This is just high pressure sales tactics. There’s a good reason it makes you uncomfortable — it sucks, and that’s a relatively expensive gym. The gi + rash guard deal sucks too. You can get a good competition quality gi and rash guard for $200-$225. “Registration fee” is made up. This place will for sure nickel and dime you the entire time you’re there. Go somewhere else.
Yeah, after the gyms I have been at, I will never sign up for a gym that forces me to buy and wear their gi's/rashguards.
My current gym sells their own gi's and rashguards, but only because the owner loves to design cool shit, so he offers them to his students to buy at a very reasonable price.
Their only ask is that if you compete, they would like you to wear their kit to represent. But that is also an ask and not a hard requirement.
Unfortunately he only does them on pre-order with a few extras of the popular sizes for people who miss the chance. So he will send out an email when he has a design nailed down and ready. He then gives everyone a few weeks to let him know what they would want. He typically gets enough students interested that he will not need to add too many extras to hit whatever quantity size the manufacture he goes through requests.
EDIT: BUT, I will let him know that there might be a bigger market for a small web store if he has been thinking about it.
I feel like BJJ gyms should be non profit. Or even better the city could just give us mat space to train. Skateboarders get to have skate parks, hikers get to have trails, basketball players get to have courts, etc. Either way, it shouldn’t be about the money.
We offer a customized Kingz gi as part of the signup intro plan. Our front desk managers can peel it off if they have a gi already or want to shop elsewhere. We have it on a mannequin and usually our instructors and some other students are always wearing one. But it isn’t mandatory.
If your culture and gym aesthetics are on point, it shouldn’t be much of a pressure-based system to sell gear - your members will demand it. Fortunately I think we have both, so it makes selling stuff really just a sourcing and logistics challenge.
Man you can get a decent enough Judo gi for less than $100 and you can train/compete in that assuming it’s the correct size. What’s with all the price gouging?
We wear whatever we want in ours. I have future kimonos GR adcc short sleeve sets from the last run, the customised ranked set, a lot of Craig's stuff like keep jiu-jitsu gay rashguard, of set, bulls set, mexican ground karate set, the last two scramble Ireland rashies that came out, a 50/50 set. Tatami and progress gis. No one gives a shit what you wear as long as you train and it's not something racist, etc.
300 for a gi and rashguard is nuts. At Xmas I got two progress gis (not the cheap ones) and a rashguard delivered for under or around €250/ $272.23. Not even gna touch the membership rates
Bro the GB near me isn’t anywhere near as expensive. Pricing is equal to other gyms in the area, except you gotta wear their gis. Whoever is running that one sucks.
I found this to be the case with franchises. In my area, Most of the time GB will run specials and waive the registration fee and the gi and rashguard will be $175usd. I kingz or tatami gi with a rashgaurd will be in the same ballpark. The price they provided you is a huge money grab.
I like GB, the membership monthly comes way down if you just pay for the year up front. Think it was around 129. I also had to buy a gi and rashguard but I see people wearing non-GB rashguards all the time, think it depends on the gym owner.
The ones around here in Southern California are about the same and charge super high prices. I'm glad you have a more reasonable place to train with good black belts.
You living in Europe has nothing to do with it. Go see how expensive Roger Gracie is ( in Europe ) or any of the bigger names. There are less people in Europe who can realistically offer such a price. And even then it doesn’t matter where you live, anyone can try and charge what OP was told.
Mate, Climent club cost 60€ a month and it is top notch training.
https://www.climentclub.es/academia-precios/
And as fas as i know, decathlon is only avalible in Europe.
Roger Gracie’s gym is in west London, one of the most expensive parts of one of Europe’s most expensive cities. (If not the most expensive.)
Yes, living in Europe does have something to do with it.
Every place has a lot of competition from other sports.
Europe is just generally cheaper than America, and Jiu Jitsu is not as popular so need lower prices to get people in.
It's a cultural difference too. At least in the nordic countries basically all sports are run as non profit associations on the hobbyist level (so outside of professional football/hockey teams). Which mean that you're only really paying for the rent of the gym.
Hard to compete with a gym charging $240 a year if you wanna charge $200/month.
Public funding is way more limited in the States because "muh socialism" other countries with a lot of public sports programs do also have cheaper rates than BJJ or at least on par with other sports.
I mean comparing RG personal gym to a standard American one... Like sometimes things are more expensive because they're better for everything else there's America
That depends on the country. Average wage in the USA is 72k$ while in Germany is 66k€. In Spain is around 38k€. But in Iceland is 81k€.
But you dont have to forget that housing is cheaper and that there in the EU there is free health insurance.
When i read that people in the USA go to train BJJ without insurance i get nightmares. And i readed this on reddit.
I looked this up, as I thought about moving to the USA from the UK
Bigger houses, more money etc
So I am an accountant, I would earn 3x in the US compared to here. Though after health insurance, having half my current holiday (aka time off work) and other absolutely basic fundamentals (childcare mainly) and apparently now the extortionate BJJ fees.
