Our Philosophy
At Groundworks, we believe that learning Brazilian Jiu Jitsu is the best martial art for children that want to build confidence and learn the skills to defend themselves. While most martial arts rely on violent kicking and/or punching, Brazilian Jiu Jitsu relies on getting your opponent to the ground, and using technique and leverage in order to control them in a safe manner.
Our program provides the necessary training environment to teach your child self defense techniques, as well as how to avoid and diffuse confrontation before it escalates to physical altercation. Our style is a mix between martial arts and competitive sports (like wrestling).
Our kids program is currently for children ages 7-12.
So what does a class look like at Groundworks? Our classes have 3 components:
Kinesthetic Awareness and Body Control
Our classes start with a warm-up consisting of simple movements that improve your child's physical dexterity. In this part of class your child will run, jump, fall, roll, and move on the ground. Performing these movements teaches your child the physical skills they will need to learn more complex Jiu-Jitsu techniques. It's also a great workout! After sitting in school all afternoon, your child will have an outlet for their energy before the technique portion of class, and more importantly, before we send them home with you!
Technique
Brazilian Jiu Jitsu techniques are all about utilizing leverage and balance in order to gain the upper hand. Most of the skills we teach can be separated into 4 categories: 1) Taking your opponent down to the ground 2) Controlling them from a top position 3) Reversing an opponent that is on top of you 4) Submissions.
Submissions are only conducted under instructor supervision. "Tapping" is a golden rule of BJJ, which means that at any point during a technique, sparring, or drilling, if your partner taps, everything is let go and we reset. This enables us to train and teach techniques against live resistance, while also keeping everyone safe.
At Groundworks, we teach techniques that have been proven to work at the highest levels. Everything we show we expect our students, with practice, to be able to perform against a heavier resisting opponent. This is step #1 in building the confidence for them to protect themselves.
Sparring
The main reason to enroll your child in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu is because it works. We test this on a daily basis against our own teammates in live sparring sessions. They don't do techniques against a wall, against air, or against a bag. They do it against another live human that knows exactly what they are trying to do.
We validate the techniques we teach by sparring. While this is an intimidating notion at first, it is the secret sauce.
We do not allow children to spar until the instructor deems that they are ready. Or, if they do spar, we provide very limited and constrained conditions in order for your child's safety. However, once they get to the point where we feel they are ready, then sparring is the single best way to gain the necessary skills to defend yourself and the confidence that comes with it.
Come Try a Class for Free!
Classes are held on Tuesdays and Thursday at 4:15p.m, and Saturdays at 9a.m.
If you have questions, feel free to call, text, email, or submit an inquiry below.