What Age to Start Jiu-Jitsu and Why: A Comprehensive Guide

Welcome back to the Strong Heart Academy blog.

As a leading Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu gym in Scottsdale, Arizona, we are committed to providing valuable information and resources to help you and your family excel in martial arts.

Today, we will discuss a common question among parents and prospective students: "What age should you start Jiu-Jitsu, and why?"

Let's explore the best age to begin training, the benefits of starting early, and how to find the right program for your child.

The Ideal Age to Start Jiu-Jitsu

While there's no definitive age requirement for beginning Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, most experts agree that children can start learning the basics as young as 4 years old. At this age, children have developed enough motor skills and coordination to participate in structured classes and understand basic techniques.

However, it's important to find a program specifically designed for younger children, often referred to as "Little Ninjas" or "Tiny Tots" classes. These classes focus on building essential skills and values while incorporating age-appropriate techniques and games to keep kids engaged and having fun.

The Benefits of Starting Jiu-Jitsu Early

Starting Jiu-Jitsu at a young age offers numerous physical, mental, and social benefits, including:

1. Improved Physical Fitness and Coordination: BJJ training helps children develop strength, flexibility, and balance, which are essential for overall health and well-being. Research has shown that regular participation in martial arts can significantly improve physical fitness in children.

2. Enhanced Focus and Discipline: Jiu-Jitsu requires concentration and self-discipline, as students must learn complex techniques and strategies. This increased focus can translate to better academic performance and success in other areas of life.

3. Increased Self-Confidence: As children progress in their Jiu-Jitsu journey, they will develop a sense of accomplishment and pride in their abilities. This boost in self-confidence can help them navigate various challenges throughout life.

4. Development of Social Skills: BJJ classes provide a supportive environment for children to interact with their peers, fostering teamwork, cooperation, and communication skills. Studies have demonstrated that martial arts training can help improve social skills and decrease aggression in children.

Finding the Right Jiu-Jitsu Program for Your Child

When searching for the perfect Jiu-Jitsu program for your child, consider the following factors:

1. Class Structure and Curriculum: Look for a program that offers age-appropriate instruction, with a focus on fun, skill-building activities, and values like respect and discipline.

2. Qualified Instructors: Ensure the instructors are experienced in teaching children and have the necessary certifications and background checks.

3. Safe and Clean Facilities: A well-maintained training environment is crucial for your child's safety and overall experience.

Wrapping Up

In conclusion, starting Jiu-Jitsu early can provide your child with a strong foundation for a lifelong love of martial arts and the numerous benefits that come with it. At Strong Heart Academy in Scottsdale, Arizona, we offer a range of children's Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu classes designed to help young students develop essential skills in a fun, supportive environment. Contact us today to schedule a trial class and begin your child's journey in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu.

Brazilian Jiu Jitsu: Truths of Strong Heart Academy

Strong Heart Academy’s 21 Truths for Brazilian Jiu Jitsu

1. Train MORE than you think you can.

2. Control your opponent.

3. Always KILL.

4. Use angles.

5. If they don’t tap they nap or snap.

6. Be first, with attacks or take downs.

7. Take the high ground, always be on top.

8. The Guard is active, sweep, sub, stand.

9. Flow, Jiu-Jitsu means gentle. Sub hard.

10. Never grip hard until you attack.

11. Attack so your opponent must defend.

12. A counter attack should be revenge.

13. Always smash.

14. The present is the most important match.

15. Chokes are nasty, always with brutality.

16. Never telegraph your intention.

17. Breathe!

18. Jiu-Jitsu is live chess, you MUST think!

19. Know your ABC attacks completely.

20. Always be one move ahead.

21. Strong Heart means BREAK your limits!

Black Belt Mindset: Discussion on What It Takes

Black Belt Mindset

A third-degree black belt, Mike Martin discusses what he thinks it takes for black belt training. Mike owns Strong Heart Academy, Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, in Phoenix, Arizona.

View our blog here.

Watch the video below:

Talk about what I think it takes to have a black belt mindset

Transcript: Black Belt Mindset

Today's podcast is brought to you by Strongheartacademy.com where no heart is no victory. We are also brought to you by BJJ2go, if you wanna build your game and learn jujitsu, go to BJJ2go.com. Okay. So today I just wanna talk about, um, being a black belt, um, this weekend, last weekend, uh, on the fifth, we did a belt graduation. It's the first one I've done ever. Um, I've always given black belts, like are given belts out during class. Like you're already, uh, we do a black belt test at, at strong heart. Um, you have to have the hours required, then you take your black belt test and then we do a gauntlet. And then after the gauntlet, we, I would give the belt for blue belts and purple belts and brown belts. Um, and then black belts, we've done them during, like Kyle would come out and we'd do a seminar and then we'd do a black belt, like the, a little bit ceremony for the black belts.

Black Belt: Reasoning

Um, and you know, my reasoning was that, um, when you're ready, you're ready and I don't want you to have to wait. You know, some of these schools will do once one graduation a year, twice a year. And I always like bother me. What if, like, you know, you have to go outta town for work that weekend. What if, um, your mother is in the hospital that weekend? You know what, it, it's just not, I didn't never seem fair to do that. So we're gonna start doing 'em quarterly. You will have the option. Um, if you, again, you still have to have the hours, you still have to do the black belt test and you still have to do a gauntlet. Um, and a lot of these schools, you know, they just go, I think you're ready. And then they give you a belt. And then, uh, I don't, I'm not a fan of that. Uh, we always had a test, um, and we'll always continue to have a black belt test.

And, um, so that being said, um, you know, we're gonna continue forward, but I think every three months we're gonna have one of these and see how it goes. It went great this weekend. Um, you know, I gave two black belts out. Um, uh, they were earned, uh, Joseph Westbrook. He's trained with me since the beginning. Uh, he trained bef outta school that I ran for years and we both trained together there. So he's been trained about 15 years. So, you know, it's a long road sometimes. And then Adrian is trained with me. I'm not even quite sure, maybe seven years, six years. Um, but he trains almost every day, sometimes twice a day, uh, sometimes three times a day. And he was my first black belt that was from white to black. The, a lot of the guys that I've given black belts to were, um, were started at blue, or they've trained a little bit somewhere first, you know, I've taken most of my black belts all the way, but, or most of the way, but he was the first one I took all the way from white to black.

