BJJ for kids: what age to start, how it works, what to look for

Nearly every parent asks the same question: “isn't it violent?”. The answer is in the nature of the sport, because in jiu-jitsu nobody throws a strike. You grapple on the ground, you control, and whoever ends up in trouble taps with their hand and you start again. There is never a moment where the goal is to hit another child.

What age

Most academies open their classes at around 4 or 5 years old, often with a younger group kept separate from the older kids. Below that age some gyms run movement-skills sessions with elements of grappling, which is a different thing, and that is fine.

No preparation is needed. If anything, children who have never done a combat sport often start better, because they have no habits to correct.

What a class looks like

Very different from an adult class, and anybody putting children through a scaled-down adult session is getting it wrong.

1. 1A warm-up in the form of games: obstacle courses, rolls, balance games, tug-of-war. The point is to build coordination and movement skills, not to wear them out.
2. 2One or two techniques, few and repeated, explained in simple words and shown slowly.
3. 3Positional games: holding or escaping a position with a partner, in short turns.
4. 4Light sparring, in the age groups where it is included, with pairings based on weight and experience.

The children's belts

Children do not follow the adult scale. They have their own system, with four colours and three levels per colour, colour and white, solid colour, colour and black, for twelve steps in total.

The reason is practical: at eight years old, waiting two years for a bit of recognition makes no sense. With this scale a child sees progress at a frequency that matches the way they experience time.

At sixteen they move to the adult system, normally starting from the blue belt. The full adult belt path is explained here: BJJ belts explained.

Safety

This is the part worth asking precise questions about, and a serious instructor has precise answers.

• Dangerous techniques are not taught to young children. Competition rules ban or heavily restrict joint locks and chokes in the youngest divisions, and the limits loosen as the age goes up. In training, a serious academy applies the same logic.
• Pairings are made by weight and experience, not at random.
• The tap is taught on day one. A child needs to know that tapping is the right thing to do, not a defeat.
• The instructor is on the mat, not standing at the side looking at their phone.

What to ask before enrolling your child

1. 1Who runs the kids' class? It is not always the head coach, and that is not a problem, but you want to know who it is and what experience they have with children.
2. 2How many children per class, and how many instructors? One adult for twenty-five children is not a class, it is crowd control.
3. 3How are the age groups split? A single group covering ages 5 to 13 works badly for everyone.
4. 4Are there competitions, and are they compulsory? Almost everywhere they are optional, but it is better to clear it up straight away.
5. 5Can I watch the class? The right answer is yes.

What you need

A kimono in the right size and not much else. For a trial class a t-shirt and shorts are almost always enough, and many gyms lend a gi. Short nails and no earrings apply to children exactly as they do to adults.