Thanksgiving Kid’s Camp 2019

By Aaron Martinez

Last week we hosted our first jiu-jitsu holiday camp for our youth students. The camp was open to all three youth classes for 5-year-olds and up. We had 21 students attend the camp and it was met with great success!

The students were exposed to 2 separate sessions of Jiu-Jitsu, which consisted of a typical class dynamic. After instruction and drilling we finished each session with the student’s favorite games of freeze tag and fireball.

Between the two sessions we had a break for healthy snacks, provided by the camp, and talked about the History of Jiu-Jitsu and how it brings us to what we are doing today. The students had many questions, of course. You could see their imaginations working as we talked about the Samurais, Jigoro Kano & Judo, Mitsuyo Maeda & Carlos Gracie Sr., Helio Gracie vs. Kimura, all the way to present day MMA and Jiu-Jitsu.

The students worked on drawings, inspired by our history presentation and Jiu-Jitsu in general. Most of the drawings were of our academy logo, of the students doing jiu-Jitsu, and Helio Gracie.

We held our second class session before breaking off to a few games of Dodgeball. The camp was wrapped up with more healthy snacks and playing chess as a team.

The students were all very engaged and positive throughout the day. The three coaches were very happy with the camp and a little tired. Coach Javen is a purple belt and has been an assistant coach with all three youth programs for the past several years. Coach Bobby is a purple belt and teaches the Woman’s Jiu-Jitsu & Self-Defense classes on Wednesday and Friday mornings. Coach Aaron is a Black Belt and teaches the Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday classes.