Interactive Sport has developed a unique supplemental teaching aid for Judo coaches, clubs and parents to maintain the motivation and interest of young children learning Judo.
Why Judo?
Judo is an excellent sport for children. Translated Judo means "the way of gentleness" because its a combination of throws and holds with none of the violent punching and kicking associated with many other Martial Arts. In fact, Judo is now considered a "Sport" rather than a martial art and is the only “martial art” discipline recognized as an Olympic sport today.
This makes Judo a well suited sport for very young children, boys and girls alike as it’s generally much safer. Unfortunately (in the USA anyway) it is a little harder to find a Judo class among the many Karate, Taekwondo, and Jujitsu classes being offered. Jujitsu is very similar but adds to the traditional Judo throws and holds with more direct attack techniques involving hitting and kicking. Judo is a more formal and disciplined sport using traditional techniques and Japanese terminology, whereas Jujitsu tends to be less formal and uses English terminology.
Aside from self defense, Judo teaches discipline, respect and self-confidence, and is a great way to remain fit and healthy, all of which are attributes all young children today should be educated in. Judo is an ideal sport for any child 5 and up to participate in, that is providing you can find a local Judo club.
Interactive Sport was founded in part by a professional Judo Instructor, who has been teaching children Judo for many years. He was searching for a Judo DVD (or Video) he could recommend to the parents of his students to help maintain interest and motivation in the sport. There were no products available that were suitable for the young "beginner" audience. Sure, there are lots of Judo books available (which most children will not bother to read) and a lot of videos and DVDs showing adults performing a myriad of advanced Judo techniques, and adult competition footage. Certainly entertaining and useful for experienced Judo "aficionados", but only confusing and intimidating for say a 7 year old just beginning the sport.
With nothing readily available we decided to found Interactive Sport and produce something we felt would address the needs of younger students aged 5-teen. Eventually we plan on branching into other sports, but Judo is our first project.
The DVDs are not designed to replace a Judo class providing personal instruction, its not a "teach yourself Judo" DVD, far from it. Nothing can replace professional instruction in a safe environment. These are designed only as a supplemental teaching aid which can be used by students between lessons to help reinforce what they are taught in class. Think of it as "interactive" homework.
Unfortunately, the dropout rate for sports of this kind is very high for youngsters. Often, most sports activities are initially approached with unabated excitement and eagerness, but the novelty often wears off quickly, children lose interest, eventually dropping out. Aside from the disappointment, parents are left with a large investment in kit and lessons, not to mention the time spent taking them to and from classes. What causes this loss of interest? Well, we think there are a few key contributing factors.
- Low frequency of the lessons – Judo lessons are normally in the form of a weekly class for a couple of hours. The time in between lessons is idle time with no further interest, practice or attention spent on the sport.
- Group learning environment – Classes usually have many students at different levels, where some advance more quickly. It is difficult for the instructor to spend quality time with a student who needs additional help in this group teaching environment.
- Motivation – Children require constant motivation. It is easy to be intimidated in a group setting when first starting Judo lessons, and any failure to advance will often cause a rapid loss of interest.
Focused content – Each DVD is goal driven, focused on achieving the next belt grade. Each subsequent DVD builds on the accumulated knowledge for the next belt grade and so on. This keeps the children focused on the specific things they need to learn to achieve the next higher belt grade. While they may be taught a wide variety of techniques in class, which are all important, the DVD reinforces most of the things they need to know and understand to get that next color belt. The excitement, reward and sense of achievement of getting the next belt color are priceless motivation for children to continue with the sport.
Fun 3D characters – We use lovable animated 3D characters in a virtual Dojo to demonstrate each technique. The female voice over is relaxed, easy to understand, informative and non-intimidating. The 3D characters are important for the younger viewers who more readily bond to fun “cartoon-like” characters who never intimidate. We also provide 4 camera angles of each 3D technique, so the children can look from all angles – something they cannot do in class when shown a technique. We run the 3D action slightly slower than normal speed [not so it is noticeable] so the techniques are easier to comprehend and follow.
Terminology – The children need to learn and understand the Japanese terminology used in Judo. We have a section on the DVD where they can see, hear and read the Japanese terminology as well as learn the English translations.
Live Video – When the children select a specific technique to study on the DVD they can see the 3D characters perform the technique, with voice over instruction. They can also play a live video clip of real children demonstrating the same technique a few times (sometimes not always perfectly). It is better they see children their own age rather than well accomplished black belts showing very aggressive technically perfect execution - that refinement can come later. What’s important for a beginner is to maintain interest, motivation and not be intimidated.
Easy to use menu system – We opted for an interactive DVD format because almost all families have a TV set with DVD player and remote, which children can readily use. (The DVD can also be played in a computer) We wanted to stay away from a CD Rom that requires a PC as parents are not always comfortable (or willing) to give up the family computer for the children to play with.
Designed with children in mind, the DVD has very easy to understand menus and navigation. This lets the children choose exactly what they want to see rather than having to play through the complete DVD, or fast forward or select chapters to find what they are looking for.
Coming Soon!
We are currently market testing the first Judo DVD in focus groups with children and parents to fine tune the navigation and get valuable feedback, which has been very positive so far. We plan to have the first DVD in the series available for purchase in September 2009.
Please visit our website for more information
http://www.interactive-sports.com
We welcome your comments
At last! Can't wait to buy this DVD!
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