Undoukai: Kumi-taiso and Go! Go! Go!

All of my schools are eagerly preparing for their Undoukai, or Sports Festivals.  It takes place on a Saturday, and families and friends come watch the two teams, red and white, go against each other in various games and activities.  Now, when I say eagerly prepare, I mean practicing lining up for the event itself, learning marching band routines, dance routines, learning the team songs, practicing the relay race, and so so much more.  

Perhaps one of the most fascinating, impressive, and terrifying things I have witnessed is the kumi-taiso, or group gymnastics.  The 5th and 6th graders strip their shoes and socks off and walk barefoot across the school grounds (gravel/dirt) to do amazing stunts.  Some of the moves are yoga-ey, and some are group and pair efforts, including handstands, human pyramids, etc.  All of the poses are set up and made by the blow of a whistle, including formation changes.  Let me show you some examples I took from a website:

A yoga-ey move: 

The Saboten (cactus).  This is a pretty scary move!!! the bottom person is holding the top person by grabbing their knees and pulling back.  I've seen kids fall flat on their face a couple times because the bottom person wasn't pulling hard enough, or the top person lost balance. Yikes!  Not to mention that they get into this position by first sitting on top of the bottom person's shoulders!

Here you can see students doing the "bridge"  Also scary if they don't keep their arms straight, or the back person isn't steady!  I saw someone slide down straight to the floor, bringing the front support down too!

Here we see some human pyramid practicing...

My base school is doing this pyramid, only 4-3-2-1.  Today they tried for the first time, most of the groups couldn't support the top person...lots of painful backs I think... On a side note, our kids are required to wear pants while doing this b/c knees can get painful on the dirt!

Here is a another pretty cool pyramid!  Idk if my school will do this one, but I've seen a video of this, with more people...really cool!!! (see link below)

Here's a link to a really long kumi-taiso with many more students involved.  Skip around, but particularly go to minute 15 and see the final pyramid...CRAZY!!!  Minute 9 is pretty impressive as well ...and 13...hahahah 

I mentioned earlier that they practice the Undoukai Song.  The song they sing is called Go! Go! Go!  It's a really cute song about red vs white, which they each sing separately and then once together.  It's meant to be harmonized, but the kids are told to sing as loud as they can, so it tends to get lost in the shouting.  Here's a link that unfortunately you can only hear most of red:  here

I will probably take lots of pics and videos of my undoukai, and I can't wait to share!  Till then, I'm going to be practicing alongside the kids and learning more, I'm sure!! :D