My Name is Jimmy Johnstone, I have been voluntarily serving the UK BJJ community for over a decade in one capacity or another. I have been working with the UKBJJA for several years on the belt committee as well as youth development officer and military liaison. I am the head BJJ coach for the Royal Marines and warwolf BJJ. I have built a successful chain of academies in the south of England alongside my business as a building contractor. It gives me an enormous sense of pride to serve our community and I hope to serve for many years to come in any way I can.

It’s been an eventful year, much has changed and BJJ is no different.  We have had to adapt, evolve and tweak how, when and where we train. The ‘why’ is the easy part, we do it for the love of BJJ! My aim is to be part of that vehicle.  To bring business experience and acumen, to bring empathy and more importantly create a safe space for development and discussion.

Over the last 18 months many of us have experienced impacts upon many aspects of our lives.  BJJ is no different, as styles, guards and techniques have evolved.  We have shown ourselves to be more resilient than we realise.  We’ve continued to learn both on and off the mats.  As we emerge from restrictions it is important we all continue to drive change and introduce policies to ensure we remain on an upward trajectory.

The key to this is you, the BJJ community. It is about getting ‘buy-in’ from you all, to raise the profile of the council.  This can be achieved through commitment from academies across the UK, signing up to structured mandates in order to take BJJ in the UK to the next level.  Upon doing we can begin to deliver the changes required to create and maintain the high standards we seek to provide.  This won’t happen overnight.  However, by taking small, incremental steps the Council, along with the recently acquired Sports England recognition, we can begin to pioneer a new era for BJJ in the UK.

My Name is Jimmy Johnstone, I have been voluntarily serving the UK BJJ community for over a decade in one capacity or another. I have been working with the UKBJJA for several years on the belt committee as well as youth development officer and military liaison. I am the head BJJ coach for the Royal Marines and warwolf BJJ. I have built a successful chain of academies in the south of England alongside my business as a building contractor. It gives me an enormous sense of pride to serve our community and I hope to serve for many years to come in any way I can.

I have been an active member of the BJJ community, an active competitor and an advocate for women’s BJJ for a number of years now. Jiujitsu has been a profound influence on my own life and through my own positive experiences, I have wanted to share BJJ with others and bring this positive experience to them.

So, I set up a resource for women’s BJJ. Using my experience and connections I have voluntarily set up and self-funded a resource for women’s BJJ which aims to provide information and a route into the sport – BJJ Girls https://bjjgirls.co.uk/. Through this resource I have successfully collaborated with a number of UK gyms running seminars and open mats for free, encouraging women to try BJJ and encouraging existing practitioners to come together as a community.

I have also set up a schools programme and established relationships with local sports councils. Working with my coach and the gym that I train out of we successfully set up and ran a schools programme with local sixth formers as well as creating and nurturing relationships with Kent Sport, a subsidiary of Sport England.

All this experience has taught me the value of what I and BJJ can bring to individuals and I believe that with a collective effort of multiple expertise we can bring more value to women in BJJ. As Chair of the Women’s Committee, my aim would be to gather and lead these female voices within the UKBJJA. My goals would be to nurture and encourage female participation from all ages, across all levels within the sport and all backgrounds. By working collaboratively with the other UKBJJA committee members with a vested interest in female participation, from schools programmes to our D&I council and across our emergency services and armed forces councils too we can make BJJ a welcoming and inclusive environment for all.

When the women’s council was first established I voluntarily gave my services as an unofficial member of the women’s committee, supporting the chair with events, marketing and driving the women committee under the UKBJJA for the benefit of members and ultimately all BJJ women in the UK. If I am chair of the women’s committee it would be an honour to take on that challenge in an official capacity during what I feel is going to be a very exciting time for BJJ in the UK.

Standing for: Council, Chair of Women’s Committee