Whatever Happened To Those Aussie Kids?

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Linda Heenan
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Whatever Happened To Those Aussie Kids?

Post by Linda Heenan » Thu Mar 20, 2008 1:01 pm

It is two years since this thread went up viewtopic.php?t=402&highlight=kids so I decided it was time for an update. Whatever happened to those kids over in Australia? Are they still training?

The answer is yes. When that thread was written, the kids Sword Club was being held in a local gym, after school, one day a week. We had to rely on parents being so keen to get their children there, that they would arrange their busy schedule around it. That part changed. It came about fairly naturally. When the Principal of the school I teach at, decided to change the after school staff meetings to a Tuesday, I told him I had that time set aside for the Kid's Swordsmanship Club, but since most of the kids training with me (all of them at that stage) attended this school, I could become available for the new staff meeting time, if he let me do the training during a lunchtime at school.

That's how the most recent developments started. The in school club was agreed to. While a few staff members at this Christian school had personal queries about whether our kids should be learning martial arts, it could also be argued that they were already doing so with the go ahead of the whole school community. There were no complaints about the archery program, or the shooting training. So we began Chinese Swordsmanship in Friday lunchtimes.

At first I limited the group to highschool children and those upper primary kids who had already trained at the Kids Sword Camp. At first I decided 8 kids was all I could handle in that amount of time. More and more kids wanted to come. After a few had learnt enough basics, I opened it to anyone 11 years or older, as long as they had a teachable attitude and were not known as trouble makers.

The boy mentioned in the earlier thread, who is now almost 16 years of age, and has been training enthusiastically ever since, became our first "junior instructor". Another boy, aged 14 who attended our adult seminars in January, was given that role as well. With this extra help, I am now able to cater for 20 kids aged 11 and up. There are enquiries daily. I have closed enrolments until at least next term to see if we have space for more. Younger children look forward to getting into Upper Primary, so they can be eligible. Three boys are presently doing their best to improve relationships with other kids, so I will let them join the club. The boy who left to do soccer in the other thread, is now training with us again.

Some children began asking for private lessons and extra time whenever I wasn't on playground duty. This has escalated to the point of me teaching swordsmanship, and now emptyhand as well, to kids, every day I'm at school, which is 4 days per week. As you can imagine, our young ones are progressing faster than adults who only attend Saturday morning classes. I have to set some time aside when I only teach the two older boys who help train the other kids. They need continual input to keep learning so they will have plenty to pass on. They need more access to have their questions answered and their own training improved because they help me carry the weight of so many others.

One of the interesting things about kids is their flexibility. We teach them to do all the low stretch stances, descents on one leg, etc, from early on. I've tried for years to get some of those positions right, but my body still doesn't want to. They will never have that problem.

So, we have kids learning the jian form and jian swordsmanship, First Section Michuan and emptyhand applications, one is learning the dao form and several are working on dao cuts. Yesterday, one of the kids persuaded me to look into kids sized miaodao because he is too short to use a full sized one without hitting it on the floor. Since they practise a lot, at school and at home, we may hear more of these kids in the future. They are calling for a tournament in Australia.

Those two older boys could give most adults a run in swordplay. They work out new moves all the time. For example, yesterday, when we were working on Ya, they learnt good ways to use their flexibility sinking low against a duifang, driving his blade to the ground, and then spinning to take on a second duifang approaching from the back. That was my input. Matt's was to yield to a Ya applied to his Ci and spin it into a high Pi before the duifang has time to realise he gave the momentum for it. When I added a wide step to the side, it became a formidable move. These kids are improving what we do in swordplay, not just learning what we know.

I'll put up some pictures next week, after I remember to take some.

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Post by josh stout » Tue Mar 25, 2008 9:50 am

It's great to hear about the kids. It sounds like the program has some serious momentum. I am looking foreword to the pictures.
Josh
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Post by Linda Heenan » Fri Apr 04, 2008 1:32 am

Here are the promised pictures. I took most of them with a smaller group who came chasing after private lessons at recess. The main group came at lunchtime. Some of these kids obviously have better technique than others but some of these kids have been learning for 6-10 weeks, while the oldest one has been with us for 3 years.

How to pick up your sword if you drop it:

Image Image

Jian form:

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ImageImage

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Post by Linda Heenan » Fri Apr 04, 2008 1:33 am

Dao Form:

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Miaodao:

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Post by Linda Heenan » Fri Apr 04, 2008 1:33 am

Jian Drills:

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And everyone's favourite THE SKIRMISH:

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Post by taiwandeutscher » Fri Apr 04, 2008 10:22 pm

Really great, please keep them going, if possible!

