Classes for Juniors

Every one of WYSOK's sixteen clubs takes junior students. Minimum ages run from four upwards depending on the club, so wherever you are in Wakefield, Leeds, Dewsbury or Barnsley there is a class that will take your child.

Junior Jitsu is the only club built entirely around children. It runs at the Lakeside Methodist Centre on Barnsley Road, Newmillerdam, on Saturday mornings from 9:30am to 11:00am for six to fourteen year olds, taught by Sensei Ruth Walker and Sensei Mark Valente. Ju jitsu suits a lot of children who have tried a striking art and not quite taken to it — the emphasis is on throws, locks, holds and getting back to your feet rather than punching and kicking, and it rewards timing and leverage over size. That matters at an age when children in the same class can differ by a foot in height and three stone in weight.

Hellcat Ju Jitsu in Dewsbury also runs a separate juniors session, Wednesdays from 6:00pm to 7:00pm for five to thirteen year olds, with the adults following at 7:30pm.

Everywhere else, children train alongside the older students rather than in a class of their own. For a lot of families that works better than it sounds. A parent and child can train in the same hall on the same night, which removes the taxi run entirely, and children tend to raise their game when they are learning next to adults rather than only among their peers. Instructors are used to teaching mixed-age, mixed-grade sessions — it is how most of these clubs have always run.

Minimum ages vary: Hellcat Ju Jitsu takes children from five, Gorse, Hellcat Martial Arts, Shinobi, Trojan and Yojindo from six, Eagle Rose from seven, Iruka from nine, and Hanshin, Newmillerdam, Optimal and Suzaku from ten. The club finder shows each club's minimum age, so you can filter to what suits.

If your child is younger than that, the Pee Wee classes take children from four — three clubs run them, and they are built around what children of that age can actually do rather than being the adult class made shorter.

What parents tend to report back is not primarily self-defence. It is that a child who trains regularly becomes better at losing gracefully, at trying something they are not immediately good at, and at keeping going when it stops being easy. Belts help, because progress is visible and earned rather than handed over.

Grading runs through WYSOK's own syllabus, and Dan grades are recorded on the association's black belt register — the same register that goes back to 1979.

Every instructor is DBS checked, first aid trained and fully insured. The first session is free, with no contract and no joining fee, and parents are welcome to stay and watch.