19/10/2026
The next generation of Valour coaches! 🥋
On Saturday we held our three-monthly review with our Junior Assistant Coaches.
The programme is by invitation. Long before technique, we look for character: the student who helps a younger partner without being asked, who listens, who turns up week after week ready to give.
Once invited, they are mentored every step of the way. Our professors teach them how to teach: how to correct with care, how to keep a room safe, how to speak clearly and keep it simple.
With their parents watching, we asked them to lead, and they did. They ran the warm-up, demonstrated four guards, four sweeps and four submissions with control, and explained why we bow, why we tap and release, and why every partner deserves to feel safe.
Then each sat down with their professor: one strength to celebrate, one goal to work towards.
Our Junior Assistant Coaches wear the burgundy belt. It signifies leadership, not Jiu-Jitsu rank, and every stripe on it marks a coaching level, earned. Four stripes means Lead Coach, and we can’t wait to watch each of them get there, stripe by stripe.
Leadership, confidence and responsibility for others. These will stay with them long after they leave the mats.
We are so proud of every one of them. 💙