Tailoring Epak Kata for Children?

[Kwiter]

Kwe sewakwekon, Hello everyone, how would I tailor the Kata for children? I have a fair handle on the Kata for Adults but note my daughters get a subset only, they'll likely be taking a short hiatus so I'd like to help keep them "in shape" so to speak, they do something their instructor calls
Kenpo Kata Little Dragons and another called little Tigers and use the Star blocks tho do these both hands at once.

Nia:wen kowa Many Thanks

 

[Touch Of Death]

You can obviously add flashy moves in between the base moves of a form or simply teach parts of each form in a mini form, or create small themed forms. I hope that helps.
Sean

 

[Carol]

The forms are a catalogue of the different motions. One of the purposes of doing the forms is to address the fundamentals of motion. I don't think changing or tailoring the movements to a child would be beneficial to the child's training.

Kata in any style can be difficult for adults to learn, let alone children.

Instead of teaching a child all at once, try segmenting the kata in to small sections and practice them a section at a time.
I was at a workout with a local school owner, Sensei Kevin Pence, and he had mentioned that spread across the walls in his studio are photos of all the instructors in his lineage. While he does this to show the lineage, he also does this to help in some of the kids training... ie: "Now face Professor Chow..."

See if you can develop your own mnenmoics of your own to help the child learn, that may help a lot.

 

[Kwiter]

Well for some reason I didn't realize GM Tosten HAS Forms videos oriented for kids and today after I picked up my youngest at school wanted to go for a walk, hit Barnes and Nobles then decided to pass the Dojo to see if I book I'd ordered had come in , Sensei Alex was in the process of showing another father the Junior Forms DVD's! So I bought the first disc since it covers Yellow and Orange, they haven't made it to Orange quite yet so these will be fine a few more months, then I'll get the next.

Haven't had time to watch it yet.

Tho I do know that at Amerikick where they go , the Star Blocks for example are done both hands at once so IOW UP block is both arms in a V ish shape above theier head, then in has both forearms together in front of their face etc etc They call the Form Little Dragons, the one for Orange Belt is Little Tigers. Hopefully I'll get to checkout the DVD tonight, I'm hoping they show each technique seperately on it then the complete Kata becuase if only the Kata thats going to be one SHORT!!!!! Video hehehehe

Nia:wen Thank you.

 

[bushidomartialarts]

how old are your children?

we move our little ninjas into our juniors program sometime during the year they turn 6. they learn the full EPAK katas just fine (with allowances for precision).

 

[Kwiter]

My oldest will be 7 in a few weeks and her sister will be 6 in April. When they first joined I was told they'd be Juniors till 13, BUT when they did their last batch of testing instead of recieving a striped Orange belt they recieved a solid Yellow so perhaps they've changed their ideas on this I'll have to inquire with Sensei Alex on this. It's a fairly new school(18 months or so) so perhaps he changed his mind on that concept.

I picked up their curriculum video yesterday I guess the NEW ones they mention in the newsletter were'nt ready yet as the copyright on this was 2005 and the quality wasn't so hot, looked like a VHS tape transferred to DVD , it's watchable and they can refresh their memory on Techniques so it's useful nonetheless.
About 15 minutes long, covers Kata for Yellow thru Purple I believe.

This school is one of Dennis Tosten's Franchises,
http://brooklyn.amerikick.com if you'd like to see more than I'm saying ;-)

O:nen ki' wahi' Bye for now