Here, in Taiwan, it is so hard to attract any younger folks, not much can be done.

Price money for pushing hands attracts Judo players or creates groups, who practice waijia and weights, but no forms or internal principals anymore, it it a mess!
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Kids swordsmanship

Post by philcook76 » Sat Apr 05, 2008 8:47 pm

The pics of the kids are great. It looks like a great space to practice. You are doing a great job of introducing kids to some great skills that they would otherwise miss out on.

Keep up the great work.
Phil

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Post by Linda Heenan » Sun Apr 06, 2008 4:18 am

please keep them going, if possible!
These kids are very keen. I don't think many of them would easily give up their place. I never pressure anyone to come to training. They come because it's the most fun thing to do. Also, the group has a very protective social structure and the kids like belonging to something like that.
it is so hard to attract any younger folks
The parents have to be on side to attract kids. Every child in my group had to have parent's permission before I would train them. I have the advantage of being well known to the school community. Also, with younger kids, it seems to help to be female, in the eyes of the parents. I think the two biggest things in a parent's mind are money and time.

It doesn't cost anything to send the kids to this training because I'm already paid as a school teacher and I do it in my recess and lunch breaks. Most of them pay $12 for me to make them their own padded jian. They choose the colours and the parents don't mind that small amount of money. The boy training with the dao is going to buy a Raven Studios dao of his own, and since he's so fixed on doing this above everything else, his parents are happy to buy it.

As for time - this doesn't involve driving the kids anywhere or waiting while they train. In fact, it occupies them profitably at home as well because they love to train instead of more sedentary things such as playing video games.

It looks like a great space to practice.
We had intended to train outside but it rained 60 out of 90 days this summer and my classroom was the best place. It's a big room, newly carpetted and painted in my choice of bright yellow. It's done up more like a living room than a classroom, and as you can see, there are no desks. We have a big lounge and soft chairs, a kitchen table with chairs, and a few other things not normally found in a classroom, so it's perfect. We often have up to 16 of our 20 kids training there at one time.
introducing kids to some great skills that they would otherwise miss out on.
If our art is to survive to the next generation, we must train the next generation while they are willing. Our world is full of so many choices that it's hard to get anyone, child or adult, to stick to one thing for more than a few months. To get really good at taijiquan, people have to spend many years doing it. This is a wonderful opportunity and I'm glad to have it. I get to share some of what my teacher, Scott Rodell, is putting into me, and practise my own taijiquan while doing it. If these kids begin in year 5 at school and keep training all the way to year 12, they would have 8 years of training before they leave .... as long as I keep working there and we are allowed to keep doing it. Imagine what a headstart a young person has with 8 years of training before they leave school, still young, at 18. This is our best chance to keep the standard high and have some people master the art in a world where you can't train all day every day for years as an adult.

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Post by Linda Heenan » Sun May 04, 2008 3:19 am

I'd like to hear from anyone who has good ideas and thoughts that might make our program more fun and better quality. I've never been to regular martial arts classes - just seminars once or twice a year, so most of you have probably seen a lot more than I have and will have good thoughts to add to this thread. Here's what has happened this term:

The numbers began to get too big and kids were coming for extra lessons every recess and lunchtime. That wasn't a problem, it was just that they all wanted help with something different and the numbers coming for extra help kept increasing. So I've had to restructure. I now do 4 levels of training and the week is broken up into 9 twenty minute classes. There is only one day I have 40 minutes available for one session. We use that for jian, and every one is expected to come to either that session or the other 20 minute jian session for the week.That is the first level of training.

The second level is for children who are handling jian training well and would like extra. They can come to one other thing. We have a class each for miaodao, dao and empty hand.

The third level is for the kids who have been doing it the longest and are keen, as well as having good attitudes for learning. They are not necessarily the most talented. I call them Reps. We have two primary school reps, one dao rep and three highschool reps. I add to their training with things such as martial etiquette, basic exercises, taijiquan principles, etc. I have two sessions dedicated to them.

The fourth level is for junior instructors. There are two of them and they are also in the Reps group. They have both attended seminars with our teacher, Scott Rodell, and one of them has been to these seminars for the last three years. I see them as younger classmates and it is their job to teach a lot of the younger kids. There is a weekly session just for those two and they can come to everything else. They get their training at that one session and the 2 Reps sessions because they spend the rest of their in class time teaching. Without them, I could not teach so many children. We gained 4 new girls in the first week of this term. I expect this to multiply as the weather gets colder and kids don't want to be outside :)

In Empty Hand, I'm teaching First Section Michuan form and applications, the principles of basic strikes with exercises and drills to practise them, and push hands.

