Whether you’re brand new to martial arts, just starting out or looking to continue your journey, UCL Jitsu Club is the perfect place for beginners to dive into practical self-defence skills in a friendly, supportive community.
With a strong focus on team spirit and inclusivity, training here is fun, rewarding, and open to all. Our senseis ensure everyone can develop their techniques and we tailor our sessions to all abilities. Many people come to Jiu-Jitsu for self defence, others have different technical and spiritual goals. Everyone stays for the community.
Join us and be part of a long-standing tradition of fitness, confidence, and community!
What is Jitsu ?
The name Jiu-Jitsu means “gentle art,” emphasising skill and control rather than brute force.
Jiu-Jitsu is a versatile martial art that works for people of any shape, size, or ability. It shares similarities with Judo, Aikido, and Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, focusing on technique over strength. At Jitsu Club, we teach a modern form of this traditional Japanese art, which is all about:
- Using an attacker’s momentum against them
- Close-contact grappling, including chokes and joint manipulation
- Applying throws, locks, and strikes adapted for today’s self-defense including defense against: opponents much bigger than your size, multiple attackers, knife attacks.
Our club offers our members the opportunity to :
- focus on personal development in an environment where everyone supports everyone's progress
- enjoy yourself while working on your fitness
- challenge yourself and push beyond your comfort zone or take it step-by-step at your own pace
- train with the jitsu instructer of the year of the london region
- be part of the friendliest martial arts family and join the wider national jitsu family.
Friendship is one of the pillars of our club – trusting someone to throw you onto a mat leads to a pretty strong team bond. We have regular and inclusive socials to ensure we grow our brilliant atmopshere off and on the jitsu mat! Socials have included:
- 🧃Post friday training catch ups at the pub
- 💃 Surprise birthdays
- 🍗Iftar at Nando's
- 🧺Picnics at the Park
- Wider social events with the other london university jitsu clubs.
- Trainings
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Our trainings are held on:
- Tuesdays 8:30 - 10pm at the Mandela Studio, Bloomsbury Fitness ( 3rd Floor, 15 Gordon street)
- Fridays 7 - 9pm at the Multipurpose Room, Bloomsbury Fitness ( 3rd Floor, 15 Gordon street)
Our lead instructors have nearly 40 years of teaching experience between them, and they take no money for teaching, so you’ll benefit from a lot of knowledge for very little cash.
Additionally you will have opportunities to join jitsu club trainings at other universities if you wish to be part of the bigger jitsu community!
- Gradings and competitions
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Three times in the year you'll have the opportunties to measure your progress at gradings and climb up the jitsu belts.
Although we are more a self defence martial art, we attend two national TJJF (The Jiu Jitsu Foundation) competitions a year that are open to all (especially beginners).
These are incredible and social weekends that combine competing and training with Jitsuka's and senseis from the UK!
- Atemi's BUCS Nationals (November)
- Randoris Nationals (May)
UCL is ranked 3rd Jiu Jitsu club in the UK at Randori’s and 4th at BUCS Atemi’s, and is ranked 1st in London Region. Our club collected more than 15 medals last year !
How to Join ? Memberships
Taster - free for all who want to give Jitsu a go. You must have a taster membership to attend a taster session.
Standard (£10) - This membership is to register with the club and become a member. From there you must upgrade to either:
New Member Package (£95/£85 if standard already bought) - This covers all the mat fees, insurance costs for the whole three terms AND your very own training gi (the cloth we train in).
or
Mat Fee Bundle (£65/£55 is standard already bought) - This covers all the mat fees and insurance costs for the whole three terms.
- ُThese last 2 memberships give you access to all our training sessions, socials and to the full TJJF community including extra trainings sessions at other university Jitsu clubs, the opportunity to grade and our two national competitions.
Your first two sessions are FREE with the Taster membership! All you need to bring is some comfortable sportswear and a water bottle! Sign up to our taster sessions by checking out our events page and buying a free ticket!
Before your first session, please make sure to fill out this form for insurance reasons: https://tinyurl.com/Licence-form - You do not need to pay the insurance fee requested on the confirmation email.
- The Jiu Jitsu Foundation (TJJF)
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UCL Jitsu is part of The Jiu Jitsu Foundation, a governing body and large social community for Jiu Jitsu around the world. With nearly a hundred clubs in our style and thousands of students worldwide, this is your chance to be part of something big.
We are a progressive martial arts organisation teach the modern and unique Shorinji Kan system of Jiu Jitsu. We acknowledge the history and practice of traditional martial arts, but place them in a modern setting for a modern changing society.
- A brief history of Jitsu (for the nerds!)
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Fighting is as old as humanity, and Japan developed its own sophisticated martial traditions over centuries. By the 1600s, formal schools (ryu) of martial arts emerged, many tied to the military class. Weapons-based arts were often restricted to samurai, which may have encouraged the growth of unarmed combat systems.
Japanese Jiu-Jitsu is often described as an art for samurai who found themselves without weapons, though its techniques also evolved during times of peace. Soldiers and martial schools adapted these methods for civilian students, refining unarmed combat into throws, locks, chokes, and strikes that relied on skill and leverage rather than brute force. Successful techniques were preserved and recorded in traditional schools (koryu), while ineffective ones disappeared on the battlefield .
By the late 19th century, Jiu-Jitsu began to modernise. Jigoro Kano, a Jiu-Jitsu practitioner, believed removing the most dangerous techniques would allow students to train harder and more often without injury. His approach—originally called Kano-ryu Jiu-Jitsu—proved highly effective, dominating challenge matches against traditional schools in 1882. Kano renamed his art judo, marking a shift toward sport and education, but its core principles remained rooted in Jiu-Jitsu.
Today, “modern” Jiu-Jitsu refers to various adaptations of these traditional techniques, blending historical throws and locks with practical self-defence skills suited to contemporary life.
The best way to know if Jitsu is for you? Step onto the mat with us for a taster session – you might just find your new favourite place.
Don't hesitate to contact us on our Instagram or send us an E-mail at [email protected]. To join our WhatsApp - drop us a message or turn up to a session!
See you on the mat !
