Switzerland · 10 combat federations at Swiss Olympic · 9 J+S sports

Ten combat federations. No umbrella. One club tool.

No Swiss national umbrella federation governs martial arts as a whole. Swiss Olympic — the umbrella of all Swiss sport, not a martial-arts body — lists ten separate combat federations. A club running two disciplines therefore deals with two federations, two licence systems and two age grids, with nothing above them to reconcile it. That club layer is exactly what Paak covers.

  • Several sections under one club — judo, karate, BJJ, MMA side by side: one platform, one invoice, from Paak One
  • Nine J+S sports — five outside J+S — taekwondo, MMA, BJJ, krav maga and full-contact boxing are not J+S Sportarten. No J+S funding route. We put it on the page
  • CHF (TWINT rolling out), nLPD-compatible hosting — data in the EU, on the Swiss adequacy list

Free up to 100 members. Swiss pilots open · CHF + TWINT rolling out.

Swiss Olympic · 10 combat federations 9 J+S combat disciplines No martial-arts umbrella Several sections, one invoice nLPD-compatible hosting
The Swiss institutional reality

Ten federations. Nothing above them.

10
combat federations listed by Swiss Olympic — each governs its discipline alone
9
combat disciplines J+S recognises individually as Sportarten
0
martial-arts umbrella federations in Switzerland — none, of any kind
0 CHF
up to 100 members — with no time limit

There is no Swiss martial-arts umbrella federation — and that is where the paperwork comes from.

The only umbrella above Swiss martial arts is Swiss Olympic, the umbrella of all Swiss sport: 117 member organisations (87 national sport federations + 30 partner organisations), 18,440 clubs and around 2.5 million active members. None of them is a martial-arts umbrella.

“Martial arts” is not a J+S Sportart either. Each discipline is recognised — or not — individually.

The ten combat federations Swiss Olympic lists
Schweizerischer Judo- & Ju-Jitsu-Verband (SJV)
247 clubs · 18,435 active members · 18,465 members in total
Swiss Karate Federation
302 clubs · 12,000 active members · 12,000 members in total
Swiss Taekwondo
50 clubs · a Swiss Olympic member federation, even though taekwondo is not a J+S Sportart
Swiss Fencing
Fechten (fencing) is also a J+S sport
SwissBoxing
Swiss Olympic member federation
Swiss Wushu Federation
An umbrella for a discipline family, not a general one: it describes itself as the umbrella for Chinese martial arts
Swiss Muaythai League
Swiss Olympic member federation
Schweizerischer Kickboxverband (= WAKO Switzerland)
One and the same organisation, one postal identity — never count it as two federations
Eidgenössischer Schwingerverband
Swiss Olympic member federation
Swiss Wrestling
Swiss Olympic member federation

Source of the figures: Swiss Olympic's Verbandsbefragung 2024 (version 01.01.2025), read line by line. The club and member rows for the other federations exist in that document but are not published here until they have been read too.

What Swiss Olympic does not list: no MMA body, no Brazilian jiu-jitsu body, no krav-maga body — and no martial-arts umbrella of any kind.

Your discipline's federation

Stays your official reference

  • Licences, rankings, sport passes, grades — each federation runs its own
  • Competitions, calendars and the rules of the discipline
  • J+S recognition, where the discipline has it
Paak · complementary

The club layer nobody covers

  • Members, dues and payments in CHF (Mollie, TWINT rolling out)
  • Several sections under one club — one platform, one invoice (from Paak One)
  • Training schedule, communications with RSVP, volunteering
  • Club accounting, grades and age classes tracked per discipline
Jugend+Sport (J+S)

Nine combat disciplines are J+S sports (J+S lists fencing separately). Five are not.

J+S recognises disciplines, never “martial arts”. Each J+S Sportart has its own partner federation. J+S participation window: 5 to 20 years, stated identically across the J+S martial-arts sport pages.

