About Us

Founded in 2021, the KU Jiu-Jitsu club is an organization lead entirely by students that teaches Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu to the KU community.

Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu is a grappling martial art that specializes in chokes, joint locks, takedowns, throws, and controlling your opponent without throwing strikes. There are two formats of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu: Gi and No-Gi. The main difference between these is that Gi training uses the uniform (Gi jacket), which creates additional opportunities for grips. Our club trains in both Gi and No-Gi.

We welcome all students of any experience level. Whether you are just starting out or you are an experienced Jiu-Jitsu practitioner, you will fit right in with our club. We do not have a requirement on attendance, however we strongly believe that consistent attendance will lead to the best results.

Our club meets at the Ambler Student Recreation Fitness Center, in the Martial Arts Studio (rm. 123). Our practice facility is pictured below.

Practices are typically structured with a 5-10 minute warm up, 25 minutes of drilling techniques, and live rolling for the remaining time.

Our Leadership Team

Hall of Fame

Innovations and Achievements

This section highlights the numerous innovations we have achieved starting with the most recent. We are always innovating and improving, so check back frequently!

• February 5, 2024: We are featured on the front page of the recreation.ku.edu website.
• January 18, 2024: Our first ever Jiu-Jitsu open house event. A large number of students attended and joined us.
• November 6, 2023: Created new logo featuring the Fraser flags as a connection to KU.
• October 23, 2023: Our official site, kujiujitsu.com, was brought online.
• September 26, 2023: First practice using the wrestling mats. Overall positive feedback from the team compared to the tatami mats.
• September 20, 2023: Created new custom shirts.
• August 19, 2023: Recruited a record number of new students from the start-of-year events.
• Summer 2023: Developed new curriculum framework that teaches basics, advanced techniques, and spans an entire semester. Deployed in Fall 2023 semester.
• October 15, 2022: Our first tournament. We travelled to Iowa City to compete against the University of Iowa Jiu-Jitsu club. We took home two bronze medals and one gold medal.
• August 5, 2022: Featured on the official @universityofkansas Instagram page. Link here.
• May 5, 2022: Photographers from KU's marketing department did a photo shoot of our practice. Many of these photos are featured in our gallery.
• November 7, 2021: First practice as an officially recognized sport club.
• October 4, 2021: Jiu-Jitsu club officially re-established.
• September 16, 2021: Started the process to re-establish the Jiu-Jitsu club after the pandemic shutdown.