This is a question often asked by those pondering on becoming a BJJ teacher. Whilst BJJ instructor’s salaries differ from country to country, there is still a base pay for the average BJJ instructor and what they will earn. However, it’s important to clarify that teaching BJJ as a full-time job should be a passion first and not completely money-driven. In other words, you shouldn’t expect to become a millionaire from teaching BJJ.
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Income as a part-time BJJ teacher
In some smaller gyms, teachers are only part-time instructors. In short, they aren’t on a full salary and get paid per class. This is often supplemented by getting free membership at the gym which is a courtesy from the gym owner for providing a service. After this, it’s up to the owner and instructor to negotiate a fee. In some cases, teachers can earn as little as $10 per hour for teaching the odd class, but this can rise up to over $30 per hour depending on the status of the country or city they work in.
However, sometimes teachers will also work for free. This isn’t that common, but if someone is eager to teach they may help out as an assistant to the main teacher. Again, this could include free membership as a thank you from the owner.
Income as a full-time BJJ teacher
Again, this differs per country and there are no set rules. In some cases in larger gyms, the owner may provide a ‘teachers house’ where young teachers live together and also train together. Typically these are competitors with desires of becoming world champions. In these cases they may earn a similar hourly rate as mentioned above. However, their situation is beneficial as they often get free or subsidized rent. Often the goal here is to earn a liveable income from teaching whilst training daily to raise their profile as a grappler.
In theory if you were to be paid to run a small unbranded academy in the USA on behalf of someone you shouldn’t really expect to earn more than $30000 per year. This would obviously differ if you were in a city such as San Diego or New York, but these places are already saturated with very high profile and successful gyms.
Teaching BJJ in lesser-known countries
In places like Brazil and America, being a BJJ instructor isn’t a high demand job. However, in some countries being a black belt is still a rare novelty. Because of this, in some cases a gym owner may pay a black belt to teach at their gym with a full-time salary. If the gym is already popular then the teacher can earn around $35,000 per year which is a nice income for a passion.
Usually, these countries are in places like the middle east where BJJ is still growing in popularity and doesn’t have many black belts. Because of this, teaching abroad as a full-time salary is a viable option if you’re willing to travel to a less popular destination.
How Much Does a BJJ Black Belt Make?
A big part of earning a salary as a BJJ instructor is through private lessons. For instance, a young competitor who also teaches with an hourly wage may earn significantly more from privates. One example of this could be an hourly rate of $15 per class. This isn’t a fantastic wage but is better than nothing.
However, if the competitor has a good reputation and is well-liked in the gym, they can earn a lot more from privates. It isn’t uncommon for privates to cost anywhere from $50-150 for an hour’s work. Because of this privates can often be a great way to add to your income provided you can get the work.
Even more so, in a large gym with a good reputation, privates can become incredibly profitable. There are stories online about how John Danaher used to have a full day’s work of privates whilst teaching in Renzo Gracie’s New York gym. Some claim he was earning more than $100 per private back then and could easily do 10 hours of work per day. With that in mind, privates can quickly become a very profitable venture and show the value of having a good reputation.
Teaching whilst owning your gym
A very common setup in BJJ is being the owner and only teacher of your gym at the same time. This is typical of smaller gyms with fewer members. Because of this, there simply isn’t the demand or desire for more teachers so the owner is also the teacher. This means there’s no set wage and the money earned is solely from memberships deducted from bills such as rent and other running costs.
Again, the profit here depends entirely on the success of the gym and can differ from country to country. For instance, some gyms are run as a hobby and don’t turn much of a profit. However, in some cases a successful gym can be very lucrative. Whilst most people’s gyms aren’t super popular it isn’t too uncommon for a good gym to pull in over $35,000 per year for the owner.
Again, this is more focused on the business side of things than being a sole instructor, but it is certainly doable with the right structure in place. This number can certainly be higher too, if you are a great instructor in a cheap location with access to lots of private students, you could find yourself earning near the $100000 mark.
Some gyms will run as an affiliate for a larger brand such as Atos or Gracie Barra. Typically you will need to pay a franchise fee to these organizations but will gain greater exposure as people are aware of these brands in the BJJ world. It will be up to each individual owner to decide whether this cost is worth the branding, or whether he can make more money by branding the gym personally.
Summary
The average salary for a BJJ instructor differs massively which has been outlined above. In short, there’s no definitive answer and many variables involved. However, if you love BJJ, teaching can be profitable which is a great bonus if it’s your hobby as well. It has also been addressed that a key part of increasing your income as a BJJ instructor is by enhancing your reputation which often means being a well respected black belt to begin with. Overall, earning a living can be achieved from teaching BJJ, but this comes with its own ups and downs and is not for everyone.
