One Mat, Every Age

A station system that lets six-year-olds and thirteen-year-olds train hard in the same room — and ends with the bigs shielding the littles

Kids martial arts
All ages · Mixed class · Any art
45 min
12–24 kids across four stations
2 coaches
Effort 3/5
Full mat area split into four station zones
stations
mixed-ages
class-management
rotation

The MatPlans curriculum teamBJJ black belts & coaches · 12+ yrs on the mat

Kit: Mats, 16 cones, 8 spot markers, 2 kick shields, 2 hand targets, a technique poster or card per station, soft belts for tails, a drum or whistle

Warm-up8 min

Bow In & The All-Ages Mirror

Setup: Bow in together — one class, one bow, whatever the ages. Then a scattered grid facing you. The warm-up must self-scale, because from here on this class runs on tasks that grow and shrink to fit the child doing them.

How it works: Mirror warm-up with built-in levels, announced once: everyone copies you, bigs add power, littles add noise. Jacks become power-jacks or loud-jacks; stance switches go deeper for the tall ones, faster and squeakier for the small ones; fast feet finish with a jump the height of your own courage. Every forty-five seconds, a mixer: 'stand next to someone bigger than you… now someone smaller… high-five them' — by the end of the warm-up every child has met the other half of the room, which is the whole point of tonight.

Rounds: Five mirror bursts with mixers between — eight minutes and the room is warm and blended.

What to say

“Say the scaling rule once and trust it: 'bigs add power, littles add noise' scales every drill tonight.”
“Use the mixers deliberately — a mixed class only works once the ages have touched gloves socially.”
“Watch your demo speed: pitch it at the middles and let the ends bend it their way.”

Easier

Copy-only rounds, no mixers, littles clustered where they can see you close.

Harder

A big leads each mirror burst from the front, coach mixing among the littles instead.

Drill6 min

The Station Tour

Setup: Four zones already coned before class — this block dies if you build it live. Groups pre-sorted into rough age bands (littles, middles, bigs, plus one blend), each band starting at a different station so tasks can pitch to the group in front of them.

How it works: Walk the whole class around all four stations in one guided tour, demonstrating each at TWO levels — the little way and the big way — so every child knows both their job and their next-size-up. Station A, PADS: strike the shield — littles hit for sound, bigs hit called number combos. Station B, FOOTWORK: the cone course — littles animal-travel it, bigs stance-step it with direction switches. Station C, TECHNIQUE CARD: copy the poster move with a partner checking — littles match the shape, bigs add the detail list. Station D, GAME CORNER: helper-led tails or freeze games with rules that stretch by age. Two minutes of tour per pair of stations, questions at the end, groups to their start cones.

The technique, step by step

Tour all four stations, two levels shown at each.
Name who runs what and where help lives.
Groups to start cones — rotation is clockwise, always.
First drum starts the class.

What to say

“Demonstrate both levels at every station — kids accept different jobs when they saw both respected.”
“Name the station bosses now: the helper owns the game corner, you float — everyone knows who to ask.”
“Sell the next size up: 'when your version feels easy, take the big way — you promote yourself here.'”

Easier

Tour just two stations and run a two-station class — better a tight small system than a loose big one.

Harder

Bigs demo the big way at each station during the tour, coached live as they present.

Drill18 min

The Four Stations

Setup: The engine of the night: four stations live at once, four minutes each, transitions on the drum. Your job changes now — you coach no station and float all of them, spending longest wherever the wobble is.

How it works: Run four rotations so every group meets every station. Transitions are drilled like a technique: drum sounds, equipment down neatly, jog the clockwise arrow, arrive in stance at the next cone, second drum starts the work — ten seconds, counted down, every time. At pads, holders rotate inside the group every minute. At footwork, the course resets by the leavers for the arrivers. At the technique card, pairs swap performer and checker on the half-drum. At games, the helper stretches rules by age live: littles walk, bigs stance-step; littles one tail, bigs two. Scale on the fly with the night's rule — bigs add power, littles add noise — and promote any child whose version has gone quiet with ease.

Common mistakes

Coaching one station for four minutes — the floater who stops floating loses the other three.
Same task for every age at a station — if the littles and bigs are doing identical reps, one of them is wasting the block.

Rounds: 4 stations × 4 minutes + drummed 10-second transitions — the block the whole plan is built around.

What to say

“The ten-second transition IS the discipline curriculum — protect it fiercely, praise it loudly.”
“Float to the fire: the station with drifting eyes gets you next; the humming ones just get a thumbs-up.”
“Promote publicly: 'Sam's taking the big way now' — self-promotion is the mixed class's engine oil.”

Easier

Three-minute stations and a helper anchored at whichever station holds the youngest group.

Harder

Five-minute stations where the last minute is a challenge round: pads go for a rep record, footwork goes eyes-up only, technique performs to the group, games go bigs-rules for everyone willing.

The rest of this lesson is free — along with 3 more this week.

MatPlans curriculum team

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