Episode 1037 - Martial Arts Summer Camps
In this episode join Andrew is joined by friend of the show Craig Wharem. They sit down to discuss martial arts summer camps and some of the things to think about offering them.
Martial Arts Summer Camps - Episode 1037
SUMMARY
In this episode, Andrew Adams and Craig Wharem discuss the intricacies of running martial arts summer camps. They explore the structure, schedule, and activities involved in these camps, emphasizing the importance of leadership development, downtime, and social interaction among students.
The conversation also touches on gamifying learning experiences, managing technology use, and the regulations surrounding summer camps. Craig shares insights from his own experiences, highlighting the balance between fun and education in creating a supportive community for young martial artists.
TAKEAWAYS
Summer camps can be a fun and engaging way to learn martial arts.
Downtime is essential for maintaining energy and building connections among students.
Gamifying learning can enhance the teaching experience.
Creating a supportive community helps students bond and learn from each other.
Managing technology use in camps can foster better social interactions.
Incorporating diverse activities keeps students engaged and learning.
Understanding regulations is important for running a compliant summer camp.
Encouraging social interaction can help students make new friends.
Balancing fun and education is crucial for a successful camp experience.
CHAPTERS
00:00 Introduction
01:42 The Structure and Activities of Summer Camps
04:23 Leadership Development in Martial Arts
07:10 The Importance of Downtime and Social Interaction
11:53 Gamifying Teaching Techniques
17:47 Creating a Supportive Community
20:53 Managing Student-Teacher Ratios
23:26 Compliance and Certification for Camps
After listening to the episode, it would be exciting for us to know your thoughts about it. Don’t forget to drop them in the comment section down below!
SHOW TRANSCRIPT
Andrew Adams (00:50.194)
Welcome you're listening or watching the next episode of Whistlekick commercial arts radio. And today I'm joined by great friend of the show, Craig Wareham. Craig, how are you today?
Craig Wharem (01:00.174)
Couldn't be better, Andrew. I get to chat with you.
Andrew Adams (01:02.5)
Awesome. Excellent. I'm excited. We are here to talk about martial art summer camps. But before we get into the discussion, I want to make sure everybody knows about all of the stuff that whistle kick does. Obviously you can go to whistlekickmarshallartsradio.com to find out information on this episode and all of our other episodes. You can find transcripts and links to photos for guests and things like that. You can also find a subscribe button at the top to subscribe to our exclusive newsletter where you'll get
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whistle kick. All right, so Craig, we got to hurry up here because we don't have a whole lot of time. How come we don't have a whole lot of time?
Craig Wharem (03:06.582)
No, I'm in camp mode, man. We're doing camp this week, so we're squeezing it in during lunchtime.
Andrew Adams (03:14.77)
So we, you I messaged you and said, Hey, let's get together. haven't chatted for a while. Let's, let's do an episode this week. And you're like, well, I've got summer camp, but I've got this time off in the middle. Let's do it. So, so here we are. You're in camp mode. So what a better thing to talk about than summer camp.
Craig Wharem (03:32.588)
It's a blast. Summertime's lot of fun and it's really what you make it. And so it's pretty cool right now. We've got two camps running at my school. So Noah Dever, who's been on the show and it goes to a bunch of free training days and stuff. He's working with elementary school aged kids and he's doing all sorts of sparring drills and self-defense drills. They're doing some board breaking. And then I'm working with our higher
probably highest level teams from a rank perspective that are working towards leadership levels and they want to be assisting in class and guiding and helping. And so they're spending the week learning all sorts of leadership stuff and more advanced martial arts as well. So it's been a pretty fun week having two camps running, two different energies with a lot of fun stuff and some overlap.
Andrew Adams (04:25.266)
That's great. Did you, when you were growing up learning, did you go to martial arts summer camps yourself?
Craig Wharem (04:33.014)
I, yes and no, because I started assisting in classes two years in to my training. And as an assistant, you were expected to be at the camp and help, you know, especially if you're on payroll like I was. So you wanted that, you wanted those extra work hours, right? So I went to camp every year we did it when I was a kid.
once I started assisting before that, because my parents are divorced, I tended to spend a lot of time in the summer with my dad, which was not nearby. So but once it was a job and I was getting that kind of pay thing, it made it more worth it for him to do the hour drive back and forth every day to pick me up until I have my own license. But we were teaching things at the camp that I didn't know yet. I was kind of a crowd control assistant.
So I got to learn things and kind of help with the crowd control at the same time. So was the best of both worlds.
