On May 17th (Wednesday), the “running training class” was held for the second time at the Bibai City General Gymnasium, organized by the Bibai Donmai Sports Club.
This running training class was led by Mr. Takahashi of the Bibai City Athletics Association. The class is divided into the first class (1st grade to 3rd grade) and the second class (4th grade to 6th grade), where participants can learn how to run while enjoying various forms of training that fit their athletic ability levels.
In the first class (1st to 3rd grade), after a warm-up exercise, they lined up and held hands of next persons to form a ring, and with a voice of trainer saying “front,” “back,” “left,” or “right,” they jumped in unison to the direction that was instructed. The call got faster and faster, but everyone was reacting and moving to the right direction.
After that, they enjoyed training using ring ladders. They jumped from one ring to the next one while performing a different movement (jumping, jumping while clapping hands, jumping and landing with feet apart, squatting) for each color. It is quite difficult to keep moving forward while instantly checking the correct movement corresponding to the color of the next ring, but everyone seemed to be doing well and also enjoy it.
After that, they did another training. At the trainer’s signal, they quickly stood up from a sitting or lying down position to make a dash for the other end of the gym.
At the end of the class, they were divided into two teams and played a rock-paper-scissors game using ring ladders.
In this game, one person from each team jumps from one ring to the next one until he/she meets the opponent of the other team. They play rock-paper-scissors, and the winner keeps jumping to one ring after another until he/she meets the next opponent.
Everyone seemed to be having so much fun playing this game and looked satisfied at the end of the class.
In the second class (4th to 6th grade), after doing a warm-up exercise, they did a step exercise using a step stool. They jumped and landed on the step stool with both feet, jumped off with both feet, and repeated them for 20 seconds. Then they jumped in the order of right foot on → left foot on → right foot off → left foot off, and repeated it for 20 seconds.
After that, they enjoyed training using ring ladders. When a different movement was assigned for each of 5 colors (jumping, landing with one foot, landing with both feet open, jumping while clapping hands, and squatting), the difficulty level considerably increased, but everyone was doing well.
After that, as in the first class, they quickly stood up from a sitting or lying down position and made a dash for the other end of the gym at the trainer’s signal. Since Mr. Takahashi, a trainer, did this together with the students, everyone tried their best to go faster than the trainer.
In the end, after practicing a handstand using a wall, they played tag with Mr. Takahashi and me for 3 minutes. Everyone ran around and fully enjoyed it, and the class ended with a comfortable feeling of fatigue.
The next running training class will be held on Wednesday, May 31st.
