If you are fortunate enough to be able to help your children live the Jiu Jitsu lifestyle, DO IT. There are plenty of options available to parents today that weren’t available in the past.
- One awesome method to mix the Jiu Jitsu lifestyle into summer vacation is to go on a Jiu Jitsu trip. There are many pre-organized ones (like the Brazilian Black Belt Camp which I wrote about a while back BJJ Summer Camp amongst others.) You can also arrange your own trip to any number of areas that have a high concentration of Jiu Jitsu academies.
- Some academies have increased class availability during the summer to allow kids who may have some extra free time on their hands to train more. Particularly when people are young, they are able to train hard more often than those who need more time to rest. If I could, I would go back and make sure that jiu jitsu was a major part of my life as a child so I could have gotten good at a young age.
- If you have 2 or more kids who are old enough to train, and are knowledgeable enough to teach or at least supervise, set up mats at your house! One of my teammates, Mike O. is constantly trying to get the team to come to his house to set up mats outside near his pool so that we can roll and then go swimming. This may not be something that everyone would be into, but most kids would love that sort of experience!
- If you are friendly with other parents of young jiujiteiros, it may make sense to get a group together and put together private group lessons with local instructors. This can be a great opportunity to expand the kids’ repertoire and expose them to different styles while at the same time giving them a chance to socialize with other kids.
- Competitions can be a lot of fun, and if your kids are inclined to compete, set up a competition calendar for the summer for them to get ready for. This can be a great way to keep kids focused.
- Wrestling/Judo/Gymnastics/Etc. There are a LOT of sports that can be taken up to augment jiu jitsu skills, choose from these sports and add them into your child’s summer curriculum to help them become better rounded, as an added bonus they may make new friends!
Jiu jitsu can be an expensive lifestyle to live, but as almost anyone who lives it will tell you it is well worth it. The younger someone really becomes passionate about it, the more likely they are to excel and become really good at it. These are just a few ideas I came up with to help brainstorm ways to entertain kids during summer break with Jiu Jitsu. Are there any cool methods that our readers have come up with? If so share them!