Andrew Adams (05:35.038)
The question that always comes to mind when I hear about summer camps and you know, my school doesn't do them. My old school used to do them a little bit, but I work for some summer camps over the summer that are not martial arts related and there are half day camps and full day camps. So what are you doing in your school?
Craig Wharem (05:58.008)
So we do full day drop office between 7.30 and eight in the morning and pick up is usually 3.30, four o'clock for most people. And then we have a five o'clock option for other families that need it. really what we do is we can't as camp winds down in our afternoon classes, full pick up the camp kids just get folded into a class if they have to stay later and they just jump into our regular schedule at that point. So that way it's not double staff or over.
Andrew Adams (06:01.917)
Mm-hmm.
Andrew Adams (06:09.202)
Mm-hmm.
Andrew Adams (06:20.67)
Mmm.
Craig Wharem (06:27.478)
you know, an additive thing for the staff in the afternoon. It's what we do. cause for the most part, we also do our best to have, if staff is running camp all day, they don't do the afternoon because we're fortunate. have a big team. So we're, we're able to do that. But there were many years where that wasn't the case and it was kind of a one man show and I was camp in the morning and teach until eight, nine o'clock at night. So, you know,
Andrew Adams (06:40.51)
Sure, sure.
Andrew Adams (06:51.614)
And so what comes to mind for me is I'm thinking in my head, like you've clearly thought about like, okay, you're doing camp until three or maybe say four o'clock. And then at four o'clock, if there are kids that have to stay later, they jump into class. So at four o'clock, you don't have an adult black belt class. So you've definitely thought about, okay, if there are kids like you organized your afternoon regular classes to be such that
the kids could be folded in. So that takes a lot of organization and thinking about how that will work.
Craig Wharem (07:27.15)
Yeah, and well for me, a key component, I think I talk about it in almost every episode, right, is that anyone can teach and mentor if given the proper training. So what we do is say maybe we've got a blue belt student who's in camp and needs to get picked up later and we have a white and yellow belt class at four o'clock, the blue belt student is not gonna take the class.
they're probably the one helping and maybe getting the pads for the teacher or they're doing something similar. also at the end of the long day, trying to throw them into a really physically intense class where they're doing exercises all over again, you know, they're tired. So we're finding a non, kind of a non heavy committal way to get them something a little bit special too. Cause if we see that they really take to it and like it, well, now we have a new
candidate for assisting classes.
Andrew Adams (08:27.321)
Yeah, that makes sense. And the other thing that often I have, I don't say I've heard, but I've thought of, maybe I actually have heard it from others that have said, you know, if you're going from, you know, drop off, he said, is it seven, seven 30s, you're going seven 30 to three, uh, eight 39 30, 10 30, 11 30, 12 31 32 30. So we're talking seven and a half hours of camp, right?
Craig Wharem (08:43.982)
730.
Andrew Adams (08:55.526)
Maybe even a little bit longer if they stay a little bit later. instructors, when they're teaching a class, a typical class, an hour, maybe a two hour class, they've got a curriculum they're going to go through. You're teaching an eight hour long class, right? That's what you, that's what your summer camp is, right? You're just, you have these kids going punch, kick, punch, kick for eight hours, right?
Craig Wharem (09:17.322)
Yeah, no. Right now, Noah's camp is, they're on their lunch break and they're in, Andrew, you've been at our school. We have a room just for our clubs. There's a, right now there's a TV and they're playing Kung Fu Panda 2 for them during lunchtime. So they watch a movie, they start a movie at lunch and then they do some more activities after lunch and then they go back and they watch more of the movie. And we just plug away portions of the movie throughout the day. And if we don't finish the movie, cause we're doing so much other stuff.
We just finish it the next day. think a lot of martial arts camps that I know of, one of the things that they always forget is that resting and having a little bit of downtime is important, not just to maintain the energy all week of your camp, but also it builds a connection, right? And it allows students to spend time just getting to know each other, just playing. Our breaks, we do, you know,
My group is a little bit different because they're the more elite, they're the high school kids. They've been around a long time. They usually go for two, two and a half hours at a time before a break. Because for example, this morning was all about leadership and teamwork. So we were practicing tying belts onto other people, right? Things that instructors may need that they don't have. And we got it down, we worked the muscle memory, we worked the repetition, we timed ourselves doing it. We timed ourselves doing it and talking through it so we could teach people how to.
