If you've got a teenager who spends most of the summer in a dark room with a screen, here's what a different kind of summer looked like for a group of our teens.
In summer 2024, Coaches Erick, Sheryl and Jon took our teen students to Arizona State University for a wrestling camp run by Zeke Jones. Not a jiu jitsu camp. A wrestling camp, with college coaches, other teams in the room and a long way from Hollywood.
They came back tired, better, and with something to prove in class.
Short version: In summer 2024, Coaches Erick, Sheryl and Jon took RGLA's teen students to Arizona State University for a wrestling camp run by Zeke Jones. Days of drills, live sparring and direct feedback from Jones and his staff, plus a seminar from 2011 NCAA champion Anthony Robles on resilience and dedication. The teens came home with new skills and a real reason to keep showing up.
Why would a jiu jitsu school take teens to a wrestling camp?
Because every jiu jitsu match starts standing, and wrestling is the best system anyone has come up with for deciding who ends up on top. If you can't take someone down, you're pulling guard and starting underneath every single time. In our experience, the teens who wrestle even a little are the ones who stop being afraid of the standing part.
It's not just takedowns, either. Wrestling teaches pressure: how to make your weight feel heavier than it is, and how to keep someone down who badly wants to get up. And it builds conditioning the hard way. A wrestling practice is a different kind of tired than a jiu jitsu class. Your kid finds that out on day one.
What did the teens actually do at the ASU wrestling camp?
They trained. A lot. Coach Jones and his staff ran sessions on fundamentals and on more advanced strategy, and every day had drills, live sparring and direct feedback from the coaches. Our teens were in the room with wrestlers from other programs, which meant new partners, new styles and nobody going easy on them because they're the jiu jitsu kids.
What does that look like for a teenager who's used to our mats on Hollywood Blvd? A faster pace. Less rest. Coaches who spot a mistake and fix it on the spot, in front of everyone. Some kids shrink from that. Ours got better. Watching a teenager take a hard correction from a college coach, nod and go again is the whole reason we made the trip.
What did Anthony Robles talk about?
Resilience, dedication and never being done learning. Anthony Robles won the 2011 NCAA national championship, and if you know his story, you know he did it having been born with one leg. He gave our group a seminar about his own path through wrestling, what it cost him and why the work never stops.
We won't put words in his mouth. But think about what it does to a teenager to hear that from someone who lived it, instead of from a parent or a coach for the hundredth time. It landed. You could see it.
What happened off the mat?
They got to be kids on a college campus. Exploring ASU, meeting athletes from other teams, and team-building with the group that came out from LA. That last part matters more than it sounds. Teens who travel and train together come back as a unit. They start holding each other to a standard in class that no coach can enforce with a whistle.
Is a college campus a strange place for a martial arts team trip? Not really. Half the point is letting a 15-year-old see where the sport can take you.
What they brought home
New skills, sharper technique and a renewed motivation to train. That's the short list. The longer list is harder to write down: a kid who now knows what a real wrestling room feels like, who's gone live against strangers and come out the other side, who's seen what it looks like when a college athlete works. You can't teach that in a regular class. You have to go see it.
Thank you to Coach Jones and Arizona State for hosting us, and to Coaches Erick, Sheryl and Jon for making it happen.
This is what the teen program is for
If your teenager is somewhere between bored and needs-something, this is the kind of thing we do. Our teens program (ages 13 to 17) is where this group trains week to week, and a trip like this is what that training builds toward.
Does your kid have to want to wrestle at ASU someday? No. Most never will. But every one of them gets something from being pushed by someone new, in a room where nobody knows their name yet.
Come see what the program looks like. The first class is free, no contract. Book a free class for your teen, and ask at the front desk what's coming up for the team.
Questions people ask
Does Renzo Gracie Los Angeles have a program for teenagers?
Yes. Our teens program is for ages 13 to 17 and trains on the same mats as the adult and kids programs at 5203 Hollywood Blvd. The first class is free with no contract, so your teen can try it before you commit to anything.
Why do jiu jitsu students train wrestling?
Matches start standing, and wrestling is the most direct way to learn takedowns and top pressure. It also builds conditioning and a tolerance for hard rounds. In our experience, teens who add wrestling get more confident on their feet and stop pulling guard out of fear.
Who is Anthony Robles?
Anthony Robles won the 2011 NCAA national wrestling championship for Arizona State, and he did it having been born with one leg. He gave our teens a seminar at the ASU camp about resilience, dedication and continuous learning.
Does my teen need wrestling experience to join the teens program?
No. In our experience, most teens who start here have never wrestled or done jiu jitsu. Everyone starts with the fundamentals, and a trip like the ASU camp is for kids who are already training regularly, not something you'd do in your first month.
