Why BJJ is so expensive

I dont buy the excuse that it took longer to get a BB which means you can charge more compare to anothers MA (which is irrelevant).
BJJ is trendy and it is about supply and demand.


It is the same trick when they say that they offer more classes therefore they can charge more. Physically, an average Joe can only train 2-3 times per week. You are offering more classes because you want to be able to attract as many customers as possible (not charge your customers as much as possible).
 
why is it so expensive? i ask myself alll the time.
 
Gus77 said:
If you train under a proper legit BB instructor, there is the chance that he put a decade training to have his rank. If you compare to a tkd Mcdojo, the instructor had to go through much less time and hard work to get graduated, sometimes couple of years if that much. So comparing the teaching of a someone with over a decade of grappling against almost a cardio fitness instruction for kids is as far to compare a new graduate to a phd professor in terms of instruction, even considering the classes are actually on different subjects, like grappling vs striking.

On other hand wrestling usually have different structure geared towards schools and funded by their programs. Judo is many times run as a non profit. Legit MMA may be the closest comparison cost wise to the bjj business.

To the nerds: BJJ is equivalent to Apple, Judo is Linux, and all the striking is Microsoft.
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just stumbled on this thread here. great debate.

I, myself have been caught in this dilemma and I like the apple/microsoft analogy lol.

But in all honesty, I really do think BJJ is overpriced, I've done BJJ for a few years and stopped for a while and stopped for a while. I just think its over priced relative to other martial arts ie. Judo, boxing, Muay Thai... which to me, are in no away superior or inferior as they are just different styles to me. I think you can easily comes across a boxing, muay thai, or judo gym with legit fighters and instruction for $50/month in a big metropolitan city where as BJJ seems to be min. $100 and up.

I think BJJ is in a lot of ways like crossfit, its the cool thing to do and trendy right now. I was even speaking to a parent whose children are in BJJ and he was telling me how great is but its so expensive and I suggested to him to send the kids to judo and he responded that its a mcdojo martial art... I really wished we were near some mats at that time to show him what "mcdojo" judo looked like.

Sorry for the rant.... but I find any martial art where you get a really hard warm up, good instruction for technique, and a chance to practice those techniques against a resisting opponent (sparring), is in my opinion a valid martial art and there are tons of them for way less than $100-150 per month.
 
The demand side is different: Judo and TKD tends to be kids whereas BJJ tends to be single men in their 20's and 30's. Basically the most devoted and most free cash.

And it's not a bad thing. What a 20-30 year old with a full time job needs is convenience and service. They extra money is worth it. When your schedule changes all the time, you can miss a work out just because Judo runs twice a week only.

LAUNDRY SERVICE AND I WILL BE THERE.
 
Are you taking into account the tons of belts that you get promoted to in Judo/Taekwondo/Karate that you are paying an additional $50 or more each month? Add that into the price factor. Most BJJ academies don't buy a belt for $1.50 and then sell it to their students for $50 by way of having the "test" for it. I hear the price is much higher each month you get closer to black belt. I know for sure that the Taekwondo/Karate places promote you each month and charge you extra for the belt. So now how much are you paying per month?
 
QingTian said:
The demand side is different: Judo and TKD tends to be kids whereas BJJ tends to be single men in their 20's and 30's. Basically the most devoted and most free cash.

And it's not a bad thing. What a 20-30 year old with a full time job needs is convenience and service. They extra money is worth it. When your schedule changes all the time, you can miss a work out just because Judo runs twice a week only.

LAUNDRY SERVICE AND I WILL BE THERE.
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Its not a bad thing, but I think people blindly believe BJJ is the best and worth the price over other martial arts..

For me, the Judo place I went to had 5 days of classes, you paid something like $40 for the year and than $5 per class, which I loved.

I decided now to do boxing and muay thai and both places have lots of fighters, so good sparring and I can do both for around $80 per month (I chose this cause of price and I want to heal from all the nagging injuries from judo and BJJ, mainly Judo, its so rough)

rgbjj said:
Are you taking into account the tons of belts that you get promoted to in Judo/Taekwondo/Karate that you are paying an additional $50 or more each month? Add that into the price factor. Most BJJ academies don't buy a belt for $1.50 and then sell it to their students for $50 by way of having the "test" for it. I hear the price is much higher each month you get closer to black belt. I know for sure that the Taekwondo/Karate places promote you each month and charge you extra for the belt. So now how much are you paying per month?
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c'mon, almost every BJJ school does belt testing too.... and they charge their fee for getting stripes too.... and if you're lucky enough to get a new belt, its another fee on top for the belt... and this is not counting the BJJ schools that use those multi colour belts too.

