Can you make money in jiujitsu? Every year that passes in our industry, more and more opportunities open up for grapplers to make a career from jiujitsu. The opportunities are definitely there now, and thanks to the first few generations of jiujitsu pioneers, there are some clear paths being forged through the jiujitsu jungle.
Still, the transition from talented amateur to paid professional is a very hard one to make, particular in the transitionary phase. My advice would be not to expect too much too soon and to have a plan for how to support yourself while growing your profile.
I have broken down some of the ways to make money from jiujitsu below. Some of these may be obvious to well established jiujitsu athletes but if you are at the beginning of your journey and feel you have the bug for it already, it may be good to start orienting yourself in the right direction.
Getting Paid to Compete
These days, a talented grappler can earn money simply from competing. Gone are the days when paying to compete at IBJJF was the only option available to you – now local competitions in almost all countries where jiujitsu is established, will have “pro” divisions in events where the winner can take home a sum of money. Sometimes this can be a few hundred bucks, but string together a few of these a month and you are on your way to building an income from competing.
At the higher level, pro shows such as Polaris will pay money for you to compete on their platform, and a savvy grappler will also work hard to sell tickets. Polaris offers ticket commission, meaning a grappler who really takes advantage of the opportunity can make a significant sum of money. What’s more, a good performance on a reputable show like Polaris can lead to a great boost in all the other ways to make money that are listed below. Athletes should understand that a show like Polaris – or another pro show – is a way to boost your profile, a tool for promotion. This means you need to make the most of your appearance by showing not only your skill, but your personality. Find a way to differentiate yourself from the other competitors.
Other organisations around the world are also paying – and some are paying wildly over the odds compared to the actual market – but to really get their attention, you will need to stand out from the thousands of other aspiring pro grapplers vying for their spot. The way to do this is two-fold – either let your achievements speak for themselves, or become very active on social media. The best paid athletes do both of these things at the same time.
Sponsorships
Sponsorships in jiujitsu come in a huge variety of sizes and shapes, from simple gear sponsorship, to having your comp fees paid, to having monthly salaries. Even having your training gear supplied for free can “save” a grappler thousands of pounds a year, making it a worthwhile sponsorship to pursue. As your career progresses a company may offer to cover costs around competing, if you are actively promoting the brand during those competitions. And for really high profile athletes that perform well both on the mats and off (on social media), a monthly salary can be something to aim for. At the very highest levels of jiujitsu, world champions with hundreds of thousands of followers, the monthly salary can be very high indeed.
Beyond jiuijtsu apparel companies, there are dozens of other avenues for a grappler to explore. Supplements, mouthguards, food prep companies, massage therapists, barbers – remember that a sponsorship needs to be mutually beneficial for both involved parties, and that benefits can come in forms other than monetary. Saving money that you used to spend on things can allow you to use your money more efficiently, or make it last longer and be more productive. If you are going to approach any company for sponsorship, I would advise you first to buy and use the product, and make it obvious on your social media. This can strengthen your case when applying. For example, it’s no use applying to be sponsored by, say, Warrior Nutrition, and when they take a look at your profile, you are scarfing down USN Protein every day. This may seem obvious, but this happens every single day (we receive hundreds of messages a week about sponsorship.)
Teaching Classes
Once you become proficient in jiujitsu, and usually once you have had some success in competition, ask your gym about covering some classes. Covering or teaching a few times a week will not make you rich but can provide a stable income as well as providing you with networking opportunities and a chance to refine your teaching technique, which can come in useful later in your career. To expand on this, through your regular classes, your teaching style may resonate with some students in particular who will approach you for private lessons, which can be an excellent way to generate money (see below.) And, if your end goal is to open a jiujitsu gym (perhaps the most lucrative of all career paths) then experience teaching will be a huge bonus.
Private Lessons
Private lessons are one of the biggest earners in a jiujitsu athlete’s toolkit, especially with the right clients. As the classes are private (or semi-private with small groups) the client will pay significantly higher than regular class teaching. What’s more, because jiujitsu brings together people across all strata of society, snagging yourself a very wealthy private lesson client is highly possible. I have lost count of the amount of jiujitsu friends I have who made significant income just by being a good coach to private, wealthy individuals. These truly are win-win scenarios – the client wants a private, comfortable space to train, and the instructor wants to earn money from their knowledge and skill.
Instructionals
On paper, with jiujitsu being such a hands-on combat sports, it seems counter-intuitive that you can sit down and watch a video in order to improve, but you really can. Because of this, companies like BJJ Fanatics – which focus entirely on instructionals – are multi-million dollar businesses. The instructional market is absolutely huge, with BJJ nerds spending millions of dollars a year on expanding their knowledge through video content. To become successful at making money from instructionals, you need three key ingredients – be good at jiujitsu, be an excellent communicator, and a self-promoter. If your goal is to make money from content around jiujitsu, best to start making yourself comfortable with this environment early. Record your techniques, practice talking to the camera so that you can be natural with it, chop up techniques for Instagram and promote them to your fans. Make them realise you are a good source of information for techniques, and you will be laying the foundations for a lucrative career in instructionals.
Patreon or Similar
BJJ Fanatics is not the only option when it comes to learning jiujitsu remotely. There is now a healthy amount of instructors and coaches with direct support from their “end users”, eg grapplers and fans. Patreon, and similar platforms, allow a jiujitsu athlete to charge a monthly fee for direct access to their content. That could be match breakdowns, technique videos, and discussions. Plus, good coaches are also offering paid remote coaching – a kind of jiujitsu consulting – and making excellent money from this. To orient yourself towards this as an avenue for making money, the formula is the same – get good at jiujitsu and be a good self promoter. Also, work hard on creating a community among your fans by combining an active social media account with as much in-person stuff as you can – seminars, visiting gyms, competing, etc. This way when you are ready to start offering paid content access, you have a ready made community of supporters.
Seminars
Seminars have been around a long time and they remain a staple of income for any jiujitsu athlete, with multiple extra benefits. At the basic level, a seminar is an efficient way to monetise your skill delivery for people interested in your techniques – you can gather anywhere from 20 to 200 people in a room and teach them all at the same time. They also provide you with an excellent opportunity to network, potentially gain new online clients, and create content for your online platform or you social media. You don’t need to be a world beater to start giving seminars either – if you have a particular move you are good at, or even just decent success on a local or national level, you can probably gather a good group of people together for a seminar. Don’t be afraid to start small and local and work your way up.
Opening a Gym
I think the end result for almost all jiujitsu athletes who make it to the top, has to be to open a gym. A successful gym can be incredibly lucrative. There are success stories to emulate all over the world, from the biggest and most famous, like AOJ, which surely turns over a huge amount of money, to UK gyms like Fight Zone in London which boasts thousands of students. Even a well planned but smaller, local gym can provide a very generous income if managed and grown correctly. Owning a running a gym is no small task though – it is perhaps the most difficult and time-consuming of all of the above, which is why it is usually reserved for an athlete towards the end of their competitive career, who is at the peak of their mass market appeal and already has explored the other avenues above.
All of these revenue streams do come down to two main requirements. The first, is to be very good at jiujitsu. The second is to market yourself well. You can add a third which is to be an easy person to deal with, but if the first two are strong enough, the third is not necessary (sadly). Both the first and the second are things you can work on. You can train and compete as much as possible in order to improve your jiujitsu, and you can be a relentless self-promoter online. These things help to lay a foundation for good earnings in your future jiujitsu career.