krav maga – heavy bag class
Heavy Bag Class – Solving the Problem of Too Many Students
Those of you who teach bag classes have probably run into the problem of having too many students show up for class. You end up with two, or even three, members training on one heavy bag. Now, having too many members is a high quality problem, but it is a problem nonetheless. Your lesson plan needs to accommodate these large numbers, or you’ll end up with a) people standing around, waiting their turn to punch; b) banging into each other as they all work together; or c) fragmenting your lesson plan so much that it feels like a shopping list of activity items rather than one homogeneous, well-thought-out lesson.
There are multiple solutions to this problem. We’ve included a few here:
1) “Burn Out” Drills – assume you’ve taught a striking combination. Your group of 2 or 3 people on a bag have been taking turns, and up to this point it’s been OK, because the pace has been a slightly slower, learning pace rather than an all-out kick-butt pace. But now you want them to work! Have them take up the speed and power of their combinations, and make it a “burn out” drill – the minute one person is finishing the combination, the next person must start. The two (or three) students on the heavy bag will end up challenging each other, giving each other no rest. What was a difficulty (too many on a bag) now becomes a challenge.
2) “Station Race” – create two or three stations, one of which is a combination on the heavy bag, the others being any hardcore, functional exercise. Those of you who do CrossFit should consider activities like wall-balls, thrusters, burpees (or just sprawls, if you want to keep it in a fighting context). Here’s the kicker – give each station a set number to reach, such as “Do the combination 5 times” or “10 wall balls” There is NO REST between sations…unless you finish before your partner. Then you get to rest until he finishes. Do you see where this is going? The student will be driven to go hard and fast to get done and rest…but so will his partner! The overall affect will be one of greater output and work.
3) “Station Bounce” – a variation on “Station Race”; have several stations (one of which is heavy bag, of course), and arrange them so that members in a group of 2 or 3 move in order from one to the next (for example; heavy bag, followed by push ups, followed by squats); each person must continue to do the activity at that station until “bounced” to the next one by the person behind him in order, who has finished.
4) “Sprawl While Waiting” – a simple way to maintain activity if your students are waiting for their turn on the bag: do sprawls (or, logically, end the combination with a sprawl). If the combination is long, make the waiting student sprawl twice during the partner’s combination,
5) “TeamWork” – if they are really waiting, make the wait worthwhile by making the 2 or 3 people a team against the other “teams” on other bags. Each person must do the combination 5 times, see which team can finish first. The person waiting his turn on the bag can and will cheer on his partner. It won’t feel like waiting. If you want to make it harder, make each person do 2 sets of 5.
These are just a few ideas. We hope you find them useful…and feel free to post additional ideas of your own!
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