Featured affiliated academy: Kampfsport Manufaktur, BJJ Germany
Kampfsport Manufaktur, BJJ Germany
Where is the gym located?
Our gym is located near the city center of Mannheim (Industriestraße 39, 68169), Germany. Mannheim is a “Universitätsstadt” (university town) close to Heidelberg (20 minutes by car), and about one hour from Frankfurt Airport. Mannheim is famous for its 18th-century palace where the university is located nowadays. The streets are unusual in comparison to other German cities, since they’re laid out in a grid pattern. Therefore the city’s nickname is “Quadratestadt” (the Square City).
How many people train there?
We have around 110 registered members in total, and about 8 trainers in different areas (BJJ/Grappling, MMA, Muay Thai, Boxing, Kids BJJ, Self Defence, and Functional Training). But obviously, like in any other gym, not everybody who is registered will join in every training session. Before we had to close the gym because of Corona restrictions, we would have about 10-20 people in a training session. The gym is a newly built industrial-style hall with 300m2 of space, so we have different areas where the people can hang out or train (mat space, boxing ring, fitness area, chillout area) so even when more people are there it doesn’t feel too crowded.
Is the gym growing – if so by how many new members each month or year?
Bad timing for answering this question, because we just opened the gym in October 2020 and had to close because of Corona restrictions after only 3 weeks of training. Luckily there was a martial arts club in our location beforehand, and after renovating all the facilities and opening as a new gym, I took over most of the members from the previous club. At the opening party and the weeks afterwards, we welcomed around 35 new members that trained their asses off for the next weeks and were also motivated to join the online courses and thereby support the gym so that it can still exist after the lockdown. Right now we’re still closed and don’t know when we will be able to open for normal training. Just today, we started a new offer for interested people where we show them the gym, explain everything, and they can start with online training for free and start paying in March, in order to give new people a chance to start with the sport.
What are the highest and lowest belt grades training?
Our highest belt is the newest member of the instructor team: BJJ black belt Thomas Stoll, who also runs Team Choco in Heidelberg. I’m very happy to have such a competent and warm-hearted trainer in the Kampfsport Manufaktur to support our BJJ and Grappling program. As well as that, my long-time friend Rene Becker, who is a well-known black belt in Germany, gave me the opportunity to affiliate with his team, Matrix Jiu-Jitsu, so he’ll often be in our place teaching and giving seminars. Our people can also go to Matrix headquarters in Kaiserslautern (about a 1-hour drive) and train with some of the best grapplers in all of Germany.
I’m a purple belt myself after a long time training, because we had no black belt training with us and most of the time we figured stuff out by ourselves or by learning from friends’ videos and Globetrotters camps. We have another purple belt teaching with a big focus on no-gi, and a bunch of blue belts training for a really long time who are probably at a higher level because they didn’t have the chance to get promoted in the years beforehand. Obviously because we opened in October 2020 as a new gym, we also have a lot of white belts, and thus structured the training to be very beginner-friendly with a lot of fundamentals. Our lowest belts are probably the “Mini BJJ” group we started because of my 3-year-old daughter. I just wanted to give parents the chance to come on Saturdays with my daughter’s friends to let the Minis move a little bit, run around, and do their forward rolls. Out of nowhere, we had around fifteen Mini 3-year-olds running around and training BJJ. This was really cool! Can´t wait to start with them again soon!
When did the gym open?
The gym opened in October 2020. I worked as a trainer before in the Martial Arts Academy Mannheim for Muay Thai and Grappling. In summer 2020, I was asked if I’d be interested in buying that club. From the second I taught my first class in 2008, it was a dream to open my own gym, so I didn’t hesitate and agreed. From that moment we started working on the gym and pretty much re-made the whole place into something new. Most members stayed with me, so I had a good foundation. Sadly, like I said before, after only 3 weeks of training we had to close because of Corona restrictions. But we’re doing the best in this situation as we can, and we look forward to training with all our people again soon.
Some facts about you:
Name: Björn Laubenstein (born: Feil)
Age: 32
Belt: Purple
Profession: Social worker
Years in BJJ: 10 years
Other martial arts: I started Muay Thai in 2006, had 17 fights (8-7-2) and fought at some local championships, then did MMA (1-0-0) before I decided to focus more on BJJ.
Currently living in: I live in Ludwigshafen am Rhein, which is the city next to Mannheim. The two cities are separated by the river Rhein/Rhine, which is the longest river in Germany.
