Daytime Classes: How Do You Set Them Up?

[MadMartigan106 21]

I've been running my school full time for about 1.5 years now, after transitioning from part time. I know that the afternoon/evenings will always be "Prime Time" for MA classes, but I'm hoping to hear from those who successfully run classes during mornings or business hours.

I teach in the same building as an incredibly busy gym that offers group training sessions... but only during early mornings and business hours. I know our clienteles are different (they get the motivated fitness nuts and stay-at-home crowds), but wonder if anyone has found an in for teaching martial arts (not cardio kickboxing, etc) during those times.

I already run a class for homeschool kids, with moderate success, but am mostly wondering about the adult crowd.

Does anyone know a good angle to approach getting the stay at home or shift worker crowd?

 

[HighKick]

I've been running my school full time for about 1.5 years now, after transitioning from part time. I know that the afternoon/evenings will always be "Prime Time" for MA classes, but I'm hoping to hear from those who successfully run classes during mornings or business hours.

I teach in the same building as an incredibly busy gym that offers group training sessions... but only during early mornings and business hours. I know our clienteles are different (they get the motivated fitness nuts and stay-at-home crowds), but wonder if anyone has found an in for teaching martial arts (not cardio kickboxing, etc) during those times.

I already run a class for homeschool kids, with moderate success, but am mostly wondering about the adult crowd.

Does anyone know a good angle to approach getting the stay at home or shift worker crowd?

Privates are your best bet. But get plugged in with your towns professional organizations and home-school system(s). Get involved in the public school systems and (if possible) you local law enforcement and EMS.
Look into the factories that run three shifts and offer classes that fit their schedule. Yes, you may have to put up with some 'unusual odors' but it is a great opportunity for day classes.
Tap the business that run 24/7.

 

[skribs114 134]

It probably depends on how many adults you have in the school. My experience in TKD is that they tried to have morning classes and it just failed. There weren't many adults training (the gym was probably 90% kids, 10% adults). There was a brief period of time where we had morning classes, and during a month where I was on furlough I attended. There were often only a couple of folks there.

On the other hand, my BJJ gym is probably an even mix of kids and adults. We have a morning class at 6 AM, a noon class, and an evening class. I think the evening class is the one that gets the biggest, but noon is pretty steady, and 6 AM has some dedicated members. Often its folks who have a job that allows them to take off during lunch to train.

One thing I've noticed is that BJJ tends to have more adults that train without their family, where in TKD they prefer to train together. A lot of the dads in my BJJ gym have kids that don't train, or that aren't old enough to train yet, or have trained and already quit. Kids also rarely take the same class as their parents, except for a few of the bigger kids. In TKD, a lot of the families trained with their kids, either taking a family class, or having the kid come to the adult class. Because TKD is mostly non-contact and the drills are mostly compliant, it's a lot easier than trying to mix kids into an adult class in BJJ.

 

[Jazzpurr9]

Not so much a "how to set up" answer, but a bit of perspective from "adult" student. I'm a "lifer" with 30 years of experience in various styles but had a 3rd child at 45 and haven't been in a dojo for the last decade. With a child still in the house it just doesn't make sense for dad to be out 2-3x week to train. I have no illusion about being any good anymore, but miss the spirit of a class and my current google search history is "martial arts with daytime classes near me". Perhaps there are more dads/younger parents who have to be home at night that would welcome an opportunity to train while the kids are at school. Even better, you can cross promote your kids programs to these kids, or invite parents of current kid students to train during the day.
If you do lean toward parents or adult students who need daytime classes, I might suggest increasing the "exercise" focus of the program. Sell to those limited on time that they will be training in your art as well as working strength/conditioning/flexibility so that you become their efficient, one stop spot for training.

 

[MadMartigan106 21]

Look into the factories that run three shifts and offer classes that fit their schedule.

This is a helpful idea.

It seems like the conventional wisdom is that recreational students don't train during business hours... and that the only serious students are doing BJJ or MMA.

Looking at my local gym, I realized that there are plenty of people training through the day... they just either don't know about, or are not interested in traditional martial arts training.

I might suggest increasing the "exercise" focus of the program.

This is an area that I know to be a sticking point. I'd love to just be able to teach during the day, what I'm teaching at night... but that probably won't sell.

You're probably right that an exercise focus would be what gets people through the door. I do find it tough to have the energy for an active exercise class between teaching 5 hours of classes the night before, and going back for another 5 hours the next day. I find the body over 40 can only rally so much within a week.

 

[Gyakuto115 124]

How about advertising your classes in places where shift working patterns ate the norm? Hospitals, factories, emergency services etc. Find out the shift patterns, take an average for your start times, make it clear that shift workers are welcome to ‘bow into the class’ at any point to account for variability in shifts including split shifts. Support their possibly fragmented attendance patterns with excellent online resources, like syllabi, incremented achievement goals, short videos addressing common issues and throw in some martial arts philosophy for those who may be that way inclined.

 

[Leam_Hall]

Lots of good ideas, and I'd be remiss if I didn't mention Josh Kaufman's "The Personal MBA" as the best business read. Think about what you're offering, because it probably isn't traditional martial arts. It's exercise, camaraderie, self-defense, competition, self-discipline, and personal achievement wrapped up in a sweaty gi. Look at what you're providing, not what you're teaching, and find markets for those things. Seniors can take day-time classes, as can stay at home parents. Maybe have an intro class and look the other way on payment plans for someone who just lost their job and needs to fight depression more than street thugs. Lots of people work remotely and can set their own schedule, you just need to market something to them that they want more than sitting at home watching videos or playing games.

 

[HighKick]

It seems like the conventional wisdom is that recreational students don't train during business hours... and that the only serious students are doing BJJ or MMA.

Looking at my local gym, I realized that there are plenty of people training through the day... they just either don't know about, or are not interested in traditional martial arts training.

'Serious' is a very hard term to nail down. Some of the hardest training people I have ever known were 'recreational' students. But when they were on the mat, they were infectiously competitive. So, serious has less to do with the style listed on the front window and more to do with the training environment offered. Yes, BJJ and MMA are the hot names right now, but I would aver less than 1/2 of the schools/gyms are setup or train for longevity. You get the 'hulk smash' folks who burn out quick and a lot of people fade off due to work/life conflicts and injury.
I have said it for over a decade, a school/gym that is in it for the long haul must have at least three sub-systems of training, kids, teens/adults, and competitive. I mean real competitive, not just going to inter-school tournaments and friendlies. And you need to have a realistic conduit for the exceptional to keep going to bigger competitions in AAU & Olympics. Real Olympics, not tournament hosts who ripoff the name.

I would bet the people you see at the gym are either seasoned martial artists who train alone or 'wannabe's'.