Why BJJ is so expensive

I see a lot of non business hours just magically saying, "the lights are on, the instructors are paid"

Are you kidding yourselves?

The lights are on because the electric bill was paid. If you're training in a hot climate in the summer, AC or at the very least serious ventilation fans are adding to that cost.

Cost of the space is MASSIVE. Most people do not own the land the school is one, most schools are paying a commercial lease. Even if they own the real estate outright they need to recoup the cost of investment. If they have an arrangement with the owner of a larger gym, they are paying for the use of the space.

All of this isn't free.

Judo was cheap as dirt when I was a kid because the club fundraised like crazy and had deals to use middle school and high school gyms for our class.

We brought the mats, set em up, trained, broke em down, and loaded them back into the vans at the end of each class.

When I've trained judo at a professionally owned gym, the rates were standard for pro BJJ gyms in the area.

my point is that once you have an instructed class of regular paying students ready to go, you are not sacrificing anything to add, say, two extra poor kids who are getting tuition breaks-- it's not like your light bills are calculated by how many students you have. and whatever the indirect costs, i would argue they are far outweighed by the benefits of broadening your talent pool, adding diversity to the gym environment, just doing good for the world, etc.
 
You're assuming this hypothetical gym is not at or near capacity.

Also, for profit business generally run charitable programs for tax and pr purposes and budget them as such, not because "the lights are already on".

I don't expect for profit businesses to act like non profit organizations.
 
you and i may be talking about slightly different things. i'm saying that, as a gym owner, you can (and i think should) offer tuition breaks to poor kids who wouldn't get past this barrier to entry otherwise, and without requiring a sponsor to cover their entry. as a business owner i regularly make this sacrifice to those who need it, and i do not consider it something that requires compensation from my other clients.

Yes we are, still my question stands
Are you one who is willing to pay more or not to help those in need?

How much more are you willing to pay?

These are simple questions with simple answers. Why you are playing wannabe politician is Wierd.

It is yes/no with a #number. Simple
 
Have not read entire thread but my son has been doing travel soccer the last 2 years, spring and fall season

between cost of soccer, tournaments, technology fee, hotel costs, equipment costs it was in the neighborhood of $1,700-$1,800 a year. That is not factoring cost to drive to 2-4 games every Saturday during the season.

Now, it was fun, he enjoyed it, great to be outdoors, and it was travel soccer instead of rec soccer

but after this recent spring season ended I decided we needed a break so put him back in BJJ after a 2.5 hiatus. I also joined the same gym. Now we both get to train year round, instead of just the 9ish months of soccer, we have our weekends free except for local (optional) tournaments, and the toal cost? $1,500 for a year's worth of dues. Add in a couple hundred for new gis and rashguard, of course. But my stuff will last years and his will last until next growth spurt

But we both get to train and we have a lot more free time.

And for us the gym is closer than practice fields so that saves me time/gas money.

So while it might not be "cheap" it certainly is not expensive when compare it to other sports
 
I here a lot of people complain about how expensive BJJ is where they live and, honestly, I think often the complaints are reasonable. After all, if you train at a Judo club in the same area you often pay, what, 1/3rd the amount.
The difference, I think, is profit. Most Judo clubs I have come across are run by people who are not looking to make money of it. After all, how could you make money teaching Judo to people at $50 a month unless you had huge classes?
If I ever become qualified to be an instructor (at my current rate of progress probably sometime next decade) I want to start a club style program and, hopefully, share space with either a Judo or Wrestling club. How is our sport ever going to become as mainstream as either Judo or Wrestling until kids have access to cheap quality training? Just my two cents.... I wanted to procrastinate rather than write a research paper about
What do you think? Can BJJ ever become a truly mainstream sport with instruction as expensive as it is?
I'm not real familiar with bjj prices, but as far as judo it's affordable. Is it crazy for me to suggest perhaps this could be a government sponsored program for youth? Because if we think about it, how much money will it cost us if kids grow up and stay in and out of jail? Vs developing disciplined kids who can turn to bjj as their outlet
 
I'm not real familiar with bjj prices, but as far as judo it's affordable. Is it crazy for me to suggest perhaps this could be a government sponsored program for youth? Because if we think about it, how much money will it cost us if kids grow up and stay in and out of jail? Vs developing disciplined kids who can turn to bjj as their outlet

Funding social services including education, after school activities and sports, and things like reproductive healthcare often has a very strong net positive outcome for the nation and the economy. Iceland has severely lowered teen alcohol and drug use with a vigorous program of after school activities so that kids and young adults are too busy in sports, music, theatre, or art classes to have the free time for substance use.

