Teaching Martial Arts in a Foreign Country

[Lucas88]

I've heard stories about Western MA instructors who've set up schools in foreign countries and made bank. My Mamita Chatunga, who is originally from Ecuador, told me about a gringo who ran a popular Taekwondo school in her hometown and lived like a king with his big house and swimming pool. That was in the 90s.

For a while now I've flirted with the idea of going to a smaller city in Latin America and teaching no-gi Jiujitsu/submission wrestling with the goal of opening my own school. Through investigation I've found that large cities in Latin America typically have as many Jiujitsu and MMA gyms as a Western city since the explosion of popularity of those arts but at the same time many smaller cities have almost no Jiujitsu or MMA gyms. I have good knowledge of Jiujitsu and especially no-gi grappling. I have over 10 years of combat sports experience. Maybe I could set up shop in one of those smaller cities in Colombia or Ecuador and gain a following of students. I could be a pioneer of the art in a region previously untouched, just like how my own Jiujitsu instructor was a pioneer of Jiujitsu instruction in our part of the world in the mid 2000s when Jiujitsu/grappling instruction was hard to come by. He was only a blue belt at the time, learning mostly through instructional videos and seminars, but he created an awesome Jiujitsu school from the ground up and trained various students who would go far in the sport. He earned his black belt in the late 2000s.

I taught no-gi grappling at my local MMA gym for a few years. I discovered that I had a knack for explaining techniques and my classes were popular. I'm not saying that I'm an amazing grappler or anything like that. I'm simply a decent grappler who knows how to conceptualize techniques and then explain the underlying mechanics in an understandable way. That was why I was getting a lot of students. I always broke down the techniques in detail to the point where even inexperienced beginners would benefit from my classes. I also made my own syllabus for my classes and introduced techniques in logical sequences to cover the full range of positions and grappling scenarios. My students and I would work through syllabus rotations and I saw significant improvements in their grappling abilities. I have a good mind for grappling instruction.

Teaching grappling might not be the most lucrative thing and I would certainly want to combine it with forms of passive income, but it would also have the advantage of making me the leader in a competence hierarchy and thereby making me more attractive to certain types of women. Maybe some of my hot female students with thick athletic asses would be up for "private sessions". And, who knows? Maybe with time I could expand the gym into a full-blown school with various different classes and actually make decent money.

I know the formula for making money with martial arts. It doesn't consist of teaching but rather selling products. I knew a guy who became rich through his MA school. He rented out the matted-out rooms at his school (which was nothing more than an old multistory building) to various amateur/hobbyist instructors each teaching their own discipline (e.g., Karate, Kickboxing, Jujutsu, Iaido, etc.) and sold T-shirts and other things with the association logo to hundreds of kids and adults who trained there. Most of the classes were poor McDojo-quality stuff but the guy was still able to rake it in. In fact, I even think that in the world of martial arts it is the McDojo stuff that sells the most, unfortunately. The same guy then expanded his organization and founded new branches in other towns using the same business model. In short, printing T-shirts is what made the owner rich, not giving high-quality instruction.

Teaching grappling could help me grow too. It would motivate me to constantly look to improve my own syllabus and therefore expand my own range of knowledge and perfect my own technique.

[Cornfed]

I would think BJJ had been pretty well explored, but maybe you could do your own gimmicky take on martial arts and then set up a second stream of income on YouTube.

[Lucas88]

I would think BJJ had been pretty well explored, but maybe you could do your own gimmicky take on martial arts and then set up a second stream of income on YouTube.

I actually think that there could be some demand for Brazilian Jiujitsu in some of the smaller Latin American cities due to the popularity of televised MMA events and the lack of decent BJJ and MMA gyms in many of those places which are still far behind the US and even the UK, but I would be teaching a fusional style of no-gi grappling centered around my own syllabus since I can't stand the whole pajama fest of gi-based BJJ. At this point I'm strictly a no-gi guy.

