When comparing SCJJA to the other main martial arts clubs in the Sutherland Shire, you’ll notice that we do only run kids BJJ classes twice weekly, and we do not train during the holidays. There are few reasons for this but the main one is this.
Over the 30 years I’ve been involved in martial arts, I’ve seen many “kid champions”. These are kids who have been enrolled at an early age and train 5 days a week, and win competitions etc … but by the time they’ve hit puberty then they’re totally sick of jiu-jitsu and would much rather be doing something else.
It’s the same with any sport. Imagine training soccer, or any of the footy codes, or cricket etc … 5 days a week for a decade. It eventually gets too much. Swimmers are possibly the best example. Not many Olympian swimmers are still going into their 20s.
So I like to train the kids here in a way that is non pressured. When I started as a 12yo, I only trained once a week. And then when I hit 17 and left school to study IT in town, I upped it to 5 times a week. But if it was 5 times a week when I was in school I doubt I would’ve stayed. And the funny thing is, the kids who beat me in competitions when I was a teenager … I wiped the floor with those who were still training when we met as competitors as adults.
The other reason why we don’t offer more kids classes, is because of the reasons I outlined in this post - https://scjja.com/FAQs/faq_why_so_expensive
For the majority of other martial arts schools, the kids' classes are their cash cows. They charge ~$50 per week, plus sell uniforms etc … plus there are more belts for kids and so they charge for belt grading tests and all sorts of things.
And sadly, the immoral part of this, is that for the young kids especially, they’re not really learning jiu-jitsu. It’s just gymnastics and game playing wearing a jiu-jitsu gi. I feel most parents would get better value for money putting their 5 year olds into gymnastics at the local PCYC or YMCA than a boutique jiu-jitsu school. Heck, that’s why I did with my boys!
To summarise … I want jiu-jitsu to be something people do over 3 times a week for a decade or more. Not something they do 5 times a week for 1 or 2 years and then get burnt out.