And it was, so it's a pretty intensive thing for the leadership aspects. And a lot of it is found in the Matic courses, right, that we have. That's, you know, those things, this camp is what that's founded on. So, but Noah also has a bunch of board games out on the mat. So when his group or my group are on a, you know, maybe 15, 20, 25 minute break, depending on whichever section we're in.
they're out on the mat playing board games together. Or some kids prefer to sit and quiet and read a book. They just grab a book and sit in the corner for a little bit and just decompress. So they're not go, go, go all day long. Cause otherwise they're not going to maintain that in the longterm. And I think a great way to build confidence in kids is for them to have a place where they're meeting friends and learning that social interaction is safe environment. And that's hard to do.
Craig Wharem (11:45.398)
in a completely structured class all day long.
Andrew Adams (11:47.965)
Yeah, yeah. And you know, I want to go back just really quickly because you mentioned MADEC and for those that are not aware MADEC is stands for martial arts teacher training and certification, which Whistlekick has put together in collaboration with you. But just in case people like MADEC, what are you talking about? It's a teacher training certification course that we offer. But one of the things you talked about, which I find really interesting, and I think it's an important point to mention and maybe go into
further detail on is that you talked about in your leadership, slightly older kids, you're working on an example today was tying belts on students, right? Because every martial art instructor out there has had to teach brand new students how to, mean, everyone who, everyone who puts on a belt has to know how to tie it. And often the upper ranked are the ones that are helping them out. And so obviously it's a skill that people need to learn that your leadership needs to learn, but you
gamified it. Talk about that a little bit.
Craig Wharem (12:49.198)
Yeah, well, I think I think one of things that's been fun with them this week is they're recognizing just how much goes into the actual teaching. Right. A lot of times people watch teachers and go, oh, I could do that. That's an easy job. Right. It's easy to teach whatever it is. Right. It doesn't have to be martial arts. How many people, Andrew, have looked at you and said, I could teach drumming. And then they like drum with plastic water bottles. Right.
Andrew Adams (13:07.966)
Mm-hmm.
Andrew Adams (13:13.438)
you
Craig Wharem (13:17.184)
And so for the group I've got, it's an eye-opening experience for them where they learn how to tie the belt on the other person. So let's face it, four-year-olds belts fall off once in a while. the four-year-old is going to take forever to tie it on. You might want them to participate in class. So you might have somebody helping them with it. And so to start off, was just, this is how you tie the belt on somebody else. This is the proper distance to be.
Make sure that you're paying attention to what your hands are doing. you're not, you know, you make sure you're tying the belt a little bit higher. Let them set it down on their hips. So we're covering all the safety protocol and the importance of personal space and, and that sort of thing. On top of that, the next step is now talk through it. I'm going to start, I'm going to take the belt and we'll put on your stomach. I'm going to wrap it around the back. I'm going to pull it back around. I'm going to cross it over and you're, and you're explaining it to them.
Cause every time you tie a belt on a four year old, if all you do is tie the belt and walk away, you haven't done anything with the four year old other than tie their belt. If you're explaining it as you go, then they're hearing the steps, they're watching the steps, they're learning. And then after you get that part down, then we start to time you. And we set ambitious goals, right? So the goal today was, if you've never done this before, you want to get...
You want to tie the belt, have it done and have explained it well with at most 15 seconds. If you've done it before, you want to do it at most at 10 seconds. And we spent an hour on it. And by the end of the hour, everybody could do it. The last person, the longest time was about 11 and a half seconds, I think. And the person who had the most experience with it was doing it, tying it and explaining it in about six and a half.
Andrew Adams (14:46.493)
Mmm.
Andrew Adams (14:50.716)
Wow.
Craig Wharem (15:11.328)
So now, could they do that every time? Probably not. But was it fun for them to get that rep? It just disguised the repetition of doing it over and over again. The other thing that we did was, you know, everybody gets to learn an advanced form. So I was teaching them the form. And then yesterday afternoon, I said, OK, now we're going to go ahead and I want you to teach your favorite form to your partner. But I want you to do literally what your partner says.
Andrew Adams (15:40.798)
Mmm.
Craig Wharem (15:41.134)
Don't assume you don't know it. And if you're teaching, you have to assume your student doesn't know it. You have to do literally what they say. And it was fun to watch them realize exactly how detailed you have to be. And the other cool thing that comes is all of sudden some of those more advanced students realized they were getting asked questions they didn't have answers to.
Andrew Adams (16:04.574)
Interesting.