My style of no-gi grappling incorporates basic wrestling and some Judo throws for the standup (many BJJ schools completely neglect takedowns). I'm also fond of some of Eddie Bravo's unorthodox 10th Planet Jiujitsu techniques such as the lockdown variation of half-guard, the truck position and twister, and the rubber guard (excellent for setting up triangle chokes and omoplatas in no-gi). I also give priority to techniques and strategies which are MMA-friendly. In short, I won't be teaching regular BJJ.

It's interesting that you say that I could do a gimmicky take on martial arts for YouTube. I'm not really sure what I could do. Eddie Bravo kinda has his own gimmick. He's a stoner conspiracy theorist and Flat Earther. But the kind of conspiracies that I talk about would get me banned from YouTube. Lol!

For about a year now I've been thinking about designing my own martial arts system for actual fighting as opposed to sport. As per my notes, I would most likely base it (at least nominally) on the all-round Japanese art of Traditional Jujutsu (an art which I practiced extensively before I got into BJJ) and market it as something like "Combaat Jujutsu" and then blend in the most practical and effective techniques from MMA, Muay Thai, dirty street fighting, weapons training, etc. It would be my own hybrid fighting style. That's why I was interested when you mentioned that you were creating your own syllabus to teach a group of teenagers how to fight. I have some ideas of my own and might even go into detail in another post.

[Cornfed]

and market it as something like "Combaat Jujutsu"

Combato Jiujitsu is already a thing.

[Lucas88]

and market it as something like "Combaat Jujutsu"

Combato Jiujitsu is already a thing.

No, that's Combat Jiujitsu, no-gi BJJ with the addition of open-handed strikes (that's what you mean, right?).

I envision "Combat Jujutsu" with the original Japanese spelling and somewhat modelled after the traditional Japanese art but with more practical and more brutal techniques incorporated from other sources.

The majority of TMA schools teach watered-down systems which lack effectiveness and the brutality necessary for actual fighting and are therefore mostly useless. I've also found the various attempts to modernize TMAs and make them more effective such as "Combat Hapkido" and "Kajukenbo" largely unconvincing.

This has led me to envision my own hybrid martial art for the purpose.

[Cornfed]

No, that's Combat Jiujitsu, no-gi BJJ with the addition of open-handed strikes (that's what you mean, right?).

I had the impression that some of the Western military CQB people regard Jiujitsu as their main parent art and already constructed Combato Jiujitsu as pretty much what you are saying.

[Lucas88]

No, that's Combat Jiujitsu, no-gi BJJ with the addition of open-handed strikes (that's what you mean, right?).

I had the impression that some of the Western military CQB people regard Jiujitsu as their main parent art and already constructed Combato Jiujitsu as pretty much what you are saying.

In that case, do you mean Bill Underwood's system of Combato which would later give rise to Defendo? If so, I remember reading about it a few years ago but then forgot about it.

I just recently took a look at some "modern Defendo" videos, but to be honest the techniques look pretty bullshit to me. In a real fight people don't allow you to manipulate their body and throw them to the ground so easily. Lol!

Here's one here:




Well no, if this is what you mean by "Combato Jiujitsu", that's not what I have in mind!

My own vision for "Combat Jujutsu" is more along the lines of the following:

• Basic Muay Thai striking including punches, kicks, knees and elbows and defense against strikes

• Upper body clinches from wrestling and Muay Thai together with strikes from clinch and "dirty" techniques (none of that silly Aikido-esque wrist manipulation shit that only works of passive non-resisting untrained pvssies)

• Some basic throws and trips from Judo and wrestling

• Basic pins and restraints on the ground with ground-and-pound and finishes

• How to escape being held down on the ground, defend oneself from a grounded position and safely get back to one's feet

• Wall techniques and environmental awareness

• Defense against common weapons such as knives and bats

• Conditioning and fitness training specific to fighting

As you can probably see, the contents of my own envisioned system are significantly different from Combato or Defendo. Likewise, they are a major improvement on the Traditional Jujutsu syllabus which I studied as a teenager. Traditional Jujutsu was supposed to be a generalist art that covers striking, standing grappling (i.e., throws and standing joint locks), and basic ground fighting, but I think that it tremendously falls short of its intended purpose. So I've though about how I could tweak the techniques in these three fundamental domains by incorporating elements from MMA, street fighting, etc. and thereby making them more effective.