And for me, that was a big deal. And, um, and I, I told him like, you're gonna be, you're my expectation's gonna be even higher for you, man, cuz you're gonna have to set the bar now. And um, and I think he did, you know, I, I asked him to do a couple things, fix a couple things, work on a couple things and, and he did that. He applied and, and got it done. And you know, Westbrook has been my friend forever. Um, one of my really good friends and um, um, just I'm happy for both of them. We gave out a number of other black belts too. You know, bunch of people got belts. I saw a bunch of, uh, old students of mine that don't train anymore or train. I have like one guy that trains in another school and it was just good to see him, you know?

Um, it was a good, it was good memories. It was good memories. And I was very appreciative of the whole, the whole day. And it was like a very, um, it was good for me. It was good for my soul. So, um, we'll continue those. And uh, I think everyone enjoyed it and, and liked it and, and we'll go forward and we got some good pictures, uh, Marcel, um, from Marcel visuals, he, uh, does photography and videography and he did a great job and, and I'll post those videos up. And if you ever wanna check him out, it's Marcel visuals.com I believe. Um, and he has his own studio too. You can go to a studio and do professional shot, you know, professional shoot, you know, he does with models all the time. Um, so I'm happy for him too. He's one of my students, I'm just happy that he's doing his passion in life.

And it's so hard. Society is not really built for people wanting to do their passions. It's very built for getting the, getting the machine, be your cog and, uh, and shut your mouth type of thing. So it's, it's hard to do your passion, but I think in the long run, even the struggles, you know, you'll be happier on the journey if you do those type of things. And one of the things during the gauntlet or during the graduation was, uh, Adrian said, uh, he whispered to me, I always knew I was gonna be a black bow. And it was like a kind of a mind blowing epiphany, whatever was like, yeah, like you, you have to believe that you can get there. And man, fortunately, there's a lot of watering down in jujitsu right now. I've seen a lot of guys getting black belts and it's not because it's like less time because I think you can get black belts a lot faster.

Black Belt: World Titles

Now I would still say, you should ha you know, unless you're winning world titles, I still say it should take six, a minimum of six years, you know, guys are doing it four or five. That's cool. But have you won any of the world titles? You know, the Kyle got in three, but he was winning world titles after world title, after world title, after world title, doing open divisions. Like, yeah, man, like you gotta give that guy a black belt, but like there's guys getting black belts that I just don't, I don't know that I personally would give them a black belt and maybe my standards are a little high and none of my guys have won titles or anything, but like they have the years in the experience in, and they have the battles in and, um, they've helped others. They've done the things that I feel like are required to be a black belt.

And um, to me, like you almost have to be a, a kind of a crazy person. You have to be super dedicated in order to do it. And you have to really want it. You can't, can't be like a, a hobby. You know, you just, you could be a hobby, no problem. But if you wanna be a black woman, it's gotta be a little bit more than that. It's like your way of life. Um, and I think it's just hard to be a black belt without that. And you can, you can for sure, but it's harder. And I, I highly recommend going all in if that's what you wanna do, if you want to be a black belt. And that doesn't mean you have to, again, doesn't mean you have the world win world titles, but definitely if you wanna win world titles, you have to be all in.

You cannot be a toe in you can't be lukewarm. You gotta be red hot for it. And you gotta love it. You gotta love that grind. And if you don't love the grind, I think it's really hard to get to that to the end. And it's not the end, but like it's the first end. I would say, it's the first end, the first major milestone and that blue belt's kind of a milestone too, cuz you're start like, okay, I think I understand the basics now, but black belt means like you've mastered the basics. In my opinion, you have mastery of the basics. Uh, we went to a seminar. I won't say who, not that long ago. And I saw some black ball Sarah and they were like, they didn't know what da Heva was. Da Heva is so old. <laugh> it's not like this new fancy thing, man.

Like you should know how to play daily. Heva even if it's not your game to play, you should know what it is. He's like, you don't know what it is. How, how are you a black belt? I don't understand. You know, some of that could be not. And these guys, cuz these guys were new black belts, but some of that could be like, you're so old that you never train. You know, it was new back then and 20 years ago. But uh, you're not, you know, you don't play it. But sometimes these guys like they stop learning when they're black are like, ah, I know everything I need and maybe that's true. But like anytime you're in an industry and you quit learning, the industry passes, you buy, uh, jujitsu is no different, you know, jujitsu is constantly changing and there are certain areas I think I'm behind that.

I need to work on, but I try to work on stuff. I really do. Um, age. Isn't the factor that stops me from learning. That's that's um, a limiting mindset that I don't like. And I don't think you should have that as a black belt. It's like, oh I'm a black belt. I'm done learning. No, not really man. Or it could be, but it shouldn't be, that's uh, not a good way to think about or do it. And you could definitely quit after black belt. I mean, it's a, it's a big accomplishment for sure. But like I'm so in, I so love jujitsu that I can't imagine quitting. It's like, uh, marriage, you know that you love someone, you don't, why would you do quit? You know, unless you're physically cannot do it. But even then man, I would be around it. I would be pointing and I would be around and I would still study.

I would be watching Jiu Jitsu and you gotta have that love, man. I just think you gotta have that love to get to the end. You can't make a black belt without a love of it. And uh, you know, I've heard some people lately saying there should be no belts, you know, we should just compete. Whoever's the best wins. And I've, I mean, you know, in wrestling that happens, but there's definitely levels to this. And to say there's not levels is weird because even in basketball, I'm a big basketball fan. Like the difference between high school basketball and college basketball and then the NBA basketball and then the NBA champions or all stars. Those are all levels, man. And those aren't belts per se, but those are definitely levels. You know, you, you, most high school kids will get destroyed by college and most college kids would get destroyed by, um, by NBA players.

