Because I’ve been training jiu-jitsu for so long, the benefits of training are obvious to me. The detriments1 are obvious too, but they’re far outweighed by the positive. I’ve experienced the benefits of training for myself, and witnessed them for children, and especially for children that started young and continued into adulthood.
I have kids and they’ll be training jiu-jitsu. Naturally, they’ll do other stuff but those other activities will always be in addition to jiu-jitsu, never in place of it. 2
Recently, we had a couple of siblings take an introductory class. After class, the kids told me they enjoyed it and wanted to continue. After speaking to their mother, I learned that she was uncertain about them even completing a 10-day free trial because they’re already signed up to some team sports.
Youth sports are great, but jiu-jitsu is something that you do forever, or at least until you’re no longer a bully’s target victim. Basketball, soccer, softball, whatever, are fun activities and the child might do one of them forever. Plenty of older people still play basketball at the park or recreation leagues, but to choose a sport over self-defense training for a child doesn’t make sense to me. A 10-year-old needs self-defense training more than organized team sports.
It’s true that a person may never be grabbed by the collar and dragged away. The defense to that is something we teach. Maybe it’s pointless.
But maybe, if we look at self-defense training as an insurance policy, we can justify the cost.
For most people, their health, auto, or term life insurance policies will never generate a positive return. But people purchase them for relief from future, unlikely, potentially catastrophic events.3
Being forced into a fight for your life is a future, unlikely, potentially catastrophic event.