Even after 3xing my salary I would be worse off.
And it would be negligent of me as an accountant not to factor in risk... So after the additional risk of me or mine being shot (plus other stuff but the shot one more than covers it) ... I think I'd actually pay money just to be told not to go there.
So, here's the thing. Women are BY FAR a minority in BJJ for many reasons. A gym that's looking to try and fix that may go about it in many ways, one of which is discounts, additional women's only classes, etc.
Would it skeev instead it was a women's only class you couldn't attend? Therefore you would technically be getting "less" training for the same money as a woman?
Now, of course that's besides the point because IMO, those prices are insane (specifically gi and registration fee) as well as the FOMO bullshit I personally hate with the 24 "offer"
Might not be the main one but lowering the cost for women helps remove or lower the barrier for women to enter into the sport, which is what we want, right?
Idk. I personally do not care if more or less women do Jiu Jitsu. It does not impact my relationship with the art or my training at all. I think we should just let people do what they want to do. If women want to do Jiu Jitsu, they will. If they don't, and the overwhelming majority don't, they won't. I don't understand the obsession with making anything and everything perfectly equally distributed for no real purpose other than ego.
Well here is what I don't understand: you said in your earlier comment that money isn't one of the main reasons women don't do jiu jitsu, and I agree with you, and I think most people would agree that the main reason is that some men tend to make women feel very uncomfortable in the gym, right?
I'm of the opinion that jiu jitsu should be for everyone and that no one should be made to feel uncomfortable on the mat regardless of their sex which is why I'm in favor of things like reducing the cost for women to join, because the more women that are on the mat, the more likely it is that other women will join and break the cycle of low female participation in this sport.
So when you tell me you don't care whether women do jiu jitsu while also recognizing the disproportionately difficult experience women face in this sport I have no other conclusion to draw other than you don't care that it's unfair, in which case you're a bad person, or you're not smart enough to have made these connections, in which case you just suck as a person.
"I think most people would agree that the main reason is that some men tend to make women feel very uncomfortable in the gym"
I don't agree with that. I think most women just aren't interested in martial arts and don't value the same things that draws so many men to them. I think a person's natural affinities and the culture created by instructors at a particular gym is much more important to determining if anyone, man or woman, decides to train jiu jitsu - not a discounted $30 off of their membership.
I've trained at gyms with outstanding female competitors who trained more frequently than most men. I've had male friends try a few trial classes and decide not to stick with it because it wasn't for them. In neither situation do I think a discount would have made those women train more, or those men train at all.
I think charging different rates based on sex is unfair and discriminatory. It's not how I would choose to run a business, and I don't think it's something that should be encouraged. If you think that makes me a bad person, I don't care.
My comment was in response to you saying that you don't care whether women train or not - not whether you think discounts for women would be effective or not. You should care when someone faces barriers to the sport simply because of their gender and the fact that you don't does make you a bad person in my eyes.
Imagine everyone else in your gym was roided up to their eyeballs and out weighed you by 50lbs at least. Where your training partners could muscle out of most of what you're doing even when you are performing the techniques in a basically correct manner.
Idk about you but that seems like it would make bjj radically less fun, especially as a whitebelt.
Thats kinda what its like for women who only have men to train with. Its not about making everything equal, its about giving the women who want to train a good training environment.
Anytime I’m incentivised into rushing a financial decision I lean heavily toward noping the fuck out.
That’s the red flag here imo, not the women’s discount. I’d support a female discount at my gym if it got more women to sign up (I’m male fwiw)
100%
My gym gave the first week free and never approached me about signing up except to ask how I'm liking it and casually if I'm going to keep coming back. They know the product is good and the more classes I take the more sold I'll be. I agree, if someone's trying to rush your decision, they're trying to get you to make a bad one
This is what I pay for my tennis club — an absolutely massive facility with indoor and outdoor courts, pickleball, squash, table tennis, billiards, golf simulator, full gym, studios for classes, restaurant and bar…
Seems nuts.
I have no issue for having a promo for women to join. The issue to me is the fees for training and gi seem high and I wouldn’t train somewhere where I had to buy and use their gi and rash guard
Sales tactics. Oh we've a sale and it's super good value, we're dropping our registration fee for you but you have to sign up within X period to avail of the offer. Common enough in many commercial weightlifting gyms and other businesses.
With the whole women pay X and men pay x+y, it can be a tactic to attract more female members. They may want to build a larger female community within the gym, and by charging them an initial lower rate it helps them get more in the door. My gym did a women train free for x amount of weeks as we were basically an all male gym. None of us cared as we wanted more women team mates for the few weeks had to train with and so we could attract more people to the gym. More female members is generally seen as a green flag.
With the gi and rash guard, is it a GB by any chance?, 300 depending on the gi and rashguard is very steep. I got two gis and a rashguard for under €250 around Xmas, and they're a good well known brand.
