How Jiu-Jitsu and Grappling Subscriptions Have Changed

Jiu-jitsu and grappling subscription sites have changed shape over the last fifteen years.

What goes on the shelf, and how it is arranged. The way I see it, there have been three stages. And a fourth has just started.

01 Put the whole gym online

Gracie University led the way. In 2009, Rener and Ryron Gracie started teaching online.

AOJ came next. In 2012 the Mendes brothers opened their academy in California and started their online program around the same time.

The idea was close to Gracie University's. Package the way the gym teaches, all of it. Start from the fundamentals and build up.

So what was different about AOJ? The look. Clean, sharp, modern. Suddenly online jiu-jitsu looked cool.

The other difference was how they sold it. The brothers were teaching seminars all over the world, and at those seminars they told people: you can watch our techniques online. The seminar itself was the sales pitch.

This model is still around, and it still works. For students of the gym, it is a great way to prepare for class and review afterwards.

On top of the curriculum you can have an on-demand shelf, where you feature your team's athletes and sell single titles to people who don't subscribe.

02 Cover every situation

The next shape was about having an answer for every spot.

Caio Terra Online is the example. It started around 2013 and now advertises more than 1,700 videos. The menu has three entries: curriculum, lesson plans, and videos.

The lesson plans are the interesting part. Each one bundles the techniques for one situation. The lesson plan for passing the spider guard, for example, holds four different passes. In this spot, this, this, or this. There is a bundle like that for every situation.

If you want to know how to handle every position, this layout suits you. You can also see the whole map at once.

03 Sell the concept

After that came selling the concept.

Not the gym's curriculum, but one athlete's ideas. Take the K-guard. The K-guard, as one concept, packaged as one thing.

The clearest example is Submeta. Lachlan Giles spent years explaining concepts on YouTube, and Submeta is that, turned into a place of its own.

What I notice is that it is trying to give you the shortcut. The fastest route to actually using something.

It isn't the old way, where you build a solid base first and move on later. It is very grappling. Get this one setup working. Then learn what to do when they react. That is how I read it, anyway.

If you have a lot of concepts to show, or you want to bring in other athletes and line up their concepts, this shape fits.

04 The newest: a notebook

And now something else seems to be happening. Subscriptions are turning into notebooks.

Something you noticed today, out today. What you have been thinking about this week, shared with everyone. The subscription becomes the place you put your thinking out. You post videos the way you would post articles.

If you only want to answer questions, Patreon is enough. But if you want to build up what you think, video by video, your own place works better.

05 None of them is the right one

Lined up like this, it isn't a story of new beating old. For students reviewing class, the whole gym. For people who want the whole map, every situation. For people who want the shortcut, the concept. For athletes who want to share what they are thinking right now, the notebook.

What you want to deliver decides the shape.

06 SubPro can be any of them

SubPro is built so you can run any of these four shapes. You can mix them, too.

Tell us what you like, and we will build it that way.

If you are not sure, we will suggest something. Here is what is working right now. Here is how people are presenting things these days. We can design from there.

Just ask.

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