Parent Corner: Kids Brazilian Jiu Jitsu \ stacker news ~mostly

768 sats \ 7 comments \ @cristaiji 29 Jun mostly_harmless

So I took my son for his first session this morning. It's been on the cards for awhile. Obviously I have my own martial arts interest however I wasn't sure whether to get my son involved - life has been busy and I was concerned that he would be too young or too small for the class and a number of other concerns - actually in retrospect all of them groundless.

However as time has gone on (he's now 10) it became clear to me that he has the energy and athleticism and i began to feel that he was missing out. He has never wanted to do martial arts particularly and my efforts to get him interested in kickboxing in the past didn't bear fruit. He's tried Skateboarding, Surfing, BMX, Piano, but nothing has really stuck. His main interest is computers (he probably gets that from me!) and he seems most happy when he is in front of a screen.

However lately something else spurred me on to seriously think about Jiu Jitsu for him. At school he has been getting into more scrapes with the other boys and some of them already do Judo and other martial arts and he kept telling me that he has been getting into fights or getting beaten up! He would come home covered in mud....presumably from rolling around on the school field with one of his class mates.

The Gracie Barra gym in my home town has a good rep and we both took a look at the class last Saturday, the instructor seemed kind and friendly and the kids there all seemed to love the class.

So anyway it was his first proper session today and i'm really happy to say that he smashed it! He would come over to me every now and again to get a drink of water and for me to tighten the belt on his Gi and kept saying how much he was enjoying the class!

He spent most of the session rolling with the instructors son who is also a beginner but already skilled and they are similar sizes. They appeared to hit it off as friends too and at the end of the session I had to coax my son off the mats as he didn't want to leave!

Have any of you got young kids who do martial arts? What have been your experiences? And what do you think about kids BJJ? So far i'm really impressed with it and as you can probably tell chuffed to bits.

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63 sats \ 1 reply \ @grayruby 29 Jun

Awesome. I am glad he enjoyed it and that you posted to update everyone how it went.

My son (13) does taekwondo. He is taking a break from classes right now to train for his black belt test.

I plan to put my daughter in jiu jitsu when she gets a bit older.

50 sats \ 0 replies \ @cristaiji OP 29 Jun

I was particularly impressed with the BJJ instructors. Kind people and very good with the kids, made the class fun but still with a focus on skills.

He framed the rolling as a game rather than a fight which I thought was a great way to put the beginners at ease.

42 sats \ 2 replies \ @Undisciplined 29 Jun

My daughter has just recently started showing an interest in martial arts. So far, she hasn't done well in organized athletics (we've only tried dance and flag football), because she can't sustain focus for that long.

I'm thinking that I'll start teaching her martial arts, until we find a school that works for us. I'm no expert, but I've certainly done plenty to teach a four year old.

42 sats \ 1 reply \ @cristaiji OP 29 Jun

That’s great. Sounds like a good plan to at least introduce her to it until you find the right class. I heard one of the Gracie champs saying he didn’t start properly until he was 13 so there’s probably no rush either.

42 sats \ 0 replies \ @Undisciplined 29 Jun

Definitely no rush, but it's something we both like and I do have a non-trivial amount of training, so it'll be a fun thing to try.

21 sats \ 0 replies \ @160ed04091 30 Jun

i think kids bjj is one of the best way to boast a child self esteem, and another way for teaching them self discipline

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @026180d3a3 30 Jun

My basic feeling on that kind of art (especially for kids) is that it has lost much by way of discipline. A martial art for a kid, especially, should be a little about fighting, and a whole lot about an inner state of seeking. With UFC using ji jitsu, I am afraid the emphasis has been put in the wrong place.