As for the name of the art, it will undoubtedly be a Spanish variation of "Combat Jujutsu" or something similar since I intend to teach it primarily to Hispanic people in Latin America.

[Cornfed]

My own vision for "Combat Jujutsu" is more along the lines of the following:

• Basic Muay Thai striking including punches, kicks, knees and elbows and defense against strikes

• Upper body clinches from wrestling and Muay Thai together with strikes from clinch and "dirty" techniques (none of that silly Aikido-esque wrist manipulation shit that only works of passive non-resisting untrained pvssies)

• Some basic throws and trips from Judo and wrestling

• Basic pins and restraints on the ground with ground-and-pound and finishes

• How to escape being held down on the ground, defend oneself from a grounded position and safely get back to one's feet

• Wall techniques and environmental awareness

• Defense against common weapons such as knives and bats

• Conditioning and fitness training specific to fighting

Yeah, the other way to think about it is to think what the average non-p***y might want to do with fighting skills and train for that. Off the top of my head these would be:
1. Saving your life from a criminal attack.
2. Winning a fight on an actual or implied challenge.
3. Less serious play type fighting.
4. Beating up people who deserve to be beaten up to the level they deserve.
5. Breaking up fights and otherwise subduing bad behaviour.
6. Security-type restraining and ejection.

You would then train people to do those things using the skills most convenient.

[Lucas88]

Yeah, the other way to think about it is to think what the average non-p***y might want to do with fighting skills and train for that. Off the top of my head these would be:
1. Saving your life from a criminal attack.
2. Winning a fight on an actual or implied challenge.
3. Less serious play type fighting.
4. Beating up people who deserve to be beaten up to the level they deserve.
5. Breaking up fights and otherwise subduing bad behaviour.
6. Security-type restraining and ejection.

You would then train people to do those things using the skills most convenient.

Yeah, that's a good point!

I want to design a well-rounded system that can be applied to various situations.

MMA training, while extremely effective, solely focuses on winning in competition under a specific ruleset.

So-called "self-defense" programs focus on very limited scenarios, don't promote the development of fundamental combat skills and don't work for the most part.

I on the other hand intend to take effective techniques from various sources and blend them together into a coherent system so that students can learn the basics of fighting in a relatively short period of time.

I suppose that my target demographic will be primarily those people who are disillusioned with the ineffectiveness of TMAs yet at the same time don't have any interest in competing in combat sports.

[Cornfed]

So-called "self-defense" programs focus on very limited scenarios, don't promote the development of fundamental combat skills and don't work for the most part.

Yeah, the standard "self-defence" course assumes that you are a complete victim, your opponent is a complete bad guy and you can do anything you want without legal consequences. Generally they wouldn't even work for those situations, and they don't even address other more nuanced situations.

I on the other hand intend to take effective techniques from various sources and blend them together into a coherent system so that students can learn the basics of fighting in a relatively short period of time.

That is also what I'm trying to do.

[WilliamSmith]

My own vision for "Combat Jujutsu" is more along the lines of the following:

• Basic Muay Thai striking including punches, kicks, knees and elbows and defense against strikes

• Upper body clinches from wrestling and Muay Thai together with strikes from clinch and "dirty" techniques (none of that silly Aikido-esque wrist manipulation shit that only works of passive non-resisting untrained pvssies)

• Some basic throws and trips from Judo and wrestling

• Basic pins and restraints on the ground with ground-and-pound and finishes

• How to escape being held down on the ground, defend oneself from a grounded position and safely get back to one's feet

• Wall techniques and environmental awareness

• Defense against common weapons such as knives and bats

• Conditioning and fitness training specific to fighting

Yeah, the other way to think about it is to think what the average non-p***y might want to do with fighting skills and train for that. Off the top of my head these would be:
1. Saving your life from a criminal attack.
2. Winning a fight on an actual or implied challenge.
3. Less serious play type fighting.
4. Beating up people who deserve to be beaten up to the level they deserve.
5. Breaking up fights and otherwise subduing bad behaviour.
6. Security-type restraining and ejection.