Craig Wharem (16:05.646)
And so when that happened, it provided a conversation for me with them to answer their questions and to flesh out probably something that most instructors have had. A student asks a question, you don't know how to answer to. We got to play that scenario out in a low stakes environment because they know everybody's there to learn how to teach.
So yeah, it's fun and this is a requirement. We love this idea so much and the things we're doing so much that this is a requirement for anyone who wants to assist in classes. They have to do this camp.
Andrew Adams (16:45.426)
Yeah, and that, you know, doing things literally, we've all probably seen the video of the person making, make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, but do exactly what I tell you to do. And so they're like, you know, open the peanut butter, you know, take the knife and then take, put the peanut butter on the bread. And so they take the jar of peanut butter and place the jar of peanut butter on the bread. Cause that's literally what you said. You said, put the peanut butter on the bread, right? And so those sorts of,
fun games, for lack of a better word, teaching tools can be really useful. That's great. The other thing that we talked about that I also want to go back and chat about is the downtime, right? Not having, you know, if your summer camp is eight hours long, obviously you're going to take a break for lunch. But that doesn't mean you're having like a four hour class and then lunch and then a three hour class or, you know, having that downtime gives them a
Craig Wharem (17:40.163)
Right.
Andrew Adams (17:45.201)
a chance to rest and recuperate. But also the thing you mentioned was the social aspect. So I have to imagine, and I could be wrong because I've never been at your summer camp, but you may very well have students in your summer camp that never interact during the regular week at, you know, during the school year because they're in different class levels or they come to, you know, what this kid always comes on Monday and this other child always comes on Tuesday, right?
They never interact. And so this is an opportunity for them to make new friends. And it's hard to do that when you're just punch, kick, punch, kick, learn a form, do this, that, you know?
Craig Wharem (18:24.524)
Yeah, and I think you can do all sorts of stuff where you're, if you know that these two kids have never met, but you know they both love baseball or they both play soccer, you can be like, you probably haven't met this person. You know what? They play soccer too. So that's pretty cool. You have martial arts and soccer as a connection. And then during the break, be like, you know, just say, Hey, who's your favorite soccer player? And then just walk away and just let the kids.
Andrew Adams (18:51.56)
Ha ha ha.
Craig Wharem (18:52.224)
let the kids do it. I do that all the time. In fact, right before I came in for lunch break, we were talking about, had done it, my camp, my crew, we had just done a teamwork drill. And the drill was, you know, in my school, we have really big black squares rings for sparring and stuff like that. And so what we did was, you know, the ring is molten peanut butter. You can't step in it or you get stuck.
You get, you know, you have to get everybody across. It's a pretty common team building exercise and you get a couple pieces of equipment. Once they go down in the square, you can't move them unless you want to reset. And so we went through that. That took about a half hour. And then we sat down and we talked about the importance of being on a team and still being an individual. So each team should be comprised of individuals who contribute to the greater team goal.
But on top of that, the other thing we discussed was I went around the circle and I asked, do you know when what their favorite color is? Or do you know that person's, you know, other hobbies? Do you know? And I asked them a bunch of, do you know questions about each other? They didn't know. And then I stood up and I said, okay, well, I'm giving you about 10, 15 minutes extra on lunch. It's going to start now. And I would like you please to, to know. I would like you guys to just sit together, just talk.
I'm not going to prompt you, just learn about each other. You're a team." And then I just walked away. And then I looked out my office window and there's a bunch of teenagers sitting out there on the mat right now having lunch. There's not a cell phone in sight. And they're all talking to each other and they're just enjoying their time.
Andrew Adams (20:23.55)
Mmm.
Andrew Adams (20:38.088)
Mm-hmm. Now, not a cell phone on site because you have banned them or not a cell phone on site just because they have no interest in being on them.
Craig Wharem (20:47.702)
just because they're talking to each other.
So, I don't ban phones. When they're training and they're active on the mat, obviously we're not gonna see a cell phone. But during the downtime, they can have them, because I like them to make a conscious choice between using it or not using it. Usually at the beginning of the week, they're all on their phones.
in lunchtime. now we're it's so today's Wednesday of the week. We're halfway through camp, and there's on a cell phone in sight. And I like that to happen organically. And then at the end of the week, I pointed out because it's a powerful thing to them that a phone can be a lifeline support to other people socially.
Andrew Adams (22:11.898)
interesting. Yeah, yeah.
Craig Wharem (22:23.371)
and when you're uncomfortable you tend to lean on it as a crutch but then the more you bond and gel as a team the less likely you are to want to always be on that phone.
Andrew Adams (22:33.682)
Yeah, that makes a lot of sense.
