Jitsu Club

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.

The name Jiu-Jitsu means “gentle art,” emphasizing skill and control rather than brute force.

Jitsu offers 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 a 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.

Our trainings are held on:

• Tuesdays 8:30 - 10pm at the Bloomsbury Fitness Centre Multipurpose Room
• Fridays 7 - 10pm at the Bloomsbury Fitness Centre Multipurpose Room

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 jiu jitsu club trainings at other universities if you wish to be part of the bigger jiu jitsu community!

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 !

Your first two sessions are FREE with the Taster membership! All you need to bring is some comfortable sportswear and a water bottle!

Before your first session, please make sure to fill out this form for insurance reasons: https://www.pdffiller.com/en/link_to_fill/194214185.htm

For Memberships:

• Starter Month - This is required for all members to get after their taster sessions - you can use this to continue to try jiu jitsu for a month without fully committing to the full membership! 

• New Members - for committed New members who are ready to join the TJJF community for the whole year! This covers the full insurance, use of the mats, the purchase of a gi (clothing) and FULL Access to additional TJJF trainings, gradings and competitions.

• Returning Members - for those who already have a gi or are previous members of the TJJF community ready to return!

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.

Many people come to Jiu-Jitsu for self defence, others have different technical and spiritual goals. Everyone stays for the community.

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.