More Than a Martial Arts Club

Striking. Grappling. Choke holds. Joint locks.

These words may not be what immediately come to mind when thinking about community building, but the Brazilian Jiu Jitsu Club’s (BJJC) focus on these techniques has proven successful in fostering relationships and creating bonds among its members.

“In my first year at Grinnell, I was placed in professor Peter-Michael Osera’s FYE class. He is a jujitsu nut so he couldn’t help but mention it during class,” says Sergio Martelo ’23, a computer science major from Cartagena, Colombia. “I asked him about it after class, and he was very friendly and encouraged me to try it out. I tricked 4 other friends (who all also stuck with jujitsu) to come with me to a class, because I felt scared to go alone. I loved it and I have been to almost every class since.”

Started more than a decade ago by Leo Rodriguez, assistant professor in the physics department, the BJJC introduces participants to the most popular form of submission grappling as a good way to get exercise, became more agile, and to learn self-defense. Some members are also interested in competing in tournaments; and the group strives to help them with training, funding, and transportation.

As jujitsu has grown in popularity in recent years, so too has the BJJC. In the early days, classes drew from the same 5-7 members per session. Today, each class averages about 20 participants coming from a wide range of backgrounds.

“The BJJC serves as a melting pot of sorts where faculty, staff, students, and even local folks train together and form bonds that [they] wouldn’t be likely to form outside of the club,” says Martelo. “Also, jujitsu attracts people from all walks of life; we have older local folk who are trying out something new, we have varsity athletes who do jujitsu on top of their main sport; we have students who haven’t dabbled in sports before but are attracted to the mental aspect or the self-defense aspect of the sport; and we also have a few people who discovered jujitsu before coming to Grinnell and are continuing their training with us. We have a very diverse group of people who come to the club and a very friendly environment.”

Despite the sport’s growth over the past 10 years, Martelo says it is still uncommon for a liberal arts college to have a club dedicated to its practice. And many that do, he adds, require members to pay for classes, which is not the case at Grinnell, where all sessions are free and open to anyone, regardless of experience or skill level.

“A lot of the people who started training with us have gone on to training at gyms in their hometowns during breaks and even after they leave the school,” Martelo says. ”A common sentiment in the club is that starting here at Grinnell is a more gentle introduction to the sport and much easier that going to a large commercial gym where you don’t know everybody and are tossed into the fire very quickly. Jujitsu is an alien sport to most people, and we try to combat that by separating the experienced folk from the unexperienced people when we have a large turnout of new members or by being available to newer members if they have any questions. We also have a lot of people who sit out and watch a class before starting to train just to get the hang of it.” 

Martelo and a few the other members have been responsible for growing the BJJC over the past few years, and with Rodriquez on sabbatical this year, experienced students in the group are also teaching classes and leading the group. With graduation now looming for Martelo, he still plans to continue learning more and participating in the sport.

“Every time I apply to a job, I also have to look at the Brazilian jujitsu gyms in the city where the job is located,” he says. “I also plan to continue doing jujitsu as long as my body permits, which for most is well into their 50s or 60s.”