Recognised as J+S Sportarten
Aikido Ju-Jitsu Judo Karate Kickboxing Light Light-Contact Boxing Ringen (wrestling) Schwingen Wushu / Kung-Fu

Fechten (fencing) and Nationalturnen are also J+S sports.

Not J+S Sportarten
Taekwondo MMA Brazilian jiu-jitsu Krav maga Full-contact boxing

Verified by HTTP 404 on the corresponding BASPO sport pages, on 2026-07-28.

The responsible federation, discipline by discipline

Judo, ju-jitsu and aikido → Schweizerischer Judo & Ju-Jitsu Verband (SJV). Karate → Swiss Karate Federation. Kickboxing Light → Schweizerischer Kickboxverband / WAKO Switzerland. J+S itself names the responsible federation, per discipline.

Two independent recognitions

Swiss Taekwondo is a Swiss Olympic member federation (50 clubs) while taekwondo is not a J+S Sportart. Never infer one from the other: Swiss Olympic member ≠ J+S sport, and the reverse holds just as little.

The J+S “Ju-Jitsu” is Japanese, not Brazilian

The J+S page describes it as «Ju-Jitsu, die japanische ‹Kunst der Sanftheit›» — the Japanese art of gentleness — and attaches it to the SJV. Brazilian jiu-jitsu is not a J+S Sportart. The recognition does not carry from one discipline to the other, and money is attached to that distinction.

The only cross-discipline structure is a course

The J+S-Leiterkurs Kampfsport Kinder (and the Leiterkurs Allround) is referenced on several J+S sport pages, judo and light-contact boxing among them. It is a coach-education course, not a federation: it creates no umbrella.

Licences, rankings, grades

No licence, no ranking, no dan register across the disciplines.

There is no cross-discipline Swiss martial-arts licence, ranking or dan register. Each federation runs its own, with its own rules and its own fees.

WAKO Switzerland

Runs its own Lizenz & Sport-Pass and its own Ranglisten. A reminder: WAKO Switzerland and the Schweizerischer Kickboxverband are the same organisation.

LCBA — Light-Contact Boxing Association

Publishes its own Lizenzen & Gebühren. A club running Kickboxing Light and Light-Contact Boxing therefore faces two licence systems and two fee schedules.

No common age grid

No cross-martial-arts Swiss age grid exists, because no body sits above the disciplines to define one. Age classes are per federation and per discipline.

What Paak does with that

Grades, belts and age classes are tracked per discipline in Paak — never merged into an invented single grid. Each section keeps its own. Bridge in today: CSV import.

What we will not claim: we do not describe the contents, scope or mechanics of a federation dan register we could not read ourselves. Where a source was not legible, the line is not on this page.

One page per discipline

There is no “martial arts” page on the federation side. Your discipline has its own.

This page routes you onward rather than inventing a body that does not exist. Each page below carries the real detail of its discipline.

MMA · BJJ · Krav maga

No federation, no J+S route. We will not pretend otherwise.

No MMA, Brazilian jiu-jitsu or krav-maga body is a Swiss Olympic member, and none of those three disciplines is a J+S Sportart. The direct, material consequence: no J+S funding route. The administrative burden is carried entirely by the club. Plenty of vendors leave that ambiguous; we would rather write it down.

  • No federation platform to replace — you are not starting alongside a mandated system
  • No federation age grid to comply with — you define your own, section by section
  • J+S recognition does not carry over — the J+S “Ju-Jitsu” is Japanese and attached to the SJV; it does not cover BJJ
  • Dues, accounting and registrations sit with the club — that is exactly the layer Paak covers

Which Swiss MMA body would be the recognised national one, if either, remains an open question. We will not settle it on a marketing page.

One club, four sections actual institutional status
Judo section
SJV
Swiss Olympic · J+S
Karate section
Swiss Karate Federation
Swiss Olympic · J+S
BJJ section
no recognised Swiss federation
Outside J+S
MMA section
no recognised Swiss federation
Outside J+S
New · Member portal

Your members get their own space — no account, no password.