So it's it's for me, it's like the same concept, even junior high, junior high to high school. Now some of that is like physical growth, but it's also knowledge and skill set too. I mean that those come with time and hours put in and it just takes the hours and, and Ji's just no different. And uh, so that's how I look at those kind of belts almost is like, um, depth of knowledge and depth of application and skill. Um, and if you just don't have that, just think it is a, uh, it's slows down the, and even like college, you know, you can get a bachelor's, but you can get a master's or you can get a PhD in so many fields that you wouldn't under. Didn't think you can get a PhD in, but you can get a PhD in a lot of things.

So it's like, those are levels, you know, you can consider those like belts almost because, um, it's the mastery of the subject and you're trying to master get a level of mastery of the subject. And I in, I always heard, you know, calling someone master I'm like, I don't like that cuz I feel like you never really master anything, but you definitely have a certain level of mastery of something. Um, but the master is like, I know everything there is to it in my mind and it's just like not possible <laugh> and that's the beauty of logistic. Cause it can keep me motivated and not bored because there's always something new and there's always little adjustments. I don't wanna say micro adjustments, but there's micro adjustments that you can make for sure at a higher level to make you better. And uh, I think that's an awesome journey and um, it was cool to see their families there and support them at the graduation and um, and it went great.

I think it went great. So I definitely wanna continue these and March is funny because um, I got my black belt in 2009, um, on March 24th. So this month will be my black belt, um, anniversary and I I'm coming. I should be getting my fourth Stripe pretty soon. I got meet up with Kyle somehow and get that done. And uh, it's also the month I started to Jitsu. So it was like March 1st ish. Uh, like it was the first week of March in 2000, the year 2000. So I've been at this for 22 years and um, there's times where I've been tired and getting burned out, but I've never dropped jujitsu. I never not trained jujitsu. Uh, the longest I ever took off jujitsu 22 years was two months for a shoulder injury, uh, surgery, I should say. And that was not, I was supposed to do nine months.

Um, but that's just like my love for this. And man, I feel like sometimes I get confused that people don't have the same love with me, which is delusional on my part. But um, you know, that's a super projection, but I think you have to have the same love to get to that end. And it can't be like, this is something I do now. It could be, this is something I do that helps me be straight and narrow and keep me motivated and goal setting. That's true. Um, and it could be like a utility for you even more than a passion. So the utility of it is, is important. You know, I make people write out certain questions I ask when they do their black belt test, they gimme a sheet that I want you to fill out. And um, somebody, she wrote out a thing and she said, you know, one of the things that J's done for me is that it gives me excuse to tell my friends that I can't go out tonight and ha and party.

And I was like, yeah, it does. And, and this did the same thing when I first started. Cause I started at, when I was 20, you know, I was 21. Um, and then when I turned 21, you know, you, you can go out and, and go to try to pick up girls and you're going to bars and things like that. But like in the middle of the week, that's not healthy. And then you can't do that when you're getting you can, but you shouldn't be doing that when you're getting older, you know, you got years in. And like I thought that was a great thing that she said that was like, it gives me this excuse not to go out. And again, that, that would be like the utility of it. Um, this week, one of my students said, Hey, it's my two year anniversary of being sober.

And I, we look, I looked down the line and there was four other people in the line that I didn't say anything, but I know that that they've been, uh, they have a sober way of life as well. And you know, they had their struggles and I think jujitsu's also helped them with that journey. You know? So there's five people in this line of maybe there was a smaller class, like 12 people. So five outta 12 had, are, have used and maybe are using jujitsu as a vehicle to stay clean and sober and do something positive with your time because everyone has time and you gotta, you're gonna fill it no matter what. Even if you sleep all day, it's filling your time with sleep and you might as well do something positive with it. And it can give you an excuse to be positive.

Like, oh man, I gotta do jujitsu. I can't go out tonight. Sorry. And I think the non Jitsu people are like, think, look at you. Like what, why are you rolling around with a bunch of people, but they don't, you know, they don't understand it and they're not in that place in their life where they're ready to make a change. They just wanna party party, party, party. And I get it. It's, it's fun, but there's consequences to that. So, um, and to say that there's no consequences, Jitsu, for sure there's gonna be injuries, but I went over that in the past too, man. Like you get older, there's always injuries. Our body breaks down, no matter what you did, lack of exercise will break your body down. So at least you're gonna have good stories and you'll be in shape in between, in between the injuries.

But, um, I'd rather play those prices than the liver damage or whatever your, uh, fun choice is that you do. That's gonna wear that body down. So, um, yeah, these are just kind of reflections over the weekend and, and of the graduation that we had and I'll put some pictures up, um, you know, Marcel took some great pictures and, and uh, I'll figure out how to get everyone's pictures. We took a picture of everyone getting their belt. So I'll try to do that for you guys and, and get those out for you. Um, sometime this week. Um, some of you, I, I, I text, but it's just too many people to send via text and, and, um, their com I can't know how much I can compress these pictures too. So I'll get those out. I appreciate everyone showing up to for the graduation and, and, um, supporting the people that got, uh, new belts and leveled up. And, um, it was just a great experience overall. So it was a short one today. I just wanted to share that with you guys and hope you guys have a great weekend. Peace.

Black Belt Training starts here.

Kids BJJ Day: Demonstration

CHILDREN’S BRAZILIAN JIU JITSU LESSON

Mike Martin, Owner of Strong Heart Academy, Brazilian Jiu Jitsu in Phoenix Arizona, and third-degree black belt, narrates various grips, holds, and more. Demonstration for children’s BJJ and adult BJJ.

View our other blog posts.

Watch the video below:

Kids Day, BJJ Demonstration

Transcript - Kids BJJ Demonstration

Footwork and Cross Stepping

All right, drop Sandia. I'm gonna show with some shoes, some footwork you can do cross stepping and then your other leg is gonna try to stay within your partner's, uh, legs. You don't want to go too far outward outside of the legs. Now, if they're smaller, you can go a little bit. It's not as bad, but try to stay within and then, uh, squat or drop to your knees. Uh, we tend to teach dropping to our knees. It's a little safer, some more footwork gripping at the elbow, lifting the elbow and cross stepping. Lifting at the elbow, allows the other leg, the other arm and grip to come inside.

