A buddy of mine has a nephew who wants to try jiu-jitsu and mma. He's 10 years old, has never trained before, and lives in Mesa. I've trained at several of the gyms in the east valley over the past 10 years, but never with the intention of checking out the kids programs.
If anyone has any info about which gyms have kids programs, and specifically the quality of the programs, I'd definitely appreciate it.
Trevoy and Todd Lally at ACS.
Santino Defranco.
Don't have an address. But, ACS is close to ASU. Not sure where Santino's gym is.
Hopefully Somone can help with the address. Good luck.
Ooops. I meam Trevor not Trevoy
AZ combat is very close to me, I believe it's off of McClintock. Do the Lally brothers actually run the kids program themselves?
Thanks again
Kids jiu jitsu is taught by Steve Rosenberg. Steve is a really cool guy and is good around kids. He has highlight videos online too if you wanna see his skills. He's a blackbelt under Gustavo Dantas.
I'm pretty sure Jamie Varner teaches the MMA class. I don't know if kids go there though.
Do they have kid's muay thai or kickboxing?
Does the Lion's Den Scottsdale have a kids program?
Hey, Heath Wigginton, a Gracie brown belt, teaches at the Lion's Den for the kids' program. He's a great instructor for kids or adults. Very fundamentally sound. I train at Southwest with Santino Defranco, but he doesn't have a pure jitsu program for kids, just judo for the kids. Lion's Den is not my favorite gym in other respects, but Heath's excellent.
nhbguy - Does the Lion's Den Scottsdale have a kids program?
We usually have a good group of kids from the Lion's Den in Arizona come out to our California Amateur Pankration tournaments.
wow edit fail
jfrank -nhbguy - Does the Lion's Den Scottsdale have a kids program?
We usually have a good group of kids from the Lion's Den in Arizona come out to our California Amateur Pankration tournaments.
Hey nhbguy,
I second what others have said about Steve at AZCS, he's a great guy.
My three kids train at Lions Den in BJJ, Muay Thai and Wrestling. As another poster mentioned Heath teaches the kids class as an assistant and he is terrific. The main instructor who teaches the kids BJJ 6 days a week ( not a typo many of the kids train 6 days a week ) is Carlos Farias who has his black belt from Roberto Traven. Additionally Marcos de Silva a 3rd degree black belt and longtime friend of Carlos recently joined the team. Go in any day of the week and you will see 20 to 30 kids on the mat with 2 black belts and Heath who is waiting to test for his BB. I'm not aware of any other program in the Valley with that level of commitment to their kids program.
Frankie Saenz & Eric Larkin are running the wrestling program which runs 3 days a week. Frankie is the man that coached Henry Cejudo until he went to the olympic training center. Henry comes in from time to time. Frankie and Eric are currently running a preseason wrestling camp for highschool kids as well that is incredible. I think everyone in the az wrestling scene knows about Eric Larkin.
Master Bob runs all the Muay Thai and his program has entry level up to competition level Muay Thai instruction for kids. Two kids in the program won amateur world championships this year. Master Bob will also be promoting amateur mma fight cards in 2010 that feature kids.
As Jon mentioned several kids at Lions Den are currently competing regularly in amateur mma and several more are getting ready to compete.
Come on down and check the place out. It's a very friendly family oriented gym. My kids are down there for a couple of hours at least 5 to 6 days a week.
Talk to Ryan at the front desk and he will let guys take some free classes to feel the program out. Oh yeah forgot to mention there are a lot of kids in the program around the age of your nephew so he should have a lot of training partners within a few pounds of his weight.
cheers
Santino's Gym is directly behind Chuy's on Baseline, just east of McClintok. They've got a solid kids program and it's very affordable. www.southwestmma.com
Can you imagine 10 years from now when these kids are fighting that train 6 days a week, WTF will be the level of MMA and BJJ? I've seen videos of these young kids and it is scary how good some are.
It is great to see kids getting off the couch and training. Around here the kids go to mcdojos for tae kwon do. Good luck with your nephew, I wish my son had your choices.
Thanks for all the help guys. I actually met Heath a few times when I was at Rick Roufus's gym. He is a very nice guy and seemed like the sort who would be good with kids. Lots of good input, I definitely appreciate all the replys.
there isn't a kids MMA or kickboxing class at ACS.
the kids BJJ program is excellent, Steve Rosenberg is a very tough competitor who got his black belt recently.