I Need a Curriculum

The girls and I have a tradition. After a tournament, we bring our trophies to Monday’s karate class. If competitors wore armbands at the tourney, we leave them on until after Monday’s class, as well. We started this because Sensei likes to take pictures of us with our trophies and, when he doesn’t come with us to a tournament, it gives us an excuse to give him a play-by-play of everything that took place.

Now that we have a lot of kids in the youth class, the kids seemed very interested in the shiny objects we bring to class.

“Where did you get those?”

“At a karate tournament.”

“You didn’t win those. They aren’t yours.” (That usually comes from the youngest boys. Gender stereo types are carved in stone for them.)

“Yes, I did.”

“How?”

“By being awesome.” (The kids giggle when I say this.)

But I noticed a couple of girls were quiet. They had a look of hunger when they looked at the trophies. (I’m still amazed at the addictive nature of a plastic trophy.) I made a mental list, there were four, maybe six students, (girls and boys) who seemed genuinely interested in competition. Just as important, they seemed to be very focused in class.

I wrote Sensei an email:

Once the kids have learned their H-patterns, I'd like to start a competition club for the kids who are ready for and want to start competitive karate. I'm thinking (if you can swing your magic) it would meet an extra night each week, with the sole purpose of working on stuff exclusively for competitions. (So it wouldn't muddy up the regular curriculum and still give the kids plenty of time to work on competition-related stuff. And, hopefully, it would help avoid the whole blinder-thing those of us who compete can sometimes get.)
…
I'd really like to run with this idea. I can even come up with a formal proposal for you (like curriculum, rules for participation, etc.)

Well, I couldn’t get an extra night a week. But, we can have an extra night a month. I can get some dojo time for my rag-tag (and currently imaginary) team immediately before black belt workout. But, I need to create some criteria, too. How do kids interested in competing prove they are committed and ready?  If I include a minimum GPA requirement, how do I stay fair for kids who are really trying at school but have genuine academic difficulties/issues?

Turns out coming up with a curriculum is hard. I can think of the types of things that helps me in tournaments; the types of things that could help me, if I can wrap my brain around them; and even some things I want to cover. The kids should take turns acting as both judges and competitors during practice, so they can see for themselves what types of things judges would see/notice. Giving and accepting criticism from their peers would help them become better martial artists, in general.

I think I want to focus more on synchronized kata than individual because, if they can perform a good synchronized kata, they can do it by themselves. (Plus doing it with a friend helps with stage fright.)
Tournament etiquette, what to do if you disagree with a judge, what/when to pack your tournament bag, what to pack as snacks. Those small things should be sprinkled lightly over the top. 

Goal setting and the importance of practice and overall fitness, should be repeated every time we meet.

And that’s as far as I got. I have NO idea how to pull these random thoughts and ideas into a curriculum. I also have no idea how to keep these ideas flexible enough to change with the kids’ interests/strengths.

Does anyone know where to find a sample curriculum I can use as a template? Or ideas how to get these ideas into a timeline? If you had to create a list of rules/criteria for joining a youth competition club, what would you include? (Seriously guys, I need HELP!)