Introduction to BJJ

     What is Brazilian Jiu Jitsu?

     What will my child learn?

     What are the benefits?

The Common Ground Method

     Small Class Sizes

     Coach-to-Kid Connection

     Learn by Playing

     Our Philosophy

Meet the Instructors

     Coach Alex

     Coach Sally

Frequently Asked Questions

Special Offer for New Students

Apply for a Free Trial Class

Brazilian Jiu Jitsu (BJJ) is a martial art that teaches you how to use your entire body to control another person. Unlike many other martial arts that focus on punching, kicking, and causing physical injury to your opponent, BJJ allows you to neutralize an aggressive attacker by pinning them to the ground and restricting their ability to do you harm.

The promise of BJJ is that even a smaller, weaker practitioner can use skillfulness to overcome differences in size and strength.

It is an empowering discipline that teaches kids that it's not about how big or strong you are — rather, it's about your ability to learn, practice, and develop skill that makes the difference.

Your child will learn the fundamental skills of BJJ, which include: how to take the fight to the ground, how to get to a dominant position and stay on top, and how to escape if you're being pinned down.

As your child becomes more experienced, they will also have the opportunity to learn age-appropriate submission holds. Submissions in BJJ are techniques that have the power to end a fight, such as joint locks and strangles.

Your child will experience many physical and social-emotional benefits from practicing BJJ. Our students learn how to be physically assertive, develop coordination and movement skills, improve their fitness level, and understand how to control their own strength.

Students will also learn how to overcome challenges while in a safe, supportive training environment. With our teaching approach at Common Ground, your child will have experiences that nurture positive character traits such as grit, critical thinking, and the ability to stay calm under pressure.

Your child will also learn how to be a good training partner. This means having empathy, balancing your own needs with the needs of others, and understanding the impact of your actions on the well-being of others.

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We believe it is important to give each child a high level of attention to promote their individual education and growth. To ensure this, we purposefully keep our class sizes small. The maximum student-to-teacher ratio in our kids classes is 6:1. As we have two instructors on the mat at all times, class sizes are capped at 12 students.

Our coaches work directly with each student in every class. In addition to delivering instruction, we take on the role of "training partner" for students during many of the skill-development games. This gives us the ability to tailor the level of challenge for each individual child, give personalized feedback and praise, and build a strong connection with all of our students.

As coaches, we are also able to monitor and develop each child's ability to control themselves physically and train safely with their peers.

This hands-on approach works especially well for students who are shy, introverted, or have a hard time in overly competitive situations with other children. By working with each student directly, we can provide them with the one-on-one guidance, encouragement, and successes they need to build their confidence and skill level.

We use an innovative, games-based approach to learning that is backed by the science of how humans learn movement skills.

The scientific framework is known as "Ecological Dynamics." According to this framework, we learn how to move by interacting directly with our environment — not, as it was traditionally thought, by being given step-by-step instructions.

In practice, this means that we teach our kids by playing fun, skill-development "games" that allow students to experience a problem and discover a solution.

Each game is carefully designed to guide students towards an effective solution, while providing the opportunity to explore, think critically, and understand the "why" of each technique on a deeper level.

These games are played against a "live," resisting training partner — either with a coach, or another student. This aspect of training against resistance is essential to developing real-life skill in martial arts, and keeps our classes engaging and fun.

At Common Ground, we help our students grow into confident, conscientious, and emotionally mature individuals through martial arts training.

We accomplish this by creating an empowering environment for children to learn new skills, overcome challenges, and discover what they are capable of.

Our Kids Program prioritizes healthy self-development over competition. It is designed for students to attend class once or twice a week. We do not expect kids to maintain a rigorous training schedule, as would be necessary to be competitive in BJJ tournaments. Rather, we focus on building a strong connection with each of our students to nurture their growth, and giving them a positive relationship with martial arts.

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