You would then train people to do those things using the skills most convenient.

@Lucas88
@Cornfed

Hey, this is awesome!
!@#$, all that stuff both you guys just said above sounds like gold to me! I'll watch your thread...

I think this is awesome, but have no personal interest in doing this for $$$ myself (but good luck to you both!), but I will contribute what I can on survival and combat stuff about fighting with pirates aboard a boat as soon as I can...

Not sure if you have any interest, but a side topic I'd personally love to max my skill in is fighting with machetes.

I already have some rather grisly xp using machetes dealing with big snakes. That'll have some use if you're like me and going to be in the tropics for the rest of your life, but it's also obviously not man vs man combat, and I've now started via the "Combat Machete Manual..."
So just throwing this out there in case this was a niche area you'd like to teach to the rest of us...
I'm taking the liberty of lazily quoting an email I sent to Lucas awhile ago:
Throughout most of the Caribbean and Latin America (not to mention a lot of Asia and Africa), machetes are more or less classified as 'tools' and usually legally allowed to be carried even where firearms are not.... and if you're at risk of a pirate attack onboard or on land, odds are good if you manage to disarm an attacker, they might be carrying a machete!!!

By the way, all this is coming from a guy who quit his MMA dojo in his 20s after limping home at night in a sweat-soaked "hoodie" with ping-pong ball-sized lumps on my shins from blocking leg kicks, because I saw a large-breasted drunk female jiggling out of some bar with some dumbass, and deciding I'd better "pause" my MMA training and concentrate on figuring out how to get the girls instead...

So I'm glad I did, and yet now I need to max out my practical combat proficiency because the only countries I want to live in have rather high crime + I want to live aboard a boat fulltime, so the "lib" fantasy of being defenseless and then squealing for police protection on the phone is not a viable strategy. (I never thought it was, but being solo or with one woman on a boat on the high seas, and even moreso near the coastline of a dangerous 3rd world country full of pirates, solidified this realization.)

[Lucas88]

So-called "self-defense" programs focus on very limited scenarios, don't promote the development of fundamental combat skills and don't work for the most part.

Yeah, the standard "self-defence" course assumes that you are a complete victim, your opponent is a complete bad guy and you can do anything you want without legal consequences. Generally they wouldn't even work for those situations, and they don't even address other more nuanced situations.

I on the other hand intend to take effective techniques from various sources and blend them together into a coherent system so that students can learn the basics of fighting in a relatively short period of time.

That is also what I'm trying to do.

I've given some thought as to how I might go about fleshing out my own envisioned syllabus:

• Take techniques from various combat sports (e.g., clinches, throws and trips from wrestling and Judo, strikes from Muay Thai, ground techniques from Jiujitsu, etc.) and see how they hold up in a street fight situation in which all rules have been removed. Keep what works (often with modification) and discard that which is useless or otherwise problematic.

• Get my uncle to show me what he considers the most fundamental "dirty techniques" (eye gouges, groin strikes, etc.) and incorporate them into my system. My uncle was a police officer and has been in many street fights.

• Find some no-BS course on knife defense and incorporate its techniques and strategies.

• Investigate no-BS strategies for dealing with multiple attackers.

• Introduce my own systematic syllabus with levels or grades starting with the most basic techniques and progressing towards more complex ones.

The above will by my method for creating Combat Jujutsu.

Some other considerations:

• Training will be done in normal sportswear. There will be no traditional uniforms like the gi. All grips and clinching techniques will be done directly to the opponent's body without the use of any unrealistic appendage.

• All defenses and entries will be done against realistic strikes. Clinching techniques will be done with the assumption that the opponent will offer resistance. There will be none of this silly "training partner throws an unrealistic telegraphed looping punch and then just stands there aimlessly" BS so common in TMAs. I intend to analyze the most common attacks used in street fights and then figure out the most practical ways of dealing with them.

• Combat conditioning will be incorporated into the training. What use would it be to memorize techniques if one doesn't develop the explosiveness or durability to pull them off?