Making Room for Grip

You're making room for your other grip. Now I'm gonna show cross gripping the various grips we can use, um, lifting form or, uh, form goes inside. So form goes inside the armpit and my other foot is gonna step behind. So cross step form goes inside and squat. Now you could do the full San AGI from standing or the drop sayNo. We tend to do the drop. San AGI just is a little safer for everyone. Now, this is just a self defense, uh, practicing of gripping. If they're overhand, I'm showing 'em like, if you had something in your hand, like a hammer or whatever, stick, it doesn't matter. It just open Palm out as a stop. And then you're gonna reach in traditional gripping underneath.

Body Positioning: BJJ

So it's easier to practice if you partner a square, meaning both feet are equal. Open the elbow cross step. Now opposite arm comes in. It's the same grip. You wanna make sure you get high in the armpit and not in the middle of the bicep. Pull the hand down. So it's hard to finish you head down and follow through leading him forward. Before you drop will help get him on his toes. And the throw is much easier to finish lifting the hand with the sleeve grip and dropping. You need to get underneath the arm, uh, armpit, and you need to get lower. So if you're a taller person in your opponent, you have to squat lower than your opponent. This is the traditional grip, but his arm is straight so that he cannot curl and go for rear naked, choke and jujitsu. They're gonna try to choke you and put hooks in. So you also, another reason I like to draw it to my knees. It's harder to get the hooks in, to follow through.

Armbar from the Guard

All right, armbar from the guard, gonna pull the arm underneath, pull it across. Same foot will go on the hip cross grip on his shoulder arm that you're attacking. That foot goes on. The hip. Other foot goes high and turning him high on his back high. As you can almost touch your knee, he possibly can push the face, hand slides to the wrist. I step over pinching my knees and curling my legs. Lifting hips. Wrist must stay on your chest to finish this time. When I do the arm bar, I come underneath, I pull the arm across, I step foot on the hip. We step over like a normal arm bar, but they're going to pull their arm out. When they pull their arm out, I'm going to drop my left knee towards the mat. As I hip escape, I hip escape, dropping my knee, clear the arm to the far side, and now I'm tacking the other arm, lifting my hips to step over the head heel to toes.

Securing Wrist and Finishing Armbar

Make sure you secure the wrist to the chest. Finishing the armbar. This last one is a Kyle armbar, which I call Kyle armbar. He has control of my lapels. I'm going to break his grip. We've worked earlier videos on breaking his grips. I lift the sky, switch my grip over the wrist and grab his tricep material at the seam with four fingers Palm up. I'm gonna maintain that hand on the tricep. Do not let go of that. Just like a normal armbar, changing the angle. We're gonna go over his shoulder with my thigh pinching my knees. Many times I can lift up. Do not take your hand off his tricep lift finish even better. Step over. Keep your hand on the tricep and lift your hips for the finish.

Starting with Grips from Half Guard

I'm gonna start with grips from half guard, thumb in his neck, gripping his wrist shin in his chest knee towards my hand. So there's an angle there. Here's the other side, my feet. I like to keep in tucked. You need to hook his bottom knee. So he does not knee cut slice. You, you have to hook your inside leg cannot be on the ground. So kicking him off of an angle and then hand follows my knee. As I kick forward to do like a sit up, my ear goes on his belly button or as low as I can. The lower, the better makes it hard for him to re underhook you. I have the under hook. We need to maintain the under hook coming up to my knee and getting ready to sh him to take his back is the first option. If they do not wizard. Now, the easiest thing to do is to get back to close guard. Now, many people wanna play half guard. This is fine, but you should always understand, pull their hand out and then lay comes out. You couldn't turn this into a scissor sweep as well, but we're just gonna turn my hips, relock my guard, go back to clothes guard.

Strong Heart Principle | SERVICE

View all 8 principles here.

So the first one is service and the way we talk about this is service to others. You know, I try to encourage the kids to, do community service and, and understand that you are part of a community as humans and helping the people around you.

So we give pins out, awards out for 10 hours, community service. And the goal is just to get you in the service mindset. And I know for myself, all the service things that I do, I mean, they hugely impact my own life. Not the people that I help. Like obviously they help the, the people that I help, but I get something out of it. There's something about being a human and helping others. And, what it does for yourself. Like you have a sense of gratitude, for the things that you have that maybe others don't. And, it sets a community, you know, when you're working with others. So we highly encourage service. I encourage this with adults too. And you know, my, we, we even say that, you know, I allow for these community hours of community service, some of 'em don't like, what, what can I do as a kid?

I'm like, you could pick up trash in a neighborhood. Sometimes we think if it has to be like this complicated thing, it really doesn't, you know, you can go at school, you could pick up trash around the playground afterwards, just ask for a bag. I guarantee you, the teachers will say, absolutely, I'll give you a trash bag. You go out there, wash your hands afterwards. And, and, and thank you. So these are just things that we, we try to encourage, encourage, encourage, you know, be a part of the community, help your community, help people around you. And I think that's something that we're missing right now in, in society is everyone's very me, me, me, me, and you're encroaching on me. And, and it's like, how about us? You know, us? And the other thing I encourage kids is to help their grandparents.

You know, America has a, a very strange relationship with grandparents. Um, you know, they're separated like a lot of countries in the world, grandparents live with you. Okay, now, now grandparents live separately. Either they have their own place or they're maybe at a, a nursing home. So I encourage, you know, helping your grandparents, wash their car, pick up dog poop at their house, help them with their laundry pick weeds. Um, there's many things that kids even young as four can do and get these, this, this helping your grandparents out. And, um, you should be, and your grandparents will love it because you're hanging out with them. Um, it's kind of the way I believe that things should be okay.

Thank you.

Kids Brazilian Jiu Jitsu Lesson

Children’s Brazilian Jiu Jitsu Lesson

Mike Martin, Owner of Strong Heart Academy, Brazilian Jiu Jitsu in Phoenix Arizona, and third-degree black belt, narrates various grips, holds, and more. Demonstration for children’s BJJ and adult BJJ.

