Growing and Future Growth

For the first time in three years, more than 10 students are on the mats consistently in my youth class. Actually, there are about 12. This development is absolutely wonderful to me because it means a lot of the fun aspects can happen. It also makes teaching very difficult with only one instructor on the mat, and no assistants!

We worked on a number of things on Tuesday night, including the first throw of the semester, O Goshi! We didn’t get a lot of time on O Goshi, but everyone got a chance to do the throw. Everybody did great, even though it was very awkward. We even go to play “Rats and Rabbits” from the 101 Judo Games DVD. Everybody loved that!

Comparing Tuesday night’s class to the educational philosophy of the Gracie Bullyproofing program, it wasn’t as smooth a process as it could have been. (You will probably hear a lot about the Gracie Bullyproofing program over the course of the year.) So, my question is this: How can O Goshi be developed through a game structure? For example, in the Bullyproofing set of games, one is called Spiderkid and starts with teaching the effective use of hands in maintaining “positional control” from the mount (Tate Shiho Gatame for you exclusively judo people). What sort of fun/game ways can O Goshi be broken down and, literally, played with?

Here’s how I break down the major elements of O Goshi for kids:

1. Foot movement and turn-in
2. Hand movement and placing
3. Hip movement
4. Throw

The parts that give me the most grief are the setups. Getting kids to fit in correctly, to me, is far harder that getting them to throw. They want to throw and try very hard to throw even when it’s very wrong! Are there any games to teach and help kids practice this? 101 Judo Games is has some wonderful games for throwing, but none to actually teach them!

If you have anything, please shoot me a description, some links, or, best of all, a video! I’d love to write a follow-up on the suggestions and how they worked for me and my club!