Kids & teens

Rex has coached kids and teenagers since 2008. This shelf is written for the parent, not the kid: what a session looks like, what happens at the first one, whether siblings can train together, and what to do about a teen getting bullied or a kid who has quit every group class you have signed them up for.

Start with the answer on whether your kid is old enough, because it is the question every parent opens with, and the honest version depends on the kid more than the birthday. Then read the one about a shy kid. A private session is a soft way in: no line of kids watching them fail at something, no belt test, nobody faster than them on the mat. It happens at your house or a park near it, so you are not driving across the county on a school night.

What Rex says most often to parents is that this does not make a kid more aggressive. It goes the other way. A kid who knows what they can actually do stops needing to prove it, and a kid who has been shoved in a hallway stops freezing. Discipline, eye contact, staying calm when somebody puts hands on you: that is most of what you are buying. The armbar is the part that keeps them coming back. If your teen plays a school sport, there is an answer here on that too.