View our other blog posts.

Watch the video below:

Mike BJJ Kid’s Demonstration Video

Transcript: Kids BJJ

Footwork

All right, drop Sandia. I'm gonna show with some shoes, some footwork you can do cross stepping and then your other leg is gonna try to stay within your partner's, uh, legs. You don't want to go too far outward outside of the legs. Now, if they're smaller, you can go a little bit. It's not as bad, but try to stay within and then, uh, squat or drop to your knees. Uh, we tend to teach dropping to our knees. It's a little safer, some more footwork gripping at the elbow, lifting the elbow and cross stepping. Lifting at the elbow, allows the other leg, the other arm and grip to come inside.

Cross Gripping

You're making room for your other grip. Now I'm gonna show cross gripping the various grips we can use, um, lifting form or, uh, form goes inside. So form goes inside the armpit and my other foot is gonna step behind. So cross step form goes inside and squat. Now you could do the full San AGI from standing or the drop sayNo. We tend to do the drop. San AGI just is a little safer for everyone. Now, this is just a self defense, uh, practicing of gripping. If they're overhand, I'm showing 'em like, if you had something in your hand, like a hammer or whatever, stick, it doesn't matter. It just open Palm out as a stop. And then you're gonna reach in traditional gripping underneath.

Form

So it's easier to practice if you partner a square, meaning both feet are equal. Open the elbow cross step. Now opposite arm comes in. It's the same grip. You wanna make sure you get high in the armpit and not in the middle of the bicep. Pull the hand down. So it's hard to finish you head down and follow through leading him forward. Before you drop will help get him on his toes. And the throw is much easier to finish lifting the hand with the sleeve grip and dropping. You need to get underneath the arm, uh, armpit, and you need to get lower. So if you're a taller person in your opponent, you have to squat lower than your opponent. This is the traditional grip, but his arm is straight so that he cannot curl and go for rear naked, choke and jujitsu. They're gonna try to choke you and put hooks in. So you also, another reason I like to draw it to my knees. It's harder to get the hooks in, to follow through.

Armbar from Guard

All right, armbar from the guard, gonna pull the arm underneath, pull it across. Same foot will go on the hip cross grip on his shoulder arm that you're attacking. That foot goes on. The hip. Other foot goes high and turning him high on his back high. As you can almost touch your knee, he possibly can push the face, hand slides to the wrist. I step over pinching my knees and curling my legs. Lifting hips. Wrist must stay on your chest to finish this time. When I do the arm bar, I come underneath, I pull the arm across, I step foot on the hip. We step over like a normal arm bar, but they're going to pull their arm out. When they pull their arm out, I'm going to drop my left knee towards the mat. As I hip escape, I hip escape, dropping my knee, clear the arm to the far side, and now I'm tacking the other arm, lifting my hips to step over the head heel to toes.

Finishing Armbar

Make sure you secure the wrist to the chest. Finishing the armbar. This last one is a Kyle armbar, which I call Kyle armbar. He has control of my lapels. I'm going to break his grip. We've worked earlier videos on breaking his grips. I lift the sky, switch my grip over the wrist and grab his tricep material at the seam with four fingers Palm up. I'm gonna maintain that hand on the tricep. Do not let go of that. Just like a normal armbar, changing the angle. We're gonna go over his shoulder with my thigh pinching my knees. Many times I can lift up, do not take your hand off his tricep lift finish even better. Step over. Keep your hand on the tricep and lift your hips for the finish flat and then posturing up. So now he's gonna show me, he grabs his elbow tied to his chest balls speeds so that my head goes to the mat, then rolls over towards the side that he blocks arm and I'm showing him to put his hands on my stomach. So it doesn't get CommEd. And push me back down from the guard. Then he'll work to pass the guard and we'll show this full speed or actually faster.

Thank you.

Strong Heart Principles | Diligence and Consistency

View all 8 Strong Principles here.

DILIGENCE

So, so, um, the next one would be diligence. And this is, I think out of, on the list of kids, for kids, this is the one I want to teach them the most. And if, and if they don't get any of these other things on here, I feel like diligence is the most important, uh, it's important for success.

CONSISTENCY

Okay. Consistency kind of, I almost wanted to put diligence, diligence slash consistency. And when people join jiu jitsu, what's one of the first things I tell them, like, there's no secret sauce.

The secret is to show up, okay. And be diligent. And you know, when you're getting setbacks, diligence pushes you through the setbacks it's in, you know, people say quitting is not an option. Quitting is the easiest option. So, you know, this is for me too. I'm, I'm trying to work on my mandolin. Uh, I've been doing it for about a year. And, um, you know, I try to be consistent and be diligent with my practice every day, and then try to push myself things that I don't understand. Um, things that are difficult. I try to do the difficult things and be diligent with, with my, with myself and the same thing with kids, with their work, their schoolwork is being diligent, you know, like set this time, which is also balance, um, to set a time, to get, get your homework done. Okay, get your studying done.

You have a test. You gotta get on it. Understanding the, the subject. You could be very frustrated. Sometimes you're not understanding, but diligence. You have to keep pressing at it. You know, the grand canyon was built by water just to, you know, the, the Colorado river cut that thing down. If you've ever seen the grand canyon in person. Uh, and if you haven't, you know, you should work to do that. I promise you it's a seven wonder of a world is I look at it and, and it's wondered it's beauty, but I also see the diligence of a river can cut a canyon and, you know, water can cut anything. It can dissolve literally anything. So, um, it's and then, and in that process of thinking is like the diligence of it. It's just continually, continually, even it takes a millions and millions of years.

It still did it. And we don't have that much time on our life. But if you are consistent and have diligence, and when things get tough, you press through, it's only going to help you. Okay. The next one is respect. And the respect is kind of similar to, uh, loyalty in the fact that, uh, you give respect where respect is, is, is, um, earned. And I also try to respect people that I don't know now, respect. I try to give instant respect and then tell it's lost. So I'm gonna assume that you, as someone I don't know, deserves respect, and then the way that you treat me or the other people around you that I also see is gonna determine how much respect I'm giving you. Okay. So it's like same thing, gas tank, uh, analogy, uh, a hundred percent respect. And then I say, oh, you do this.

