by Emil Fischer

Jiu-Jitsu and other grappling arts are amazing ways to build a child up. Grappling is beautiful in that it provides its practitioners with unique challenges, along with a great way to relieve stress and build confidence. There are psychological and physical benefits to grappling that have long-term effects on the psyche. 

Before signing your kids up for a grappling art like Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu though, you should know a few things. Here are 5 things every parent should know before signing their kids up for a grappling class.

1. There will be blood, sweat, and tears

Playing a sport, any sport exposes people to the risk of injury. Jiu-Jitsu and other martial arts don’t have a higher rate of injury than any other sports, but where these arts differ is that when injuries happen they’re often directly at the hands of another person. This has both positive and negative effects. This allows the individual to assume responsibility for their wellbeing, and it forces people to accept defeat directly to those that defeated them. Unlike in a game of basketball where losing involves scoring fewer points than the other team, in a grappling art you are directly beaten by someone else when you lose, and you directly beat someone else when you win. That lesson is important to a child’s psychological development. 

2. There will be access, amazing beautiful access.

Let’s say your kid really likes football, what are his or her chances of getting to play with a Hall of Famer? Let’s say your kid really likes basketball, will he or she ever get to play one on one with Lebron James or Michael Jordan? Jiu-Jitsu is one of the very few sports that gives its practitioners an opportunity to rub elbows with its legends. If you’re in New York City, all you have to do to get to train with some of the greatest grapplers that ever lived is show up to one of the academies there. Want to train with Marcelo Garcia; the Brothers Miyao? Just show up at MGA or Unity and there’s a good chance they’ll be there, on the mat, doing what they do best. Very few other sports boast that kind of access. And it’s a great feeling for anyone, adult or child, to get to meet and train with the best.

3. There are new challenges every day.

The rabbit hole of Jiu-Jitsu is never-ending. It’s unlike most other arts. In TaeKwonDo your kid will get a black belt pretty quickly. In Jiu-Jitsu they can’t even get a blue belt until they’re 16, giving legitimacy to what it means to be a Jiu-Jitsu black belt. If you’re looking for endless challenges, Jiu-Jitsu is the way to go. It’s a grueling challenge that requires patience and maturity, and if you don’t have patience or maturity there’s a good chance you’ll be forced to develop them.

4. Your kid will get in great shape and stay in great shape.

We live in an era of widespread sedentary behavior. Kids these days grow fat and soft. And whereas Jiu-Jitsu practitioners are invariably stronger versions of themselves before doing Jiu-Jitsu, children who do Jiu-Jitsu are as well. More importantly, exposing oneself to the challenges of the mats has profound psychological effects. The grappler will always be mentally tough, because, the truth is, there are few things harder than training in a full-contact sport like grappling.

5. Better social skills and confidence.

This one should have an asterisk by it. Many who train Jiu-Jitsu full-time become odd. Or maybe they always were. There is something to be said about people who spend their days contorting other people in knots. That said, working with training partners of all different shapes and sizes, dealing with challenges on a day-to-day basis, and being forced to concede when caught invariably by an opponent—all improve a person’s psyche. 

The grappling arts have amazing potential benefits for those who practice them, and those benefits are amplified in regards to young children in early development. Many people even use Jiu-Jitsu as a parenting tool to help them toughen their kids up and be better disciplined. And these effects only grow more substantially in the long term. The confidence children—as well as adults—develop from training in one of the most effective martial arts in the world is truly remarkable.