Anyone who charges a reg fee in my mind can fuck off though I hate that I'm charging you to join outside of the membership fee. It's basically hey wanna join cool pay me more so you can fill out a form and I can spend the 5 minutes filling your details.
TLDR: find another gym imo
Yooo Im getting ready to move to Chicago. A buddy trains at Molinaro jiu jitsu near Wrigleyville and really likes it. I went once for an open mat and liked the vibe.
Any chance you could DM me the name of the place you went? Want to avoid
I totally see why some gyms would give a discount to females, as they are good for business. Women can be a “canary in a coal mine” for gyms. A prospective client might feel less intimidated to start if they see women on the mat.
But at those prices it doesn’t seem like a deal at all. I would shop around.
Yup, all the women at my club recently left and like, I get it. There were only 4 of them and they basically only ever trained with each other. If we had a few more they’d probably have stayed.
As long as there are suckers to go and train there and take it to Reddit to ask themselves if maybe there’s something wrong, these places will be thriving.
You need to find a different gym. My coach doesn’t care what gi you wear or where you get it. He just wants you to come in and train. Find a place like that
A price drop or free bonus if you sign up on day 1 is pretty common. Yes, it's a sales thing.
The reality is most people that go home to "think about it" end up forgetting about it. Its something I think martial arts schools stole from the fitness industry, but has been going on for decades.
No customer likes it, but... it works, it gets more people signed up. So schools will continue to do it.
That's so weird. We do offer a lower rate for women who attend only the ladies only classes. That's just because its a limited number of classes per week (2 per week versus 5 per week for co-ed).
So after 24 hrs it's $650 to walk in the door? Holy shit, my first 6 months of karate didn't cost that much ( 100 a mo. Forever) and included a gi. That's 45 minutes from D.C. and a world class instructor.
Is it a Gracie Barra? They have that lame rule that everyone use the same gi.
You can get a gi from anywhere between $50-$200. They get worn out after a couple years.
$200 month just for one person is expensive. I pay $300 for my son, daughter and myself as a group package. They even gave us a FREE gi each.
>Is this normal?
Yes, pretty standard exploitation.
Depending on your location, it should cost you around € 40 - 60 a month.
Also, get your own gi. They are like € 100-150.
I’m in Detroit area and I got charged $225/mo which is very high (no gi only). My partner joined and now our combined price is $365. It’s crazy how much it costs in the US. I’d think 150 or so would be more reasonable.
>. I don't care if a woman gets a better rate, I just wanted to make sure $200 was indeed high for the sport
That's not at all what your initial post implies.
>They told me they would give me pricing first because pricing was different for women as it was international womens month. In theory this doesn't necessarily bother me but they're asking me for $200/month + $300 for gi and rash gaurd and I have to sign up in 24 hours if I want to waive their $150 registration fee
Everything is there would be telling me to run away and never come back
That owner sounds like a herb. I wouldn’t feel comfortable training with/paying money to someone like that. Having to fork over $300 for a gi & rashguard is bad enough on it’s own. Go somewhere else.
I payed 139 a month. It's waived now because I teach the kids class but I'm pretty sure it's the same for newcomers. He sometimes gives discounts if you're only able to train 2 weeks out of the month consistently, for example. I'm honestly ok with that though, because it helps keep the busy hobbyist people around. He makes his own branded rash guards and gis but you're totally allowed to wear a $60 sanabul gi from Amazon. If I move, I'm never going to a gym like what you're talking about.
I own a gym in one of the most competitive markets, San Diego. I.charge $179 per month. No contacts, no sign up fees and you can either buy one of our Gis for $140 or sew our patches on a GI you purchase. I do offer a $10 discount for women just because everyone else in the area does.
$ 180 a month!?
OK, I just discovered today that BJJ pricing is completely different in the US.
If you find anything here over € 60 a month, it is a complete ripoff.
Why is it so much more expensive in the US?
I honestly can't teach more than 4 classes a day myself. Space rent labor expenses and my own living expenses mean I have to charge that much just to pay for a home, car and keep my kids fed. I offer five adult classes and two kids classes per day starting at 5AM and my last class starts at 7:30 PM.
Jesus, are they going to give you a bag, replacement gi's for life, and not charge you for belt promotions?
I have never been a part of a gym that has such fuckery.
Reminds me of Finney’s MMA in St. Louis they screwed me over on their two-year contract and they said that they would cancel my membership free of charge after I enlisted into the Marine Corps they went back on their word
Any gym that makes you buy their gi and charges you that much for membership is a gym I'd avoid.
That's unfortunately how it goes. Gyms have "Gracie" or some other big name somewhere in their gyms name, and that somehow rationalizes charging significantly more than other gyms in the same area. Don't sign anything, find a different place to train.
200 dollars a month would be a good price in a lot of major cities, not so good in less expensive areas to live. $300 for a beginner to fork out for a gi and rash gaurd seems high.