A personal secure link in every club email: schedule and call-ups, dues payable online (“Pay everything” in one payment), medical certificate upload, progression, volunteering.

Discover the member portal →

Simple, transparent pricing

Start free. Upgrade when your club grows. Pricing for non-profit sports clubs only (Art. 60 ff. Swiss Civil Code).

Nonprofit pricing
Free
0 CHF
Free forever
 
Organize your club.
  • Up to 100 members
  • 3 admins, 1 sport, 3 groups
  • Member management & CSV import
  • Sessions & attendance with RSVP
  • Emergency protocols & incidents
  • Sponsorship (3 max)
  • Staff background-check tracking (automated follow-ups)
  • Data hosted in Europe (EU), nLPD adequacy recognised
  • Member portal for every member — no account, no password
Get started free
Nonprofit pricing
Paak Pro
99 CHF / month
 
Win with data.
  • Everything in Paak One, plus:
  • Unlimited members
  • 10 admin users (+€5/seat/mo)
  • Unlimited sports & groups
  • Advanced analytics & exports
  • Live performance tracking
  • Advanced stock management
  • Sponsorship ROI & auto-renewal
  • Priority support
  • Advanced newsletter (rich editor, templates, analytics, 5,000/mo)
  • Newsletter merge fields (12 variables)
  • AGM financial report · budget · bank reconciliation · XLSX export
Start with Paak Pro

14-day free trial included

Prices incl. Swiss VAT (8.1% MWST).

Accepted payment methods

Credit Card SEPA TWINT

Frequently asked questions

Is there a Swiss martial-arts umbrella federation?

No. The only umbrella above Swiss martial arts is Swiss Olympic, and that is the umbrella of all Swiss sport, not a martial-arts body. Swiss Olympic lists ten separate combat federations, each governing its own discipline.

Is “martial arts” a J+S Sportart?

No. J+S recognises individual disciplines: Aikido, Ju-Jitsu, Judo, Karate, Kickboxing Light, Light-Contact Boxing, Ringen (wrestling), Schwingen, Wushu/Kung-Fu. Fechten (fencing) and Nationalturnen are also J+S sports. J+S participation window: 5 to 20 years.

Our club runs MMA and BJJ — is there J+S money for that?

No. MMA, Brazilian jiu-jitsu and krav maga are not J+S Sportarten, and no MMA, BJJ or krav-maga body is a Swiss Olympic member. There is no J+S funding route for those clubs. The J+S “Ju-Jitsu” is the Japanese ju-jitsu governed by the SJV — that recognition does not carry over to BJJ.

Is there one licence, ranking or dan register across disciplines?

None. Each federation runs its own. WAKO Switzerland runs Lizenz & Sport-Pass and Ranglisten; the LCBA (Light-Contact Boxing Association) publishes its own Lizenzen & Gebühren. No cross-martial-arts Swiss age grid exists either: age classes are per federation and per discipline.

Swiss Taekwondo is a Swiss Olympic member — does that mean J+S?

No, the two recognitions are independent. Swiss Taekwondo is a Swiss Olympic member federation (50 clubs) even though taekwondo is not a J+S Sportart. Never infer one from the other.

Can a single Paak club run two disciplines?

Yes. Several sections under one club, one platform, one invoice — from Paak One (2 to 3 sections), Paak Pro beyond that. Grades and age classes are tracked per discipline, because no Swiss body sits above the disciplines to unify them. Bridge in today: CSV import.

Swiss pilots open

All your disciplines, in one club.

Two federations, two licences, two age grids — but one platform and one invoice. Multi-section starts at Paak One (2 to 3 sections); beyond that, Paak Pro. A single section stays free up to 100 members.

nLPD-compatible hosting CHF + TWINT (rolling out) Free up to 100 members