Originally Posted by
VIVIANO
I think there could be a kids belt system in bjj without it becoming like some of the traditional martial arts where you see 12 yr old at the grocery store with black belts
. I know the IBJJF has an official kids belt system, I've trained at gi schools where the kids are ranked, I wanna say yellow, yellow/white, gray...but not sure of the order? Incidentally, there isn't a kids program at HQ and I've never heard Eddie's opinion on kids being ranked. There are a few parents who bring their kids to the morning class, I'm blown away by how much they already know.
A few of the kids BJJ programs I have seen have a "Junior" system. Kids go through a belt progression and can work their way up to "Junior" black belt. But there is a clear divide between adult black belts and child black belts and that is understood going in. That system seemed ok.
I think the base of the stigma of "child black belts" as one of my friends who got his black belt in TKD said is that we have kids who may be able to execute the techniques but can they actually defend themselves? There is a competitive TKD school near my house that sends kids to nationals, and some of them win by KO from time to time. (Young teenagers, obviously, not little kids).
I guess the issue is about getting to the core of what the problem is so far as kids being ranked and making sure we avoid the McDojo issue but at the same time don't set up some arbitrary invisible wall in their progression.
I was more comfortable with it when my Judo Sensei explained it because as he pointed out, in order to rank the kids had to demonstrate that not only did they know the techniques that they could USE them. I found the idea of rank being linked to competition to be a very compelling idea. (It also made me want to work even harder at being effective.)
Bookmarks