What age to start kids in JiuJitsu?

Deltafarce

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I know some people start kids very young and they burn out ? Then others are complete savages because they start as a kid so it's second nature ? Any advice or experiences?
 
3 or 4?
They'll only burn out if they are going too often.
Once or twice a week until they ask for more is a good start.
 
My kids started around 4/5. That's not counting all the "gracie games" style stuff I did with them as toddlers.

My kids train twice a week. My oldest is approaching 10, and he is starting to ask to train more seriously. My daughter likes playing with her friends and doing the games, but isn't as serious. As long as both are having fun, thats fine.
 
My son started at 8 and he wasn't far behind anyone when it was time to roll. He's very good at school, and as a very good attention span for a 8 year old. That helps him a lot, so he's more technical than most of the kids who started before him.

My daughters started at 5 and are in the 4-7 years old group, where it's more playful, even if they actually do some techniques and they spar.

I don't think they would like to go 3 times a week as they could, they all do other sports, and they go once or twice a week.
 
good info. my son is almost 3, so i've been thinking about when to introduce him in the next year or two. agree with Forceof1 on the fun part. i played soccer pretty much each day after middle and high school and didn't get burnt out because it was a fun group of guys and not too serious competition.
thanks all,
 
Please make sure they are potty trained before you think about sending them to train. Before then they are certainly too young.
 
We take 4 year olds. I wish we didn't (I run the kids program).

5-6 seems about right, for 30 minutes of class. But attention span is a big deal. I have 8 years olds that can keep it together for 60 minutes, and 5 year olds that could do the whole hour.
 
If I had to put a number on it, 7. I personally think 4 is too young for most organized sporting activities.
 
My youngest daughter is 3 months old.
Im teaching her how to bridge and roll to her stomach now.
As soon as she starts crawling, I will teach her breakfalls.
When she starts walking, I will have her suplex her Teddy bear 10 times mandatory, before breakfast, lunch and dinner.
Her kimonos (I got her 2, months before she was born) are vacuumed in the wardrobe, waiting for the time she is ready.
 
I just started a class a couple weeks ago, ages 3-7. It seems that the attention spans are short, and you really have to fight to keep them interested. My 3 year olds have an especially short attention span, and they tend to wander off and do their own thing from time to time, but that's ok! (As long as you have an assistant to guide them back to the group so you don't have to interrupt class).


The reason I say it's ok, is because everyone is going to take a little something different from the class. The little ones are learning too. But not so much technique as discipline. They're learning to follow directions, and how to be a part of the group, and that's all very important in their development too. I don't mind teaching them this young, its a struggle, but they're starting to put the technique together already at week 2. But if we're just talking straight up technique and nothing else, I'd probably say start em at 5 years old.
 
All kids are different. Some love BJJ and will love it for life, some love it for a bit and grow to not like it, and some never like it at all. I recommend beating your child until he complies. Worked for Khabib.
 
If I had to put a number on it, 7. I personally think 4 is too young for most organized sporting activities.

Until 6 or 7 you should consider it as games and not organized sport

Depends on the kids, but for mine, they started gymnastics at two years old, first in a parent-kids class where they learned nothing in particular but they loved to get ready for the class, driving there, going to the changing room and waiting for the coach to come and get us. They felt like big kids and loved to act like it.

In class, it was all very easy but they still learned basic stuff without knowing it

It's the same thing in the BJJ class , they learn positions and how to do it well in games. They put on a kimono, they have stripes on their white or grey belts.They also roll a little so they understand that it can get a little bit rough and it's ok.

I also wanted to aknowledge how awesome kids belts are in BJJ. You can't get a blue belt until you are 16, which is logical because there's no way that you could have the adult take on BJJ because of what you did from 5 years old to 16 years old. Those 11 years of BJJ can't be as significant as 11 years as an adult practionner. Sure, you're gonna be one hell of a blue belt but you're not black belt as you see in other martial arts.

In karate you have kids getting to black belt at 14 years old, in other association they just stopped giving out black belts under 18 but kids were stuck at brown belt from 14 to 18. I know a kung fu school where they have a dedicated kid who is about to have is brown sash at 13 years old. The normal test for brown sash is to spar full contact in a cage against the coach... I think they are going to water it down a bit.
 
It depends on the kid, but no younger than 8. I've taught kids from as young as 4. The younger ones retain nothing and have no concept of what's going on. My instructor now set the minimum age to 6. I'm sure it's hard to turn away these little ones as a business owner.
 
