Thoughts on opening a gym

About a year ago I was asked for some advice from a friend on opening a gym, we discussed it a bit and I shared some thoughts with him. After the conversation he suggested that I release a blog post about it, I liked the idea so I wrote one in broad strokes. However I never got round to completing it as I had a few other posts take precedence and then it went by the way side. I have now rediscovered it and like a good house in slight disrepair, all it need was a fresh coat or paint and some basic repairs and it was good to release.

So here are my thoughts on opening a BJJ gym, of course most of these ideas apply to any business type.


Defining success

If you are planning to open a gym (or any business venture for that matter), you really need to think about two things. The first, and the one most people do to a lesser or greater extent, is looking at logistics; such as costs, fees, equipment, space, timetables etc. The second, defining success is as, if not more, important than the first. Basically defining to yourself what success will look like gives you a goal to work towards and allows you to keep on task. Without the goal in mind it can be easy to get off track in response to other influences, which may or may not be helpful to you.

Friendship and fun is key

Running a successful gym is only possible if it is built on a large enough community to be self-sufficient. I am not necessarily saying that the bigger a gym, the more successful it is, but I am saying that for longevity you need to reach a certain critical mass. Regardless of whether your gyms focus is on Competition, MMA, Self Defence or anything else, the biggest factor that will keep it together for the long term is a positive, friendly and fun atmosphere. These things don’t mean that the work can’t be hard or that you can’t chase the podium finishes, but that building the community is the focus. So that said here are some things that are a great idea:

• Encouraging students to be positive ambassadors for Jiu Jitsu inside and outside the academy
• Trying to match your schools culture as close to your greater community as possible to avoid exclusivity
• Allow friendships to develop between your students and the greater community
• Encourage your students to respect and analyse all knowledge regardless of its source

Genuine friendship is the real key to success

Community, not Cult

Above I have mentioned the importance of investing in your community of people over specific outcomes, however there is a trap here…. In the Jiu Jitsu community as well as most of the martial arts and fitness worlds there are certain groups that have developed a fairly “cultish” mentality. I do not need
to mention any names here because we all know of at least one school or group like this. However, I will say that running your school like this may seem like a good idea as you will probably keep lots of members that feel like a community, the risk is that people only want to blindly follow leaders for so long and when “the spell breaks” you are likely not to lose more, rather than less, of your students. A few examples of things that are probably best to avoid encouraging are:

• Developing exclusive behaviours and mentality
• Trying to influence life/behaviours too much outside the academy
• Trying to prevent your students mixing with other academies
• Trying to portray others in a negative light - As my coach Thiago Stefanutti (Maromba Australia head coach) says “If Jiu Jitsu is healthy, my business is healthy”

If you have followers instead of students, you are doing it wrong.

The environment you create reflects the people you will attract (and vice versa)

This is a sensitive topic, but it is a very important one. I have discussed above the importance of the community you build in having a successful gym, but it is important to be aware of what that entails. The sad truth is that not every person is compatible with every environment; some people for whatever reason are either toxic influences or are self-serving and destructive. If your academy doesn’t have a professional, fun and friendly vibe, then you will only attract and keep the minority of students who are happy in that environment. With that in mind it is really important to be in touch with your student base and be aware of the type of people you have around. While in my case I have always tried to have a policy that Jiu Jitsu is for all, the sad truth is that in 3 years I have had to ask a few people to leave who were damaging the school. You put your heart and soul into building your academy and nothing hurts more than seeing it broken up by a destructive element.

Positive and family environments, attract positive people.

Focus on the majority not the minority.

There is a real temptation at times to put all of your effort into the gyms “Stars”, those few who are really successful in competition, or MMA etc. If your gyms focus is on competitive success then certainly attention needs to be paid to these people (and probably specific comp training needs to be added to your timetable), but remember, without a functioning gym, no one has success. While, the success of these competitors is built on their hard work, this is not possible without a training facility and large team of training partners who help to get them there. It is also important to think about what you teach in terms of the majority as well. For example, if you have one successful competitor in the class and 19 beginners, you really should be focusing much more of your time on fundamentals than on high level competition specific techniques.

Value your time, then everyone else will to.

In many cultures (and definitely Australia) there is a strange mentality that people don’t seem to like the idea of others making money and particularly in Martial Arts this is somehow seen as "selling out". I have never understood this mentality and feel that it really only hinders everyone. However I have found that the best approach is to be positive and confident in valuing yourself. For example if you are offering private lessons you need to be realistic with what you charge people and do not undercharge as the temptation often is to do. The truth is that if you put the effort into providing quality training then people will pay for it despite the cost. However if you undercharge, then people won’t see its value regardless of how good it is. Not to mention your time won’t be seen as a valuable investment and you are more likely to have people skipping lessons and wasting your time etc.

Selling private lessons is really selling yourself.