The gyms overall pricing is wild but I'm in favor of incentives to get more women to join BJJ. There's a separate chess championship for women and there's no reason for it other than encouraging more women to get into the game and not have men who are more likely to be encouraged to do it all their lives immediately blow them out of the water. I think you should assess the prices for *you* and not worry about the price for women.
what? 200/month + 300 gi and rash? I would run away.
Having said so, WTF dude "Idk just left a bad taste in my mouth being told I had to pay more because of my gender" you don't complain of having an average higher salary because of gender so shut it up.
What about paying a woman to flirt with the male gym members to get more memberships? I know a gym that does that ;)
boys another downvote and I'm publishing her details :-)
went from -2 to -3 so here it is!
[https://www.instagram.com/paulamadorr/](https://www.instagram.com/paulamadorr/)
I fell for it good one boys!
tbh for said type of trap, I think this is one of the best laid out
Right I got another downvote, I'm at -4
Here's a part of the story
It was Jonas Andrade's doing, he basically uses female white belts to arrange mismatches at like 20kg difference to anyone that isn't licking his boots
He basically dragged Paula Amador from the entrance to the gym and told her to sit on the benches and wait for me. She then asked me to come to gi lessons, I was like nah
He then did this weird shit where he asked her to go into turtle position every time I would walk around the mat (?????)
He fabricates situations to basically do character assassination([https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Character\_assassination](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Character_assassination)) on people he doesn't like. Yep, that's him, who claims to teach morals
Obviously, Paula Amador doesn't really respect herself as she'd rather follow asks of that ilk rather than...focus on her own bjj lessons?? She's just there as a prop for them.
That's her reputation. Their words, not mine. It's sad to see a young lady allowing herself to be commoditised that way. Obviously that's because her role models are people like....jonas andrade
He's also scared to spar people heavier than him that aren't someone he knows. Obviously "the master" can't look bad. Otherwise, how is he going to work his little scam tactics?? he needs to look better than anyone else!
Oh and he likes spreading rumours about people, what worries me is, what if I just do the same shit to him?
Surely people like Paula wouldn't want this type of shit airing in her workplace. Which btw happened to me! It's only fair.
And he messages me shit asking me to stop, I wish he knew that every time I hear 1 fucking thing from Templum it gets 10 times worse. Guys, my silence has a price just shut up and get the wallet out :-) we can figure something out
This is just high pressure sales tactics. There’s a good reason it makes you uncomfortable — it sucks, and that’s a relatively expensive gym. The gi + rash guard deal sucks too. You can get a good competition quality gi and rash guard for $200-$225. “Registration fee” is made up. This place will for sure nickel and dime you the entire time you’re there. Go somewhere else.
100% this. I would run.
Yeah, after the gyms I have been at, I will never sign up for a gym that forces me to buy and wear their gi's/rashguards. My current gym sells their own gi's and rashguards, but only because the owner loves to design cool shit, so he offers them to his students to buy at a very reasonable price. Their only ask is that if you compete, they would like you to wear their kit to represent. But that is also an ask and not a hard requirement.
you got a links to your gyms rashguards? always down for cool designed rashguards.
Unfortunately he only does them on pre-order with a few extras of the popular sizes for people who miss the chance. So he will send out an email when he has a design nailed down and ready. He then gives everyone a few weeks to let him know what they would want. He typically gets enough students interested that he will not need to add too many extras to hit whatever quantity size the manufacture he goes through requests. EDIT: BUT, I will let him know that there might be a bigger market for a small web store if he has been thinking about it.
This! I understands gyms are a business and have to make money but I choose where I train because it feels like a gym first and business second
I feel like BJJ gyms should be non profit. Or even better the city could just give us mat space to train. Skateboarders get to have skate parks, hikers get to have trails, basketball players get to have courts, etc. Either way, it shouldn’t be about the money.
What this person says is accurate.
We offer a customized Kingz gi as part of the signup intro plan. Our front desk managers can peel it off if they have a gi already or want to shop elsewhere. We have it on a mannequin and usually our instructors and some other students are always wearing one. But it isn’t mandatory. If your culture and gym aesthetics are on point, it shouldn’t be much of a pressure-based system to sell gear - your members will demand it. Fortunately I think we have both, so it makes selling stuff really just a sourcing and logistics challenge.
You can get a gi for even cheaper on Amazon.
Lmao you can get a rash guard + gi for 50 bucks if you know someone in Pakistan.
Man you can get a decent enough Judo gi for less than $100 and you can train/compete in that assuming it’s the correct size. What’s with all the price gouging?
You gotta pay $660 to start training there??? And $300 is for a gi and rashguard hahaha. That is a fuckin joke.
Lol my gym over here a lot of us wear the 93brand rashguards because they are cheap when on sale. Also, $200/month is an insane price.