Craig Wharem (22:36.138)
So, and I think that I don't have a problem with banning phones at camp or, you know, saying, no, you're not going to, bring your cell phone. You're not going to need it. Like I totally get that. for me, it's just a different thing. I like to try and. I almost take the phones as a challenge on the first day. It's, it's a little bit for me, it's a game for me on how quickly can I get them to lose the phones. And so as long as you're fostering the right sense of community,
And there's a time where they can have them and a time where they can't, meaning if we're training, you're learning whatever you're doing, leadership, you can't have them. Otherwise, I don't care if you have them. And the less I care about it, the less they care about it.
Andrew Adams (23:21.264)
interesting. Now, what's your student to teacher ratio? Obviously, I suspect it's different with your high school kids as it is with your younger kids that Noah has. what do you what do you typically try and have as a student teacher ratio?
Craig Wharem (23:37.678)
Anywhere from eight to one to 10 to one is what I try to do. But also I try to find an assistant who may be, they're an adult student who's a teacher during the summer or something, maybe something like that, where they're not gonna be actively assisting with the kids. And I try to have them come in too, just because for eight hours, one adult's energy.
Andrew Adams (23:41.395)
Mm-hmm.
Craig Wharem (24:05.568)
it becomes monotonous. If you add in a second one or a guest teacher or something, that's helpful. One of my favorite things that we've done before in camps is we do, I call them internal field trips. We don't take the kids somewhere. We have someone come to them. So in the past we've had somebody who ran like an arts and crafts.
store down the street and she brought a bunch of stuff in and did stuff with them or we've had wildlife experts come in with a bunch of wildlife before and the kids got to learn about all sorts of animals or we've had I'm trying to think what else we've done comic book store owners bringing a bunch of comic books and help kids make their own like it's just whatever it is it's we try to bring people to us
And so that also, A, it gives the instructor a little bit of time to catch their breath. And B, it gives the kids the opportunity to do something a little bit different.
Andrew Adams (25:12.146)
I dig that. That's really great. the last thing I want to chat about is some States may require certification for running a day camp because some States may, may, may see it as daycare, right? Which I think many of us would say what we are doing is not necessarily daycare. it is a summer camp, but obviously you are in New Hampshire.
I don't know the, I mean, I'm in New Hampshire as well, but I don't run a summer camp, so I don't know the rules. Do you, did you need to get any special certification for this?
Craig Wharem (25:49.426)
No, we're not providing them food. They bring their own lunch and that sort of thing. We're not providing transport, that sort of stuff. our martial arts registration, our martial arts school registration covers the camp. And it's also for a defined amount of time. It's not for a huge amount of time. So I'm pretty sure those are the only requirements. I inherited these camps from the owner of KI. So I just have always assumed they're compliant.
Andrew Adams (26:20.168)
Well, I'm sure they are. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You're you know, you're having fun. You're teaching class. This is great. I hope that people listening or watching, because again, you can go on YouTube and watch. If you go on YouTube and watch, you can see these cool things that I'm holding up right now.
Craig Wharem (26:21.548)
Yeah. Yeah. We're not doing anything crazy.
Craig Wharem (26:41.378)
You can also see that Andrew woke up handsome this morning.
Andrew Adams (26:43.838)
That's true. These cool things. But you won't know what these things are. Look, they make noise, but you don't know what they are unless you're watching on YouTube. And if you are on YouTube, click that like button, subscribe, hit the notification bell. Whistlekick.com is where you can go to find out everything we do. Whistlekick, martial arts radio.com for this episode and all of our other podcast episodes. You know, the other thing you can do that really helps out, I didn't mention this at the beginning, costs nothing.
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Craig, people can reach you at...
Craig Wharem (27:43.566)
Craig at Whistlekick.com.
Andrew Adams (27:45.278)
Craig, itwaslokig.com. Thanks for coming on today, Craig. I appreciate you taking time out of your summer camp to chat. This was great.
Craig Wharem (27:53.144)
No problem. It was fun. I had a good time. And I had a few laughs with you, which is nice. That means you were remotely funny today.
Andrew Adams (28:01.658)
I want sometimes I tell jokes on zoom and they don't laugh and I often think it's because i'm not remotely funny, but I must have been funny today because yeah, you you did laugh. Well, thanks so much. I appreciate you coming on the show And I guess until next time train hard And have a great day
Craig Wharem (28:07.278)
you
you are.
Craig Wharem (28:18.648)
smile and have a great day.