Juniors (ages 10-13)
This is how the Juniors program works
The Juniors program is carefully designed program that challenges and develop important life skills of pre-teens/ middle schoolers – high schoolers through Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu.
Jiu-Jitsu is our medium to challenge your children and teach them how to be strong. How does it work?
Physical:
Jiu-Jitsu is by far considered the ultimate self-defense martial art. It’s a sport that requires very high physical ability (cardiovascular and respiratory endurance, stamina, strength, flexibility, power, speed, coordination, agility, balance, accuracy, and mental toughness).
As we mold your child for our adults program you will see him or her become more coordinated and more physically fit, as well as stronger and faster. A child that can run faster, and is stronger and more agile than their peers tends to develop an invaluable life tool: CONFIDENCE.
Once you have instilled confidence, sit back and watch your child achieve anything they desire to. Confidence is a benefit that children get out of our programs that most parents do not realize.
Emotional:
While confidence is a major tool, sometimes it is not enough to get kids through emotional challenges.
On top of being a demanding sport that will make your child physically competent, Jiu-Jitsu at the Third Law Academy emphasizes a friendly, family environment. How do we do it? We simply don’t let everyone train. At our academy, your child will be surrounded by great mentors (professionals, school teachers, coaches) who, above all, are GOOD HUMAN BEINGS.
At Third Law BJJ, we are all connected by our passion for Jiu-Jitsu. We talk about jiu-jitsu. When your kid becomes good at Jiu-jitsu, adults will be talking about his skills, and even asking questions on how to do a certain technique. Do you know how important it makes a child feel when an adult respects his opinion and listens to what he has to say? A LOT. Now guess what this does for him.
It builds self-esteem. Self-Esteem is the characteristic a person possesses that makes them feel of great value, and, usually, is the key ingredient we will help your child develop to better cope with emotional challenges.
Because your child will get the chance to train with adults on certain adult day classes, this will give him/her the ability to interact and feel his/her input appreciated by older peers. This will increase self-esteem.
Because your child will be among the older kids in the children’s classes this will put him/her automatically in a leadership position as well, once again, increasing both confidence and self-esteem.
Socially:
So far we have told you how we will increase your child’s confidence, self-esteem and physically competency, and also presented some scenarios in which he/she will be dealing with older and younger training partners where he/she will be expected to respect, follow orders and also be a leader.
One thing that we have left out is the ability for your child to learn self-defense. Funny thing is that Jiu-Jitsu is a martial art – but at this point we see that major benefits include more than just simply learning self defense. Self esteem and confidence are two major benefits.
Nevertheless, knowing how to deal will bullies and how to defend oneself is very important. When I say dealing with bullies, I refer to how to be smarter than them and how to avoid confrontations by being wiser.
But sometimes, being wise is not enough. The website KidsHealth.com is an amazing resource for kids and parents. They did a small survey in which they asked 1,229 boys and girls to answer some questions about bullying. Nearly half of them said they had been bullied before. Some said it was happening every day. Others said it only happened once in a while. Here’s how the group answered:
How often have you been bullied?
- Every day (8%)
- Every week, but not every day (7%)
- Once in a while, but not every week (33%)
- Never (52%)
They also asked how many of these kids were bullies themselves. Most of them (58%) said they never bullied others, but the rest said that they did.
- 22% said they bullied others once in a while
- 5% said they bullied others every week
- 15% said they bullied others every day
As you have probably guessed, some kids said they were both bullies and the victims of bullies. Why is that? Kids learn to bully because they have been subjected to mean and unfair treatment themselves, by other kids or by adults. That’s sad, but it’s no excuse. Everyone can choose to act in new and better ways. It’s never too late.
One of our main rules is to never use anything we teach outside our academy unless they need to defend themselves. And we stress this rule every day just to make sure that the power we give your children to defend themselves is never used in the wrong way.
Nevertheless, lets study Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu as a form of self-defense. Most Martial Arts programs teach your kid to punch and to kick into air, pads and mirrors – but this is not enough.
Martial Arts program are great for kids self-esteem and confidence, but not all are created equal. For as good as a martial arts program can be at helping a kid through younger years, it can’t mean anything later if the kid realizes that what he learned in class won’t help him in a real confrontation against a stronger child. I have heard some adults look back at their martial arts experience and refer to them as a false feeling of confidence.
Unfortunately, when the teen or kid realizes they have been lied about one thing they assume everything else that they were taught might have been wrong, even if this is not the case.
Kicking and punching bags or air and breaking boards is not enough because most fights end on the ground. So we teach your kid to defend against takedowns, to take opponents down and to defend himself/herself on the ground with an opponent on top. We also teach how to control an opponent without hurting them. That’s why Jiu-Jitsu is the ultimate program for your kid.
It will:
- Build confidence
- Increase self-esteem
- Teach Them Leadership Skills
- Increased Physical Aptitude and Fitness
- Accelerate Mental Development
- Teach Them Realistic Self-Defense Skills
The best proof will be when your child starts applying techniques efficiently against much bigger adults.
Intellectual:
Finally, there is a reason why people refer to Jiu-Jitsu as chess on the mat. It is a sport that requires its students to constantly think, concentrate and analyze positions, techniques, variations, and strategy.
The best Jiu-Jitsu athletes are not only physically gifted. They also learn to look at the art as a system of biomechanics and have a great understanding of human anatomy.
By studying Jiu-Jitsu, your child’s mind will be challenged everyday. He or she will find solve puzzles on the mat in every class. How do I do this move more efficiently? Why didn’t this work? How do I make sure that kid doesn’t take me down? Etc…
But there’s so much more. The above explanation is just the tip of the iceberg of the foundation we will give your child to help him or her grow into a strong adult.
