How to Plan a BJJ Summer Camp: The Complete Guide for Academy Owners

Want to attract new students year-round?

Maybe you’d also be interested in a reliable way to maintain high student attendance during the slow summer months? Oh, and let’s not forget a steady increase in revenue over time?

Is that even possible?

If you create and launch a BJJ summer camp, this is completely doable.

Many gym owners may be interested in running a BJJ summer camp but aren't sure where to start. Today, we'll take a look at the specifics you need to create, promote, and launch a successful BJJ summer camp.

Here's the good news. If this sounds intimidating, don't worry. It's not as difficult as it sounds.

There’s one important caveat, though. If you're thinking about running a BJJ summer camp, you'll need to start planning in March.

It's common for academy owners to either start too late—they’re suddenly scrambling in May for a June camp—or they overthink the process and never launch at all.

Your 8–12 Week Camp Planning Timeline

It’s March. Parents in your area are making plans for the summer. They’re booking summer camps for their kids three to four months out.

What does that mean for you?

If you’re planning for a martial arts summer camp, you need to start planning even earlier. Gyms frequently open early bird registration four to five months out.

Well-marketed gyms should expect to see 30-40% increase in enrollment, which is driven by pre-sale and launch campaigns, well before your competitors begin marketing.

Here’s a straightforward timeline you can use as a starting point.

8–12 weeks out (March)

You'll want to determine the logistics of your summer camp. The logistics of your camp will be informed by:

• Your preferences
• Restrictions based on staff availability
• Access to resources
• Age groups you're experienced with

Here's a list of the important logistical details you'll need to account for:

• Who are your target students? (e.g., wrestlers in the off-season, grappling beginners, Gi or No-Gi students, competitors, etc.)
• What's the day-to-day curriculum you have in mind for your camp?
• Are you running full or half-day camps?
• How long does your camp run (list weeks and dates)
• How many students do you want in your summer camp? What's the maximum number of students you can accommodate?

At this stage, you're defining the structure and format of your BJJ summer camp. You're answering the important who, what, when, and why questions.

Note: If you need help building out a solid structure for a solid kids program, check out this guide.

6–8 weeks out (April)

Next, you'll want to build in the operational infrastructure of your camp. We're drilling down into the specifics of your camp.

At this point, you'll want to:

• Finalize the pricing for your summer camp
• Set a budget to account for expenses (e.g., payroll, supplies, advertising, marketing, etc.)
• Set important policies, standards, and requirements for incoming students (e.g., no phones)
• Create a registration page for incoming students
• Set authorized caretakers and emergency contacts; these are the people who are allowed to pick up students at the end of camp each day
• Get permission from parents (during registration) outlining whether you can take/use photos and videos of their child
• Create marketing content and design assets
• Complete background checks for each of your instructors
• Verify staff availability
• Set requirements for extended hours and outline any additional costs involved
• Create an outline for your curriculum

This is also when you finalize program requirements and expectations for instructors. Take the time to define dos and don’ts explicitly (e.g., only teach techniques in the curriculum, be kind, helpful, supportive, etc.).

4–6 weeks out (April–May)

If you've finished your operational planning, you're ready to open early bird registration. This is the stage where you begin to presell your BJJ summer camp, more on this later.

Use paid social advertising campaigns to boost enrollments—keep the cost-per-sign-up at or below your break-even cost.

Need a list of ideas to promote your summer camp? This comprehensive guide breaks things down, showing you how to attract more students with your advertising.

2–4 weeks out (May)

Alright, it's crunch time.

For many kids, the school year ends in late May. At this point, you should be making a heavy push towards final preparations for your camp.

For logistics, make sure you:

• Send out parent welcome packets for those who have signed up.
• Finalize your BJJ camp schedule (so attendees can finalize important details such as attendance, transportation, and food).
• Hold a pre-camp instructor training day. Use this training period to game-plan, answer instructor questions, set expectations, and outline plans in the event of a crisis (e.g., illness, injury, conflict).
• Verify that you've prepared adequate supplies and that you have the equipment you need. If you have more students than expected, revisit your supplies list and verify that you have what you need

1 Week before camp

At this point, the heavy lifting and planning should be done. Now it's time for a final pre-flight check.

You're looking to verify operational readiness.

Finalize your plans and verify that the following items have been planned for:

• Confirm total enrollment
• Assign instructor/student groups
• Test your check-in procedures
• Prepare awards and stripes
• Verify insurance coverage, waivers, and other legal requirements are set
• Send parents a final reminder about drop-off time, parking, what to bring, etc.

You should be all set!

At this point, the upfront planning and heavy planning are done.  All you have to do is adjust for any last-minute changes, open your doors, and launch your camp!

Let's backtrack a bit and drill down into the specifics of your camp format.