Oh, I do that. Oh, you do that. And then you get less and less respect or you maintain, or you get more. I'm like, oh my gosh, this person is, deserve so much respect. And, and, um, and right now, you know, and living in a big city, it's easy to not give people the respect, cuz there's so many people and um, respecting people's space, faith beliefs, you know, right now everyone wants to fight beliefs, right. Left, you know, like, ah, you're right. Ah, you're left. I can't, I can't respect you. It's um, a dangerous game of dividing everybody. And um, so again, if you say you are left, you know, and something that I, you do that I lose respect and I'm gonna lose respect. If you say that you're the, on the right side and that's fine. But then maybe certain things that they, that the person on the right does that might lose respect.

That's just the way it is. You know, I don't, but I, it's not an immediate thing for me. It's not like, oh, you're a right wing. I can't respect you. Oh, you're left wing. Oh, I can't respect you. It's your actions. Uh, okay. So I try not to categorize you right away. You, you know, the content of your, of your character, you know, uh, uh, Martin Luther king said, you know, don't judge by color of skin, but the contact of character, it's not just color of skin though. It's contact of everyone's character. You know, you can categorize, you know, he was talking, dealing with civil rights, with, you know, unjust to people of color, but there's unjustice of everything. Um, not just that. And I'm not Blitt that at all, but like, um, you know, how do you treat others? You know, you say you're a man of faith and then you, you, you belittle people, you know, you, you, you put people down, you know, I will lose respect for you.

You know, you say you're a man of faith, but then you, you, you, you choose to the tenants of this faith and you, um, you know, you, you give to charity, you help others. You try to help people with their problems. The, the, then I just get more respect for you, you know, but you just try to put people down and then degrade people and you're unwilling to help people, you know, and you're living in an ivory tower and then people, you know, are, are, are starving and in poverty and you, you're not willing to, you're not helping them out. You're driving, you know, fancy cars, but yet you, you, you, you look down on people below you. I, I lose respect. Okay. So respect is get is for me, it's instant. And then it's something to be lost. Okay. Um, and I also try to give respect, even if someone says something about someone, I try to meet them first, you know, and give them the benefit of the doubt, prove, prove me, right, please.

Um, that, that you should be respected. Okay. And then that, that's how I go for it. And, and that's another thing that I don't think people should give me right away. And when I first, um, came up with a black belt and I got my first degree, you know, the first degree you're supposed to be called a professor. And I was like, really weird about that. Some people used to call me sensei too, or coach, uh, coach is a little bit easier for me for whatever reason. But professor was like, I felt like, I don't know. And, and I remember Kyle told me like, Mike, you, you need to ask people to call your professor because it's a sign of respect. Okay. And this is true. Like whoever's teaching the class should get respect. And, um, but I also feel like I should be earning that respect.

And, you know, one way I earned it is 22 years of jiu jitsu. But, and, and my knowledge, you know, that you could respect me because I, I know what I'm talking about. I teach, well, you know, that's a sign of you should, you could respect that if I start showing up late, if I'm not giving my best, if I'm not teaching well anymore, if I'm being losing all my patients, you know, it's easy to lose patients here and there, but, you know, if I'm just not patient with kids that don't understand it, or adults respect can be lost, you know, even as a professor and sometimes, uh, black belts, they think they just need per, you know, they don't wanna roll with others. You know, it's very common. Um, I don't do that in my school, but like, you can't ask a black belt unless you're a black belt to roll.

I don't really care about that, um, at my school. But I understand that that many schools traditionally, you can't do that. You know, you have to, they have to ask you. Um, and, but I, I feel like respect is earned there's purple belts that could beat black belts, you know, you could mess up and you're outta shape. You're old, whatever. And, and young guy's a blue belt catches you in. Something happens, you know? Um, it, it, I respect all people and my opponents as well. Same thing when I'm rolling with a blue belt, I'm like, mm, I try not to get too lazy. Okay. Uh, because I'll catch you.

Children's Jiu Jitsu: Demonstration Lesson

Children’s Brazilian Jiu Jitsu: Demonstration of Moves

Mike Martin, Owner of Strong Heart Academy, Brazilian Jiu Jitsu in Phoenix Arizona, and third-degree black belt, narrates various grips, holds, and more. Demonstration for children’s BJJ and adult BJJ.

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Watch the video below:

Mike Martin, Children’s BJJ Demonstration. Moves, Holds, Grips and more!

Transcript: Children’s BJJ

So pulling guard have sleeve grip and lapel grip. I wanna step forward and my right leg is gonna go toes out on the hip. As I fall to one butt cheek, and then I'm gonna grab his ankle. My other foot needs to step, uh, hook behind his knee and pull so that can backstep and start passing series. If you fall on your side, it's easier to reach the ankle that you're aiming for. Here's another angle. They'll slow you down. As you could descend, bend one leg and then you'll have our sleeve. And then my other leg, my hand goes right to the ankle. Now you can turn this into a million guards. This is just a nice, simple, open guard. I usually turn into a sickle sweep, uh, but this is the way I like to pull guard.

Intercept Hand and Grip Fighting

All right, we're gonna work on changing levels first here and elbows in hands out. So thumbs are in hands are out. It's easier to intercept, uh, hand and grip fighting, but he feeds changing levels. I have to change levels with him and that's the whole point. My head level is gonna go at his level. I'm showing how to clear his hands, cuz his hands in front. So I'm going to change levels, knee pound and blast double. Now here's the more sophisticated, double leg changing levels. My knee goes to the ground. Head should stay up better than that. I like to grab the calves step and then I'm gonna lift one leg, head up and walk towards my ear. My head is turning him. I'm tapping his knee and walk in a circle will always keep you on bounds and you'll gonna get this side control position. Most likely instead of getting stuck in guard, the blast double will get you stuck in D uh, closed guard. If they know what they're doing, they're it's great for a street fight. It's um, good for MMA, but uh, for jujitsu tournaments, you don't wanna be stuck in the double leg and there's uh, a little bit faster. You really can't do it this

Arm Bar from Guard

Slow either, but uh, showing you how it should look. All right, armbar from the guard. We're gonna pull the arm underneath, pull it across. Same foot will go on the hip cross grip on his shoulder arm that you're attacking. That foot goes on. The hip. Other foot goes high and turning him high on his back high. As you can almost touch your knee, he possibly can push the face, hand slides to the wrist. I step over pinching my knees and curling my legs. Lifting the hips. Wrist must stay on your chest to finish this time. When I do the arm bar, I come underneath, I pull the arm across, I step foot on the hip. We step over like a normal arm bar, but they're going to pull their arm out. When they pull their arm out, I'm going to drop my left knee towards the mat.

