Trying to convince friends/family to join bjj

[SAJ]

Has anyone had any sucess with this?

None of my friends or family will even give it a chance. I tried persuading my little brother and I've been quite persistent in doing so but he couldn't care less. My other friends also have no interest at all.

I basically have two group of friends now, those who do bjj and those who don't. I've only known those who do bjj for two months but I feel a lot closer to them now. Maybe it's because I see them on a daily basis and we also speak outside of bjj now.

How do I persuade these guys to just try it out? Surely they will also fall in love if they were to just step on the mat right?

 

[SC MMA MD]

I have not found a winning formula to get people to try BJJ. It is different, hard, and requires close contact with strangers- all things most people are resistant to. Most of the people I have gotten to try BJJ were already MMA fans, former wrestlers, or former military. On a rare occasion I have talked a parent from one of the kids in BJJ or karate; or the fitness class into trying BJJ.

 

[member 603]

If they need convincing to walk in and try a week (most gyms I know globally at least offer a 1 week free trial), than they'll never stick with this.

All I can suggest is lead by example, when they see your dedication, the improvement in your life, the global network of friends and associates who you'll meet, it may enlighten them... Then one day they may decide to get off their asses and train

 

[Darqnezz]

I'm going to start choking random friends and family members. Right before they pass out I'll whisper "You need to train bitch". That should do it.

 

[BJJMMA]

Well outside of my wife my whole family thought I had lost my mind when I told them I was starting BJJ. I guess folks think 32 is too old to start BJJ.

 

[SuperPig]

When I was younger it was easy to get my friends into it. My roommate and I would go to the classes and then come back and practice at the apartment. We went so far as to have mats on the entire floor in one room and that always prompted conversations from friends. So we could get them to grapple with us a little bit to get their feet wet and learn a few basic positions/submissions and then the next thing you know they would want to check out a class with us.

Now... It's not so simple. I don't even have time to go during the week because of my work schedule being erratic. That makes it even harder to suggest it to other people. But any time the subject comes up I always push hard for people to go check out some gyms or come over on the weekend and I'll show some various videos on Youtube, etc. But where I can't go they have a built in excuse that life gets in the way.

I'm jealous of guys that can train at all, let alone regularly.