According to a recent report and article, Jiu Jitsu in The United Arab Emirates is emerging as an everyday part of the country’s culture. It is no secret that the United Arab Emirates has emerged as a pioneer in the sport, so seeing this type of growth and involvement is not so surprising.
From FloGrappling:
An article published in the Arabic-language daily newspaper Al-Ittihad quoted figures from Palm Sports, the company responsible for administrating jiu-jitsu training in the country.
It reported that there are 90,000 overall practitioners of jiu-jitsu in the UAE training at over 300 centers in the country under the supervision of more than 570 coaches.
Jiu-jitsu is mandatory for all school children in the UAE, and the same report says there are 52,000 children training in 162 schools.
The United Arab Emirates is a country with a population of 9.27 million, so a figure of 90,000 practitioners is 0.97% of the total populace.
You can view the original report (Arabic language) here. Google should be able to translate it for you. 🙂
Andy Gonzalez is a coach at Aces Jiu Jitsu Club. He has earned his BJJ Brown Belt under 2nd Degree Black Belt, Professor Mikal Abdullah. Follow Andy on Twitter at @GoGoGonzilla
Andy lives in Austin, Texas with his wife Amanda and their 3 beautiful children. Andy is also the father of a Marine who is honorably serving in the United States Marine Corps.