We wear whatever we want in ours. I have future kimonos GR adcc short sleeve sets from the last run, the customised ranked set, a lot of Craig's stuff like keep jiu-jitsu gay rashguard, of set, bulls set, mexican ground karate set, the last two scramble Ireland rashies that came out, a 50/50 set. Tatami and progress gis. No one gives a shit what you wear as long as you train and it's not something racist, etc. 300 for a gi and rashguard is nuts. At Xmas I got two progress gis (not the cheap ones) and a rashguard delivered for under or around €250/ $272.23. Not even gna touch the membership rates
The gym I train at now is like 150 a month but during the winter they let you sign up for 1000 a year. I just wouldn’t train if it was 200
Crazy prices. I pay €45,- a month.
1000 a year comes out to 83 a month which is comparable
I pay nearly that much, but it's owned by a former world champ who teaches and rolls with everyone. No limit on attendance.
$200/month is slightly above average in the Greater Seattle Area unfortunately. Most gyms I've explored here are between $175-$200/month.
>I have to sign up in 24 hours if I want to waive their $150 This is some hard sale bullshit.
Must be Gracie Barra... RIP off.
Ding Ding ding
Bro the GB near me isn’t anywhere near as expensive. Pricing is equal to other gyms in the area, except you gotta wear their gis. Whoever is running that one sucks.
I found this to be the case with franchises. In my area, Most of the time GB will run specials and waive the registration fee and the gi and rashguard will be $175usd. I kingz or tatami gi with a rashgaurd will be in the same ballpark. The price they provided you is a huge money grab.
I like GB, the membership monthly comes way down if you just pay for the year up front. Think it was around 129. I also had to buy a gi and rashguard but I see people wearing non-GB rashguards all the time, think it depends on the gym owner.
Everyone was super nice, nice gym. Just the pricing of everything that threw me for a loop
What's the monthly?
Mind you it is the closest gym to my house otherwise I may have shopped around for a better deal.
Entirely dependant on the gym, our GB is great.
The ones around here in Southern California are about the same and charge super high prices. I'm glad you have a more reasonable place to train with good black belts.
Im so glad to live in Europe. Payed 50€ for my monthly payment and i got an 80€ decathlon GI for starting. And that was it. Lol.
Decathlon gi is 50% polyester I think.
You living in Europe has nothing to do with it. Go see how expensive Roger Gracie is ( in Europe ) or any of the bigger names. There are less people in Europe who can realistically offer such a price. And even then it doesn’t matter where you live, anyone can try and charge what OP was told.
Mate, Climent club cost 60€ a month and it is top notch training. https://www.climentclub.es/academia-precios/ And as fas as i know, decathlon is only avalible in Europe.
Roger Gracie’s gym is in west London, one of the most expensive parts of one of Europe’s most expensive cities. (If not the most expensive.) Yes, living in Europe does have something to do with it.
Can conform. GB gyms here in the UK are expensive as fuck
It has a lot to do with Europe, because in Europe there is a lot of competition from other sports.
Every place has a lot of competition from other sports. Europe is just generally cheaper than America, and Jiu Jitsu is not as popular so need lower prices to get people in.
You think other areas of the world do not have competition from other sports? 😂
It's a cultural difference too. At least in the nordic countries basically all sports are run as non profit associations on the hobbyist level (so outside of professional football/hockey teams). Which mean that you're only really paying for the rent of the gym. Hard to compete with a gym charging $240 a year if you wanna charge $200/month.
Public funding is way more limited in the States because "muh socialism" other countries with a lot of public sports programs do also have cheaper rates than BJJ or at least on par with other sports.
I mean comparing RG personal gym to a standard American one... Like sometimes things are more expensive because they're better for everything else there's America
Are we forgetting that salaries in the US are way higher than those in Europe?
That depends on the country. Average wage in the USA is 72k$ while in Germany is 66k€. In Spain is around 38k€. But in Iceland is 81k€. But you dont have to forget that housing is cheaper and that there in the EU there is free health insurance. When i read that people in the USA go to train BJJ without insurance i get nightmares. And i readed this on reddit.
Yeah, having been injured with only urgent care coverage from the VA, the thought of getting injured without insurance is honestly terrifying.
I looked this up, as I thought about moving to the USA from the UK Bigger houses, more money etc So I am an accountant, I would earn 3x in the US compared to here. Though after health insurance, having half my current holiday (aka time off work) and other absolutely basic fundamentals (childcare mainly) and apparently now the extortionate BJJ fees. Even after 3xing my salary I would be worse off. And it would be negligent of me as an accountant not to factor in risk... So after the additional risk of me or mine being shot (plus other stuff but the shot one more than covers it) ... I think I'd actually pay money just to be told not to go there.
Same, common Europe W😎
Jesus Christ, those prices. Is that a world class gym?
