Game Night TKO

How many of you host a Game Night? Parent’s Night Out? Holiday Party? A large percentage of our readers run exactly these types of events.

If we make these events fun, we’ve hit a home run. Parents are happy with a small oasis of peace and quiet. Kids are happy with a super-fun evening. We are happy showcasing the fun of our studio for families that are not yet members.

Further, we always get the chance to make it a skill-builder by constructing our games around some foundational skills.

This all sounds like a winning plan, right? Well, not so fast. Those good intentions can turn into a TKO for your school!

Recently, one of the nation’s premier studios conducted one of these events. It had been carefully planned. The large mat space had been divided into two floors. On one side, it was set up with a very simple obstacle course. The other floor was set up for dodge ball. To separate the one large mat area into two floors, the instructors ran stacks of puzzle mats down the middle of the matted floor.

The studio team decided that the two games allowed them to provide lots of kid-approved fun. It would build the foundational skills of focus, awareness, speed, dexterity and transitional stance, all of which are important

to martial arts.

The evening began with a buzz among the kids. They knew from experience it was going to be great. They would escape mom and dad’s gaze and have fun with their friends.

One student that who attended a very new martial artist, with his grandma sitting in the observation area the whole evening. Even with his grandma’s visible presence, he quickly forgot she was watching and threw himself

into enjoying the games.

After trying both of the organized games, he decided he didn’t really want to play either one. Instead, he began climbing up the stacks of puzzle mats and jumping from stack to stack. The instructor told him once that he needed to get down. Then, the instructor returned his complete focus to the game they were running.

What would you expect? Sure enough, the boy fell from the top of the puzzle mats. He hadn’t been training long enough to know how to fall properly, so he fractured a wrist. Within a week, the studio had been served with a lawsuit.

When I spoke to the school owner, he was amazed. He asked me several questions. “How can we be sued? Grandma was sitting right there watching him misbehave!” was his first question.

Then, “They won’t really get anything, right? After all, he was misbehaving.”

I had to share with the owner that, unfortunately, America’s civil courts are often very plaintiff-friendly. Each county in each state has one of three classifications in civil law: plaintiff-friendly, neutral or defendant- friendly. Lawyers always know which county bears which favor. If your studio is in a defendant-friendly county, the plaintiff’s attorney will do his/her best to have their lawsuit moved to a plaintiff-friendly county.

The next question is if the child’s misbehavior has any impact on the lawsuit. The answer is no.

Every state’s laws vary, but they spell out at what age a child’s behavior provides some degree of contributory negligence. Bear in mind, even if the child is old enough for his/her behavior to contribute to the accident, you still contributed to the negligence because the accident happened on your premises.

In this case, it was also due to the games played, and the setup of the puzzle mats, which presented an attractive hazard to kids and a lack of proper supervision by the instructors.

The supervision of the instructors is the last topic I want to be sure we discuss here. So many of us concentrate on teaching our students the skills they need for martial arts and for life. We emphasize improving our student’s focus, physical fitness, technical martial arts skills and life skills.

Traditionally, our own martial arts masters were not responsible for supervision. In America, many of the traditions have evolved due to the realities of our culture and its legal environment. We aren’t born knowing how to adequately supervise our students below the age of 18. So, to avoid a TKO in your studio, provide training on proper supervision to all your team members.

For more details on supervision, drop me an email.

Beth Block can be reached at (800) 225-0863 or [email protected]