into games to bowing out.
Andrew Adams:
Yeah, exactly.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Games are a class of drill. Just as forms or basics.
Andrew Adams:
Yep.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Or sparring or classes of drills. Games are a type of drill and here's the thing that I think is most important. There are days when, especially if you're working with youth where through no fault of your own, the class starts to get away from you. Maybe it was the weather, maybe it's the full moon. By the way, if you don't think the full moon affects children, you don't teach children.
Andrew Adams:
Absolutely it does.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Maybe it's, you know, two days before Christmas break.
Andrew Adams:
Yep.
Jeremy Lesniak:
And they're going nuts, right? Sometimes they're just crazy and you need help. This is where, okay, getting them to be serious isn't happening. Let's either switch into a game or let's dangle the carrot of a game. If everyone can focus, we will play a game.
Andrew Adams:
Right.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Do you do that? Is that how you use them?
Andrew Adams:
Yes, absolutely. I mean, I try for me in our kids' class, I know that the last 10, maybe 15 minutes, it's gonna be either a single game or a couple of games and the kids know that too. And I will sometimes get kids coming. Can we play such and such today and could we play? And you know, what game I play depends on a lot of different factors. Sometimes the number of kids I have in the class and they have, I have trained them. We talked in a previous episode about not asking when you're gonna test and if you do, then you know you're gonna go back. They've now learned, don't ask me what game we're gonna play, cuz if you do, then we're not gonna play that game. But I know the games that they like to play and that they enjoy doing, but I try really hard to make sure that the game has value to them and not, isn't just in air quotes, just fun that they are learning something and I will often tell them, this is why we're playing this game. So that they can then correlate, oh, we are doing this game because it's fun, but this is also gonna help me with X, Y, Z. Not every time but often.
Jeremy Lesniak:
If we think about a lot of the games, what are skills that they're pulling from them? Even if they're not martial applicable. Reaction time?
Andrew Adams:
Yep.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Awareness?
Andrew Adams:
A big one that we…
Jeremy Lesniak:
Footwork?
Andrew Adams:
A big one that we do in our school. Jump rope. We just, I'll grab a, if I don't have a teaching assistant to help me out. I'll grab a parent. They'll grab the other end of the rope. We'll swing the rope, and they have to either run through and knock, get hit by the rope. Or, and depending on which way the rope is going, they might have to jump over the rope to get through, or they have to jump in, jump a few times and jump out. They're really good kids. The older kids, I'll have them jump in, start jumping and I'll have another student toss them a ball that they have to catch and then toss back. So they're focusing on multiple skills.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Yeah.
Andrew Adams:
Their feet have to do different things from their hands. That is a valuable skill. But it's also fun.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Right. Right. Generally speaking, I don't do a lot of what I would formally term games, but I try to bring the energy and the reward, right? That balance of input, reward, rules sort of thing, into the drills that I run with people, whether they're adults or children. Because people want to know what success looks like. And that's something that we've talked about that quite a bit in martial arts. I'm sorry on the show about martial arts that we don't often do a good job of defining success outside of rank. Games are nice because you know, if the rope hits your foot, they did not win.
Andrew Adams:
Yep, yep.
Jeremy Lesniak:
If they dropped the ball, they did not win. But if they avoided the rope and didn't drop the ball and whatever else you give them as parameters, they win. That's nice to know. You can feel good about that. And if you didn't quote, win the game, kids are conditioned from a young age, games really don't matter. So they're not super sad. You don't yell at them, but now they have something they can work on.
Andrew Adams:
Exactly. Yep. So that's an example. One example that I use in our school. Sensei says is a very common one, right? Sensei because I teach in a Japanese karate school, so sensei is the right term. It's basically Simon says. And you can make that as difficult or as challenging as you want for your students.
Jeremy Lesniak:
It's one of my favorite games because you don't have to change anything. You can do everything else you were going to do.
Andrew Adams:
Yep.
Jeremy Lesniak:
But it forces a component of awareness.
Andrew Adams:
And I will often use it for practicing our techniques. Sensei says rising block.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Yes.
Andrew Adams:
Sensei says rising block. Sensei says middle block. Sensei says down block. And I can still work them through their techniques and correct things if need be but they see it as a game.
Jeremy Lesniak:
And what makes that a game? What happens if they move wrong? What do you do?
