4Year Old son signed UP!

[GroundWorkz]

After long discussions (months!!!) with the wife my son finally entered BJJ. Question to all the grappling dads, do you ever go over techniques with your kids? or just let them do there own thing in class. I ask because my son 100% doesnt give me the time of day when listening or doing drills WARR! lol j/k he likes to play and more then anything I dont want to scare him BUT! damn it I want him to learn too from both the teacher and me. Any grappling dad tips?

 

[Terrier]

You have BJJ class that teaches 4 year olds?

I'm not a dad - but at 4 years old playing is pretty much all he's going to be interested in - the best way will probabaly be to to try to make games out of certain things in training to teach him that way.

 

[Sub Dude]

My 6 year old just got started in BJJ also.....he just finished up his first year of wrestling, and then said he wanted to start learning jiujitsu. He's been watching me train for a while now, and likes to come in and roll around with the guys at the end. I think the main thing at these young ages is to expose them to it, but let them have fun with it. They have plenty of time to worry about being a serious competitor later in life. Wish I had started that young. I just hope mine sticks with it. He'll be awesome when he gets older.

 

[krellik]

Thats sounds crazy at first, but I did Judo when I was 6 so why not bjj... Hmm but to young for submissions, keep it to positional wrestling..... ...

 

[RobT]

Your best bet is probably to just get him used to moving on the ground. He'll think of it as just playing around anyway.

Just lightly grapple with him, and get him used to being on his back etc, teach him to forward/backward roll etc.

 

[Sub Dude]

Yeah, mostly what they work on at this age is movement drills, position, etc.....no hardcore submissions or anything. But, I think it's good to get these concepts down early. It's amazing how quickly they can learn and retain information at that age. Wish I could do it like that...

 

[Tristram Shandy]

I always love how, when discussing rasing kids, people say "Well, I'm not a parent but..." and proceed to hold forth with their knowledge on having kids. Would we listen to someone who said, "Hey, I've never set foot on a mat but let me tell you something about grappling..." I think not.

In any case my oldest is about four and is going to start wrestling soon. He likes to roll around with me but he's definitely not very interested in technique. I fully plan on letting his coaches do all the teaching. Dads should be their children's biggest supporters, there are plenty of people who can school the kids on technique.

 

[GroundWorkz]

I always love how, when discussing rasing kids, people say "Well, I'm not a parent but..." and proceed to hold forth with their knowledge on having kids. Would we listen to someone who said, "Hey, I've never set foot on a mat but let me tell you something about grappling..." I think not.

In any case my oldest is about four and is going to start wrestling soon. He likes to roll around with me but he's definitely not very interested in technique. I fully plan on letting his coaches do all the teaching. Dads should be their children's biggest supporters, there are plenty of people who can school the kids on technique.

Good answer, guess I just need some paitence - lol

 

[Perrazo]

My 5 year old started about 6 weeks ago.

His classes focus on motor skills and positioning, not teaching them things "they could do to classmates". He absolutley loves it, and the difference in him is remarkable, one of the best things I have done.

He and his older brother (8) love going to the gym and 'practicing' now. We play some of the games from class, I let them show me the new moves they learned like they are teaching me and we play lots of 'sumo'. The little one's class has 'sumo matches' at the end most days and they kids have fun trying to knock me over from my knees.

I lose them (especially the little one) pretty quick if I try to get them to 'practice' but they'll 'play' for hours and it's a great time for all of us.

 

[Darwinist]

I suggest you grappling dads check out ODMA´s "Play as the way" program. It´s designed to teach kids martial arts, both grappling and striking using the paradigm of Play. Check out their trailers here: http://www.onedragon.com/prod_paw_video.shtml

An article on play as a tool to increase skill: http://www.onedragon.com/ideas_articles_main.shtml#

 

[Headache]

Go at his pace. Make it more play than being serious. What worked best for me was to have my son show me what he learned in class. Then have him show my wife, then his brother. If he was showing off what he learned he was enjoying it.

 

[Ghost Dog]

congrats man... make your wife breakfast in bed or something. the thing that worries me with kids and BJJ is:

1) they dont know when to tap. they are extremely flexible, and not mature enough to know when theyre beat.. so make sure you tell him that tapping is not a bad thing... its a learning mechanism.