Jian is for Jian form, basic cuts, drills, partner exercises, games,competitions, freeplay, etc.

In Miaodao and Dao we learn the forms, basic cuts, attacks and defenses,two person drills, freeplay, and anything else I've managed to learn myself. It has to be remembered that I'm still a beginner in all of this and have not yet completed my 4th year of training in taijiquan. That's another very good reason a lot of you might have helpful suggestions. Please share them. I'd appreciate any input you might have.

Linda

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We Won!

Post by Linda Heenan » Fri Jun 20, 2008 1:30 am

It wasn't a tournament. It was the school Talent Quest, but a good way for our kids to start, and to learn some principles that will help them when tournaments become available for them.

We presented "Slouching Tiger, Slidden Dragon" - mildly comic, but mostly to display the variety of skills they were learning and show the community what we have. Matt and Aled choreographed a fairly spectacular display of Chinese swordsmanship with highs, lows, spins, last minute perfectly timed deflections and a bit of emptyhand thrown in. They did it themselves from the most interesting moves they could find in the jian form. The others performed forms and drills in the background from jian, dao, miaodao and emptyhand.

When we won, the teenage boys took the trophy and presented it to me, saying that is how it should be. I present it here, to our real teacher, Scott Rodell .... but since it's a perpetual trophy, it has to actually stay in the school office :wink:

They did well and they were excited so they told me to write it on the forum for them. That's why this is here today.

Also, one of the families in the audience came up later and asked to train with us. The man is a blacksmith, so that will be fun :)

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Keeping New Students

Post by Linda Heenan » Sat Sep 05, 2009 6:01 pm

It's over a year since I've written on this thread but it seems like a good idea to keep much of the information in one place. This year kid's training continues in an after school group, private lessons and Saturday seminars. Many of the same kids are still with us. Some are not, and we have new ones. This note is about bringing new students into an already established group.

Kids that have been around training for years can easily develop a superior attitude to new students. This is the opposite of what we need to cultivate. The older students need to have developed humility, kindness and an attitude of responsibility, helpfulness, patience and good example towards the new students. Otherwise, new kids won't last more than a couple of weeks.

It is good to develop right attitudes towards others in students, right from the beginning. I try to build a sense of responsibility in them. They have recieved and therefore should be willing to give out. This isn't hard in Australia because the basic foundation of our culture is giving a mate a hand up. We already have tall poppy syndrome written into the foundation of our nation, ie, if someone starts thinking they are superior to others, everyone else pulls them down. So it should be easy to cultivate a caring, helpful attitude in child students.

I'm always watching for potential teachers - those who know how to make beginners welcome and understand well enough to patiently explain something, step by step, as many times as it takes, without making new students feel inadequate. The kids developing these attitudes may be some of the future teachers of our art. People already feel inadequate - even kids. Some of them express it in over confidence but we have to see through that. They don't need anyone to pull them down and discourage them.

So, in our kids groups, I aim to give new students a buddy to help them through their first classes and explain the things others have heard often enough to know without words. If we want them to continue, they have to feel welcome, accepted, and as though they have made good progress, even when they are still obviously making mistakes most of the time.
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Re: Whatever Happened To Those Aussie Kids?

Post by Linda Heenan » Mon Sep 07, 2009 8:23 pm

Another thing that needs attention when working with kids, is the different learning speeds and abilities. We get around it by using some of the kids who are further ahead to help those coming up behind them. For example, tomorrow I'll use Section 4 jian form to teach a principle in learning the art. When I was in America last year, Laoshi told a class I attended that we should do every movement multiple times. This is what the leaders of our lineage did to get where they got to.

So tomorrow, I'll have the kids who are up to Sections 5 and 6 for training before class. They will get some training in the next movements for them. Then the whole class will work on Section 4, learning that principle by doing each movement 10 times. Following that, the kids on sections 1-3 will get a buddy from the more advanced group, to help them with the next movements they are individually up to. Then everyone has to apply the multiple times principle to their at-home training, wherever they are in the form.

It's not easy to run an individualised program and still take the whole group forward. The faster learners get bored doing something more than 5 times and the slower ones still haven't got it after 20 times, so I have to use the faster ones to help teach. In this way, we can all get there in the end.

If anyone else has good ideas about how to include people of different levels, I'd love to hear them.
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