Kids Jiu Jitsu: A martial art fit for kids
Rolling on the mats. Playing games. Making friends. Having fun. There’s a million reasons why kids love Gracie Brazilian Jiu Jitsu!
The choice of which martial art to sign your child up to is a hard one. Since Gracie Balmain is a Brazilian Jiu Jitsu school (BJJ) school, you may expect us to say BJJ is the obvious choice. In truth, every martial art offers valuable lessons in self defence and fitness. Here we’ll explain what the value in BJJ for kids and why it could be the perfect fit for your child.
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We see kids transform. Gracie Brazilian Jiu Jitsu is so good for kids because it helps them to set goals and reach new levels of potential. After just a few lessons of rolling on the mats with other students, we see quiet kids standing tall with confidence and energetic kids finding new ways to control their emotions. And we love to see it.
Many parents today have heard of Gracie Jiu Jitsu and are curious to see if this could be a good fit for their kids. Instead of proclaiming BJJ to be the greatest martial art of all time, instead we’ll give you information on what it can offer your child and how it can uniquely benefit them.
What’s Brazilian Jiu Jitsu?
It’s difficult, if you’re not entrenched in the martial arts world, to differentiate betweens arts like BJJ, Judo, wrestling or even striking practices like Karate.
Gracie Brazilian Jiu Jitsu - otherwise known as ‘The Gentle Art’ - was founded by grand master Hélio Gracie and is now one of the fastest growing sports in the world. He quickly taught lessons of this ancient artform to his children to help them stay active, build up their confidence and learn self defence. Hélio must’ve done something right because his children and grand-children are now world-class athletes and teachers! Hélio kept lessons fun, challenging and light-hearted, and that’s the way we like to keep it at Gracie Balmain.
A quick breakdown: Martial arts are usually either strike- or grapple-based. Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, also known as Gracie Jiu Jitsu in tribute to the Brazilian family that popularised it, is a grappling art. At a competition level it’s about takedowns, controlling your opponent on the ground and finishing them with a submission hold, like a choke or armlock. This is much different to martial arts like Muay Thai or boxing, where the combatants earn points by striking (or knocking out) each other.
A grappling focus has big implications for BJJ’s usefulness to practitioners, especially children.
First and foremost is the ability to train safely. BJJ is a rare example of a martial art where practitioners can spar at full intensity without hurting each other. We wrestle to control an opponent, mostly using leverage and timing, and the game ends when one person secures a position hold. The hold isn’t applied, rather the training partner recognises the hold and submits. The game starts again without anyone being hurt.
Compare this to a striking art, where sparring entails punching and kicking the opponent. If done at full intensity, it’s difficult for injuries or harm to not arise. The intensity of BJJ sparring allows for kids to simulate realistic self-defense situations and teaches them to act under pressure, but in a safe way.
Why Kids Jiu Jitsu is for every body
Boys. Girls. Quiet kids. Noisy kids. The beauty of Brazilian Jiu Jitsu is that it welcomes all kids and body types. BJJ was designed so a smaller, weaker opponent could get the upper hand over a stronger opponent by using their weight and energy against them. This is why it’s so effective as a self defence and favoured by all shapes and sizes! Our classes are split between Little Kids (4-7) and Big Kids (8-12). All classes are supervised by our expert trainers and lessons are adapted to student progress and needs. Watch one of our 7-year-old star students Anderson recently competing and having fun.
Why Jiu Jitsu is safe for kids
One of the most common questions that’s asked is if Gracie Brazilian Jiu Jitsu is safe for kids. At our gym, no kids under 8 are taught submissions or dangerous moves. The focus of our kids classes is on self defence, focus, patience, posture, agility, grip strength, coordination, balance and combining all of this in fun-filled games. Learning through playing is increasingly backed by academic studies as one of the most effective ways to learn. While students are learning through doing, they’re also learning to cope with pressure while problem solving - a great skill for anyone to have. The kids Gi is also a handy outfit for minimising mat burns or scratches and they look really cool!