Choosing Your Format: Half-Day vs Full-Day

Your first big decision is format. Many academies offer both.

If you’re going to offer half- and full-day options, you’ll want to make sure your camps are properly staffed. Here are two ways to go about it, which have staffing implications:

1. For full-day formats, you pay an instructor to be there for the whole day. Depending on your budget and format, this can be a contract, hourly, or salaried employee.
2. For half-days, you pay instructors to be on-site part-time. These employees are typically contract or hourly.

Contract (1099) tends to be the cheapest option, while W-2 is the most expensive. There are other ways to handle your staffing needs, but these are the most common.

It’s important that you staff your camp with instructors who have the right amount of experience. There should be at least one brown or black belt running things with assistants who can be blue, purple, or brown belts.

Half-day camp (3–4 hours)

A half-day camp works best for littles in the 5–8 age range.

This format works best for younger kids and parents with flexible schedules. Think of stay-at-home moms or parents who can set their schedules.

Half-day sessions at a glance:

• Ages: 5–8
• Time: Morning or afternoon blocks
• Instruction: 1 session (per day)
• Price: $150–$350 per week

The great thing about half-day camps is the flexibility. Students receive structured training and lots of activities without requiring a full childcare commitment.

Full-day camp (6–8 Hours)

This format is best for older kids and working families with full schedules. Parents who are busy at work typically need childcare.

Full day sessions at a glance:

• Ages: 7–13
• Time: A full day
• Commitment: Includes lunch, snack, and activity blocks
• Instructions: Two BJJ training sessions per day
• Price: $300–$599 per week

It's not uncommon for academies to offer extended care add-ons for both full and half-day campers (at an average price of $35–$50 per week).

Why is this necessary?

Sometimes parents aren't able to pick up their kids at the agreed-upon time. Extended care is an option that gives parents the flexibility they need to make their hectic schedules work.

Sample Daily Camp Schedules

A clearly defined schedule is one of the most important elements of your summer camp. If you're a parent, you know kids need structure, variety, and frequent breaks.

Here's a quick look at an example schedule you can customize.

Half (8:30 am – noon) and full-day 8:30 am – 3:30 schedules

Customize this sample schedule with your own curriculum and approach.

Scheduling principles

As you build out your camp schedule, you'll want to follow these principles:

• Allow kids to drink whenever they're thirsty
• Keep play at the center of your camp
• Mix grappling with non-jiu-jitsu play
• Introduce a new system in your morning sessions
• Review, test, and apply lessons during afternoon sessions
• End every day with awards, recognition, and praise

Send kids home wanting more. Remember, for many kids, this will be their first introduction to jiu-jitsu. Make their experience with you fun, rewarding, and meaningful.

Building a Week-Long Curriculum

A strong kids' jiu jitsu camp needs structure, progression, and creativity.

If you use sequential themes that build on the previous day’s material, you'll find your students are better at retaining the information.

Here's a table you can customize (with technique and positional round blocks that feed into your schedule):

If you're running a Gi class, you can handle promotions at the end of class. Whether your summer camp is Gi or No-Gi, you'll want to handle awards and student recognition at the end of class.

Not sure how to handle promotions? Here's a detailed breakdown of the kids’ BJJ belt system.

It's important that you tailor your curriculum to the age requirements of each group. Here are a few examples of ways to adapt your curriculum.

• Ages 5–7: Swap technique blocks for game-based learning. Keep drilling segments short. Prioritize movement and confidence over positions.
• Ages 8–11: Follow the curriculum as written. Emphasize positional control, guard passing, and basic sweeps and reversals.
• Ages 12+: Mix positional and open rounds. Add submission chains and wrestling entries to technique blocks.

Remember, play is the work of childhood. Kids use play to learn, process, and manage information. Camps that work with a child's play instinct tend to perform better over time.

Staffing and Instructor-to-Student Ratios

Staffing is an incredibly important safety decision. You'll want to make sure you have plenty of support in case something goes wrong.

The American Camp Association recommends:

• Ages 4–5: 1:6 ratio
• Ages 6–8: 1:8
• Ages 9–14: 1:10

If you're looking for a minimum standard, a good rule of thumb is one instructor and one assistant for every eight students. This isn't just about physical safety and injury prevention; it's also about avoiding any questionable behavior.

That's why it's critical to always follow one critical rule:

You’re looking to achieve two clear goals:

1. Protect kids from any sort of activity that’s inappropriate or abusive. No adults should have unsupervised, 1-on-1 time with instructors or adults.
2. Earn the trust of their parents. Parents obviously expect you to protect their kids, but that’s not enough; they want to verify their kids' safety in your program.

These are simple steps you can take to build the trust of their parents and protect your students while they’re in your care.

