My kid wants to compete. What's the path?

Good. Wanting it is most of the job. Now it gets boring for a while, because the path starts with the same few positions done properly, over and over.

First a base. A stance they can hold, a couple of takedowns, the top positions, and how to get out from underneath. That is months, not weeks, and I will not skip it to get your kid to an entry form faster.

Then a small one. A local grappling tournament is the right first taste: real nerves, a real opponent, no strikes, and a referee close enough to touch. Your kid finds out what their body does when it counts. Some come off the mat asking when the next one is. Some find out they wanted the training and not the competing, and that is a perfectly good answer to have.

I push grappling first and it is not a consolation prize. Your kid gets the whole competition experience without anybody punching them in the face at twelve years old. Doing a grappling tournament instead of a fight explains how those days run.

After that it is camps. Six to eight weeks pointed at a date, the rules for that specific event, conditioning, and a plan built around what your kid is actually good at rather than a template. I have cornered people at every level of this, six of whom made The Ultimate Fighter and the UFC. See whether private sessions can really get you to a fight.

The volume question comes up fast. How much hard sparring does a kid need? Less than people think, and a lot less than the internet suggests. See how much sparring is in a camp.

On the day, your kid has me in the corner rather than a parent shouting from the stands. What I do in your corner covers warm up through walk out.

What age and what type of event suit your kid is not a decision to make off a web page. Ask me. See the fighters I have coached.