This age group is unique in a lot of ways from the older ages. Coaches often say they don’t listen at this age, but in many ways this is the age group that WANTS to listen the most, they just don’t always know how.

This is taken from our coaches manual on the characteristics of this age group:

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This age group loves to move, anything physical they will usually want to do. They are full of imagination and are starting to find their desire for some level of independence and beginning to find boundaries and play with other kids.

They tend to have a hard time with group dynamics at first, and will often struggle with class structure for their first few classes.

Physically they have poor hand eye coordination, they are still developing core strength and gross motor skills. Things like doing a sit-up or hopping on one foot will likely be outside of their ability at first.

They have a low vocabulary and often have a hard time communicating their feelings, as well as understanding those feelings. This can cause them to “act out” when they become frustrated.

Socially they are very self-centred. They are starting to make friends and play with others, but lack experience in doing so, and don’t really understand sharing turns or things very well yet.

They are very big into mimicry. In a class of 3-4 year olds if one child does something, the rest are likely to do it as well. A simple thing like running laps, as soon as one child falls down, the rest will be falling down repeatedly.

With this age group we emphasize core strength and group structure. Once they understand the structure of the class and what to expect and how to be a part of it they will thrive. But it will take them a few tries to figure it out.

Keeping class structure the same helps greatly with class control, and things like obstacle courses are a great way to teach them to follow a process of doing things in order.

This is a lesson I had to learn on some things.

A few years back, we didn’t break boards. We are primarily jiu-jitsu, and kickboxing as a secondary program.

So board breaking was never really part of what we did, and I kinda pushed against it.

I was in a mastermind and it came up as a great way to give a kid a big confidence building moment at the end of a class. But… as Jiu-jitsu, I was pushing back on it being for us and not really fitting with what we do and “jiu-jitsu culture”.

Chris Casamassa (aka Scorpion) set me straight on that.

Our culture is about building confidence, getting kids to do things they didn’t think they could. And for kids breaking boards is really cool and does just that. They don’t know coming in that board breaking is only karate and TKD, they don’t care. They just get to do something really cool that wows them, wows their parents, boasts their confidence, gets the whole room cheering for them and they tell their friends about the next day.

We’ve since upped that to burning all of our boards with our logo and “Welcome”.

But sometimes, the best thing in a kids class is just to embrace the “cool” side of martial arts that kids love, especially if it helps reach the bigger goal.

Last year we ran nearly 200 parties in my gym. I didn’t run them, my Jr Coaches did.

That generated:

• > $80k in revenue from the parties alone
• Nearly 3000 leads
• Filled our classes and summer camps
• Gets us recommended every time someone asks about birthday parties in local moms Facebook groups
• Greater retention – members that have their party with you stay longer.
• Referrals – Ever party is 12-20 people in a intro class, invited by the birthday guest.

Birthday parties can blow up your kids program and instead of paying for leads, you get paid to get those leads.

They are also self-sustaining. The majority of our parties are not members. When we ask them how they heard about us, its almost always a referral. Either from the child having attended someone else’s party, or another parent recommending us.

Our Birthday party system has been developed and systematized so that anyone can do it and deliver an amazing party. Making it a great way for Jr Coaches to gain experience and not needing the owner to do anything.

Next Thursday (Jan 22nd) The Kids Jiu-Jitsu Playbook is hosting its first LIVE session on exactly how we do it and how we market them.

Birthday parties can add 6-figures to your schools top line next year, so you won’t want to miss this.

Must have access to the Birthday Parties module in the classroom to attend. (Down to single digits on remaining founder membership spots)