Week 4 - 9th Grade Academy

I have had a hard time thinking of a subject for a blog this week.  I’ve watched videos on YouTube for inspiration.  I’ve tried reading for inspiration.  Nothing is coming to mind until I saw one of the 9^th graders that I taught during 9^th Grade Academy.  9^th Grade Academy was a two week session for students entering the 9^th grade in the fall.  They had classes in math, reading, language arts and martial arts.  I taught the martial arts sessions from 8:30 until 11:30.  I had groups of all sizes, ranging from 6 to 18.  I had groups of all boys, all girls and a mixture of boys and girls.  What I found was that the separated groups worked better for this type of training.  The boys were very energetic and full of energy (the good kind).   The girls were having loads of fun and we turned POW into the kihap.  The mixed group was a little more reserved. 

We were in the library on a hard floor, so I concentrated on kicks and punches.  There were some awesome kickers in the groups.  We also worked on stances.  I brought my square targets and other pads from Triple Black Belt Academy.  The kids were eager to learn and jumped straight into lines, ready to come to attention.   They enjoyed themselves and I enjoyed myself.  I got plenty of exercise on top of it all.  Many kids were hoping that they would offer martial arts as a PE/elective during the regular school year.  I was kind of hoping that to.  Teens are so hard to get into our classes at Triple Black Belt Academy.  They are so busy and have to depend of parents to drive them everywhere.  Martial arts in the school setting would peak their interest enough to get them dedicated to coming to class.  What the school was talking about was doing a semester class, allowing me to conduct "tryouts" to determine who was in the class.  Without tryouts, I would have ended up with 100 kids in one class. When the principals from last year approached me about the possibility of doing one class a day, I jumped in with both feet.  I came up with a curriculum, a course description, a syllabus, a recommendation sheet, and a grading rubric for participation/ knowledge and understanding.  I was ready within a week.