Originally from: I grew up in a small village called Ellerstadt in Rhineland-Palatinate, which is about 30 minutes away. My mother is from Sweden and I still have some family living there, so even if my Swedish sucks I feel connected to Swedish traditions and the country.
Please tell us the story of how your gym came into existence
I taught Muay Thai in the Martial Arts Academy in Mannheim for a very long time, as well as BJJ for a while. The gym owner opened another gym in another city years ago, and eventually couldn’t be in Mannheim as much as he used to. After some time, he asked me in summer 2020, kinda out of nowhere, if I would be interested to take over the gym. Because it was a dream for me to open my own gym one day, I didn’t hesitate and quickly agreed. But I knew that I wanted to rebuild the gym, structure everything new, and make it completely how I wanted a gym to look, create the right training atmosphere, and make it a place you really love to go. I was able to start working on the gym in summer, making small changes, while training sessions were still running for the old club. Then I took over the gym in October and we closed until 10th October to really put in the hard work. After rebuilding everything – from new matspace and fitness areas to a chill out area – we opened Kampfsport Manufaktur on 10.10.2020.
Tell us about the people that train in the gym – who are they?
We have pretty much everybody in the gym, especially because we now have a mix of the old guys and BJJ nerds from the previous gym, to complete beginners that never trained in their life before. I want the gym to be a place where everybody feels welcome and wants to hang out. I’m very happy that my plan worked when opening the gym, and we welcomed a lot of women that started BJJ and even MMA.
Why do they train?
In general, I would say that most people joined the Kampfsport Manufaktur for fitness reasons at first. They wanted to start martial arts and feel better, get fitter, and feel safer. In our club, you only pay one fee and can train every martial art. The moment they try BJJ and enjoy it, you can see most of them focus on BJJ and get sucked into the BJJ nerdiness and totally forget the fitness reasons they had in the first place.
What are some of the challenges of running a BJJ gym in general and in your location specifically?
I’m pretty new to running a gym, so in general the paperwork and all the associated admin stuff is pretty challenging and annoying. Of course the situation with the Corona lockdown is really really challenging at the moment, because in my case I don’t get any support from the government for the gym. So it’s pretty challenging to offer the members the best I can in this situation, in order to keep them satisfied and to keep on supporting the gym financially. But of course everybody is struggling with this at the moment. In our area, we have a few more gyms that offer BJJ and Muay Thai, but I think that this is not a problem for anybody. I think every gym has its focus, atmosphere, and training habits, so everybody will join the gym that makes them happy.
Kampfsport Manufaktur, BJJ Germany
How do you see the future for BJJ in your area?
In my opinion, Germany was a little bit behind compared to other countries in terms of BJJ or even fight sports in general. Maybe because MMA or other martial arts are still not so accepted or so popular in society compared to sports like soccer. But nowadays it feels like we are back on track. This has been made possible through the exchange of knowledge, like when you e.g. join a Globetrotters camp and everybody is eager to make you better in BJJ while having a really great time together. Now a lot of people join the gym because they’re interested in learning BJJ specifically, whereas in the past a lot of people started BJJ only because they started boxing and ended up wondering what that rolling around thing was. So it seems BJJ keeps on growing.
What’s the best thing about Kampfsport Manufaktur, BJJ Germany?
The people, the atmosphere, and the spirit we want the gym to have. I think you can have the best looking gym, the biggest mat space, or the best black belt in the world, but if people don’t feel good when they’re there, what’s the point? We welcome everybody, regardless if they’re a white or black belt, and will have a good time training, hanging out together and going out for a beer and a burger if you visit us.
What would you recommend Globetrotters to see in your area apart from the inside of your gym?
In Mannheim you should check out the palace, the water tower, and go out in the “hip area” called Jungbusch, where you can find a lot of cool bars and nightlife. Then you should definitely make a trip to beautiful Heidelberg, which is about a 20-minute drive by car. There you can check out the famous castle, the old town and hang out in summer at the “Neckarwiese” (a riverfront park). Furthermore, you should drive to the city Bad Dürkheim in the Rhineland Palatinate area (about 30 minutes by car) – a spa city in the Palatine Forest where you can enjoy traditional German food and local wines, and walk through beautiful old wine villages or the forest. If you wanna check out the best traditional German food I have ever eaten, while sitting outside in summer in the woods, you should check out the restaurant “Thomashütte” in Forst an der Weinstraße. Feel welcome to join us in the Kampfsport Manufaktur when you’re travelling and we can make these trips together.
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