Andrew Adams:
Sometimes I'll have them sit out. Sometimes I'll be like and they like think they got one over on me you know, like, because it's fun, but there's no punishment for doing it wrong really.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Not a punishment, but there is a consequence, right?
Andrew Adams:
Yeah.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Like they know that they did something wrong.
Andrew Adams:
Yep.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Right? Whereas if we're talking about improving your rising block, They probably don't know they did their rising block wrong. Cuz if they did, they probably wouldn't have done it that way. Right. And so when we start to be able to correlate awareness to output, tell me that a student who is more engaged, more aware is not gonna pick up more of what you're saying.
Andrew Adams:
Exactly.
Jeremy Lesniak:
They're not gonna be more observant. All right, so I've noticed a bunch of you are doing your rising blocks like this. If you do your rising block like this, everybody put your hand on your head. Okay, that's wrong. Everybody puts your hand up like this at an angle from here on. If you don't do this when I say Sensei says rising block, I'm gonna point it out and you're going to whatever the consequence is.
Andrew Adams:
Yep.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Right? So then okay, I gotta be here. So now they're hyper-focused on that component in a way that, let's be honest if you were correcting rising blocks, walking up and down the floor, in just a drill scenario, hey, I need you to keep your hand up here. I need you to keep your hand up here.
Andrew Adams:
And it comes down.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Right? And if you're just listening you probably can't hear me banging myself on the head with my wrist because that's a great place to keep your arm if you're a small child and exerting as little energy as possible. It doesn't have to be complex.
Andrew Adams:
Yeah.
Jeremy Lesniak:
It's the energy, it's the attitude that you bring to it. I believe anything can be a game. Forms can be a game.
Andrew Adams:
Well, you know what? We have a couple of people who have sent in some of their games.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Nice. Let's go over them. I bet there are some in there that I don't know.
Andrew Adams:
Yeah. So I've got two sheets here, so I'm gonna kind of go back and forth I think. But this game is from Kelly Thomas, past recent guest of the show.
Jeremy Lesniak:
That's right.
Andrew Adams:
About a month and a half ago her episode came out. She has a couple of pattern games or forms. This one's called You're Dead. She says this is, what's that?
Jeremy Lesniak:
I said, okay.
Andrew Adams:
All right. So this is a patterns game to remind students that during our patterns we are doing half of a choreographed fight and therefore, if you make a mistake, then quote, you're dead because you either missed an attack or by doing a wrong block or a wrong attack, your attack missed the person. This play by students coming forward to try to do their pattern without any mistakes. The higher the rank, the more nitpicky she is. If they're making a mistake, then she yells you're dead. And then she has a Nerf gun and they get shot. And then she checks in with them to see if they knew what they did was wrong, and she said, believe it or not, this is a favorite of the kids.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Yeah. Now there's an important piece here that I think people might say, well, what's the difference between that and simply correcting someone?
Andrew Adams:
It's definitely more fun to get shot with a Nerf gun.
Jeremy Lesniak:
It is, but leverage is something that is really core to human psychology. The Nerf gun and the playfulness overcome the embarrassment. But it's still you getting called out in front of everyone. What is the chance that you're gonna make that same mistake again?
Andrew Adams:
Yep, yep. Very great.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Significantly lower.
Andrew Adams:
Yep.
Jeremy Lesniak:
If you've ever taught forms to people, forms, patterns, whatever you wanna call them, you know, there are certain people who have struggled with learning a certain portion or making a certain adjustment in a movement. We generally make those adjustments with respect and honoring their dignity. We don't drag them up in front of the class and yell, you're dead. Which is a fun way of saying you screwed that up.
Andrew Adams:
Yeah. You made a mistake. Yep.
Jeremy Lesniak:
But with this kind of interesting combination, which I think is fascinating, we are giving them the emotional response that they're going to remember, but doing it in a way that is also playful.
Andrew Adams:
Yeah.
Jeremy Lesniak:
So they're not embarrassed.
Andrew Adams:
Yeah. So she has one more patterns or kata or forms game called patterns feud. Students get broken down into teams, spreading out ages and ranks evenly between the teams. One student from each team, making sure they're similar age and rank, get separated and then she will ask them a pattern or a TaeKwonDo question. So one person goes up from each team. The first person to key up gets to attempt to do the pattern without saying the name or the technique that was asked. If they get it right, then their team gets a point. If they're wrong, then the other team can steal the point by doing the correct pattern or technique. So it's kinda like family feud, but it's patterns feud, right? That's great because it gamifies learning something that they, or reworking in their head what that is that they need to do.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Yeah. And it sounds like we're bringing this game into play when there's maybe a bit more verbal or academic element.
