Kids BJJ Competition Class: Train With a Coach Who Still Competes
Invite-Only. Saturday Training. Built for Young Athletes Who Are Ready to Step on the Mat.
Some kids are ready to go beyond the basics. They show up early, they drill hard, they watch tournament footage at home and dream about stepping onto the competition mat themselves. If that sounds like your child, Rising Tide Hi Tech’s Kids BJJ Competition Class was designed exactly for them.
This is not a class you sign up for on the website. It is a class you earn your way into.
What Makes This Class Different
Most youth grappling programs in Maryland teach technique. This one teaches how to win. There is a meaningful difference between understanding a move in the gym and executing it under pressure, in front of a crowd, against a determined opponent you have never met before.
The Kids BJJ Competition Class meets on Saturdays and focuses entirely on tournament preparation: game-planning, live competitive drilling, pressure testing, mental composure, and the physical conditioning that separates medal podium finishes from early exits. Students learn how to prepare for a competition week, how to warm up correctly on match day, and how to process a loss and come back stronger.
This is youth jiu-jitsu competition training in Hanover built for motivated young athletes who have already demonstrated commitment in our regular Junior Jiu-Jitsu classes.
Train Alongside Austin Roden, a Coach Who Still Competes
Austin Roden is a black belt with more than 15 years of training behind him and an active competition record in front of him. He does not just coach kids BJJ competition in Maryland. He enters tournaments himself, multiple times per year, often competing on the same day and at the same venues as his students.
That distinction matters more than it might seem.
When your child asks Austin what it feels like to be nervous before a match, he does not reach back into memory. He knows exactly what it felt like last month. When he coaches a student through a tough loss, he brings genuine empathy from someone who has walked off that same mat. When he celebrates a win with a kid on the podium, it is one competitor celebrating with another.
Austin’s background includes MMA competition, and while his focus is now entirely on Brazilian jiu-jitsu, that competitive foundation gives him a uniquely complete understanding of how athletes are built, physically and mentally. He has competed at every level and continues to sharpen his own game so that everything he teaches comes from current, active experience.
Training with a coach like Austin does not just improve technique. It raises expectations. Kids on a kids BJJ team in Maryland led by a still-competing black belt understand, at a visceral level, that growth never stops.
How the Invite Works
The competition class is invite-only, and that is intentional. This environment is designed for students who have already shown they are serious through consistent attendance, attitude, and progress in regular classes. Instructors monitor every Junior Jiu-Jitsu student and extend invitations to those who demonstrate the readiness and the drive to compete.
Being invited is a recognition of what a student has already earned, and a signal of what they are capable of achieving next.
There are no shortcuts. There is no waitlist form. The path runs directly through the mat.
The Pathway Starts in Junior Jiu-Jitsu
If your child has the drive to represent Rising Tide Hi Tech at kids martial arts competitions in Hanover MD and across the state, the first step is enrolling in our Junior Jiu-Jitsu program. That is where habits are built, technique is developed, and coaches begin to see who is ready for the next level.
When the time is right, the invitation will come.
Ready to start that journey? Visit our Junior Jiu-Jitsu program to get your child on the mat.
Rising Tide Hi Tech | 7030 Hi Tech Drive Suite 100, Hanover, MD 21076 | (410) 953-8492