Kids

Kids are both your bread and butter and your future! You need to put a lot of effort into teaching your kids, this means either take the classes yourself or get a suitable ranked student with appropriate skills to do it. I would suggest writing or using a set curriculum for kids that spends approximately equal time on self defence techniques, competition techniques and fun physical games. Despite the fact that Jiu Jitsu has been shifting more and more towards a sport focus, it is important to remember that kids need to know how to protect themselves and also that a lot of parents sign their kids up for martial arts to learn self defence, so they will be expecting to see some very obvious self defence techniques.

Help build tomorrows adults, they will help build your gym.

Try to be cost effective

As with all businesses you need to have quality equipment and a tidy and clean gym to teach from. Having said that you don’t need to over capitalise on equipment on day one, I am sure we all want to have 160 square metres of competition grade Zebra Mats on the floor, with matching wall pads and a complete weights and heavy bag area from day one. However, the reality is that buying quality 30mm jigsaw mats is usually at the least half the costs of the zebra mats and look very neat if cleaned regularly (which they should be anyway!!!). Weights room and other extras can come as your business and needs grow.

or you know, open the most beautiful gym in the world, either way works well.

Location

Location is so important, you need to be where your market can get to you. That means parking nearby, close enough to schools etc to offer convenience for parents. Once again cost is also a factor here, you may need to sacrifice on that huge premium location you have always wanted in order to get started. Compromises like sharing a location with a fitness gym or other related business can be a cost effective way to start as long as everyone is happy with the arrangement from the start.

If your gym is too hard to get to, you may lose business....

Running a gym is really rewarding and fun, but takes a lot of work and that can be very thankless. I would suggest giving it a lot of thought before diving in, but if you go for it, I wish you the best of luck!

if the technique is wrong, the variation is irrelevant

It has been a while since I lasted posted a blog, I did have it in my mind for a while to post with strict regularity. However, sometimes I find I am feeling creative and sometimes not and when the inspiration isn’t there I would probably only produce fairly subpar content. So I figure it is best to let it be until the inspiration strikes and then work with what I have.

As is often the case my inspiration comes from teaching, as I “cast my line” for an appropriate metaphor to make a point in class, I sometimes reel in inspiration. In this case I was planning to teach two variants of a technique and I knew from past experience that certain mistakes were common. So I made a point of teaching thoroughly the fundamental principles of the technique without worrying about either setup or the particular variation of the finish.

One of my widely read posts from 2013 was called Technique: Principle vs Preference. In that article I talked about the fundamental elements that make a technique work and then the variations that can be applied in achieving these fundamental elements. I often think this way about techniques that I am planning to teach, because I believe that as long as the core is understood by everyone, then everyone will be able to do the technique regardless of physical differences or preferences.

Last night I was making the point that, the variation you choose to enter or finish your technique really has no effect on how well it will work if you don’t have the fundamentals of the technique locked in. To make this point I said to my class “If the fundamentals of the technique are not right, then the variation you choose to use is irrelevant...” I then started to teach.

The subject of last night’s class was Head/Arm chokes, I had planned to teach a variation from the top position (Kata Gatame) and a variation from head to head {a little like a combination of an Anaconda  and a Guillotine). Considering how different these techniques look at a glance I knew that I would have to be even more conscious than usual that the underlying principles were locked in. To add to this I know from experience that in the case of Kata Gatame that is it common to get some strong opinions on how to finish it.

I mentioned when discussing it that, off the top of my head I could think of 5 variations in hand grip and at least 5 variations of body position/movement. I explained that in any of the possible 25 variations that these combinations could give me “that if the fundamentals of the technique are not right, then the variation you choose to use is irrelevant...”

Jiu Jitsu aaaaannnnnd maths.....

It is not my intention in this post to teach the world to finish a Kata Gatame, I just thought of the post title while I was teaching it. So my two techniques for the night turned into three practices sessions…

1. The fundamentals of the Head/Arm itself.
2. The first version, from the Kata Gatame position.
3. The variation from the head to head position.

By the time I was finished helping tidy up details with my students on all three variations I had repeated an extension of the title of this post so many times that I just stopped the class and said it to everyone: “If the fundamentals of the technique are not right, then the variation you choose to use is irrelevant. However if the fundamentals ARE right, then the variation you choose to use is irrelevant.”

That is a concept that I have considered before, but never really put into words. It still causes some argument though as a lot of people tend to be vested in their preferred method. I genuinely think that in most cases people are either mistaking their variation for the fundamental concepts of the technique, or don’t think about technique conceptually at all.

Three variations on the finish to Kata Gatame, but the same core principles.

In my experience conceptual teaching and learning is the most effective method, however that may just suit my mentality and other methods may be better suited to others. However I challenge all coaches who read this to think about their next lesson and try to teach their techniques with an emphasis on the principles that link the techniques and make them work. If you are a student (as we all should be), then try to take your lessons on in the same way. Look for the principle “under” the move, ie. ”what is it that is making this actually work?”

I hope you try it and I hope it helps your games.