San Antonio Jiu-Jitsu Academy

06/30/2022

Kids Should do “Jiu Jitsu” instead of the other stuff …

Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu.

Discipline, respect, confidence, self-defense, excitement, friendships.

One of the most prominent martial arts in the world involves all of that – and possesses a friendly, learning-focused environment that builds character.

In times when children get used to looking at computer screens, videogames and social media, enjoying a sport like jiu-jitsu has become rare. But it shouldn’t be.

Why Jiu-jitsu, then? San Antonio Jiu-Jitsu Academy shows you a few reasons:

Learn respect and discipline :

The learning process and respect to the instructor are fundamental inside a BJJ class. Simple practices such as taking a bow to your opponent show that martial arts aren’t creating a culture of fighting, but one of respect towards each other.

Moreover, the connection between instructor and student is vital to that student’s success in Jiu-Jitsu. Not only respecting trainers because it’s correct, but for understanding that your instructor will teach you skills and share his knowledge from the experience he’s had – not only in jiu-jitsu, but in life as well.

Self-confidence and Self-Defense :

Confidence is key to any aspect in life – it can range anywhere from interpersonal relationships and interactions to school and future work.

Jiu-Jitsu creates exactly that through the development of self-defense, another important aspect, and not really that common nowadays.

Defending yourself can be important in multiples occasions, but especially for a child.

Jiu-Jitsu, most importantly, focuses on neutralizing a situation instead of unrealistic, movie-like techniques not used in real life.

Socializing and making friends :

Building mental and physical abilities, doing physical exercise and competing are all important aspects of jiu-jitsu; however, nothing can beat making new friends for children – it is about having fun, after all.

In a sport that equally involves boys and girls, the social skills and respect to each other will stay forever. Long-lasting friendships are usually made when having hobbies together – nothing better than doing that in a friendly setting like jiu-jitsu has.

Body Coordination and Awareness :

It doesn’t matter if your kid is 3 or 17 years-old: body coordination and awareness are important to learn at any age – of course, the earlier, the better. And jiu-jitsu creates that like no other sport.

It has many small details, techniques and body movements that crafts balance, base and motor skills that can be developed and transferred to any other sport.

Don’t wait. Sign up your child for a FREE Trial Jiu-Jitsu class at SAJA in Selma,TX – and let them have fun while learning how to effectively protect themselves and realize a better version of themselves . The Confident , courageous , driven , respectful , motivated , self disciplined version .

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San Antonio Jiu-Jitsu Academy
4358 FM1518, Selma, TX 78154
210.738.8217
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06/08/2022

What is the best way to teach a beginner's class? How do I plan and structure it?

Learning Brazilian jiu-jitsu is not a linear process, where one technique leads to another and another down the line, whereas technique number three is not related to technique number seven. Learning jiu-jitsu and its techniques are more closely related to a spider’s web. One technique branches off in many directions. As a student follows one branch(or web string) it may lead back to the original position after three or four turns. It may lead to a whole new position and all of its ensuing branches. It does however have an endgame- the submission.

Now how do I teach that to beginners? One word. Slowly.

When I plan for a beginners class, I divide the class into six sections: stretches, drilling, self-defense, review techniques, new techniques, and sparring. These sections may not all be addressed in one class. For example, review and sparring would not be taught the first day(for obvious reasons).

Stretching is done from head to toes to give students a sense of their bodies and where there might be some troubles for that class. If, while stretching, your hamstrings seem tight be sure not to overdo your training of them that session. I usually plan five to ten minutes of stretching each class.

Drilling is very important for beginners and should relate to the day’s lesson. If we are escaping today then the bridge and the shrimp drills should be addressed. Another ten minutes is allotted for drilling.

Self-defense is the MOST IMPORTANT part of jiu-jitsu. Basic self-defense techniques should be addressed at each lesson. I dedicate fifteen minutes to one or two techniques to protect against the punch, kick, grabs, holds, and weapon attacks.

Reviewing techniques is just as critical to a practitioner as learning new techniques is. If you want to study World War II in history, it is probably important to review World War I and the Global Depression to understand it better. I spend twenty minutes reviewing techniques studied in the previous class(es) to keep those ideas fresh in the students' minds.

New techniques are covered for about twenty to twenty-five minutes a class. I plan two or three techniques(depending on the perceived difficulty) and dedicate more or less time to them depending on how the class reacts to learning the lesson. Sometimes techniques are easily learned, sometimes more time is needed to understand a concept or technique.

Lastly, I dedicate the last fifteen minutes of class to sparring. For the first month, or two, of class, this is positional sparring. Students need to gain a sense of the conditions of real sparring before doing it. Also, students lack a repertoire of attacks, defenses, passes, and sweeps to keep a roll moving. Once more techniques are learned students will gain more freedom to spar regularly. I still find positional sparring to be extremely helpful for all levels.

How do you keep all of this together?

I plan my lessons like I would a History lesson in school or a battle plan. I write it down. Since we have a curriculum it's already listed in order of the progression of which a higher authority wants them taught. I assign each section an amount of time. These items are not set in stone. After class, I look at my lesson and make notes on the times, on what was done and what may not have been done. I assess what was learned easily and what was difficult. After consulting that said higher authority we determine what should be more thoroughly reviewed in the next class. I note which things were positively (or negatively) accepted by the students. I leave space in my lesson to jot down attendance and the results of the class. This gives me a chance to monitor the students’ progress and also to understand where we are headed tomorrow.

I hope this gives an insight into my thought process and what to expect. I'm extremely grateful for the opportunity to teach these lessons of Brazilian Jiu-jitsu as it should be taught. Self-defense first and foremost. Healthy body and spirit secondary and lastly sport for medals. Come join us and if it's not right for you I'll point you in the right direction.

Message for more information.

06/08/2022

Explaining BJJ's transformative power to a parent
Master Carlos Gracie used to say that BJJ could even fix a stutter. While we won't go into the scientific merits of that claim, it's safe to say that a person immersed in jiu-jitsu for a long period will probably experience some unexpected benefits. And the younger they are when they start, the greater the chances that they'll live their whole life without missing some important skills.

But how do you convince a parent to enroll their kid in a jiu-jitsu class? Find, below, a couple of arguments you can use, coming from Rickson Gracie.

"Jiu-jitsu is an amazing art because it's not only a practice that develops your coordination, your sense of mobility, your sense of timing and breathing; but also, emotionally, it plays a lot in your subconscious to empower you. And, sometimes, kids, come in with a very insecure state of mind by being bullied or feeling somehow uncomfortable in any situation. Jiu-jitsu can immediately transform that attitude of an insecure state of mind, because, based on the exposure to balance, leverage, base, angles, pushing, pulling, receiving, deflecting energy, the kid starts to become exposed to a natural ability he did not know before.

"And, normally, you cannot let kids interact normally, because they're gonna get hurt; so, at home, you cannot let them fight, or let them expose themselves the way they should; in the school, also. But in the jiu-jitsu school, they can express themselves with much more freedom; and as they express themselves, the teacher will recognize sometimes a little too much aggressiveness, and then he'll say, 'Hey, you did great, but be calmer: he's smaller than you; you don't have to be—' So you start shaping the form: for the too-energetic one, you polish a little bit and reduce that kind of level of aggressiveness; for the lazy one and soft one, you start bringing energy and motivation and empowerment."

06/08/2022

05/06/2022

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