Mini & Little Grapplers · Ages 4–13

Kids BrazilianJiu-Jitsu in Cork

Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu for children aged 4 to 13, in Ballyvolane on the north side of Cork City. Two classes — Mini Grapplers at 4:30pm and Little Grapplers at 5:30pm — each running twice a week, Monday to Thursday.

Children are placed in a class by age, size and ability, not age alone. So the first step is a word with Yvonne rather than turning up at the door. Spaces are limited and classes do fill.

Yvonne · 085 123 4539

 (01) · The classes

Mini and Little Grapplers

There are four kids classes across two levels. Mini Grapplers runs at 4:30pm, Little Grapplers at 5:30pm, and each one runs twice a week on a fixed pair of days.

We recommend children attend both days of their class. Jiu-jitsu is a contact sport and consistency is what keeps it safe — a child training twice a week builds the habits far quicker than one training once. Spaces are limited too, so where there’s a choice we would rather give a place to a child attending both sessions than split it across two.

Which class your child goes into is decided by age, size and ability together, not by which evening suits. Yvonne will talk it through with you before the first session, and the class can change as they grow and progress.

Mini Grapplers

Class A

Tuesday & Thursday · 4:30–5:15pm

Forty-five minutes, twice a week, straight after school.

Mini Grapplers

Class C

Monday & Wednesday · 4:30–5:15pm

The same session as Class A, on the other pair of days.

Little Grapplers

Class B

Tuesday & Thursday · 5:30–6:15pm

The later slot, running straight after the Mini Grapplers session.

Little Grapplers

Class D

Monday & Wednesday · 5:30–6:15pm

Class D also has a strength and conditioning session on Friday, 5:00–6:00pm.

 (02) · In the room

How the sessions run

The focus is on fundamental movement skills — the coordination, balance, strength and body awareness that every sport and physical activity is built on. It’s an age-appropriate, long-term approach, and it sets children up not just for success on the mats but for a lifetime of confident physical activity.

There’s no position of the week and no syllabus being ticked off session by session. Classes are live, active and engaging the whole way through, and every one of them finishes with live rounds.

Fun and structure, in that order. Resilience, discipline and self-belief come along with the physical skills rather than instead of them.

Who coaches

The coaching team

The kids classes are led by a team of university-educated coaches, all Garda vetted and fully insured. Yvonne and Ben coach on the kids mat, with Mark and Ida assisting.

They’re all very experienced with children who are nervous on the first day. It’s the most normal thing in the world and nobody gets pushed into anything before they’re ready.

Read this first

Before you come down

Please don’t turn up to a class without contacting Yvonne first. Spaces are limited and a class may already be full.

A quick call sorts out which class suits your child and makes sure there’s a place in it. Yvonne is on 085 123 4539.

 (03) · For parents

The questions you’ll have

What age can they start?

Four. We take children from four up to thirteen, and they are grouped by age, size and ability rather than thrown in with whoever turns up. The younger ones do more games, the older ones do more competition-based rounds, in the same room.

Children are allocated to classes by size and ability as well as age, so it isn’t simply a matter of picking the slot that suits your evening. Contact Yvonne on 085 123 4539 before the first session and she’ll talk through which class is likely to suit. That allocation can change over time as your child grows and gains experience.

We recommend two — both days of whichever class they’re in. Jiu-jitsu is a contact sport and consistency is what keeps it safe, so a child training twice a week progresses more safely than one training once. Spaces are limited as well, so we would rather give a place to a child attending both sessions than split it across two.

Please don’t. Classes have limited spaces and may already be full, and children need to be allocated to the right class first. Ring or message Yvonne on 085 123 4539 and she’ll sort a place before you come down.

There is no striking in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, which is the main reason parents choose it over other martial arts. Children are matched by size and ability rather than age alone, which is the single biggest safety factor in a grappling room, and coaches are on the mat throughout. Every class finishes with live rounds, so they learn to handle resistance in a supervised setting rather than discovering it somewhere else. The first thing every child learns is how to tap and how to respond when someone else taps.

Shorts and a t-shirt is fine to start. Bring a bottle of water and a pair of flip-flops or sliders for walking on and off the mat — those are genuinely handy for the younger kids who can’t manage their own shoes yet. We’d normally suggest letting them train for about a month before committing to buying a gi, so you know they’re enjoying it first.

You’re very welcome to sit upstairs for the first class. After that we’d normally recommend leaving them to it. In our experience having parents on the sideline is distracting — the kids end up watching you rather than listening to the coach, which matters most for the safety parts of the session. They concentrate better and get stuck in quicker without an audience. All of our coaches are very experienced with children who are nervous on the first day.

The opposite, in our experience. Children who know they can handle themselves have less to prove. The room runs on respect — shake hands, listen, look after your partner — and that’s the part that tends to follow them home.

It helps in two ways. The obvious one is that they learn to control someone without hurting them, which is exactly the skill a bullied child needs and almost never has. The less obvious one is that confidence changes how a child carries themselves, and that alone changes who bothers them.

No. Some kids love competing and we’ll support them all the way — the club has had kids medal at competition. Plenty of others never compete once and get everything they need out of training.

Talk to Yvonne first.

Every child is placed in a class by age, size and ability, and spaces are limited. One call sorts the right class and confirms there’s a place in it before you make the trip.

Ballyvolane Commercial Park, Unit 24, Ballyvolane, Cork, T23 E685. Free parking on site. Bring shorts, a t-shirt and a bottle of water.

Yvonne · 085 123 4539