starting a bjj club in college

[Kainan]

I'm interested in starting a bjj club at my college. Before I talked with the school I was just curious if anyone here had tried to start a club at a college/university before and what there experiences were like? Thanks.

 

[Gerbiljiujitsu]

I've never started a club at a college, but I really wish I had a BJJ club in college, that would have been awesome.

 

[HEAVY GRAPPLER]

I sometimes wish someone would start one in my town. I live a ten minute walk from campus - but the gym I attend is 45 minutes drive! Gotta be a student to start one...

 

[boisefireman]

My son is going to start one at Boise State. He's looked into it a little. I told him I would help teach if he needs my help. I'll let you know how it goes.

 

[Nulhacky]

What's your skill level?

 

[Gerbiljiujitsu]

My son is going to start one at Boise State. He's looked into it a little. I told him I would help teach if he needs my help. I'll let you know how it goes.

yes please let us know what you find out. I would imagine that the requirements differ from school to school but having a general idea would be great

 

[Kainan]

What's your skill level?

Not very skilled lol. If I would recieve the schools permission to start the club I'd need to find a local coach or try to work something out with a local gym.

 

[Kainan]

My son is going to start one at Boise State. He's looked into it a little. I told him I would help teach if he needs my help. I'll let you know how it goes.

please do. thanks.

 

[Hillary]

I started one, and it was absolutely great for me. I teach twice a week, for free, nogi classes and I do gi trainings from time to time. Teaching, in turn, taught me so much, but it was kind of hell to pay to get it through the school.

You have to write a constitution, get a sponsor/adviser, present everything to the school and get approved, and find decent mats. The way I did it that made it easier was that I hooked it up with the ROTC at my school so if I taught their guys combatives, I got free mats and unlimited access to the building.

I've had several of the guys get serious with gi techniques, drill with me whenever I want, and switch over to my gym. One of my guys (almost 2 years with me) spent the summer really focusing on gi techniques, studies all the time, and he's about to become my very first blue belt. He just doesn't know it yet.

 

[WitchCraft]

I really thought that I replied to this thread a few weeks ago and then realized someone asked this exact same question I think!

I started a club at my school and it was extremely easy (not like Hillary's exprience above) Just had to fill out a single form and bam...I had a club. I advertised on Facebook and with flyers, and now have about 15 regulars. The club has been a huge success and some of the members even competed recently.

First step is finding out your schools policy, then hope that you have mats provided and the rest is just jumping through the hoops until you can take care of it.

 

[TrumpetDan]

I started one at Fullerton College and ran it for 2 years with my friend. It was a lot of work and very similar experience to hillarys.

We were required to attend monthly meetings of all the clubs, have an advisor that they required to be in attendance because of the nature of bjj, and have atleast 3 full time students be pres, vice pres and one other position that I have since forgot, collect a whole bunch of signatures with student ID's, write a constitution ect. We ended up just recruiting on campus at the club days and holding it off campus at our gym. It was easier that way.

Setting up puzzle mats and taking on all comers with sean roberts at club promotion days landed us with some pretty funny stories. Everybodys Tapout shirt suddenly became a shirt their cousin lent them and they didnt even know what it meant. A few people would challenge us in front of a large gathering of ppl. Fun stuff. We met a lot of really nice people...and a few not so nice!

 

[Steve3730]

My instructor teaches at one. An alumni from the college trained with us and set it up. The students pay a small extra fee per semester for it. We are allowed to attend it as well.

My advice is get examples of other school that have it. Find some research showing it is safe. Make sure they know it is not cage fighting. Get a group of students to take roles,president,CFO,etc. throw together a powerpoint presentation and go for it

 

[ChiliDavis65]

We have a club at my school. Not specifically a jits club, but a martial arts club. It started a few years ago, before I was around, as an MMA club. Over the past couple years, it has evolved into a pretty serious thing. Our classes range from 3-4 people to as many as 15 or 20 at times. We have a BJJ blue belt that runs the jits, and a 4th degree TKD master that runs TKD. We also do some muay thai, hapkido, wing chun, and wrestling. We have classes 7 days a week now and there are 3 or 4 of us that teach. The school has some wrestling mats (not the best, but sure better than a gym floor), a couple of heavy bags, and some mits and pads. It's not an "official" club, but we do have quite a bit of involvement.

 

[SuperSuperRambo]

I started training when I was in college. It was a club that another student had started, he was a purple belt at the time and taught the classes. Only able to meet twice a week, but it was a great intro. Later I tried to run the club myself (he graduated) but a combination of commuting to school and lack of help from other club officers made it difficult. Although from what I hear it's still going strong and is better than ever. So it can definitely be done, just make sure you can secure a good space and someone to teach the classes.

 

[AaronWindy]

I started the Fighting Bee Jiu-Jitsu club at St. Ambrose University last year. It took about 4 months of hard work to get the constitution worked up, approval from our athletic director, finding mats which used to be used for the wrestling team (that doesn't exist anymore), getting use of the mats, and finding and reserving a place to train since our athletic complex is too packed to accommodate our needs.

All in all it was a phenomenal endeavor that has made me some great friends and jiu-jitsu buddies. I was only a Blue belt when I started it but I made sure that we had our blackbelts do monthly seminars and the fact that we have Miletich Fighting Systems so close means that we get some traffic from down there as well.

I graduated but left the club in capable hands and they are all set with a huge group our people this year. It's something that I wish I would have down earlier in my college career. You won't regret it if you decide to do it!

Good luck!

 

[boisefireman]

yes please let us know what you find out. I would imagine that the requirements differ from school to school but having a general idea would be great

Boise State requires the club sport to have a governing body or be an olympic sport, weird. I told my son to go with the martial art/self defense route. We'll keep you posted.

 

[agore]

BJJ does have a governing body, IBJJF and if you want to go submission grappling route you have fila, or you could go the judo route and just do bjj because judo does have groundfighting too.