I have experience teaching 8 year olds and up, but they've all had dance experience before. This guy has great rhythm and coordination so I'm sure he'll catch on really fast (private classes), but I'm just not sure where to start as he hasn't had any dance training, much less any tap. I was just gonna start out working on keeping him on his toes and teaching shuffles, flaps, and slow basic combos with toes, heels etc. I guess I just need a good starting point? Thanks!

Make sure to teach him some basic rudiments to get him more control over his feet and to work with speed and rhythm

Yeah I guess that's where I'm a little at a loss. I can probably make some things up for that, but do you have any specific ideas?

Blast me down for being obtuse, but I can't really see a big difference in 'starting points' for either young tappers or old ones. Evidently you'll want to pick age-appropriate music/styles and the pace will be different, but everything else seems to be the same - start with the basics, gradually increasing level of technical difficulty?

No, you're right, the starting points are the same. I'm just saying I've never taught anyone the bare basics before so I'm working out what the very first things I'll need to teach him are.

The best part about teaching a teenager "from scratch" is that they pick things up SO quickly. I have a class of beginning teen tappers and we're already doing different tap turns and time steps and it's only their second month of class.

Always start just like any other beginner. That is the only way he will get the most out of it.

Dropping the heels, dropping the toes
Toe taps, heel dig
then shuffles and flaps.

After those things, probably simple combinations like shuffle ball change, irish, flap heel, flap ball change and maybe toe heel turns (which will force him to learn good posture and arms).

Good tap resource and he covers all levels...

www.unitedtaps.com . . .