Hip Escape and Arm Bar

As I hip escape, I hip escape dropping my knee, clear the arm to the far side, and now I'm taking the other arm, lifting my hips to step over the head heel to toes. Make sure you secure the wrist to the chest. Finishing the armbar. This last one is a Caio armbar, which I call Caio armbar. He has control of my lapels. I'm going to break his grip. We've worked earlier videos on breaking the grips. I lift the sky, switch my grip over the wrist and grab his tricep material at the seam with four fingers Palm up. I'm gonna maintain that hand on the tricep. Do not let go of that. Just like a normal armbar, changing the angle. We're gonna go over his shoulder with my thigh pinching my knees. Many times I can lift up. Do not take your hand off his tricep lift finish even better. Step over. Keep your hand on the tricep and lift your hips for the finish. So we're gonna do guard break. Um, when you're in the guard. So the person in white is gonna roll his two lapels, put 'em together and roll them up like a burrito. And then he's gonna keep his hand. So his thumb is still up. And when his partner comes up, he pushes him back down and stiff, arms him back down to the ground.

Working Breaks

He rolls the gear back up and his hand goes to the hip. One hand on the lapel. When he push comes up, he pushes him back down. So we're gonna work breaks today. Uh, when he's grabbing your sleeve, you're gonna grab his knuckles and pull your hand out. We're gonna do some of these a couple times and you can see he dabs. If you'd like grabs and knuckles and pulls a hand out and then you can pin their hand. The second one is lapel. So that's your lapel. I'm pointing to when your partner grabs the same side lapel, and you're gonna make a V with your hands and break the grip. So he takes his hands. Two hands, hand breaks this time he cross grips. So meaning he grips across the other side of lapel, not the same side. You're gonna loop your head underneath and posture up hard. I helped him by pushing his head over that time. We cross grip, loop our head and posture up and you can break also with your hands as you posture up.

Open the Guard

Now we're working to open the guard up. So you have your burrito grip. You have your hand on the hip. The hand, the knee is gonna go right down the middle and other knee is gonna go wide and you're gonna turn your chest. And he already opened his guard here, but many times they don't thumb inside the knee to push down, to open up and break the guard open. And that's our whole goal knee on the middle step over, keep your leg nice and straight while your hand is on the knee.

Thank you.

Strong Heart Principle - HEALTH

View all 8 of our principles.

The next one is health. And you know, this is kind of mixes with balance. A lot of these mixed together, which I think is important too. But health is, you know, eating right, sleeping, exercising, and mental health as well, working on mental health. We have a serious mental health issue in the country right now. Um, and so I think jiu jitsu's a huge help for it, but it's, it's just an aspect of your mental health. You need to be working on other things and ex, and be a, be a person that self examines yourself and be brutal with yourself.

You know, am I working on the things that I need to do for my mental health? You could have anxiety, depression, um, you know, you know, how are your relationships? That's part of your health too. Okay. Stress leads to physical ailments. It's proven. Okay. So dealing with your stress in a positive way, instead of drinking or drugs or medicating, you know, everyone's so many people taking Xanax. Oh, it's legal. Okay. But, and, and maybe you need it if you're having severe panics. Okay. But you need to deal with the root cause. What is causing the anxiety and maybe therapy might be a thing that you need, okay. Or a psychiatrist or psychologist maybe read on these subjects. Is there something that, a book that might help you, you know, faith, um, I think is a huge part of this too, you know, like not everyone has faith, but I, I believe, um, a good part of balance and health is your mind, your body and your soul.

And, um, health, I think is an important part of that. You know, that Trinity of, of health and balance, um, uh, so, you know, making, making sure you're, you're eating properly, you know, myself, I have a, I have a sweet tooth, you know, and I, I drink way too much soda. And, uh, our doctor, you know, I, I drink, uh, pop, whatever you wanna call wherever you're in the country. Uh, I call it soda, but, um, it's not good for you. It's not healthy. I need to be drinking. I drink a lot of water, but I need, I would like to cut out as part of my thing. Like my list, you get cut out more. Um, I'm trying to cut down on my carbs a little bit. I'm decent at that. You know, my, my, my, uh, my food intake is probably where I suffer the most.

I, I do exercise. I do have, I am a man of faith. I do work on my mental health. Um, I am very conscious of my mental health. Um, and all those things are struggles. You know, not, no one's saying that any of this stuff is easy, but it's, if you don't work on things, um, they don't change.

Brazilian Jiu Jitsu Can Change Your Child's Life

Brazilian Jiu Jitsu for Kids

Yes, seriously! Getting your kids to learn Brazilian Jiu Jitsu will change their lives for the better. It will also equip them with the necessary skills to help them navigate the minefield that is life in the 21st Century.

Your Child

Gone are the days when everyone had a sense of community and personal responsibility.

Click here for the 8 Strong Heart Principles to Live By

Taking kids through a properly instituted martial arts program allows kids to learn essential life skills such as temperance, resilience, discipline, and respect for themselves and those around them. However, these virtues are no longer enough to get by in this ever-changing world. 

Let's examine how Brazilian Jiu Jitsu enhances your child's life.

Tempering their Egos

We live in a dichotomy between maintaining traditional values and attempting to blend them with modernity. Add in the differing cultures and religions, which, while a melting pot of diversity, can lead to clashing societal philosophies. 

