I was reading a post by Philip Dunlap where he mentioned he teaches for free. I find that impressive considering his competition and health history. Most of the people in the scene that you hear about do not do this as BJJ is their full time job and source of income. Nothing wrong with that and I am not trying to make comparisons. I always wanted to see interviews with instructors who do this. They rarely ever get any recognition but they do great things for people. I'd like to hear more stories like this. I'll start........ I teach for free and work full time in the construction industry. Was out in the field before now more in the shop and office. (management finally!) It is what keeps me healthy and sane. I always wanted the full time Jiu Jitsu lifestyle but was afraid to take the risk at the expense of my wife and kids not having the life they were used to. No excuses for my choices. I am a happy person with the situation I am in. Work sucks but my family is happy and do not go without. Let's here your stories folks. Don't turn this into a leg lock thread FFS.. Lol

David I did not know you also taught for free I am even more impressed now.. I have a number of reasons for doing so. I remember sitting in a car after the cancer diagnosis and being told I had 6 months left. I had always been very successful in business bit I realized all I had was meaningless.. All that really mattered was my family, my memories and the lives I impact in a positive fashion.. When I got my health back I have focused my life on these 3 things. I am very fortunate in a run a large Government contract financing business so money is not a big issue and it allows me to teach and train in the way I like. I hate the commercialism in martial arts and try to avoid it as it is not for me. I don't begrudge teachers / school owners the right to make a living in the martial arts many of my best friends who I respect and admire run commercial schools and help others on a daily basis it is just not for me.. Truth be told in the martial arts I have found my perfect balance and I feel I get more out of it this way than I give.. Yes there are sacrifices but the rewards are amazing

David I did not know you also taught for free I am even more impressed now.. I have a number of reasons for doing so. I remember sitting in a car after the cancer diagnosis and being told I had 6 months left. I had always been very successful in business bit I realized all I had was meaningless.. All that really mattered was my family, my memories and the lives I impact in a positive fashion.. When I got my health back I have focused my life on these 3 things. I am very fortunate in a run a large Government contract financing business so money is not a big issue and it allows me to teach and train in the way I like. I hate the commercialism in martial arts and try to avoid it as it is not for me. I don't begrudge teachers / school owners the right to make a living in the martial arts many of my best friends who I respect and admire run commercial schools and help others on a daily basis it is just not for me.. Truth be told in the martial arts I have found my perfect balance and I feel I get more out of it this way than I give.. Yes there are sacrifices but the rewards are amazing

Teaching Jiu Jitsu was a product I was selling for 15 years when I had a commercial gym in Copenhagen. Moving to a small island, I decided to end that and just teach for free. It's been such a relief to not have to 'deliver a product' every single class. Now I just teach my friends because I want to and there's no pressure to perform - or even show up - if I don't feel like it. Also, just giving something to the community without expecting anything in return is very satisfying work. Guests always train for free here and I also don't charge for private lessons.

I work full time as a primary school teacher and volunteer to teach BJJ on the side. My gym is for profit as it's the head coach's main business. I really enjoy teaching kids classes and coaching adults is very rewarding. Apart from the joy of teaching itself, my head coach has done a lot for me over the years, personally and training wise, so teaching some classes is my way of giving back. I don't pay fees and he doesn't pay me, but he sends some perks my way every now and then. At the end of the day, the mats are my happy place and being able to train regularly and help others to find their way feels to me like I've hit a good balance :)

"I teach a group of under privileged kids/teens who are in the "system" for free."

I think I technically teach for free, but it could be argued that I teach in exchange for free training. All the coaches at Foundations volunteer their time (to the best of my knowledge), so while I'm not paid for the classes I cover, I do get to attend the classes Matt, Mike, and/or Arun teach.

Having volunteer instructors pay full tuition & have them teach classes without compensation would be assholism.

IMO this for sure is teaching fo free, as you don't get paid. Having volunteer instructors pay full tuition & have them teach classes without compensation would be assholism.

We're a for-profit gym that runs the majority of our core classes during non-covid times as 'pay-what-you-want'. This is my full-time job as well. I'm convinced that if most main-stream gyms can develop this model, at least for one class per week, they would be able to both increase their revenue as well as serve their communities. A win-win situation for everybody.