Practical staffing model

Here's the ideal staffing mix for your BJJ summer camp:

• 1 head instructor (brown or black belt)
• 1–2 assistant instructors
• 1 camp coordinator
• Junior assistants (teen students)

It's important to note that your junior assistants are there to help with drills, but they shouldn't count toward your supervision ratios.

Staff requirements

It's important that you set minimum standards for each of your instructors. For example:

• Background checks (no exceptions)
• CPR / First Aid certification
• Minimum age of 16
• Instructors are, at a minimum, two years older than campers

If they're going to be working with children, parents want to see that they're safe and reliable.

Pricing Models and Discount Strategies

Pricing is the place where most gym owners and first-time camp organizers struggle.  This is especially tough if the gyms in your area aren't running camps.

How should you price summer camps in your market?

If you're not sure about pricing for your camp, here are some pricing benchmarks for your jiu-jitsu summer camp.

Base pricing benchmarks

These base ranges are pulled from published pricing at several BJJ academies and kids’ summer camps—ranging from smaller suburban gyms to premium urban academies in cities like Seattle and New York—so you can compare your camp to what parents are actually paying today.

Not sure how to structure pricing in your academy? Here's an in-depth look at the structure behind pricing tiers.

Discount strategies

Remember how we talked about pre-selling earlier? You can use discounts to attract students several months before your campaign starts.

Here are a few examples:

• Early bird pricing: You give parents a $50–$100 discount per week if they sign up ahead of time
• Sibling discount: Parents receive a $50–$100 (or 10–15%) discount for each additional child they register
• Multi-week discount: If parents pay for additional weeks (e.g., give them an 8–17% discount on additional weeks).
• Member discount: Families with active memberships receive a 10–15% discount for each student registered

So here's the thing about discounts: they're pretty terrible. You can lose a lot of money if the numbers don't make sense.

As a general rule, you’ll want to require an if-this-then-that concession of some kind from each family. They have to earn their discount.

• If they pre-pay in full, they receive an early bird discount
• If a family registers all of their kids for summer camp, they receive a discount
• If they pay for multiple weeks, they receive a discount

See what I mean?

It's absolutely essential that you receive something in return for any discounts or concessions you offer to families registering for your camp. If you want to maintain profitability, this step is required.

Pricing psychology

Penalties are on the other side of the pricing coin. If parents decide to do the daily drop-in, it’s important that they pay a premium for that.

Here’s an example:

• You price daily drop-ins 25–30% higher than the weekly rate
• Drop-ins are required to pay a non-refundable $35–$50 deposit

Can you see what’s happening here?

If parents choose to register their kids early, they receive bonuses, discounts, and other incentives—a reward for their commitment and willingness to plan ahead.

Parents who didn’t plan ahead or choose drop-ins pay a much higher premium; they’re incentivized to register at the weekly rate to enjoy the same savings.

This sounds pretty great, though, right?

It’s wonderful, but it comes with a catch. If you’re trying to manage all of this manually, it’s going to be a nightmare.

Gym management software, like Gymdesk, handles these tasks automatically—applying sibling discounts, setting early-bird pricing, and multi-week bundles. The right platform eliminates the need for manual spreadsheets and calculation errors.

Summer Camp Marketing Timeline and Strategies

If you’re planning ahead, your marketing begins months before summer. Here’s a brief timeline and action steps to prepare.

January–February

You provide your active members with exclusive, members-only access before the general public.

If you really want to sweeten the deal, provide members with incentives and rewards for their loyalty. Use vanishing bonuses to motivate those who are interested.

March

Create a registration page that covers everything parents need: what the camp covers, the schedule, pricing, testimonials, and a clear CTA.

You cover all of the elements that are required in your sales letter (e.g., problems, solutions, objections, risk reversals, reviews, uniqueness, urgency triggers, etc.). Make it easy for them to say yes.

This is a public launch.

When you’re ready, use the following marketing channels to promote your summer camp:

• Email newsletters
• Instagram
• Facebook groups
• School newsletters
• Local parent communities

Here's a quick marketing list you can use to promote your camp:

• Create a Meta (e.g., Facebook or Instagram) remarketing campaign for parents/students who visit your registration page but don't sign up
• Send three time-delayed broadcast emails to current members announcing your BJJ summer camp
• Post an announcement on your social media profiles
• Start advertising your summer camp on Facebook and Instagram. Send visitors who click on your ad to your sales/registration page
• Do what you can to offer significant members-only benefits for those who sign up for early-bird access (i.e., bonuses disappear as the launch date approaches)

Consistency is the key here, not volume.

April

Continue to promote your summer camp, but begin using urgency triggers, vanishing bonuses, discounts, and loss aversion to incentivize action.

Your space is limited, and the last thing you want is an angry letter from a parent saying their child couldn’t get in.

May

As the school year wraps up, you’re preparing to do a final call—you’re sending out a message to families letting them know that camp seats are limited.

