Quote:
Originally Posted by jaysculls
For all of the instructors and school owners that visit this site:
How do you run your kids bjj/grappling/mma classes?
What format do you use?
Do you focus on games, and do you do it for all age groups?
What ages do you teach submission?
When do you first let new kids roll?
How long are your classes?
Do you use the traditional BJJ rankings?
What ages do you teach? Do you split the ages up?
What times are your classes? Are they in the mid afternoon? or evening?
Do you have an assistant instructor working with you?
Thanks for any replies.
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I teach the kids class, but my instructor owns the school and teaches the adult classes. So I have to do a lot of things his way, although he does give me a fair amount of leeway to do what I want. We have classes twice a week. They start at 5:00 on Tuesdays and Thursdays. We start class by lining up by rank. We introduce any new students and make any announcements. Then we bow in. Then about five or ten minutes of stretching. Five or ten minutes of drills (shrimps, break falls, rolls, etc). Then I try to show at least three techniques: one self-defense technique, one submission, sweep, or guard pass, and one takedown. This is just a general rule and varies depending on how I'm feeling and how things are going. After I show each technique I have the kids pair up and try it. My assistants and I go around and make sure that every kid can do it reasonably well. At the end we do about 10 minutes of takedowns. And if there is time in between we try to do a game. Class is only 45 minutes. Then we line up, again. We take roll and do promotions, welcome new students, announcements, and bow out. Then we have open mat. This usually lasts from five to thirty minutes, depending on how long kids want to stay. I usually try to roll with some of the kids during this time. I will also pair kids up and let them work on whatever they want. Sometimes I will make it more structured and have them work from certain positions while rotating partners. Kids pay $45 per month, automatic withdrawal only. We don't teach any chokes except for the basic cross-choke. We have between 15 and 25 kids in every class ages 4-13, both boys and girls.
As I said, this is my instructor's school, and so there are some things I would do differently if it were my school. I'm not really convinced that the self defense techniques we teach are that useful so I would spend more time on takedowns. This is partly because I have a wrestling background, though. I would also make class at least an hour and try to do more live rolling during class. (We didn't used to do open mat after class until I convinced my instructor that the kids really needed it in order to improve.) I would also gear my class more towards competition and try to have more classes, especially for advanced kids that are at least 8 or 9 and seem to want to compete. Some of the kids and parents, though, are more than content to come for their 45 minutes twice a week and nothing more. That's fine, too, if that's what they want and they're willing to pay the tuition.
My instructor does a really good job of interacting with the parents and selling his program. He handles all of the administrative things and so all I have to do is teach. He stresses the self-defense aspects quite a bit to the parents, I think, because it makes good business sense. He also periodically meets with the instructors (2 head instructors and 4 assistant instructors) to make sure that any issues are addressed.
Anyways, I probably didn't address all of your questions directly, but hopefully you get the gyst of it.