Also, I wouldn't compare BJJ to Karate/TKD.... I haven't come across any of those schools that do full contact sparring....
 
I'm on the University of Michigan's Club BJJ team, and we pay $105 per semester and pay for our own gi and travel expenses.

Classes are taught by a brown belt that was trained by Professor Caique.
 
Tournament fees add up, but as far as hobbies go, I think BJJ is relatively cheap.
 
Dynassty said:
For me, the Judo place I went to had 5 days of classes, you paid something like $40 for the year and than $5 per class, which I loved.
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there are private judo dojos and they charge just as much as bjj does, heck private dojos in korea charge the same as bjj does



c'mon, almost every BJJ school does belt testing too.... and they charge their fee for getting stripes too.... and if you're lucky enough to get a new belt, its another fee on top for the belt... and this is not counting the BJJ schools that use those multi colour belts too.
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while there are bjj schools that charge for stripes and belts most here will tell you that it is not the norm.
 
You don't have to have a lot of money to train BJJ or any other type of MMA. Maybe you have to make some sacrifices like less eating out or something,but I find it rather fitable to most people's budgets.
 
I just recently went shopping around for a new MA/MMA gym here in Southern California and let me tell you, there is almost nothing for under $100/month. The only ones I were able to find were taught through a city center or college rec center. As for Muay thai being cheaper then BJJ, I did not find that the case at all, if anything they are on par with each other, or the MT a tad bit more expensive.

I'm currently paying $120/month for MT, BJJ, and Judo
 
If an immigrant comes to America with no other skills other then Jiu Jitsu, they are just trying to live off jiu jitsu in America. LIVE! being the key word. I have never met a rich jiu jitsu instructor. Not everyone can be a MMA millionaire. If you cant afford jiu jitsu most instructors will allow you to work for them to pay for lessons. What happens to jiu jitsu schools that fail, the school closes and the instructor goes back to Brazil.
 
Well, I want to agree with you, but the thing is, it's basic economics. Suppliers will only charge what people are willing to pay.
 
nature of BJJ. as opposed to judo. i've never met a bum judo blackbelt to be honest. all of them have respectable jobs & businesses. most BJJ instructors have nothing to fall back on so they have to milk it for what it's worth.




frankly, i can't wait when a bored, rich BJJ guy offers free lessons near major bjj academies.
 
Let's not neglect the impact of tax-exempt status, which is available to registered not-for-profit companies but not for-profit companies.

Basically, it's possible to create a not-for-profit corporation to promote "sport", and become eligible for grants, fund raising incentives, and sometimes even government funding that can be used to defray costs. Grant money isn't easy to get (there's a knack to it) but it can definitely be used to pay for equipment and offset training costs so that not all the expenses are passed on to the students. That option is simply not open to a for-profit school.
 
muppetoflove said:
If an immigrant comes to America with no other skills other then Jiu Jitsu, they are just trying to live off jiu jitsu in America. LIVE! being the key word. I have never met a rich jiu jitsu instructor. Not everyone can be a MMA millionaire. If you cant afford jiu jitsu most instructors will allow you to work for them to pay for lessons. What happens to jiu jitsu schools that fail, the school closes and the instructor goes back to Brazil.
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You never met a rich BJJ instructor!
They are rich! For the moment cause BJJ is popular But try to make money of judo and see the fun.

Why do you think they can't be bothered to get a normal job like the rest of us.

Don't we all love to make a living out of a sport?
 
I'm in an unfortunate situation, I have been wanting to train in Submission Wrestling for awhile now. But I'm 19 without a car, so trying to be as patient as possible and work as much as I can. I had a bad expereince with a previous mma gym (Lloyd Irvin affilate). I rushed into to joining because I got my first job and I was really excited about joining didnt take no for an answer. Bit of way more then i could chew, ill be done paying off what i owe them next month. So thats really hurt my chance of training soon, but I want to start training at gc columbia some time this year, but im taking a level headed approach this time, ill wait awhile if i have to. 150 - 200 is a lot espcially for me but it is what its, atleast you get a lot with it.
 
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