The problem has always been that this is politically unattractive to interest groups that would rather defund social services in order to give tax breaks to the biggest corporations and ultra wealthy individuals.

This process repeats throughout history on every continent with humans in it.
 
Well I gave other reasons prior to the post you are replying to.

For example UFC marketing from the onset. The general public's perception of the sport or not recognizing that other (more affordable) systems are available...ESPECIALLY for your average Joe not looking to be an ADCC champ.


Also supply and demand still plays a role, while people need to eat, they don't have to eat out. They choose to eat out and specifically (in the example above) at my folks restaurant. As soon as they triple the price they will lose business to other restaurants doing something similar (even if not the same) at a reasonable cost.

You did not mention if any of those schools in San Diego charge substantially LESS than the other with similar instruction level.

I doubt that, if they did you would certainly see the effect of supply and demand.

Its almost like price fixing in the case above. All the instructors know what people will pay and continue to charge that rate. As soon as one of them falls on tough times or a NEW GUY with credentials comes in and does it for $100 you will see an impact.


**********
Oh I dont know cost of living in San Diego or rents and insurance so that plays a factor. MAYBE $200 IS the best that anyone can do and make a living.

IE if a school has a base of 50 people at $200 per month, is $10K per month enough to pay everything and still live in San Diego? I don't know.

I know in Tampa FL area you can get maybe 2.5k-3k sq feet space for about $4k per month.



go to the arena we are 99 a month
 
The problem has always been that this is politically unattractive to interest groups that would rather defund social services in order to give tax breaks to the biggest corporations and ultra wealthy individuals.
This process repeats throughout history on every continent with humans in it.

Well I think we are in agreement that programs for school age kids are very helpful. I also feel like bjj/judo has way more to offer than a lot of other programs. It's fun, it's competitive, and most importantly it helps a lot of people grow. Less ago problems, less aggression, learned respect and disciple, and countless other important aspects of maturity.

But, Idk about the funding thing that you mentioned. Not really disagreeing with you but to me the problem I see is a little different. I just feel like bjj, judo, mma (and some other combat sports) are not well known in America. Even people that I know who watch UFC from time to time can't differentiate between mma and ufc. Or, I tell them that I take judo and then they do some type of karate chop as if that's what we practice, proceeded by "do you chop boards?" I say this just to show that you can't support something that you know nothing about. There's also maybe a bad perception from some people (especially older adults) who think it's a highly dangerous sport or a gateway to violence. Actually I knew a lot about judo on the surface (like I knew the objective, some key guys, and had watched some judo matches), but I had no clue what it was actually like to practice judo and mature into a better person because of it.

Sorry I've went down the rabbit hole, but it's a thought I've had before and speaking of the pricing of bjj reminded me of this.
 
I was going to this wrestling /jiu justu class I had with Groupon and after class with rolled after we learned bit technique
I was rolling with instructor and on 3 round he flipped me and my right arm landed and twisted
I was in lot pain and yelling . It’s very sore in elbow area and taking Advil , Ice and numbing cream
My question is should I text and tell owner that as a brown belt he should forescreen it coming . I rolled with other instructor and other guys before and never got injured this bad
What can I do
I know I can’t sue since I sign waiver but what should I tell owner of gym
The instructor who injure me wasn’t that helpful either. Told me had return ice cans can’t bring it with me even though other students said go ahead we got tons. Didn’t show any empathy
 
Right it sounds like you go swept but you posted your hand down to avoid and tweek your elbow.

I would classify it as a freak accident. If it was from a throw, then it would be different as you did not breakfall properly.

I would address the issue to the owner of you really want to.

For example, in my clubs we now have created an injury report system when we must address injuries.
Back on the old days, we did not care and just told people to harden up.
But nowdays, we try to understand what happened, what cause it and how we can prevent it .
 
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