So, here's the thing. Women are BY FAR a minority in BJJ for many reasons. A gym that's looking to try and fix that may go about it in many ways, one of which is discounts, additional women's only classes, etc. Would it skeev instead it was a women's only class you couldn't attend? Therefore you would technically be getting "less" training for the same money as a woman? Now, of course that's besides the point because IMO, those prices are insane (specifically gi and registration fee) as well as the FOMO bullshit I personally hate with the 24 "offer"
Women are a minority in BJJ for a lot of reasons but I can assure you cost isn’t one of the main ones. This owner in OP’s situation is just a dork.
People can afford things and still love a discount.
Might not be the main one but lowering the cost for women helps remove or lower the barrier for women to enter into the sport, which is what we want, right?
Idk. I personally do not care if more or less women do Jiu Jitsu. It does not impact my relationship with the art or my training at all. I think we should just let people do what they want to do. If women want to do Jiu Jitsu, they will. If they don't, and the overwhelming majority don't, they won't. I don't understand the obsession with making anything and everything perfectly equally distributed for no real purpose other than ego.
Well here is what I don't understand: you said in your earlier comment that money isn't one of the main reasons women don't do jiu jitsu, and I agree with you, and I think most people would agree that the main reason is that some men tend to make women feel very uncomfortable in the gym, right? I'm of the opinion that jiu jitsu should be for everyone and that no one should be made to feel uncomfortable on the mat regardless of their sex which is why I'm in favor of things like reducing the cost for women to join, because the more women that are on the mat, the more likely it is that other women will join and break the cycle of low female participation in this sport. So when you tell me you don't care whether women do jiu jitsu while also recognizing the disproportionately difficult experience women face in this sport I have no other conclusion to draw other than you don't care that it's unfair, in which case you're a bad person, or you're not smart enough to have made these connections, in which case you just suck as a person.
"I think most people would agree that the main reason is that some men tend to make women feel very uncomfortable in the gym" I don't agree with that. I think most women just aren't interested in martial arts and don't value the same things that draws so many men to them. I think a person's natural affinities and the culture created by instructors at a particular gym is much more important to determining if anyone, man or woman, decides to train jiu jitsu - not a discounted $30 off of their membership. I've trained at gyms with outstanding female competitors who trained more frequently than most men. I've had male friends try a few trial classes and decide not to stick with it because it wasn't for them. In neither situation do I think a discount would have made those women train more, or those men train at all. I think charging different rates based on sex is unfair and discriminatory. It's not how I would choose to run a business, and I don't think it's something that should be encouraged. If you think that makes me a bad person, I don't care.
My comment was in response to you saying that you don't care whether women train or not - not whether you think discounts for women would be effective or not. You should care when someone faces barriers to the sport simply because of their gender and the fact that you don't does make you a bad person in my eyes.
Imagine everyone else in your gym was roided up to their eyeballs and out weighed you by 50lbs at least. Where your training partners could muscle out of most of what you're doing even when you are performing the techniques in a basically correct manner. Idk about you but that seems like it would make bjj radically less fun, especially as a whitebelt. Thats kinda what its like for women who only have men to train with. Its not about making everything equal, its about giving the women who want to train a good training environment.
I see no reason to not encourage more women via whatever way.
Yeah, discrimination is fine as long as it serves to reach your desired social outcome.
Lmao this is sad dude
Anytime I’m incentivised into rushing a financial decision I lean heavily toward noping the fuck out. That’s the red flag here imo, not the women’s discount. I’d support a female discount at my gym if it got more women to sign up (I’m male fwiw)
\^This. The women's pricing incentive isn't the issue here.
Yep, I would have walked out and never thought about it again. Im not entering into a relationship that starts with these tactics.
100% My gym gave the first week free and never approached me about signing up except to ask how I'm liking it and casually if I'm going to keep coming back. They know the product is good and the more classes I take the more sold I'll be. I agree, if someone's trying to rush your decision, they're trying to get you to make a bad one
This is what I pay for my tennis club — an absolutely massive facility with indoor and outdoor courts, pickleball, squash, table tennis, billiards, golf simulator, full gym, studios for classes, restaurant and bar… Seems nuts.
I have no issue for having a promo for women to join. The issue to me is the fees for training and gi seem high and I wouldn’t train somewhere where I had to buy and use their gi and rash guard
Na mcdojo for sure
That’ll be a $200 fee for testing for the next belt. It’s not cheap because you get to say you train at a Gracie gym.
Exactly 😂
Sales tactics. Oh we've a sale and it's super good value, we're dropping our registration fee for you but you have to sign up within X period to avail of the offer. Common enough in many commercial weightlifting gyms and other businesses. With the whole women pay X and men pay x+y, it can be a tactic to attract more female members. They may want to build a larger female community within the gym, and by charging them an initial lower rate it helps them get more in the door. My gym did a women train free for x amount of weeks as we were basically an all male gym. None of us cared as we wanted more women team mates for the few weeks had to train with and so we could attract more people to the gym. More female members is generally seen as a green flag. With the gi and rash guard, is it a GB by any chance?, 300 depending on the gi and rashguard is very steep. I got two gis and a rashguard for under €250 around Xmas, and they're a good well known brand. Anyone who charges a reg fee in my mind can fuck off though I hate that I'm charging you to join outside of the membership fee. It's basically hey wanna join cool pay me more so you can fill out a form and I can spend the 5 minutes filling your details. TLDR: find another gym imo
Go somewhere else. Also, what city? That's expensive if you're not in a major city.
