Kids Martial Arts and Teamwork

Kids martial arts and the team concept

Kids Martial Arts class: coach Amanda having kids demonstrate in class

Not many people think of any kids martial arts as a team sport. It’s looks as though it’s an individual or solitary endeavor. It’s one vs. one. You against me. It’s not often that many people recognize what is happening in the class when kids are being matched with other kids: I’ve noticed in our kids martial arts class that the coach chooses matches and switches people up specifically for what challenges that child. Each child in that kids martial arts class is being placed in the position of coaching their partner or learning from their partner. The more experienced kids have an opportunity to learn to be patient and help their fellow teammates. The less experienced kids have an opportunity to be mentored by other, more experienced, peers. Having a kids martial arts class with different skill levels helps but you don’t want the lesser skilled kids to get discouraged by being constantly over matched; conversely you don’t want your higher skilled kids getting bored by not being challenged. Good coaches in a kids martial arts class, or any othe class or sport, will foster this type of camaraderie. A good coach will be able to teach the kids martial arts class and also empower the kids themselves to learn from each other-which is exactly the same as any team sport.

Teamwork in kids martial arts

Kids martial arts class. A kids class Ironman.

I’ve coached for many years and was able to work with some very impressive coaches. I’ve been fortunate to work with and be around coaches that understand it’s the kids that walk through the door. The coaches can show them the door, teach them what they need to do but they cannot do it for them. One coach that I worked with won coach of the year-when he spoke about it he said something to the effect that he only won because people didn’t think the kids could play as well as they did. He believed in the kids and showed them how they could win and play well…they’re the ones who actually went out and executed. It wasn’t only the execution, it was also that each teammate was there for each other. They lifted each other up and helped each other out when things didn’t go well and they all shared the triumphs as well.

Kids martial arts and the SBGi Ironman

At SBGi they have a belt promotion tradition that is impressively special: The Jiu Jitsu “Ironman”:

“For more than a decade now the ‘Ironman’ has been an SBG tradition whenever one of our athletes received a new Jiu Jitsu promotion.

Anywhere from 30 to 70 students will line up around the man. One person enters the center,and over the course of 45 minutes to two hours, depending on the Jiu Jitsu belt level, the athlete in the middle wrestles everyone on the mat, one after the other.”

The sentiment behind the ‘Ironman’ is that everyone in the gym has contributed and played a part in that persons growth on the mat. In the words of founder Matt Thornton “It is the entire Jiu Jitsu community, the entire meritocracy, that you will find on an SBG Jiu Jitsu mat, that helped mold that individual athletes game.”  This sentiment is true for the kids martial arts class all the way up to the adult competition team.

It seems only fitting that the tradition is performed in the kids martial arts class as well as the adult classes. The children learn to respect their coaches but also respect and trust each other-trust that they will learn, trust that they will be supported on bad days, and trust that they will have teammates to share their achievements because they were all a part of it.

Here is a small portion of a kids class Ironman: