AIKIDO GAMES FOR KIDS – The tai sabaki game

At our dojos in Auckland we have a thriving Youth Academy with kids between the ages of 8 and 15 all training together on the same mat.  Over the years we have developed and refined a number of “Aikido games” to help them develop their skills quicker and more enjoyably, especially the fundamentals of posture, balance, ukemi and body movement.

Here is a clip of a game I developed about 5 years ago that we call the tai sabaki (body movement) game.  We play this during the warm up of every class and it not only promoted honesty and self respect bgut also sharpens up their body movement and reaction times.  It’s a great way to start a kids class and the best part is they really enjoy it!