Andrew Adams:
Yep.
Jeremy Lesniak:
For those of you who don't train in one of these styles, some styles including ITF TaeKwonDo, style that Kelly and I share, has definitions, meanings for the forms, the patterns. And so a common question that will come up at testings and at other times is, you know, what's the definition or the meaning of Yul-Gok? You know, one of the forms and we're expected to know those things. So it makes for a great question, you know in that style of game because everybody's hearing it. But if you know that you might be playing this game in the near future, maybe you're more likely to review…
Andrew Adams:
Yep.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Your materials at home.
Andrew Adams:
Yep, absolutely. So another game that I play in our school is called the Sword Game.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Okay.
Andrew Adams:
The sword game is really easy. You're standing up at the front of the room with a sword. So this is my, for those watching, this is my foam-padded sword and it actually has a Japanese-wrapped handle. And it's, you know, it's foam. And it's, you know, this one's about three feet long, and I stand up in front of the room and all of the students are, you know, away from me, but just standing in a, you know, away, apart from each other. And they know that when I lift the sword over my head, they have to jump to the right or to the left before my sword comes down. And so I'm having them work their footwork. And when I hold the sword kind of like a baseball bat, they have to duck down before my sword comes across, otherwise, their head gets chopped off. Cuz you know, it's a sword. It's a sword, right?
Jeremy Lesniak:
Right.
Andrew Adams:
And every time I bring I'll come down low and bring the sword really low, they have to jump up. They have to jump over the sword. Now they're not anywhere near me because there's a huge, you know, group of them but I will go through these motions and I'll start going faster until, you know, they do the wrong thing. Or, and here's where I bring in a little bit of awareness, some of them, at first, they'll start to jump and they'll jump and turn sideways or turn around because they're kids. And I tell them, you can't do that. You can't turn your back to me cuz I'm gonna start going faster. And so they learn to move their body but keep their eyes on me. And then when it gets down to one person, I will stand directly in front of that person, of that child. So if I come up over swing overhead and they don't jump outta the way, I would actually hit them on the head. Now obviously I'm not hitting 'em hard and it's a foam of swords, so it's, you know, not a big deal. But for them it's...
Jeremy Lesniak:
You don't cleave their skull in two as punishment?
Andrew Adams:
No. Although we make jokes cuz the parents are often sitting there, you know if I swing sideways and they don't duck down. And I was like, you know, I just chopped their head off and I'll turn to the parents. Well, you don't have to feed him tonight cuz he doesn't have my mouth cuz his head's gone. And you could use anything, you could just use a pool noodle. I have another longer sword here that's a little more intricate.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Oh yeah.
Andrew Adams:
And it's much, much, much bigger. But it's just a fun little game that you can play with very few students. Some of the game like the Patterns Feud is great. But our kids' class doesn't have really enough kids to be able to do that game with. The sword game, you can play with only three kids in class.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Or you could play with 50 kids.
Andrew Adams:
Exactly.
Jeremy Lesniak:
The part I like about that is that you're just one sword. You're asking them to imagine.
Andrew Adams:
Correct.
Jeremy Lesniak:
You're asking them to fill in the realism and apply their own understanding of what the consequence would be as motivation to act in a fast manner. You can do that to just about anything.
Andrew Adams:
Yep.
Jeremy Lesniak:
And so, you know, for those folks listening or watching that might be a bit resistant to some of these, true games recognize it was something like that. It's really just the way you present the material.
Andrew Adams:
Yeah.
Jeremy Lesniak:
You know, if you wanted people to practice stepping back into a front stance and doing a low block, you could stand up at the front of the room and you could throw a front kick at them. And if you tell them, if I kick you before you block me, you're dead.
Andrew Adams:
You're out. Yeah.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Right? Like, it doesn't have to be complex and formal with lots of rules.
Andrew Adams:
Yeah.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Just a different mindset.
Andrew Adams:
Do you have any that you used to play or that you have taught?
Jeremy Lesniak:
Sensei says was the big one…
Andrew Adams:
Yeah.
Jeremy Lesniak:
When I was a kid. And I think it's because my instructors had a bit of a balanced perspective on games. You know, what we've kind of talked about? Like yes, I recognize the value in creating some humor and some laughter, some fun with what we're doing, but I don't want to get too far out. I have seen duck, duck goose played with a martial element where if the person is caught, they have to spar a point.