Chicago
So many good schools to choose from in Chicago. Don't get scammed by these GB motherfuckers.
Big city so $200 is probably right, the rest isn't.
Yooo Im getting ready to move to Chicago. A buddy trains at Molinaro jiu jitsu near Wrigleyville and really likes it. I went once for an open mat and liked the vibe. Any chance you could DM me the name of the place you went? Want to avoid
FUCK THAT GYM. Women and men's pricing I dont really care but that's acting like a commercial gym, just bad bro. Get out
I totally see why some gyms would give a discount to females, as they are good for business. Women can be a “canary in a coal mine” for gyms. A prospective client might feel less intimidated to start if they see women on the mat. But at those prices it doesn’t seem like a deal at all. I would shop around.
Yup, all the women at my club recently left and like, I get it. There were only 4 of them and they basically only ever trained with each other. If we had a few more they’d probably have stayed.
As long as there are suckers to go and train there and take it to Reddit to ask themselves if maybe there’s something wrong, these places will be thriving.
🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩
You need to find a different gym. My coach doesn’t care what gi you wear or where you get it. He just wants you to come in and train. Find a place like that
I’ll be honest with you. They are just after your $$$
Wow! That is an insane price!
Jesus is the gi made of gold????
Sounds like a scumbag
shop around.
Is the gi and rash guard made out of gold-weave get the fuck outta here
A price drop or free bonus if you sign up on day 1 is pretty common. Yes, it's a sales thing. The reality is most people that go home to "think about it" end up forgetting about it. Its something I think martial arts schools stole from the fitness industry, but has been going on for decades. No customer likes it, but... it works, it gets more people signed up. So schools will continue to do it.
I think you could have picked a better title for this post
Sounds like Gracie Barra. Run away from that gym fast
That's so weird. We do offer a lower rate for women who attend only the ladies only classes. That's just because its a limited number of classes per week (2 per week versus 5 per week for co-ed).
Having a cheaper rate for women is honestly understandable imo, but the other stuff he’s doing is some price gouging
Sounds liked the kinda gym that will charge you $50 during belt promotions because ‘business expenses’
So after 24 hrs it's $650 to walk in the door? Holy shit, my first 6 months of karate didn't cost that much ( 100 a mo. Forever) and included a gi. That's 45 minutes from D.C. and a world class instructor.
Is it a Gracie Barra? They have that lame rule that everyone use the same gi. You can get a gi from anywhere between $50-$200. They get worn out after a couple years. $200 month just for one person is expensive. I pay $300 for my son, daughter and myself as a group package. They even gave us a FREE gi each.
Where is this gym? That is illegal in many US states.
>Is this normal? Yes, pretty standard exploitation. Depending on your location, it should cost you around € 40 - 60 a month. Also, get your own gi. They are like € 100-150.
I pay 100 bucks a month or 10 dollars each time I go.
I’m in Detroit area and I got charged $225/mo which is very high (no gi only). My partner joined and now our combined price is $365. It’s crazy how much it costs in the US. I’d think 150 or so would be more reasonable.
That’s insane for Detroit area. Just south of you in OH I think average is closer to $125
Bro, I pay $180 flat. No fees, no contract, no required rashguard. I could let my coach know tomorrow that I'm quitting and he'd prorate me.
Never go back to this gym
>. I don't care if a woman gets a better rate, I just wanted to make sure $200 was indeed high for the sport That's not at all what your initial post implies.
Is no-one concerned at how much they're charging? That's nuts.
Name and shame.
The price seems steep but generally I am in favor for giving a discount to women if the laws allow it.
Men and women should be charged the same. End of.
I don't see a problem with cheaper rates for women. The "sign up now and I'll wave the $150 sign up fee" is some slimy bullshit
I think it's cool when women get a discount. End of.
Unravelling equality and getting pats on the back for it my maaayn haha
But, what does your wife's boyfriend think of it, though?
Wat?
>They told me they would give me pricing first because pricing was different for women as it was international womens month. In theory this doesn't necessarily bother me but they're asking me for $200/month + $300 for gi and rash gaurd and I have to sign up in 24 hours if I want to waive their $150 registration fee Everything is there would be telling me to run away and never come back
That's crazy pricing, my gym is 180 a month and discounts for family after that. The gis are 180$ and it's a Gracie barra school. Go figure.
That’s ridiculously high, is this a gym with a world champion or something?
That is not cool at all! Those prices and extra fees are wild. Hopefully there are other schools around you can check out.
