Child ranks in 10th Planet BJJ?

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Originally Posted by Chris Herzog

Now im determined to post them as I can't figured it out.

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That's fine. It doesn't matter as I didn't accuse you of talking out of your ass. I am not sure why you are taking this so personally. I told you that I don't think he is mistaken and that it is more likely that I am misquoting him or in some way misunderstood him.

There are arguments about rank structure. You can get a belt in Judo without every competing and minimal randori/newaza in some schools. My Sensei feels you have to demonstrate you can actually use what you learned.

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Originally Posted by Neil Kiernan

That's fine. It doesn't matter as I didn't accuse you of talking out of your ass. I am not sure why you are taking this so personally. I told you that I don't think he is mistaken and that it is more likely that I am misquoting him or in some way misunderstood him.

There are arguments about rank structure. You can get a belt in Judo without every competing and minimal randori/newaza in some schools. My Sensei feels you have to demonstrate you can actually use what you learned.

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Im not determined to post it to prove you wrong, im determined to figure out "how" to post it from my phone.

I agree 100%, my only argument with what you said about rank is that there are clear minimum age requirements.

Just curious who is your sensei, I know alot of Michigan Judoka?

Frank Gerlitz.

Also a note, I may be wrong about his rank, pretty sure it's 3rd Dan in Judo and 7th Dan in JJJ.

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Originally Posted by Neil Kiernan

Also a note, I may be wrong about his rank, pretty sure it's 3rd Dan in Judo and 7th Dan in JJJ.

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I know Frank well. For years I coached at the Spirit of the Eagle International Judo training camp, he attended a few times.

So to get back on track, I will re-interate that I do like the approach of 10th Planet Ann Arbor in teaching kids in a couple of years all of the material they will need to test for blue. That seemed like a better answer then the ambiguous answers I have been given in the past at other BJJ schools with kids programs. What I will be curious about is if my kids stay consistent if they can learn past that point and be ready to test for more when they are old enough.

I liked the 10th Planet Vanuys Facebook page awhile ago, I don't know the specifics of their rankings for the kids program, but the kids train in tshirts with four boxes on the sleeves. When a kid has earned a "stripe" on their belt, the coach fills in one of the boxes with a black sharpe. I thought that was a really cool idea, I think it is important to give kids exposure to objective assessment of their skills, and a reward for their hard work.

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.

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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.

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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.)