Andrew Adams:
Interesting.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Yeah, something like that. My TaeKwonDo instructor does a lot of reaction and yeah, we call 'em reaction drills, like kick softball, you know, throwing kind of foam balls.
Andrew Adams:
Okay.
Jeremy Lesniak:
And they have to kick them out of the air.
Andrew Adams:
I like that one. I might do that one.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Dodgeball is one of my favorites.
Andrew Adams:
So in our school, I've changed the rules to dodgeball, but go ahead with yours and I'll tell you mine.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Pretty straightforward. Instructors get to take out some aggression by throwing balls at children.
Andrew Adams:
Okay, so in our school, I've changed…
Jeremy Lesniak:
These are softer balls. These are not like playground red rubber balls where you can hurt people.
Andrew Adams:
So the kids, this, right now, this is their favorite game. It's called Dojo Ball. Cause again, we're
Jeremy Lesniak:
Okay. we're in a dojo.
Andrew Adams:
Dojo Karate school, and. They start, everybody starts on one side of the room and there's one ball in the center. And when I say go, they have to go the first person to get the ball. They have the ball and they can run. There's no sides against everyone for themself. And if the ball is thrown at you and it hits you in your arm, you just can't use that arm anymore. If the ball is thrown at you and it hits you in the leg, you just can't use that leg. You can still hop around, you can still catch a ball with one arm. If they hit your other leg, then you're on your knees trying to shuffle around, but you still have one hand…
Jeremy Lesniak:
This is having holy grail flashbacks, right?
Andrew Adams:
Yes. And believe it or not, I have seen a person catch a ball with no arms and no legs, and the other person was out.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Wow.
Andrew Adams:
Because they caught the ball. So again, this helps to teach awareness because people are all over. You have to keep you're facing forward the person. I've had to institute a couple of rules because in a mixed class with bigger kids and little kids, the big kids with long legs would just run after the little kids, and the little kids are turning their back and running away. And so the big kids would just like plop them on the back. And so at first, I initiated a rule that you can't throw the ball if anyone is within three to five feet of you, which forced you to actually work on some accuracy on your throwing, but then if you had the ball, everyone started racing to get close to you so you couldn't throw the ball at them. Because kids will find a way to loopholes, right? So now the game would go on forever cuz everyone would just stay close to the guy with the ball. So then the new rule is no one can be within three to five feet of each other, period. So they have to stay away from each other and it forces people to throw the ball. But it's a little more fun. It's still dodgeball.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Yeah.
Andrew Adams:
But it's not teams. It's everyone for themself, and if you catch the ball, you're fine. But if you try and catch the ball with your hands and drop it, you can't use your hands anymore.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Okay. Do we have any more?
Andrew Adams:
Just a couple more. You know, I don't want this.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Okay.
Andrew Adams:
We could probably go on for hours and hours.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Yeah, we could. But I know people spent the time writing. These are…
Andrew Adams:
Here's a really good one that actually Noah, listener of the show, Noah plays a lot of games in his classes and he gave one that he calls Fast Hands. Kelly submitted the exact same one, basically called Alligator. And I love this one. I'm definitely doing this one tonight. In Noah's, he just uses empty hands in Kelly's called Alligator, you take two like kicking panels. And you hold them out like this. Noah said it like, I caught a fish this big, hold your hands here. So, and then the person standing across to them has to punch or do a kick or whatever, and the other person holding their hands out has to try and clap their hands and so it's a reaction thing. I like the paddles…
Jeremy Lesniak:
For both people.
Andrew Adams:
Yeah, exactly. It's a reaction for both people. But I like the paddles cuz that's just really fun and so fast hands or alligator. Noah and I both play push hands where you would have kids stand across from each other and you, they can only high five or high 10 and try and make the other person lose their balance. So that's a really fun one. We in our school play one that Noah also plays. He calls it Dragon Tales. We call it the rag game, where you essentially take a rag and put it on someone's belt and everyone has to try and get the rag.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Yeah.