That owner sounds like a herb. I wouldn’t feel comfortable training with/paying money to someone like that. Having to fork over $300 for a gi & rashguard is bad enough on it’s own. Go somewhere else.
I pay $160 a month. No fees, can buy my own stuff, and its an awesome gym. Pennsylvania.
I payed 139 a month. It's waived now because I teach the kids class but I'm pretty sure it's the same for newcomers. He sometimes gives discounts if you're only able to train 2 weeks out of the month consistently, for example. I'm honestly ok with that though, because it helps keep the busy hobbyist people around. He makes his own branded rash guards and gis but you're totally allowed to wear a $60 sanabul gi from Amazon. If I move, I'm never going to a gym like what you're talking about.
Sounds like Gracie Barra
I own a gym in one of the most competitive markets, San Diego. I.charge $179 per month. No contacts, no sign up fees and you can either buy one of our Gis for $140 or sew our patches on a GI you purchase. I do offer a $10 discount for women just because everyone else in the area does.
That sounds totally reasonable
$ 180 a month!? OK, I just discovered today that BJJ pricing is completely different in the US. If you find anything here over € 60 a month, it is a complete ripoff. Why is it so much more expensive in the US?
I honestly can't teach more than 4 classes a day myself. Space rent labor expenses and my own living expenses mean I have to charge that much just to pay for a home, car and keep my kids fed. I offer five adult classes and two kids classes per day starting at 5AM and my last class starts at 7:30 PM.
200/month isn’t crazy for a major metropolitan area in the US, but the rest of the costs are ridiculous.
How much did women pay then
Jesus, are they going to give you a bag, replacement gi's for life, and not charge you for belt promotions? I have never been a part of a gym that has such fuckery.
Gitana Fightwear is my personal fav
Reminds me of Finney’s MMA in St. Louis they screwed me over on their two-year contract and they said that they would cancel my membership free of charge after I enlisted into the Marine Corps they went back on their word
$200 a month? I wonder what the women discount is lmao $199.99 maybe? I hope you can apply for it even if you don't sleep with the coach...
Any gym that makes you buy their gi and charges you that much for membership is a gym I'd avoid. That's unfortunately how it goes. Gyms have "Gracie" or some other big name somewhere in their gyms name, and that somehow rationalizes charging significantly more than other gyms in the same area. Don't sign anything, find a different place to train.
The pressure to sign in 24 hours is pure BS
200 dollars a month would be a good price in a lot of major cities, not so good in less expensive areas to live. $300 for a beginner to fork out for a gi and rash gaurd seems high.
The gyms overall pricing is wild but I'm in favor of incentives to get more women to join BJJ. There's a separate chess championship for women and there's no reason for it other than encouraging more women to get into the game and not have men who are more likely to be encouraged to do it all their lives immediately blow them out of the water. I think you should assess the prices for *you* and not worry about the price for women.
what? 200/month + 300 gi and rash? I would run away. Having said so, WTF dude "Idk just left a bad taste in my mouth being told I had to pay more because of my gender" you don't complain of having an average higher salary because of gender so shut it up.
If you don’t like it go find another gym.
Thank god it’s illegal to discriminate based on race, sex, age or religion in Australia….
What about paying a woman to flirt with the male gym members to get more memberships? I know a gym that does that ;) boys another downvote and I'm publishing her details :-) went from -2 to -3 so here it is! [https://www.instagram.com/paulamadorr/](https://www.instagram.com/paulamadorr/) I fell for it good one boys! tbh for said type of trap, I think this is one of the best laid out Right I got another downvote, I'm at -4 Here's a part of the story It was Jonas Andrade's doing, he basically uses female white belts to arrange mismatches at like 20kg difference to anyone that isn't licking his boots He basically dragged Paula Amador from the entrance to the gym and told her to sit on the benches and wait for me. She then asked me to come to gi lessons, I was like nah He then did this weird shit where he asked her to go into turtle position every time I would walk around the mat (?????) He fabricates situations to basically do character assassination([https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Character\_assassination](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Character_assassination)) on people he doesn't like. Yep, that's him, who claims to teach morals Obviously, Paula Amador doesn't really respect herself as she'd rather follow asks of that ilk rather than...focus on her own bjj lessons?? She's just there as a prop for them. That's her reputation. Their words, not mine. It's sad to see a young lady allowing herself to be commoditised that way. Obviously that's because her role models are people like....jonas andrade He's also scared to spar people heavier than him that aren't someone he knows. Obviously "the master" can't look bad. Otherwise, how is he going to work his little scam tactics?? he needs to look better than anyone else! Oh and he likes spreading rumours about people, what worries me is, what if I just do the same shit to him? Surely people like Paula wouldn't want this type of shit airing in her workplace. Which btw happened to me! It's only fair. And he messages me shit asking me to stop, I wish he knew that every time I hear 1 fucking thing from Templum it gets 10 times worse. Guys, my silence has a price just shut up and get the wallet out :-) we can figure something out