As 2023 winds to a close, people are beginning to rethink their goals and make resolutions. For many of us in BJJ, the new year is a time of self-reflection and realigning ourselves. We can take time to sit back and think of the things we have accomplished in the year and what we want to achieve in the upcoming trip around the sun.

For us at Academic Grappling, we have a lot to look back on and be proud of this year.

We started our year off doing review of what we learned at the end of 2022 from Erin Herle, an accomplished black belt, the founder of the mental health awareness non-profit #submitthestigma, and a sports mental coach. 

In April, coach Jared taught his first away seminar at Foundation Chicago, a gym with a similar mission to Academic Grappling that has often invited us up for seminars they host.

Also in April, Academic Grappling and KruFit hosted the Lez Roll Queer Camp; organized by our very own Kelly and Andrea Schoenegge, coaches at Academic Grappling. The event was pure queer joy. We had LGBT+ grapplers from across the country come in and learn, and share, and roll, and socialize, and just have honest-to-god fun in a safe environment. We couldn’t be more proud of being able to host last year.

April was a busy month, as we also organized a protest on behalf of our trans homies. Demolish the Closet was a roaring success. We rallied at a local park and marched on a state legislator’s home to make speeches and call out chants on the sidewalk. While many may not know this, the membership at Academic Grappling is 10% trans. That number becomes much higher when we include our non-binary friends as well. We strive to live what we preach, and thus we put ourselves on the line for our friends and teammates. We love y’all.

In May this year, we marked the start of our Intersectional BJJ/Womxn’s Jiu-Jitsu class. This class is offered to marginalized genders including women, women-identifying individuals, non-binary, and gender non-conforming people in order to provide a comfortable space that centers on the experiences of women in Jiu-Jitsu. Open to anyone who does not identify as male, and is led by - once again - Kelly and Andrea Schoenegge. The class has consistently brought in students and visitors alike and can only be called a success.

June rolled around and Academic Grappling celebrated its 2nd birthday! As the head coach of AG, Jared has been ecstatic about the growth we have experienced and the quality of people who have come into the gym and made the culture what it is. We are so fortunate to know so many wonderful people. We even added an affiliate gym with The School of Self-Defense.

We participated in two Smoker events put on by Jamie Bradley, which allowed many of our members to gain some competition experience. Speaking of which, we had several members compete and medal throughout the year and we are incredibly proud of everyone who stepped onto the mats in order to test themselves, and that includes our MMA fighters who put it all on the line.

We had new members sign up, and we had new blue, purple, and brown belts promoted, all of whom we are incredibly proud of!

So what are we looking forward to in 2024?

For starters, we have Nikki Sullivan coming to the gym on January 6th to kick off our year with an excellent seminar! We have upcoming tournaments over the next few months which we are preparing for with our new Competition Class every Sunday. We are lucky enough to once again be hosting this year’s Lez Roll Queer Grappling Camp which will be filled with amazing coaches and instructors from across the country. We will celebrate 3 years of being open, and we will continue to grow our memberships with good, wholesome people.

We are proud of the work we have done in 2023, and we are excited for all of the amazing things we have coming our way in 2024. Watch out for Academic to take the lead in some big ways.