BJJ helps keep kids active
As we mentioned, the focus of our kid’s classes is all about learning through activities and games. We get kids away from the video games and screen time and into a controlled play area where they’ll be challenged physically and mentally. Regular training is a great foundation of exercise in a fun learning environment. Rolling on the mats is also a complete workout for kids. They improve on flexibility to change positions, body strength and grips to manoeuvre opponents, coordination to take positions, balance to regain footing and much, much more. As kids physically develop, BJJ helps them to tune up their fine motor skills and get a better understanding of their growing bodies.
Kids BJJ boosts self-confidence
Having the ability to defend yourself in threatening situations is very empowering for kids. By rolling on the mats with other kids, they are learning to control their emotions and have a blue-print to defend themselves. This is especially true for smaller gentle-natured kids, it's empowering to know that no matter the size or strength, understanding the fundamentals of BJJ allow you to defend and stand up for yourself.
The belt system also encourages kids to learn and progress over time. They will win, lose and learn through BJJ. This helps kids understand the value of consistency for improvement and what you can achieve if you set your mind to it.
Self defence skills and the art of de-escalation
There are a lot of great reasons to sign your child up to a martial art. While Balmain and the Inner West in general are quite safe, school bullying is a risk everywhere. Martial arts are a fun way to get children into exercise, and starting now means they’ll be highly proficient in a valuable skill by the time they’re in their late teens or early 20s.
The goal of any martial art isn’t to hurt other people, it’s to protect yourself. BJJ is principally valuable as a self-defense and anti-bullying tool because it allows for flexibility of response. At Gracie Balmain, we teach kids how to control and restrain bullies or attackers, and educate them to only use force when absolutely necessary.
This is an advantage BJJ has over many martial arts, especially striking arts. In Jiu Jitsu your child will learn how to keep distance from bullies or an attacker, and how to break free from grips or different types of holds. In other words, they’ll learn how to safely escape or mitigate a combat situation.
Compare this to a striking art, where the choices often come down to keeping distance or hitting and potentially injuring a bully. Additionally, the foundation of BJJ technique is timing, precision and leverage - not strength or speed. This means your child will be able to defend themselves against bigger bullies.
Kids BJJ is a fun, after-school community
Friendships are forged on the mats! This is a common saying in BJJ because of the welcoming community we have at the gym. Through rolling and training together, kids get to meet a large group of students each session. As students improve and progress through the belt system together, we often see kids making life-long friends and excited to train and see their buddies in class.
Our kids sessions run after-school and on weekends. We find this is perfect timing for parents that want to give their child an extra activity that is outside of school and showing them a new community.
Life on the mats
Many people come to Gracie Balmain to learn a little self defence, but end up taking away much more from Brazilian Jiu Jitsu.
BJJ is fun, but it’s not easy. As it involves a high-degree of sparring, practitioners are always humbled. This can be demoralising, but it also teaches kids the invaluable skill of leaving their ego at the door. Once they do that, and learn to handle the highs and lows, their learning will accelerate greatly. Like many skills learned in BJJ, it’s one that can be applied everywhere in life.
It also creates a bond between practitioners. Gracie Balmain, as with all BJJ schools, will give your child a whole new group of friends to socialise with. Martial arts are technically not a team sport, but our academy very much operates as a team. We get better together, making it almost impossible to not forge personal connections and friendships.
There’s a famous saying in BJJ: The best time to start was 10 years ago, the second best time to start is today. There’s another phrase that gets said in BJJ locker rooms everywhere: “I wish I started when I was younger.”
The benefits of Brazilian Jiu Jitsu will become apparent after only a few months of training, but it’s a skill that takes years, even decades, to master. Of course, it’s not for everyone - but give your child a head start and there’s a good chance they’ll thank you for it later.