Aontach Juniors
From the moment the idea of Aontach JJ was conceived, youth development sat at the heart of our vision. Fellow co-founder Barry Hickey and I drafted a document outlining the core values we hoped the team would deliver on. This document existed before we had a venue, members, or even mats. While there is a full section in our ethos dedicated to youth development, the reality is that every other pillar, serving our community and developing a culture of excellence, depended on the quality of coaching we could provide to juveniles in our surrounding area.
If we were serious about long-term excellence, we had to be serious about youth development.
Coaching in a Self-Regulated Sport
Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu in Ireland has no governing body providing structured coach education. Our community is largely self-regulated. That means responsibility for development sits solely with the individual coach and the club.
Anyone who has coached kids knows this is not something you can wing, certainly not if the ambition is to build a juvenile programme that might one day produce adult champions.
Like mainstream sports such as hurling or rugby, success at senior level is typically rooted in strong grassroots systems. We are no different.
Our pursuit of quality coach education brought two of our juvenile coaches to Munster Technological University, where they completed undergraduate degrees in Sport and Exercise Management and now hold postgraduate research positions in the field of Skill Acquisition. Our juvenile programme has grown alongside that education journey, with mentorship from leading coach developers internationally.
The result is a programme built deliberately and informed by evidence, not guesswork.
Generalisation Over Specialisation
A key tenet of our juvenile programme is what we call generalisation over specialisation.
This principle underpins everything we do, from session design to how we frame competition and even how we communicate with parents.
Viewing our sessions through this lens can sometimes confuse parents. Kids come home talking about games that appear completely unrelated to BJJ.
The next time you drop your child off, take a look at the chaos before class starts.
Some are grappling. Others have picked up a volleyball. A few are doing headstands in the corner. One lone wolf is pretending to be a slug.
While that chaos is not formally programmed, it tells you a lot about how kids naturally behave on a padded floor.
Two adults walk onto the mat wearing Japanese kimonos and start talking about leverage mechanics and the technical nuances of an armbar, and it is not going to land well. They have been in school all day. The last thing they need is another lecture.
So we tap back into the chaos that preceded the class.
We do not want kids sitting and absorbing long technical breakdowns. We want them to move. So they move.
They play games. They jump. They run. They throw. They catch. They fall. They bump their knee, we check they are okay, and they go again.
There is jiu-jitsu there. Sometimes they do not even realise it. They do not have to. What they are developing are fundamental movement skills that will equip them to become far better grapplers long term than if we pushed early specialisation immediately. We are building athletes first.
Research across multiple sports consistently shows that elite athletes typically sampled a variety of activities in childhood rather than specialising early. That broad exposure likely contributes to stronger movement foundations and long-term adaptability.
We want to develop athletes who, when they are older, have the luxury to choose what sport to specialise in, if they choose to specialise at all.
Everything we do is grounded in that long-term perspective.
Competition: Participation Before Podiums
Generalisation over specialisation also shapes how we approach competition.
We are not trying to manufacture juvenile champions.
We do not celebrate juvenile wins the same way we would adult victories. We do not conduct adult-style debriefs with children after losses.
What we celebrate is the act of stepping up and competing.
Competition can be extremely stressful, particularly for kids. If our goal is to see these athletes progress into the adult ranks, then we must help them build a healthy relationship with competition early on.
Results are fickle. Showing up is consistent.
We reinforce the courage to compete, the willingness to persevere through nerves, the ability to handle adversity, and the learning that comes from the experience itself.
When the focus shifts away from outcome and toward process, performance often improves as a by-product.
Parents and coaches may naturally gravitate toward praising results. That instinct is understandable. Over time, we aim to recalibrate that emphasis toward effort, courage, and development.
If the long-term goal is sustained participation and eventual adult excellence, then the environment must remain enjoyable, challenging, and psychologically safe.
The Bigger Picture
Our aim is not short-term medals.
It is to develop resilient movers, build confident young people, foster intrinsic motivation, create a positive relationship with sport, and lay foundations for adult performance if they choose that path.
Youth development was written into our ethos before we owned a single mat.
And if we ever produce adult champions, they will stand on foundations built during these chaotic, movement-heavy early years, possibly while pretending to be a slug.