Your promotional checklist should include:

• Social media updates counting down to launch (i.e., 14 days left)
• Weekly reminders that are sent out via email, social media, and paid advertising
• Flyers that are distributed to kids and parents in schools. Many schools have a program in place that allows you to do this (for a fee)
• Use your referral program to incentivize current members to invite friends and family members to join.

It's a good idea to ensure that your marketing plan follows best practices. We lay these out in the martial arts marketing guide.

At this point, you’re leaning pretty heavily on your vanishing bonuses and urgency triggers, but you shouldn’t be offering deep discounts at this point.

Last call strategies:

• Retargeting ads
• Member referrals
• Parent testimonials

Doors open at the end of this last push, so it’s important to move forward with confidence.

During camp

You’ll want to capture the important moments on video or photos.

Get a minimum of two to four videos/photos of each student in action. You requested permission earlier in the process, so get as many photos of the students in action as possible.

Verify with parents whether it’s okay to share photos of their kids on social media.

Promote one or two kids in each social media post (make sure the photos are appealing). Tag their parents and make the post shareable.

Many parents love sharing photos of their kids, and your summer camp gives them a reason to share. This is fantastic because it generates free marketing for your academy and future camps.

Parent Communication That Builds Trust

Believe it or not, communication is a powerful retention tool.

You’ll want to find the right balance between too much and too little. Parents want to know how things are going for their kids.

They’re interested in their progress and very sensitive to their child’s social status in the gym. Communication is low-hanging fruit—it’s an easy way to build trust.

How, you ask? Let’s break everything down.

Pre-camp welcome packet

Send parents a welcome packet two to three weeks before camp starts. What goes into a welcome packet, you ask?

• The daily schedule
• What to bring
• Drop-off procedures
• Emergency contacts
• Instructor bios
• Behavior expectations

During camp

Make sure you send parents all of the following:

• Daily photos of their child
• Short end-of-day updates
• Immediate injury communication

Your communication with parents needs to be concise and precise. Assume that they’re incredibly busy (because they probably are).

Post-camp conversion

At the end of camp, wrap everything up with a graduation ceremony where parents can watch demonstrations, record promotions, take photos, and celebrate with their kids.

Then send non-member parents an irresistible follow-up offer. Not sure about the offer you should send? Here are a few ideas you can use to get things started:

• Discounts on your first month of classes
• Bonuses if they complete a month of free classes
• Free trials for siblings if everyone signs up
• Family discounts for the whole family

The sky is the limit here. You can create any offer you want, so long as it’s something parents and students are interested in.

Safety and Risk Management

Safety is an absolute must; parents are trusting you with their pride and joy. Safety is an absolute must if you’re going to build a stable kids’ program.

Here are the basics you’ll want to cover.

Insurance requirements

If you’re just starting out, these are the absolute minimums you’ll need.

• $1M general liability
• Medical payments coverage
• Sexual abuse and molestation (SAM) coverage

As your program grows, you’ll need to increase your coverage. Make sure that you have the policies and procedures in place to support your camp.

Estimated cost:

$1.60–$6.34 per participant/session.

Be sure to notify your insurer that you plan to run a camp. You’ll want to consult your broker to verify you have the coverage you need.

No one wants to pay for insurance, but it’s an important and necessary part of running a summer camp.

Waivers and medical forms

Waivers and medical forms are a small part of covering the legalities. You’ll need the following documents:

• Liability waiver
• Medical authorization
• Photo/video consent

Just remember, an ironclad waiver, drawn up by the world’s greatest attorney, isn’t enough to protect against negligence. This means policies and procedures are an important part of the process.

Lastly, verify that your staff have the training and support they need to support your students. This means:

• First-aid training and a well-stocked first-aid kit
• Check-in/out verification
• Daily health screenings for staph, ringworm, impetigo, etc.
• A deep clean of the mats after each session

If you’re using gym management software, digital waivers and attendance-tracking tools create a permanent safety record—there’s no lost paperwork, no confusion, and a clear log of who was present each day.

Use this Guide to Launch your BJJ Summer Camp

Launching a BJJ summer camp may seem complicated at first glance.

As we’ve seen, the hardest part is creating a solid plan. You have the specifics you need to create, promote, and launch a successful BJJ summer camp.

Start the planning process now.

Most academy owners wait until the last minute—then they’re suddenly scrambling to throw something together before the school year ends.

That’s not you.

Thanks to some upfront legwork, you have a clear timeline, structured curriculum, and the policies and procedures you need to make this work.

You’ve worked hard to prepare—your summer camps are reliable ways to recruit new students, boost revenue, and grow deep connections in the community.

And, as always, you need the right software to act as your admin wingman so nothing gets lost in the cracks in your planning and execution for summer camp. Try Gymdesk for free for 30 days to see why we're the best out there.