Andrew Adams:
Now, Noah's gone to the point of like making it a little more rule orientated. They're given a bandana. The objective is to pull other people's tails cuz it's dragon tail while protecting their own tail. So in our school, we often will have one person with a tail and they have to defend from everyone. In Noah's version, everyone has a tail and so you're trying to protect your own while keeping everyone else away. There are different versions. You can have waring clans where they're split into teams, and so it's kind of team on team. So that's pretty good. And then Kelly also had one, essentially the same called Flag TaeKwonDo. Everyone gets from with the hip and it's again essentially the same thing. You know, and the concept is when you're sparring, yes, you have to be on the offense, but you also have to be on the defense as well. The last one, we have a bunch more, but I'm not gonna get into all of them. But another fun one around Christmas time for those to celebrate Christmas. Kelly does the 12 days on the first day of classes my instructor gave to me. They have to pick something and they run through the 12 days of Christmas and each time they have a different technique that they have to do.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Oh, fun.
Andrew Adams:
And they continue to sing the song and have to do each of the techniques. So that's kind of fun.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Yeah. And that's, so it's becomes topical and you know, you're not gonna do it year round, so it becomes special. Yeah. I would encourage schools to start codifying some of these. There are games that you can play that fit into your curriculum and your culture. And how nice would it be for your newer instructors to not have to remember all the games that they ever learned?
Andrew Adams:
Yep.
Jeremy Lesniak:
But instead, be given a list and, you know, I think it's easy to underestimate how much adults wanna play games, they will tell you they don't want to.
Andrew Adams:
Absolutely. I couldn't agree more.
Jeremy Lesniak:
But they love playing games. They just don't wanna admit it.
Andrew Adams:
And I think as well for instructors, they don't have to be, and I'm gonna put in quotes, they have to be games, just skill drills. Here's one that we do. We have these foam balls in the school, and I will put the students turned away from each other, so their backs are to each other. I place the ball between them on the lower back and say, okay, get to the other side of the gym and back. If you drop the ball, pick it up and go again. So you have to work with partners and figure stuff out. By the way, the best one I ever saw was they both length their arms together and one person said, okay, jump up. And he just bent over and carried the person on their back, the ball's still between them and just walked back and forth. But like those sorts of drills or for the kids, I'll have them link arms. So there's one long chain of kids and you give a hula hoop to the person on one end and say, get the hula hoop from one end to the other without letting go of your hands.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Yep. And if you think that that doesn't have relevance to martial arts, it's because you don't understand brain-body development among children.
Andrew Adams:
Yeah. I have kids, little kids that don't know how to skip like they are still figuring out how their bodies move.
Jeremy Lesniak:
The human body does not, or the human brain does not fully develop until 25.
Andrew Adams:
Yeah.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Genuinely, like go look this up. That is the generally accepted, at least last time I did the research, generally accepted, this is why you get kids who you can pick up their leg and manipulate it through space. Now do this, and they kick with the other leg because their brain is not linked up to their body in full. It's not, they're not just a tiny human. They're still being built. So don't be afraid to do drills that help them find where their body is. Cuz you know what? You may not see the value in that but their parents do.
Andrew Adams:
Yep. Yep. So when this episode comes out, if you've listened this far, I'm gonna be posting this episode on our Facebook page. Go in the comments, if you have a game that you play, put it in the comments. Let's make this episode not just the two of us talking about games we played, or Kelly Thomas, or Noah Dever. Like, yes, those games we talked about but go in the chat. Tell us the games you play and how you play them.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Absolutely. And you're speaking of not the whistlekick Facebook page, but Facebook group whistlekick Martial Arts Radio behind the scenes.
Jeremy Lesniak:
That's correct. Yeah.
Andrew Adams:
It's a private group. We'll let you in, but you still have to jump in. Andrew, thank you for putting this together. This was a lot of fun and makes me wanna go play games now.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Thank you, Noah and Kelly.
Andrew Adams:
Thank you, Noah and Kelly.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Audience, thank you for being part of this episode. If you wanna show your sport, remember you got lots of things you can do. Family page, Patreon, all that good stuff. Check out whistlekickmartialartsradio.com for all the show notes. You're gonna find stuff. Just tons of stuff for every episode that we've done. Two things to keep in mind, if you have a martial arts school and you would like to grow that school, make more money, improve your culture, raise the standard of your instructors, anything like that, or more, reach out. We do offer consulting services and frankly, we're good at it. Email me, jeremy@whistlekick.com. You might also email me if you would like to host a whistlekick seminar, whether that includes me or me and Andrew or just Andrew, we got lots of options here. We enjoy doing these things and that takes us through to the end of another episode. I appreciate you being here. Until next time, train hard, smile, and have a great day.