Kids classes should be about preparing them for the next level, not building monsters at age 6:
  • start 4/5 year old with game-like class (yes this can feel like baby sitting), teaching them movements to prepare them for entry into
  • 7/8 year old class where things can start to be more technique and feel more like a BJJ class, aimed at preparing them for
  • 11/12 year old class where they can really start to learn
  • then its cadet level until they are seniors
 
You can't get a blue belt until you are 16, which is logical because there's no way that you could have the adult take on BJJ because of what you did from 5 years old to 16 years old. Those 11 years of BJJ can't be as significant as 11 years as an adult practionner.

We have this exact situation going on right now. A student is about to turn 16 after 10 years of training and get their blue belt (deservedly). He said me the other day, "a year at blue, a year at purple, year at brown, and then I'm a black belt." I didn't want to shoot him down, but that's likely not happening. The difference between all of the kids belts is mine and incomparable to the colored adult belts. He sees it only a time thing, which is a factor when dealing with kids starting at very young ages.
 
We have this exact situation going on right now. A student is about to turn 16 after 10 years of training and get their blue belt (deservedly). He said me the other day, "a year at blue, a year at purple, year at brown, and then I'm a black belt." I didn't want to shoot him down, but that's likely not happening. The difference between all of the kids belts is mine and incomparable to the colored adult belts. He sees it only a time thing, which is a factor when dealing with kids starting at very young ages.

Nova Uniao Canada, put a minimum time for belt promotions

2 years at blue belt
2 years at purple belt
3 years at brown belt

They don't mind how much time you stay at white belt, maybe it's because they want to let the local coaches some slack to promote judo guys, mma guys, wrestlers...

I really like it that way, there's no stress, for the coach and also the students know where they stand.

Anyway, our coach would never promote to purple belt someone who doesn't train at least 2 times a week and that is rolling a lot.
 
Kids classes should be about preparing them for the next level, not building monsters at age 6:
  • start 4/5 year old with game-like class (yes this can feel like baby sitting), teaching them movements to prepare them for entry into
  • 7/8 year old class where things can start to be more technique and feel more like a BJJ class, aimed at preparing them for
  • 11/12 year old class where they can really start to learn
  • then its cadet level until they are seniors

At what age, generally speaking, do you prefer to see kids competing?
 
Until 6 or 7 you should consider it as games and not organized sport

Depends on the kids, but for mine, they started gymnastics at two years old, first in a parent-kids class where they learned nothing in particular but they loved to get ready for the class, driving there, going to the changing room and waiting for the coach to come and get us. They felt like big kids and loved to act like it.

In class, it was all very easy but they still learned basic stuff without knowing it

It's the same thing in the BJJ class , they learn positions and how to do it well in games. They put on a kimono, they have stripes on their white or grey belts.They also roll a little so they understand that it can get a little bit rough and it's ok.

I also wanted to aknowledge how awesome kids belts are in BJJ. You can't get a blue belt until you are 16, which is logical because there's no way that you could have the adult take on BJJ because of what you did from 5 years old to 16 years old. Those 11 years of BJJ can't be as significant as 11 years as an adult practionner. Sure, you're gonna be one hell of a blue belt but you're not black belt as you see in other martial arts.

In karate you have kids getting to black belt at 14 years old, in other association they just stopped giving out black belts under 18 but kids were stuck at brown belt from 14 to 18. I know a kung fu school where they have a dedicated kid who is about to have is brown sash at 13 years old. The normal test for brown sash is to spar full contact in a cage against the coach... I think they are going to water it down a bit.


Ilias Iliadis won olympic gold at 17...

Why can't you have a BJJ 16-17 year old at the same level?
I'm not saying it's common, but it is possible no?
 
At what age, generally speaking, do you prefer to see kids competing?

The British Judo Association has competitions for 8 years olds - I think you can have competitions at any age, its about attitude - honestly I see them as 'events' not 'competitions' for children this age - its just another avenue of experience and practice - like with the classes, its about preparing them for the next level, so they get a feel of what a day of competition is like, but without any expectation / pressure to perform.

I think its good to expose children to this, for some it a real motivator, and gives purpose to their training, but for the ones that don't take to comps, there isn't any reason to push them on that road at that age - if they enjoy training but not comps then they don't need them.
 
To me it's not an age issue, but a development issue. Both physically and mentally.

Bjj has been touted as a weak mans martial art, but nothing makes me as frustrated as parents that put their kids in bjj when they are weak or overweight. It really makes it hard on them getting the techniques down.

I think it's important for kids to get a base level of physical fitness before starting bjj as most bjj programs do not include any conditioning.

This is something that I will be incorporating into my kids program when I start my own school.
 
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