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My name is Romeo Barnes. I'm an author and a BJJ black belt with cerebral palsy. This blog is about my life balancing existence in two worlds. My latest book, My World is now available Amazon.com. Glad you're here, enjoy the journey.

Kids in BJJ

First off happy new year to all readers. New year goals and aging in grappling will be covered in upcoming posts. Today's post is going to cover questions I get all the time about kids in BJJ. 1) When should my child start BJJ? The business answer is age 4. However, it's a bit more extensive that. At its core BJJ is all about how the body moves. Everything we do for one of two purposes, to move ourselves efficiently with the least amount of energy possible or to stop movement of our opponent again with as little energy expended as possible. Thus, a year of dance, boxing, wrestling, gymnastics or Judo even something like Jump rope will provide them with the skills to pick up concepts quickly and gives us as instructors foundation to work on. 2) What should I look for in a school Make sure there's established kids program foe your child's age group. Meet both the head instructor of the school and the head coach of the children's program. Often the coach of the children's program is a trusted student of the head instructor usually a blue or purple belt, on very rare occassions this instructor can be a white belt, but that usually means the school is relatively new. In closing, the true best assesment is to become a student yourself(do your trail class) if you like the system and enviroment enough to enroll as a student then it's likely going to be beneficial to enroll your child as well. Until next time folks

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