As of August 2026, there are 30 places to train BJJ in Hertfordshire, Since this is the first English county BJJ map I’ve done it will be interesting to see how it compares to others, like neighbouring Essex or Bucks.
Some clubs are dedicated BJJ only places, like, ahem, my own lovely club RGA South Herts. Other clubs have BJJ on their timetable, along with other martial arts taught at their academy.
To qualify for inclusion, I’ve only added places that have a dedicated BJJ (can be gi or nogi) class in their timetable which must be taught by a ranked BJJ instructor (any rank above white belt). The class must be at least once a week and they must show recent activity on social media (otherwise I’ll assume they are no longer in operation). I have not included traditional or japanese jujitsu clubs.
Notable omission: I have not included Gracie Jiu Jitsu Watford on the map. Whilst Gracie Jiu Jitsu and (most) BJJ clubs share the same lineage, Gracie Jiu Jitsu clubs place far more emphasis on self defence and much less so on sport. By contrast, most modern BJJ clubs tend to focus more on sport than explicit self defence techniques. There is of course a lot of overlap depending on the club. You can read more about the differences from the Gracie perspective here and from the modern BJJ perspective here.
A lot of Hertfordshire is very rural, hence you’ll see from the above maps very large gaps where no club exists. The being said, there are some large towns, eg Potters Bar or Tring without any direct BJJ presence. St Albans however, is one of the most populated and affluent cities in Herts, yet it only has one academy. That might be down to the high cost of real estate there.
As you would expect, some of the more populated towns are very well served – Watford, Hemel, and Stevenage have multiple academies in each town. Hertford offers two academies sitting side by side to one another. I wonder how that works out?
I myself have visisted quite a few of the clubs listed above, and intend to pop in to more of them – seeing as they’re all in my neck of the woods. On that note, in recent years I have found that cross-academy communication and support has been pretty good and getting even better. Lots of students now visit other academy open mats and a lot of instructors collaborate for interclub tournaments and other events. Sure, some clubs are a bit more protective of their space and members, but this is rare.
The overall picture is of a very healthy BJJ scene in Hertfordshire, albeit still with areas to establish an academy where no other exists.
