Eleven Martial Arts WordSearch Puzzles

Now and then I check the blog to see what searches people are using to find this site. What words do you think bring the most viewers to the blog?

Karate? No. Self-defense? No. Bullying? Nope. Teaching martial arts to kids? – Nuh-uh. The search that comes up more than anything else is “WordSearch Puzzles.”

I guess the world has a hunger for WordSearch.

So here’s my modest little holiday gift to all of you: I’ve collected eleven martial-arts-related WordSearch puzzles and one bonus word game into a single PDF file you can download and print as often as you like. Just click here.

The file contains both of the puzzles that were posted earlier on this blog (along with their links to some good puzzle-making sites); the five puzzles from The Cuong Nhu Training Manual for Kids (and Their Parents); and four new puzzles created especially for this occasion:

Taekwondo-Karate-KungFu, which compares some Korean, Japanese and Chinese martial arts terminology;
The Five P’s of an Achiever;
The Five D’s of a Winner;
and The Ten Don’ts of Sparring.

The new puzzles include some martial arts philosophy, and the bonus puzzle explores my favorite martial arts concept: Respect.

Once again, here’s the link for downloading the file. Happy puzzling, everyone!

The Dreaded “Triple Push-Up” & More Martial Arts Fun

photo courtesy of Shawn McElroy

Shawn McElroy Sensei, head of after-school programs at Sung Ming Shu Dojo in Atlanta, loves the “triple push-up,” adding,

I have had groups up to 5 do this exercise. Great for team building and strength!

What’s your favorite fun, funny, weird, creative drill or exercise for kids? Share it here. Leave a comment below, or – if you have a photo – send it to redwoodojo@hotmail.com.

Celebrate Kids Who Train in Martial Arts

Updated January 14, 2010

photo by Linda Nikaya

Happy New Year, everyone!
Let this be the best year yet for your training.
May you build strength, stamina, discipline and focus.
May you feel the joy of good health and physical expression.
May you have more fun than ever, pursuing an art that provides such serious benefits in your life. Have some serious fun.

Let’s celebrate in pictures. Send me a great picture (or two) showing kids in action, training in martial arts. Include appropriate credits (your school and instructor, and the photographer’s name). We’ll add it to the photo gallery here on this site. Pass the word to anyone you know who teaches martial arts to kids– or who has kids who train in martial arts.

A few folks have already responded– I have some pictures from Germany as well as the U.S. Let’s get as many schools, styles, states, and countries on here as we can!

Send your photos to photos@kidskaratebook.com. I look forward to seeing and posting them!

Martial Arts Word Search Puzzles

As some of you know, the Kids Karate Workbook grew out of an earlier project, The Cuong Nhu Training Manual for Kids and Their Parents (see “what people are saying” for more about this).

There were some fun things in the Cuong Nhu kids’ manual that we had to take out to make room for new material–for example, Word Search Puzzles. Kids love Word Searches, so to make up for not having any in the book, I created a couple of new ones to include here on the blog.

If you click on these links, you will be able to save and print your own copies of the new puzzles:

KidsKarateBook WordSearch #1: Martial Arts Basics

KidsKarateBook WordSearch #2: Names of Many Different Martial Arts

Did you know you can create your own Word Search puzzles online? Here are the two sites I used to create our two puzzles. I like these two because they make it easy to copy and paste your puzzle, to save on your own computer.

FunBrain.com

DiscoveryEducation.com

Have fun puzzling!

Do you have a favorite kind of martial arts puzzle? Let us know.

UPDATE, December 2010: Eleven more puzzles now available; see this post.