Featured affiliated academy: Team Choco Heidelberg BJJ
Where is the gym located?
Heidelberg, Germany
(SRH Campus Sports e.V.
Bonhoefferstr. 4/1
69123 Heidelberg)
How many people train there?
We have about 50 people training with us in total, with typically 8 to 16 on the mat for most sessions.
Is the gym growing – if so by how many new members each month or year?
Yes, it’s growing slowly but steadily, so far only through word of mouth, since we didn’t get into marketing/social media action until recently. There are surges with 5 or more people joining in a month, and there can be several months with only 1 or none joining. On average, I’d say our net growth is around 1 person per month.
What are the highest and lowest belt grades training?
White to black and everything in between.
When did the gym open?
At our current location, in October of 2016. Many of us were at a different gym before, where we left in unison due to a problematic gym owner.
Some facts about you:
Name: Thomas Stoll
Age: 34
Belt: Black
Profession: Student and research assistant in sports science and psychology;
tutor in math and physics for high school students
Years in BJJ: 8.5
Other martial arts: Karate (Shotokan), WSL Wing Chun, FMA, Boxing, Kickboxing, Muay Thai, MMA
Currently living in: Heidelberg, Germany
Originally from: Filderstadt, Germany
Please tell us the story of how your gym came into existence
Many of us started at another gym, which was run poorly and where we basically didn’t have a proper instructor for the most part. Therefore we taught ourselves and each other. I basically dove into Marcelo Garcia and Ryan Hall instructionals and copied their games.
Due to some lucky circumstances, we eventually got a great black belt – our head coach Vinnie Carlucci – to step in and take us on. He drove 2+ hours to teach us, twice a week, every week. After several severe troubles with the gym owner, we decided as a group to leave that gym and look for our own place. After some searching and trying out different places, we were lucky enough to have a friend (who trained with us at the time) to recommend SRH Campus Sports e.V., where we found our new home. From there it just kept growing from word of mouth and friends bringing friends.
Tell us about the people that train in the gym – who are they?
We have mostly students and personnel of Heidelberg university training with us. Also a few from all sorts of other occupations: social workers, policemen, medical doctors…
Our youngest member just turned 16, the oldest is in his forties. We have more men than women training with us, but fortunately this is slowly changing, and we now have a couple of women on the mats for most sessions. Most of our members prefer nogi, which is probably not least influenced by my own preference, the fact that several of us “founders” came from MMA and/or wrestling backgrounds, and our training schedule being nogi-heavy.
Team Choco Heidelberg BJJ
Why do they train?
I think most train for fun, plus the intellectual and physical challenge. Some are certainly coming mostly for socializing and meeting their friends on the mats. We have few competitors, with myself being the main one, which I’d love to see pick up a bit. Unfortunately, many are busy with uni, work and family, so it’s just not on the cards for them. Our training schedule tries to cater to everybody, so that the competitors have their needs met just as much as the ones who come once or twice per week to learn the fundamentals.
While self-defense and MMA aren’t the focus at our school, I believe many students have this in the back of their mind. I try my best to teach “universal grappling” and point out cases where we’re playing to the rules of the sport and how this would relate to a more open/chaotic environment with striking etc. Periodically we hold a “street fighting day”, where everyone wears regular (or fancy) street wear and we include light striking into the grappling. Last time we did it in the dark and with disco lights. So everyone is prepared for their next disco scrap. Next time might be Oktoberfest themed ^^
What are some of the challenges of running a BJJ gym in general and in your location specifically?
Since Heidelberg is a student town, one challenge is members frequently moving away, since many just come here for university studies and move away right after finishing their degrees. This does mean we constantly have new students coming to us as well, and while this is positive it’s also unfortunate for us – since we’re built on caring about and developing each member and building strong relationships.
Unfortunately, this aspect of Heidelberg – with people frequently arriving and departing – also enables some poorly run gyms to survive a lot longer than they should. They can milk their students and still not be wiped out due to their bad business practices and consequential reputation, since they always have a fresh supply of new members to exploit. There’s one such particular gym in Heidelberg, which is well known in the martial arts scene in Germany. Of course, this is unbeknownst to the fresh arriving new students that get caught in their net each semester. They realize it after a few months, at which point they remain trapped in long-lasting contracts. Some of them land at our place at one point, but many are probably done with martial arts for good, as they may assume that’s how things are run everywhere.
Team Choco Heidelberg BJJ
How do you see the future for BJJ in your area?
Despite the problems mentioned above, it is definitely growing, and we now have some great things going on here that we didn’t have just a few years back. Not only do we have the biggest BJJ Globetrotters camp in town, we’ll also (as soon as Covid gets out of the way) finally have several bigger competitions (AGF) here every year, which will be fantastic for the local scene.
As well as that, we’re getting more and more visits from students of surrounding gyms and Globetrotters. The latter has obviously slowed down dramatically recently, but I’m confident it’ll pick back up once the Covid situation eases up.
What’s the best thing about Team Choco Heidelberg BJJ?
From what I gather, for many it’s the vibe and the opportunities on offer. We do our best to make every member feel welcome and supported in reaching their goals.
Everyone can train at least three hours every day, with at least one hour of open mat every day. While fundamental classes are more structured, advanced classes are more open and focused on positional sparring and individual exploration of techniques. This enables everyone to find and develop their own style, which I believe is highly important for advanced athletes. For most of the year, open mat is entirely unstructured, and some people have tough rolls, while others drill, do conditioning, or sit around and talk. I really love for everyone to come in and feel happy with the opportunity to use the mats the way they prefer.
One thing I’m particularly proud of (and which took a long time to cultivate) is our strong drilling culture. Some of us regularly watch instructionals and competition footage, and use open mat to integrate, explore, and drill new ideas. Others drill the moves and ideas they’ve learned in class, which makes me happy, as it means they trust my teachings. That said, I like to see them – particularly the advanced students – finding their own style that fits their body, personality and preferences. I’ll try to help to the best of my abilities if I’m asked for it, while also holding back if people are experimenting on their own, so they can make their own experiences.
To be honest, I think Heidelberg generally doesn’t offer the toughest and most athletic students/training partners (Heidelberg has one of the wealthiest demographics in Germany) but instead smart and educated folks, often with academic backgrounds. I think we harness this in a good way, focusing on knowledge and understanding first, toughness and athletics after.
I personally dedicate a lot of time to watching instructionals and matches, forming conclusions and testing them on the mats, so I can offer the best possible up-to-date training for all of my students. Combining it with everything I’ve learned from sports science and psychology, looking into what high-level athletes and coaches are doing, and constantly experimenting with training structure and methodology to find what works best (while keeping it fun).
What would you recommend Globetrotters to see in your area apart from the inside of your gym?
I don’t do much besides training, working, and studying, so I’m not of much help in this area! I guess the famous castle is an obvious spot to check out. Also the Neckarwiese, Old Town, and Philosophers’ Walk (with Thingstätte on top) are tourist favorites, from what I could gather over the years ^^
So many places and buildings in Heidelberg look beautiful and interesting, it’s hard to go wrong here.
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