It is worthy to note that one of the martial arts instructors or sensei’s duties is to keep his students’ attention. This duty can be challenging with kids involved because kids have a very short attention span and, of course, high energy.
The fact remains that keeping them engaged in activities is vital to operating a highly effective kids karate program that is void of chaos.
However, we will be exploring some games one can get them engaged in during the karate training.
Karate Games
Some of the karate games are:
- The King of the Circle
Here, the kids will stand in a big circle on a mat while one of them in the middle will be tagged as the King of the circle. The instructor must arrange the game correctly to avoid havoc.
The instructor’s job is to call out the kids and place them in where they will stand, while the King of the circle will stand in the middle. The instructor chooses a King, or the kid remaining in the ring from the last game will be made the King.
While in the middle, the King of the circle is to close his or her eyes by covering them with their hands. They will be instructed not to open their eyes until the instructor starts counting up to five.
As his or her eyes are closed, the instructor is to point to either one or two kids called the taggers. When the King finally opens their eyes, the selected taggers will go after the kind trying to tag the identified parts of his or her body. It could be their torso, from of their legs, or front of their feet.
The King will be capable of blocking, evading, and dodging them. Whoever can tag the King will be crowned the new King, and another round starts again. However, if the King lasts up to five seconds before being tagged, they will remain King for the next round.
This game aims to test speed, focus, and agility.
- Sumo
Sumo is a game that will test the coordination, speed, strength, and balance of the players. It is a test of balance and showing an efficient stance and base. Two kids are to be selected.
Here, they will stand face one another and be told to grab the shoulders of each other. They are to try to throw one another off-balance, or make their opponent drop to one knee, or even sweep them onto their back on the floor or mat.
It is vital to be attentive as they play this game, and advisable to have an extra instructor in the corner.
- The Bump Off
Understand that there are about two variations to this game. For one, the students will grab their foot from behind them and hop on just one foot. As for the other, the student simply hops on one foot without holding onto the other one.
The aim is to have the kids hop on one foot and try to throw themselves off balance or make them drop the foot they hold. If the student falls or both feet touches the mat, the particular child is out of the game.
This game is done until only one child is left standing.
- Attention stance game
The attention stance game in the majority of the martial arts is practically the same. Here, a student will be made to stand still, poised, and prepared to learn from the class. In Kenpo, the students will place their feet together, have an erect posture, put their hands at the sides with their eyes forward and heads up.
The students are to be lined up in rows, and they can be five in a row. They must stand in an attention stance without laughing, moving, blinking, smiling, or making any changes. However, the job of the instructor is to break them by making them lose concentration.
If anyone laughs or asks questions, he or she will be made to sit down.
- Sensei Says
This is the same as the popular Simon Says game. Except in this one, the sensei will call out karate moves for the kids to perform. However, if the child makes a move without hearing “Sensei Says” first, they are out.
This game also stands as an exercise to see if the kids can maintain their attention.
- Red Light, Green Light
While it is an old school game and the same even in karate, there can be a little mix in it with karate moves. Here, the kids may be told to do shuffle kicks across the mat, or they may be said to perform shuffling with strikes.
Also, the instructor can tell them to perform a bear crawl or leapfrog. To carry out this game, the children should be made to line up one specific side of the mat, and when the instructor says green light, they are to keep on moving until they hear red light.
Those who make any move when they hear re delight are to go back to the start.
- The Over and Under Game
This fame revolves around having the kids get into a large circle with the instructor in the middle. The instructor will swing an object through the process, and it could be swung low down or up high.
This game’s primary goal is for the children to duck whenever the object is up high or jump when it is low down. The kids are to spread out so that they can perform the act well. Whoever trips or gets hit is out of the game.
- The number sequence game
One of the games that can be played in these martial arts schools in Las Vegas is the number sequence. Here, instructors will assign a number to the moves that the kids are working on.
The instructor will call out the numbers to see how well they have learned the moves. Once the sequences are repeated a few times, the instructor can make it more challenging.
He can speed up the numbers or call them out randomly, or more moves can be added to the sequence.
- The drop and kick game
This game aims to kick an object right before it touches the ground. The instructor stands at the front of the class while the students take turns kicking the object.
This game is one that will test the reflexes and speed of the kids.
- The pin in the black belt on the samurai game
This is the karate version of the pin in the tail on the donkey game. The instructor is to print out a huge poster of a person putting on karate gear. More so, an outline will be better so that the belt area can be left blank and children will know where to aim
Furthermore, the instructor is to cut out black stripes of ribbon or probably paper for the belts and pop names on each of them. The kids can be given different colors, so no one will know who wins.
They are to be blindfolded, and the instructor is to spin them around a couple of times and leave them to pin.
Conclusion
These are some of the best games you can try out for the kids who enroll in your martial arts school in Las Vegas
You can skim through the article and pick any of the games.