Training Times

• Mon, 17:30-18:15
• Wed, 17:30-18:15
• Sat, 11:00-12:00 (alongside The Agoge)

What do the kids need to bring?
Just a t-shirt and tracksuit bottoms or shorts.

What’s a typical class like?
At Clever Little Monkeys we try to have the classes as natural as possible, and never adhere to an overly strict regime. Instead, we let the classes evolve in accordance with the children’s own learning curve and level of enjoyment deciding the pace. With that in mind, the training sessions usually follow this pattern.

Monkeying Around
For the first few minutes, while children are arriving, the kids are allowed to ‘Monkey Around’, that is, engage in free play. Usually they’ll practice throws on each other. This is probably the most important part of the class, as the children are allowed complete freedom of movement and expression in a safe environment. In this setting, the children learn how to communicate, both verbally and physically with other children without adults overly enforcing themselves upon the children.

Warm Up Races
After Monkeying Around, the children are called into the Safe Zone, and we’ll do some wacky races to warm up. These races aren’t focused on winning, rather they are used as a fun way to adequate warm up and to build co-ordination and fitness.

Sports Specific Drills and Gameplay
Sports specific games take up the bulk of the class and aim to improve the skill and attributes of the children for self defence and martial arts. Each child pairs up with a partner and they’ll play around with whatever skill we’re working with that day. Our teaching methodology at CLM is the “Inquiry Method“.The parameters of the game are set by the coach, and the children are then free to discover what method will help them achieve the goal. The children will swap partners frequently during this type of play to get them used to working with different people and body types.

After 3-4 “rounds” with the children playing around in the area we’re working on the coach will call them back to the ‘Safe Zone’ and the children will share what they came up with. One child will demonstrate a way they found effective at achieving that objective against their partner. After they have shown their technique the other kids will test it and report back on it, or show another method.

Our roles as coaches is to ensure children are given enough freedom to create inventive methods to solve their own problems, to create an environment where the answers will emerge. I’m very keen to stress that I only give ideas and pointers to the children, as I feel giving them rigid techniques that they are compelled to do will stifle their natural creativity. Time and time again I’m amazed at the ingenuity shown by the little monkeys in escaping, throwing, and pinning!

Towards the end of the class, I sometimes have only one pair up on the floor drilling take downs or escapes, while the other children cheer them on or count down the time limit. We’ve learnt this is a good way to focus attention on one or two children, improve their technique and boost their confidence.

To finish, we might play another game, then stretch out.