With Caio, there are. To get in, there is an application process, then a vetting process with the other CTA Affiliates via messenger on FB. Basically, a way fro us to get to know them and see if they would be a good fit. If he or she gets accepted, there's a monthly payment of $250 a month required and we have to bring him out at least once a year.

With my affiliates, I don't charge an affiliation fee, they have to follow and spread the BJJ Globetrotters Values, and they have to bring me out for a seminar at least once a year. I have them take the proceeds from the seminar to pay for my flight and accommodations and what ever is left over, I'll take. That way, there's nothing out of pocket for my affiliate.

It's a free for all.

I've heard everything from absolute horror / shitshow / extortion stories, to pretty okay, friendly handshake gentleman's agreements.

It makes one wonder if you even need an "affiliation" these days...

Hi, I am a member of Moka Team 443 and I have my own Moka Team BZH clun. It is a team created 3 years ago now by a black belt. We are now 6 club affiliates in France. Membership does not cost us anything. We are free to bring anyone we want to the seminar. The different coaches exchange messages on the technique or on various questions.
We bring Baptiste Landais our black belt referent once every month and a half but it is us who want it there is no obligation.
Our only obligation is to adhere to the group charter. ;)

Hi all,
I just joined this group and I'm one of the affiliates from Crazy Monkey Defense - a program started by Rodney King. I've been an affiliate since the group started in 2005. He is a 4th degree under Rigan Machado. https://coachrodneyking.c[...]y-defense/ Perhaps Christian may remember him from back in the day.

There is an annual license fee to use the brand and access the coaching material. There are no monthly fee for affiliates. Affiliated trainers are encouraged to attend a long weekend training camp with the main coaches once a year in Malaysia, USA or somewhere in Europe. We are free to train elsewhere and with different coaches and also to invite different coaches to our gyms. Belt ranks are awarded by regional coaches while Black Belts are from Rodney King. There are no belt testing fees, no seminar/private training fees and even the belt is awarded as a gift. Hope this helps.

With my old team association it was $150 per month, however my professor at the time would bash my instruction, and yell at people if they stopped by my school. So i obviously dropped that team after i learned about this.

I was on my own for a very long time, stuck at brown belt. I reached out to many different associations, and i found that Drysdale was a good option and was speaking with them. I stumbled across the Jiu Jitsu Brotherhood and after speaking with both owners, we had the same views, that there were "no secrets" in BJJ anymore, and cross training was fine. The fee was reasonable, and yes we have Nic over once per year, but he is very flexible on that. They don't micro manage, and are easy to reach.

I do not charge for promotions,
nor do I charge for signing people's paperwork - although obviously I don't sign people's paperwork without strict controls regarding whose paperwork I am signing.
I do not charge my former students to "Affiliate" with me.
I do not require they bring me in for seminars.
I mostly just visit, show a technique or answer a question if they ask me to, grapple, tell one of my 6 bad jokes, and leave.
I have mostly reached the "grandparent" stage of being a black belt, where I get to have fun with the grandkids, and then leave.
And sometimes tell embarrassing stories about the parents just to take the piss out of them from time to time.

As me and my co instructor are ibjjf registered we have not bothered with an affliation.

I always wonder what people get out of it.

My affiliation is BJJ Globetrotters, so I think I just have to sign up to this cult I keep hearing about at camp? ;)

Vince, what's Rodney's side of splitting from SBG? Or should it go to a separate gossip thread :D ?

Well... it used to be downright necessary in smaller places like Finland, where the BJJ history is relatively young. Maybe you had it similar in NZ...?

First thing of course, without many black belts of our own, affiliating was the way to get belt promotions officially approved by a black belt. (Although often it was the head instructor of the local gym deciding to promote, but with a blessing from an affiliated 2. degree black belt.)