2) the belts are limited. so unlike tkd, where theyre getting a new belt every 2 months, bjj is different.. so as a father... keep his head in the game. take him out for icecream and stuff after training.

3) the most important thing you want to remember is fun. if a kid is not having fun, its over. so for your sake, and all of ours at the grappling forum.... make sure the kid is having fun.

4) realize, that if he keeps this up.... by the age of 13... he will kick the shit out of you. you have to come to terms with this, since most dads like to know they can beat up their children until theyre at least 50.

ok man. good luck. god speed.

 

[AgentCooper]

We put our son in BJJ back in Jan. right after his 5th birthday.

He goes 2 times a week and he really digs it so far. He just got his "yellow belt" this past weekend! His overall attitude has changed. We started noticing that he isn't as shy with people and he makes eye contact when talking to adults. It has really helped with is socialization and at this age that is really all you could ask for. He enjoys classes and likes to spar because it's more like playing around at this level.

He gets to train with me as well and he really digs that. So far I'm really happy we decided to put him in a strutured class rather than him just wrestling around at home with me.

Also, I have to say as a father there is nothing more rewarding than seeing your little boy "follow in your footsteps". We even bought him a really nice blue Atama and he just looks too cool!

 

[RobT]

I always love how, when discussing rasing kids, people say "Well, I'm not a parent but..." and proceed to hold forth with their knowledge on having kids. Would we listen to someone who said, "Hey, I've never set foot on a mat but let me tell you something about grappling..." I think not.

I haven't got kids, but I help teach the kids BJJ class where I train. I wouldn't offer advice on raising kids, but teaching them grappling I hope I can help slightly.

 

[Balto]

I started in the martial arts when I was five. Not really BJJ back then, but more of a karate base.

It was the best thing I ever did in my life. The key for kids is making it fun, so try to keep it interesting and just go over the basics. Make up some fun drills and present them as games instead.

All in all, kids and adults aren't that different. If you just try to think about what you would have wanted to do when you were a kid, you will be fine. Kids like to have fun, but so do adults. A good adult BJJ class will have fun drills and techniques that keep things interesting. Try to find similar fun stuff and kids will respond to it.

Also, I think it's okay to teach submissions to young kids. I would not let them crank it hard on each other at first, but then again I would not let adults do that either. Just make sure they understand how dangerous they are and that they are not to be used outside of training.

Once kids reach school age, they seem to realize that they're actually capable of hurting others. I know I was aware of that at that age. Even if you don't teach a kid submissions, he still knows that he can hurt other kids if he wants to by smashing them heavy things, stabbing them with sharp things, etc.

The fact is, unless a kid is crazy, he doesn't want to hurt others, so as long as he understands that submissions hurt, I think it's fine to teach them.

 

[paulchu]

4 year old son adding BJJ? it kinda reminds me of those mothers who decide that their daughter should enter beauty pageants for them.

What does your child have to say about this?

 

[Ghost Dog]

4 year old son adding BJJ? it kinda reminds me of those mothers who decide that their daughter should enter beauty pageants for them.

What does your child have to say about this?

not at all man. at least in hawaii.. we had a bjj tournament a couple weeks back, and the first 4 hours consisted solely of kids white/yellow belt divisions. its HUGE here. its like anything else... getting your kids involved in t-ball is no different.

 

[peregrine]

i think it is great you are sending him to bjj.

you should take special note of what the russians did though. because of their utmost desire to gain world recognition and nationalism they beleieved that getting the most golds in international sports competition would be the way to do this.
basically they made sports development a science. through the millions of people in their country that were weeded out to the thousands that competed on an international level.
they found the most sound way was to expose the child to as many sports and experiences as possible, build a basic base in general athletecism and then specialize them in their teens depending on the sport.

 

[Gavin LeFever]

just make it a game. wrestle with him and let him win if he uses good technique. young kids like playing with their parents so enjoy it and use it as an excuse to beat on him while you can.

 

[livethejiujitsu]

That is REALLY young