SCOTTSDALE, AZ — The American Jiu-Jitsu Business Owners Association (AJJBOA), a 412-member trade body chartered in 2019 to “protect the economic interests of academy operators,” released its 2026 pricing survey on Tuesday, finding that 94% of member gyms believe their current monthly rate of $185 to $215 is “below market given the value delivered.”
The survey was conducted by the AJJBOA. The respondents were the AJJBOA. The methodology, described in a single paragraph on page 47, is self-reported by ownership.
Hours after the report’s release, a private Discord server titled “AJJBOA — Operators Only” was leaked to at least four regional media outlets. Inside the server, a pinned channel named “Keep It Under $200, No Exceptions” contained eighteen months of conversation between 47 member owners coordinating price floors, sharing anti-undercutting scripts, and workshopping ways to present annual dues of $3,500 as affordable.
“About eleven dollars a day,” reads one draft, authored by a Summit Crest Jiu-Jitsu admin and edited by at least six others. “About the same as a nice coffee you don’t even drink every day.”
A second pinned document titled “REBUTTAL TEMPLATES — PROSPECT MENTIONS CHEAPER GYM” runs nine pages. Suggested responses include “Their coach does not have a verifiable lineage,” “They have a rolling culture problem I can explain in person,” and “Have you considered what your jaw is worth.” Members are instructed to “never acknowledge the number” and “always pivot to value.”
The rebuttal templates, according to the Discord logs, are stress-tested in monthly “prospect simulation” calls where member owners take turns playing a price-conscious shopper. One script, titled “When They Mention Gracie Barra,” was rehearsed by fourteen different owners before being pinned as a “best practice.” A revision note at the top of the script reads: “Do not get defensive. Smile. Ask what they think their health is worth.”
The most-quoted post in the leaked channel belongs to user dhollistead_scjj, a message pinned fourteen months ago after receiving reactions from every admin with pinning privileges:
“If anyone drops below $175, we freeze them out of the regional open mat circuit.”
The post sits under 38 thumbs-up emojis, 12 fire emojis, and one handshake. A follow-up from the same account, dated two weeks later, reads: “Update — confirmed South Peninsula BJJ is below $175. We will not be circulating their open mat flyer.”
AJJBOA treasurer Derek Hollistead, a third-degree black belt and founder of Summit Crest Jiu-Jitsu in Scottsdale, Arizona, was unreachable for comment. He is currently on his third consecutive family vacation at a Sedona timeshare partially financed, according to 2023 filings reviewed by this publication, by a line item labeled “community outreach.” His out-of-office auto-reply thanks the sender for their patience and notes that he is “stepping away from screens to reconnect with what matters.”
Reached at 11:40 p.m. local time via his gym’s front desk line, member owner Marcus Wexler, a second-degree black belt and founder of Apex Summit Jiu-Jitsu in Boise, Idaho, offered the association’s official position.
“Pricing has to reflect value,” Wexler said. “We teach a dangerous skill. A skill that, in the wrong hands, or frankly the right hands, can end a life. That is not a commodity. That is not a gym membership. That is closer, I would argue, to tuition.”
Apex Summit Jiu-Jitsu teaches one takedown class every two weeks. The class is taught by a blue belt who wrestled in high school. Attendance, according to the gym’s own check-in system, averages 4.2 students per session, two of whom are the blue belt’s roommates.
Asked about the Discord leak directly, Wexler paused, then said: “I can’t speak to any private conversations between concerned industry peers. What I can tell you is that our community has been attacked by people who have never had to make payroll. And I will not apologize for running a business.”
He then invoiced this publication $75 for the call.
In the 72 hours since the Discord became public, nine of the 47 owners named in the leaked thread have raised their monthly rate by $15. Two have introduced a “facility maintenance fee” of $22, itemized separately from tuition and payable annually in January. One gym, Ironside Academy in suburban Denver, is offering a “loyalty freeze” that locks members in at the new rate for three years, in exchange for what the promotional email calls “the security of knowing.”
A message posted in the Discord on Sunday, now widely shared, reads: “Survey season coming up — let’s make sure the board gets clean data this year.”
No member gyms have addressed the leak publicly. AJJBOA’s press office issued a four-sentence statement noting that the survey was “conducted in accordance with standard industry practice,” that pricing decisions are “made independently by each operator,” and that the association “does not and has never coordinated rates.” The statement was co-signed by eleven owners, all of whom appear in the leaked Discord thread, six of whom contributed to the $11-a-day coffee metaphor.
The grappling community’s response has been quiet. Practitioners who say they were dropped from regional open mat invites over the last two years have begun comparing notes. One, a purple belt who asked not to be identified because he “still has to train somewhere,” said he was told his old gym closed due to “lineage concerns.” The gym is still open. His new gym charges $145.
The Discord channel is still active. As of press time, the most recent message reads: “Anyone know a lawyer who handles this kind of thing? Need someone in our circle.”
The 2026 AJJBOA annual awards dinner, themed “Stewards of the Art,” will be held in June at a resort in Park City, Utah. Tickets are $425, with early-bird pricing for members only. The event is sponsored, for the fourth consecutive year, by the Summit Crest Family of Academies.
A new pricing survey goes out to members next quarter.