Ages 3–15
Three age groups, six days a week, taught by black belts who have coached children to Pan Am titles. Your child's first class is free.
The program
Most parents come to us for one of three reasons. Their child is being pushed around at school and they want them to be able to handle it. Their child has energy that no amount of playground time absorbs. Or their child has tried a sport, sat on a bench for a season, and quietly decided they are not sporty.
Brazilian jiu-jitsu answers all three, and it does it without a single punch being thrown. It is a grappling art — leverage, position and control — which makes it the martial art paediatricians tend to be least nervous about, and it is one of the few children's activities where a small child who thinks carefully genuinely beats a bigger one who does not.
We teach it in Fulshear to about a hundred and fifty children a week, in age groups that are actually separated rather than nominally separated, and we have coached kids from their first day on the mats to IBJJF Pan American titles. Labyrinth is the #1 ranked academy in Texas and #9 nationally on jits.gg, which is a competition statistic — but the reason it matters to a parent who never wants their child to compete is that the coaching that produces those results is the same coaching a beginner gets on a Monday afternoon.
Who trains
A six-year-old and a fourteen-year-old need different things from the same art. They are not in the same room.
Ages 3–6
Coordination, listening, falling safely, and the basic shapes of the art delivered as games. At this age the goal is not technique — it is a child who can follow three-step instructions from an adult who is not their parent, and who wants to come back on Wednesday.
Ages 7–12
The full curriculum, taught properly: guard, escapes, takedowns, submissions and the positional logic that ties them together. Belt progression is tracked, so a child can see the distance they have covered rather than being told they are doing well.
Ages 12–15
Their own classes, because a thirteen-year-old training with eight-year-olds gets bored and a thirteen-year-old training with adults gets hurt. Teens train Gi and No-Gi and can move into the competition classes when they want to.
Timetable
Classes marked ADV are the advanced grappling classes: a child needs a grey-white belt or higher, or two or more years of wrestling, to join one. Everything else is open to any child in the age range, including one who has never trained. Free trials for kids run on Friday afternoons and Saturday mornings. Friday is Gi and takes every age from three up; Saturday at 10:00 AM is No-Gi and starts at seven, because there is no 3–6 class on a Saturday to put a younger child in.
Detail
Forty-five minutes, and the shape of it barely changes: a warm-up that is mostly movement games, a technique of the day broken into two or three pieces, drilling that technique with a partner, and then positional rounds — live training from a set starting position, which is how a child learns to apply something under mild resistance without it becoming a fight.
Nobody is made to spar on day one. Nobody is paired with a child twice their size. The coaches watch, and a child who is having a bad day gets pulled aside rather than pushed through.
What parents tend to notice first is not the jiu-jitsu. It is that their child starts shaking hands and looking adults in the eye, because that is the first thing we teach and the last thing we let slide.
Coaching
Kids classes are led by our black belts, not handed to whoever is free.
Head Instructor & Owner
Founder of Labyrinth BJJ. Built the academy from the ground up into the #1 ranked team in Texas.
Professor
Deep competition experience and technical precision. Develops athletes at every level from beginner to elite competitor.
Membership
Eight classes a month, age-appropriate groups, belt progression tracked.
Every kids and teens class, including competition and youth wrestling.
Unlimited for two members, kids and adults, +$80/mo per extra member.
Youth wrestling is included in all three at no extra cost, so a kids membership covers both mats. Month to month, no long-term contract, 30 days notice to cancel. Ask about the six and twelve month paid-in-full discounts.
Questions
Three. Our Little Grapplers class is built for ages 3–6 and runs at 4:45 PM on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. At that age the class is mostly coordination, listening and safe falling, delivered as games — the jiu-jitsu underneath it is real, but a three-year-old experiences it as play.
It is one of the safest martial arts a child can do, because there is no striking in it at all. BJJ is grappling — leverage, position and control — so children are not being hit, and they are not hitting anyone. Classes are grouped by age, beginners are not put in with advanced kids, and a coach is watching every round. Falling safely is one of the first things we teach, and it is the skill parents tell us shows up outside the gym.
Two options. Friday afternoons in the Gi — 4:45 PM for ages 3–6, and 5:15 PM for 7–12 and 12–15. Or Saturday at 10:00 AM in No-Gi, for ages 7 and up. It is free either way, there is no commitment, and nobody will call you afterwards to talk you into anything. Book online or ring the academy on (281) 393-7983.
No. Come in a t-shirt and shorts or leggings with no zippers, buttons or pockets. We have loaner gis for trial classes. If your child carries on training we will get them fitted properly — but nobody needs to spend money to find out whether their kid likes it.
No. Competition is optional and always will be. Plenty of our students train for years and never enter a tournament. The competition classes are there on Fridays and Saturdays for the children who want them, and the rest of the timetable is unaffected either way.
The advanced grappling classes — Tuesday and Thursday at 5:15 PM, and Saturday at 12:00 PM — need a grey-white belt or higher, or two or more years of wrestling. They move faster and drill at a higher intensity. Every other class on the timetable is open to a complete beginner.
Keep reading
Free, on a Friday afternoon or a Saturday morning, in whatever they already own. If they like it you will know within about ten minutes, and so will they.