Four Tips for a Successful HEMA Youth Program
By Sean Ellis
Consulted: Bill Grandy, former head of the Virginia Academy of Fencing’s historical fencing program and Jonathan Schucolsky, owner and founder of Young Ninjas USA
If you’ve ever thought about starting a kids HEMA class, you’ve probably already looked at the basics like insurance and lesson plans. You probably even have a few students in mind for your class. But what can you do to ensure that your program lasts?
To answer this, we will hear from two successful creators of youth martial arts programs and learn the tips they recommend to make sure that your program can blossom!
Tip One: Constant Outreach
When discussing how to run a successful youth fencing program, the last thing you probably expect to hear about is advertising. However, Bill Grandy, the former head of the historical fencing program at the Virginia Academy of Fencing, attributed most of his program's success to his constant outreach to new students.
“The pitfall for most children’s classes is marketing incorrectly,” Bill said. “Sixty percent of my time was spent drumming up students and doing demos at schools.”
When you consider that children eventually grow up (Peter Pan being a notable exception), and that introductory programs are made to be grown out of, then you see the need for a constant influx of new students (and their parents) to keep a program operating at a valuable level.
Further, advertising and outreach for this topic is relatively unexplored. You may have already decided on a kid’s curriculum, but have you made a list of a dozen elementary and middle schools in your area and prepared a demo for them? I thought not! So let’s begin with a plan to succeed where other programs fail: outreach.
Grandy’s approach was to call up elementary schools to get the attention of parents and kids. He would contact the school with a press kit and offer the school a free demo in exchange for teaching a four-week after-school program at their school. This class would be a brief, paid introduction class to direct the kids to a more in-depth program at the Virginia Academy of Fencing.
“You wind up developing trust with the educators and building a community network,” Bill said. “Then, I would run the demo and show them lots of swords and armor. I’d run a Q&A, give out candy, and show some technique. Like anything else, it improved with practice each time.”
Tip Two: Build a Culture of Safety
When there is a shared understanding of clear safety expectations, kids and their parents will feel more comfortable and have more fun.
This goes without saying, but make sure that your classes are covered by insurance. One way to make sure your club is insured is to become a HEMAA Affiliate. USA Fencing is also well used to insuring youth sports and is an option.
It is important to set safety expectations for your classes that both the kids and their parents are aware of. And if parents are going to be present, it is important to have safety rules for them as well.
Examples of safety expectations:
No student makes contact with another student’s body
Only handle a weapon simulator if offered one by the instructor
When weapon simulators are out, masks are on
No one without a mask is allowed in the training area when class is in session (This means parents stay off the floor!)
When the instructor calls “Hold!”, everyone stops and puts their weapon simulators down
Do not shy away from setting clear safety expectations, and make sure both kids and parents are aware! This may sound strict, but creating a safe environment is exactly what will invite engagement with your students and parents.
From Bill Grandy again: “A culture of safety is a major part of (making a kids program work). Parents and kids have to feel safe. Students feel more comfortable participating when they know that ‘just because this guy’s bigger doesn’t mean he’s going to hurt me.’ With a culture of safety everyone has more fun.“
Set expectations early with the kids and parents. Review them in each class. Enforce them.
In addition to enforcing proper behavior for others, make sure to select the right instructors for your program and make sure they are held accountable for following safety procedures.
Wanting to work with young people should be the motivating factor for those involved in running a kids’ class, because you will need enthusiasm and understanding to work with them. When Jonathan Schucolsky of Young Ninjas USA began hiring instructors for his youth programs, he first looked to the black belts he knew but quickly learned that the stern, serious senseis that he learned from as an adult did not communicate well with kids.
“They're never going to listen if you're just barking orders,” Jonathan said. “I need people not afraid to have fun, look silly, and take a different approach. Let the kids have fun.”
This isn’t to say that a kids’ class has to be full of jokes and goofing off, but anyone who has spent time with kids knows that play educates better than lecture, and any would-be teachers or curriculum creators need to be aware of this.
“The mistake I see is people try too hard to teach,” Bill Grandy told me. “You have to trick them into learning; the truth is it’s the same with adults!”
Tip Three: Hide the Repetitions
The curriculum for your kid classes can be very similar to your adult program, the only difference is that you need to “hide the reps.” Obviously, repetition of the same action multiple times works to smooth out technique for adults, but kids will have trouble practicing this way.
Make Your Drill a Game!
Take a play-based approach. Share with your students the fundamentals and safety of a technique, then do drills and games where the action can be repeated to clean up the technique over the course of these repetitions.
Engage Socratically with your students. Call attention to what they are doing and how it fits into the overall framework of the system you are teaching. Introduce vocabulary as you go, not in a lecture but in an experiential way. In the following passage, Bill Grandy imagines how this would apply in a typical youth class:
"What you just did is called a “wind.” Let’s talk about it and understand where this comes from. Repeat terms a lot so that things can stick. Don’t shove it at them, but have them look at what they’re discovering. Then take what they’ve discovered and bring it back to the source.”
A variety of games can be found for every sport and martial art. Adapt them and use them to help you hide the reps. If all else fails, turn to the kids. Odds are they can invent a good game for your purposes as well!
Tip Four: Focus on Student Benefit
We all hope to see students emerge from our program with a deep interest in swordplay that continues for the rest of their lives. Also likely, a student may try out your program for a year or so and never fence again. We should expect both types of students to emerge from our programs with a better understanding and respect of what swords and swordsmanship is all about, and have gained confidence in their ability to practice a martial art.
“Confidence,” Jonathan Schucolsky said. “That is the most successful thing our students walk away with. Parents say ‘my kid is much more outgoing or confident in what they are doing.’"
Bill Grandy shares how his programs have benefitted his students beyond the world of fencing: “I still get messages these days from students I haven’t seen in a decade who are now adults and they tell me how important their time was at my school. Some of them still do HEMA, and some have even started their own schools. Others have told me that they haven’t seriously fenced in years, but that many of the things they learned they still use… I recently heard from a former student who told me that the types of critical analysis he used to do in our classes is something that helped him all the way through grad school where he’s now focusing on medieval studies and manuscript analysis.”
Reviewin’ and Concludin’
There are lots of rewards to working with kids. First off, they’re fun. Second, they grow into adults, allowing this hobby that we love to continue. I hope that this article offers some helpful insights to help you take your idea for a youth program and to turn it into a success! Just remember to:
Do constant outreach
Build a culture of safety
Hide the repetitions
Focus on student benefit