Also you were getting knowledge, but it was different back in the day. For example, we had many Alliance gyms in Finland (and much of our gym culture still is influenced by Alliance's). Fabio Gurgel's system was to send his guys to these different affiliation locations quite frequently. So we would have upcoming fighters such as Bruno Malfacine or Bernando Faria to stay for a week at a time at least! Proper training camps. This allowed to actually getting to know these people, and they weren't living in a good hotel and getting paid a lot, they stayed at somebody's house and taught there because they were sent over. (The attendance fees were also really cheap; most gyms here are non-profit.) And when you get guys like that to train with you for something like a week or two, there is plenty of information transferred that the gym can then work on long after. (This was at a time when a BJJ black belt in Finland was very rare.) Same with other affiliations too.

Now we have a lot of homegrown black belts so the gyms are actually dropping the affiliations at a growing rate. The "time served" IBJJF degree promotion criteria helps, since when you get a 2nd degree registered you can officially promote black belts of your own. If there is an affiliation fee, not much value is seen to get back from being affiliated anymore... Additionally we Scandinavians generally hate rigid regulations such as mandatory uniforms or a fixed curriculum that some affiliations request. Also the seminar system has evolved more towards like it is in the U.S.: one or maybe two day seminars with bigger names, which cost a lot more than they used to. We also have accumulated a lot of knowledge locally by now. So both the affiliation and the seminar things are clearly diminishing here.

In for gossip! A few people who are now BJJ Globetrotters have a history with SBG, it seems. Including you right, Jorgen? And indeed Christian, IIRC. :)

Well... I kinda like an affiliation to be at least partly ideological - I mean shared values etc. If an organisation puts business over one's mission statement then that's what it becomes - about business. And for most martial arts / BJJ organisations the value proposition is just not very appealing with the free information market of today.

I really love the whole 'aliveness' concept that Thornton promoted (certainly not the first person to come up with the idea, but he codified and developed it well), so I'll always thank him for that. It's been central to my teaching and class structure since I first came across his videos in the early 2000s. I wouldn't want to be affiliated to SBG, but I would like to train at the Portland HQ some time (especially as I also very much like what Cane Prevost has said about training, particularly his article on the 70% rule).

Separate thread on this I guess

Wave doesn't have affiliations, we have a community with our friends in Bavaria at Stonewood Martial Arts and the globetrotters, and anyone else who needs help or hasn't got a black belt, or just wants to be part of the community. We would visit even if they didn't set up a seminar every year :) but I understand the need for seminars and making some money from this or covering costs.

If someone wants to open a Wave club they are free to, they can use all the images etc. If they want to buy rash guards, gis, apparel from us, or want us to help with marketing and set up then we can help and make money from that as it's work for us to do and even then I wouldn't impose anything.

On a side note, anyone who wants to verify me please feel free :)

Have any of you noticed a rise/fall in student enrollment based on the affiliation?

Hmm. To an extent, I guess: quite a few people hear about my club because I'm at BJJ Globetrotters Camps a lot, which means people I've met there will mention Artemis BJJ in connection with Bristol. That's definitely led to a number of enrolments, and it has certainly led to visits I don't think I would have had otherwise.

However, hard to be 100% certain about that, because my club has been affiliated to BJJ Globetrotters for most of Artemis BJJ's existence (I founded my club in 2014, I went to my first camp in 2015,). But I'm at least 90% certain it's been directly responsible for quite a few enrolments. ;)

Will be happy to chat via PM with you

Nope. Own local brand/presence is what counts.

Around these parts it doesn't matter one bit. The newbies signing up have no clue about affiliations. (Also I'm pretty sure about 90% of our white belts don't even know our international affiliation, since it's kept very low key.)

The educated color/higher belts looking for a new gym will go by it's reputation and how that suits their own preferences. (Besides location, schedule etc ofc.) In a relatively small scene such as Finland, certain academies are known to produce good competitors & winning the best team trophies, others for nursing a more chill vibe, some for having self defense included in the curriculum and so on.

Personally I would actually avoid visibly affiliated gyms here, as they often have enforced policies I don't dig, such as gym uniforms for Gracie Barra or belt tests with a fee for Polar.