I have 4 kids. A 20 year old, 10 year old, 8 year old, and a 4 year old. They all train Jiu-Jitsu.

The 4 year old is just now beginning to train. But the rest of them train consistently. My 20 year old is coming back from an injury so I am going to concentrate this story on my middle two children.

Hayden (10) and Paxton (8) spent their summer training Jiu-Jitsu 3-4 times a week. You might wonder why 3-4 times a week. At the end of the school year my wife Erin and I had a discussion and we agreed summer was going to be a season for the kids to train Jiu-Jitsu. Meaning that they would train more than usual.

They both had camp for a week and a family trip to visit my parents. But other then that we explained to them that they would both be training. They didn't have school or other sports to interfere with their training. So they were going to be expected to train more. Hayden was happy about this, and Paxton was not. But by the end of the summer they were both more excited about training than ever before.

During the school year my kids still train but they have school and school sports that they participate in. We have the kids train once or twice a week during the school year. During the summer at the Lutter household we take training more serious. Why? One, I worry about burn out. I would like to have my kids continue their training as adults and I don't want them to resent training. Training should be fun and enjoyable. If I push them too hard now they could grow to hate the art/sport. But I also want them to continue to grow with their skills. Having a season to focus on growth will help them to remain competitive with the other kids and it also gives them the advantage of knowing it is a temporary push, rather than a year long grind.

My kids improved an exponential amount this last summer. I couldn't be happier with how this went. Time will be the determining factor to see if they feel the same into adulthood, but for now I'm planning on more training time over the course of the year will help them improve and to continue to enjoy training.

I know some of you are thinking I don't want them to be champions. And the answer is yes I do - but only if that is what they want to be! But right now I want them to grow up to be happy healthy adults that are well rounded. Hard year around training can wait until they decide that is what they want to do...or not.

Conclusion: Being a parent is hard. Knowing when to push, or when not to push is difficult. Of course there are nights that one of the kids is upset that they have to go train. But I consider that par for the course. In my experience of raising kids for the last 20 years, I don't think there is a right or wrong way to do it. My hope is that this article will help you in you decision making process.