Brooklyn 66
August 18, 2018 16:27
I read about gracie jujitsu helping children defend against bullying and also being a great resource to help bullies themselves. As my child had been chronically bullied by her sister, extended family and in school, she had the worst of both worlds: she was a target and as a defense mechanism had adopted bullying behaviors. So I cut out all toxic relatives, decided to homeschool, and was overjoyed to find the was a gracie studio right here in Raleigh.
We enrolled her in the children's class, bought the hundred dollar gi, and started attending.
The regular children's class instructor had no business teaching kids from what I saw; his star pupil took my daughter down out of nowhere and refused to let her go until I intervened before class even began one day, and feeling threatened and at risk immediately triggered aggressiveness and disruption during class time which the instructor did nothing to correct; she pushed another little boys face into the mat that day making him cry and I was so horrified we did not return after instructor did nothing to either protect or teach that little boy or to correct my child.
There was another instructor who filled in one day that handled the class beautifully, was watchful throughout, and even told my daughter she would be suspended from a week of classes if she continued to misbehave and like magic, she responded to firm, helpful guidance and immediately tuned in to the lesson. Unfortunately, he was not the kids' regular instructor and her behavior degraded under the regular instructor.
I can't speak to adult classes, but as for children, if your child had no issues with focus or behavior or trauma, they may be ok. If your child has any of the problems that gracie jujitsu claims to help with, I'd definitely look elsewhere.