Training little kids

Kljopa · Post by **Kljopa** » 31 Jul 2007 05:41

I have 2 boys, 10 years old.I train them.

Any tips?

They kick, and learn toe stalls.Then stretch and do some physics.

Iron Clad Ben · Post by **Iron Clad Ben** » 31 Jul 2007 07:21

They do physics at age 10? Man... smart kids

I would say at that age it's more about having fun for them. Don't push a training regimen on them too hard. If they just want to work on consecutives let them. If they want to spend a whole session just trying to hit pendulum, let them.

If they are pushed too hard to do things that they are not interested in, they will stop having fun and most likely lose interest in the game.

One of the things they teach in the footbag instructor course is to have your students make a consecutives record, and try to beat that record each week. You can even keep a record on a sheet to show their progress week to week.

Kids like 4 square too

ThomASS · Post by **ThomASS** » 31 Jul 2007 10:02

Hey - I havent taught footbag to that age group but I do work with kids evreyday teaching tennis.

Bens right, beginners need to have fun. Make up game based drills with them to teach them the basics. Encourage them. Tell them it might be tough for a while but if they keep coming out, they'll start to enjoy the challenge.

I work with progressions. I start close to the net, get their strokes warmed up, their form correct, build their fundamentals and while thats going on they are getting cardio in. So maybe you could start with the basics, kicks - have them do an inside kick followed by a hand catch, 10x. Same with every other kicking surface. Once theyre done they could do a combination of kicks, maybe 2 insides and a hand catch, an outside to an inside... This will build their confidence and control, instead of flailing wildly at the bag. Keep on their ass about form, balance, control. Get them warmed up, throw some friendly advice their way, in a hack environment. If they get comfortable with that controlled drill, push them with the consecutives goal.

Then do the same with delays, amke up combinations that they have to bust out. And consecutives again.

If someone has the slightest hand foot coordination, you can get a good rally going between the 2 of you. A progression if they are having a tough time rallying would be to toss the bag to them and have them try to kick it right back to you, wamr up their kicks. Tell them its a 2 kick and a pass game, in their head they can count out the kicks for timing. Just keep that bag off the ground and people have a great time. If you can get kicking with them and they can get comfortable and start slowing things down a bit, they'll have fun.

ryan

sanuke okumatzu · Post by **sanuke okumatzu** » 31 Jul 2007 12:09

Iron Clad Ben wrote: I would say at that age it's more about having fun for them. Don't push a training regimen on them too hard. If they just want to work on consecutives let them. If they want to spend a whole session just trying to hit pendulum, let them.

Obviously the same principals apply to rewarding them for doing good. Don't favour one over the other but, when they do something pretty good praise them....

That's why I'm such a mess... My daddy dosn't love me......

notsohairlessape · Post by **notsohairlessape** » 31 Jul 2007 16:15

When I was in elementary school a local footbag maker (and net player) taught footbag to me and a bunch of other kids. We actually did the kicking drills that ThomASS is suggesting (always doing everything on both sides) and we all kept a record of consecutive kicks. We were rewarded with footbags when we made it to significant goals (once we got to 20 consecutives, etc.). As soon as you can kick consistently you can start playing all sorts of games, which is what we did. Poison was especially popular. At first we played with poison at 3 consecutives and later at 4 or 5 or a hack and so on. We all got into kicking doing this.

Kljopa · Post by **Kljopa** » 01 Aug 2007 01:54

Thanks for the tips guys!

I will work something out