Grappling Club run by teens??? (NY)

[zoraiz]

Hey guys,
I'm 16 and i live in Long Island. I recently started a small grappling club for teenagers at the american top team facility in Franklin square,NY. The purpose originally was so i could have an extra curricular activity for colleges (since i'm one of those honor student kids :P). what we do in this club is that i teach high schooler's who have an interest in learning a martial art (but cant pay a large tuition) or just get bullied at school, various techniques in BJJ. I know i am not the most qualified teacher but i believe i know alot in terms of BJJ as well as mma by learning under top team and just being a fan to both sports. After teaching for two weeks (these seminars only happen once a week) i felt like the guys who came picked up alot. In merely an hour and a half kids that havent even seen the ufc or BJJ were rolling and pulling off Kimuras and rear naked chokes. When i asked them what they thought of the class they say that they loved it. My question to the forum is what can i do to improve the club? How can i spread the word about BJJ? How can i make this more successful? Right now i have made a facebook group and will soon launch a youtube account as well and start posting vids(on this forum). I want you guys to help me improve and hopefully spread the message of MMA and BJJ to my community.

[Eric Spicely]

damn i lived on long island for a year or so and i had no idea there was a top team there!
good luck!

[Will Thaxton]

do you charge at all? I've thought of starting a hotbox or something but have not quite figured it out. I live in a college town (U of Alabama) so I'm sure there a lot of poor college kids that maybe can't afford 100 bucks a month but would love to learn.

[zoraiz]

yea we do charge but its only 10 bucks a week ,just so we can kinda rent out the place for an hour and a half

[Shellby Connelly]

Who was your instructor and what is your belt rank? or are you doing this just more for fun? I am just curios because a teacher asked me at school today what i did for for and i told him about all my martial arts. and he aksed if i would be interetsed in starting a JJ club at the HS and he wanted to learn some stuff...

[zoraiz]

Well my instructor is David Martucci, he used to be an MMA fighter and then became a coach under Pat Militech. Now he is part of ATT and trains with Marcelo in Manhattan. I think he is a brown belt under marcelo but i could be wrong. My current belt rank is white but Dave tells me that im close to my blue . In terms of it being fun, yes i do enjoy it and find it to be fun but i am serious about helping my "students" learn.

[zoraiz]

haha yea it used to be the Militech academy but i think they closed it down.

[zoraiz]

Well my instructor is David Martucci, he used to be an MMA fighter and then became a coach under Pat Militech. Now he is part of ATT and trains with Marcelo in Manhattan. I think he is a brown belt under marcelo but i could be wrong. My current belt rank is white but Dave tells me that im close to my blue . In terms of it being fun, yes i do enjoy it and find it to be fun but i am serious about helping my "students" learn.

[Aab]

Long ago when I first started Martial Arts I walked into a Shotokan studio and told them to teach me. The teacher was an interesting dude he was about 5ft 5 and had a big beer belly. He would get in front of the class and talk about techniques. " You know that side kick there its a good technique." " And let me tell yall something else thats good, that number 2 double cheeseburger meal deal at Mcdonalds I'm having here in a minute". Dude would leave and turn the class over to his 11 year old girl who was a black belt. I got my green belt there and walked on out of the joint. I went from traditional school to traditional school trying to find someone to turn me into Bruce Lee. I didn't realize the importance of Jiu Jitsu because I was so young and immature as a Martial Artist. Whatever I saw in the movies all the flashy kicking and shit was to me the true way of fighting. I don't know anything about writing stories for underdeveloped coast villages from the romantic movement era. I just know there are to many people claiming to be heroes when they truely do not know reality or self expression through the dedication of Martial Arts. I was out hunting ducks one day with my Grandpa and he told m

[Mike Noronowicz]

zoriac , it sounds like an awesome thing you are doing , having a class and teaching teens jiujitsu , most schools are expensive this is why alot of people cannot join , plus with a bad economy and people out of jobs this is why many can't join or continue