Grids

Almost every child has played tic tac toe.  Therefore, we can use this game as a tool.

Take your standard tic tac toe board and overlay it on your partner’s torso.  Now you’ve got 9 little boxes.  As you’re harmony sparring make sure you target each one of those nine boxes.  Undoubtedly, during this drill, you’ll find that you favor some of these boxes over others.

What’s the purpose?  Well, for one it’s good target practice but for another, it forces students to look for more targets than they are used to.  The hope is that if they do this drill enough, some of those new targets will become familiar, slip into their regular sparring and add some variety to their arsenal.

The best part?  We did exactly the same drill in adult class.  The only thing we changed is we made contact instead of going one inch.  I love my job.