There has been a severe clash in certain spheres between the two. These differences have led to a chasm in terms of values to emulate. To successfully thread through this constant clashing, our children require the right attitude of being reasonable. 

Brazilian Jiu Jitsu tests your child's limits physically, mentally, and emotionally. They will experience failures, attempt to compare themselves with others, and even try to match up. This will lead to pain that is necessary for their growth and tempers their egos. 

This discomfort will be the flint that sparks their internal development and gets them to learn how to be the best they can be. It allows them to appreciate the ups and downs of life, as well as the meaning of effort. 

Buttressing Their Self Esteem

It isn't easy to discount the impact of social media and society on how your children see themselves on the inside. Most media channels, at the moment, focus on bragging and showing off, which can be things your kids aren't capable of doing. Being around people who want nothing can be a real stab for many children. 

Through immersing themselves in martial arts, the child learns to trust in themselves and what they have on the inside. The learning process means they see improvements, no matter how small; filling them with confidence. Since they have worked hard on these improvements, they have what it takes to do whatever they have to, no matter how difficult. 

The Power of Compounding

Jiu Jitsu black belts aren't built in a day. Getting to that coveted belt takes years of concentrated effort and action. What's even more interesting is, in those years, the learner has gathered many skills which they can use to get them to their goal. 

This is a directly transferable skill. Compounding is necessary for personal finances. The little skills, mistakes, and corrections one makes during their Jiu Jitsu journey are the perfect analogy for the road to financial freedom. It doesn't happen in a day, but it takes deliberate effort, discipline, and focus to attain their goals. 

By learning different financial skills, the child can leverage them to gift themselves a type of freedom not many enjoy in this world. 

It Starts with The First Move

The Shrimp is a familiar technique for someone already in a Brazilian Jiu Jitsu class. For your child, however, the first move will be to take a free trial with Strong Heart Academy. We are a family-friendly martial arts gym based in North Phoenix and are members of the Caio Terra Association. 

We have structured our classes for four different age groups, from the Tiny Tigers at 4 to 5 years of age, Mat Monkeys ages 6-7, Kids BJJ from 8-12, to the Teens between ages 13-16. If you'd like to know more about how we work, get in touch with us now. 

You can also view our blog here.

Strong Heart Academy Student Principles #3 - BALANCE

View all 8 of Strong Heart’s Principles to Live By here.

Uh, the third thing is balance. This is the hardest, okay. Balance for me is hard. Uh, I really try to balance my life as much as I can. And this is like all aspects. Like people think sometimes when I say balance is like, oh, can, are you on balance? Like, um, athletically? And that is important too, because that is, uh, balance is a aspect of athletics. And, um, you know, some people will only go to strength, training, endurance, training, stamina up, but I think sometimes flexibility, but balance is huge. Um, huge for Jitsu, uh, huge for almost all sports, really. So that is an aspect of it, but I'm talking about the balance of life.

You know, we try to talk about kids like, you know, and even adults really honestly, uh, is with, you know, video games are video games bad. Absolutely not. If you're playing eight hours a day. Yes. I had a student one time, years ago that, uh, he lost his job because he was playing world of Warcraft, uh, until like four in the morning had to go to work at like six or seven. And he would call in his work, his work dropped, and then he ended up losing his house. Um, you know, these, these are, that's a dangerous thing. You're not having balance in your life, you know, like you need sleep. And that's the thing thing too, like not just video games, but sleep, sleep is a part of balance. Part of the health too, is a healthy person, is someone that gets their sleep.

You know, you work X amount, you, you have X amount of time with your family. You know, sometimes for myself, I, I struggle with, you know, a small business, uh, staying with my family and, and making sure that they're giving time. My kids, my wife is getting the time that they deserve. Uh, and then I also have to work, you know, like if I'm just only hanging out with them and I'm abandoning my, my school, my, my business, it's gonna start to degrade, not do as good. So like, it's constantly like checks and balances of balance in your life. You know, work it out all the time. Your body will break down, you need rest. That's part of the balance. And, um, you know, with school, like you gotta study, you know, if you're not gonna study, then it's gonna be difficult to get good grades and achieve the things that you're trying to achieve.

Um, so, so that's kind of my, my, my take on balance is you need to be wor thinking about it. You can even write it out, like what you're doing. If you write out your day, like at the end of the day, what did I do at this time? What did I do at this time? You'll start seeing the hours of the day. We only have so many hours of the day and you know, you gonna have to get your balance down. What, what are you gonna do? And there's gonna be sacrifices as far as balance of concerned. You know, there might be one month, like I gotta work a little extra hard, but you need to make sure that you're gonna come back and work with your family, see your family, you know, maybe take a weekend off with your family, something like that.

Okay. Um, but these things are important. So even with jiu jitsu, like I'll tell people set the days they're gonna do jiu jitsu. Okay. Sometimes, uh, our spouses are like, why are you always with these people? You know, like, but it'll make you better for your family because you get this, um, respite in doing jiu jitsu and you're being healthy and doing something positive. And then you're gonna go back to your family. And I promise, you'll be a better person. You need to explain this balance to your parent, to your spouse, but your, you also need to be with your spouse. So like, if you're training every day, six times, you know, if I'm training twice a day, five to six times a week, and maybe you're not seeing your, your, your, your spouse, this could be a problem. Okay. And you know, a lot of the champions that I've known in my life, their balance is a little off.

And a lot of times families, um, take the brunt of that. And, and professional athletes is the same thing. You know, the door horse rate is so high because their balance is outta whack. And so to, in order to achieve the levels that they need to achieve, there's a lot of sacrifice. And sometimes, unfortunately, the family is the first thing to sacrifice. So if you're a competitive athlete, you need to be asking yourself, are you willing to make these sacrifices to be the champion? Is it worth the sacrifices? And then, you know, I've known some people that they find out that later, it's not, it's not worth it. You know, like, man, they look back and like, I, I didn't see my kids. I didn't see my wife. And now I'm, you know, I had these gold medals, but what does that mean? Um, so it's a tough one.

It is a tough one. And, um, work and balances for, for me is the toughest on this list, the toughest on this list.