BJJ for kids

A buddy of mine enrolled his kids (ages 4-7) in BJJ and they love it. It will teach them respect, patience, and everything you mentioned. They will also be more confident, and at the same time, they will learn humility. Getting dominated by a much smaller person can be wonderful for keeping your ego in check. I say go for it.

And you should also prefer BJJ to Taekwondo because it's much more useful. If your kids stick with it they will be able to handle themselves in a 1v1 situation against 90+% of the population.

My 7 year old has been training since he was 4. Best decision we ever made. He is very disciplined, respectful, and confident, and I attribute most of that to BJJ.
There is an older neighbor kid down the street who is a little bossy at times. One day I saw him physically trying to push my boy around. Proud dad moment watching my son never lose his cool and calmly take the bigger kid to the ground and hold him there until the kid gave up. Never threw a punch, never hit, never lost control. Kid has been respectful to my son ever since. We don’t worry about bullies. Can’t say enough good things about BJJ.

If you are in The Woodlands, our school is in Conroe.

Conroe may be a bit too far. Any info on Magnolia BJJ? It's actually pretty close to my house. Just know nothing about it. The other I see close that advertises kids classes is in Gracie Barra The Woodlands in Spring.

What’s your hang up with Gracie Barra? The whole teaching style or your local gym? I’ve heard other criticism, mainly too sport BJJ oriented. Only reason I ask is that they opened a new shop next to the house and was thinking of letting my little girl train and I might hit some no gi classes.

I know Renzo and Ralph Gracie are not GB fans, and that is enough for me.

Thanks for starting this thread. I was going to put my boy in Tae Kwon Do, but they do not start training until 4 around where I live. Did some googling and a BJJ place has a 3-6 year old class around me that I’m going to take advantage of. I no longer have to wait a year! We’re having some discipline issues so I hope it helps with that.

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Saw the other jiu jitsu thread and figured this was different enough. My son is 4 1/2. There are some martial arts places around us that start them that young. We are interested in doing it to teach him structure, respect, patience, etc. I like the idea of this more than Taekwondo or something with hitting. Already have enough issues with that at school/day care (mostly not him, but its rubbing off).

Anyone put their kid in a program?

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Absolutely. My kid is 7 now, and has been in jiu jitsu since he was 4. We had the same problems, looking for the same solutions. He loves it and it has helped tremendously. Eventually, his mother joined the gym too, but I was hesistant, because rolling around on the floor with some other sweaty dudes didn't seem like something for me. She ended up losing a bunch of weight, so I gave it a try. Honestly, you don't have any time to think of weird shite when you can't breath, either from someone choking you or from the amount of moving you're doing. It will change your life for the better. I've been doing it for 2 years now.