ON the mat, OFF the mat

In your academy, you have two main areas of responsibility.

Everything that happens ON the mat

Everything that happens OFF the mat

Most people get into the business of owning a martial arts academy because they LOVE being on the mat. 

Nobody says, “I really love setting appointments, signing people up for things, clerical work, and follow up… so I think I’ll open a martial arts gym.”

It’s EASY to get owners to start having instructor meetings for their coaching staff because they usually LOVE training! It’s fun to spend extra time rolling or sparring with other coaches. Jiu-Jitsu guys go to seminar after seminar with BJJ superstars or watch youtube videos all day to improve their game & get better. Then, they bring that info back to the academy so they can work on different techniques together.

But very few martial arts business owners elect to watch videos on how to get better at setting appointments, and even fewer of them are scheduling weekly or even monthly training sessions to work on this other area of responsibility on their business.

But ultimately, BOTH of these skills, BOTH of these areas of responsibility require equal training and attention in order for your academy to grow. If you only work on your skills on the mat, you’ll have great martial arts, but nobody will ever know about it and you won’t have many new members. If you only work on appointment setting and sales, but your martial arts training is garbage, you’ll sign up a ton of people, but nobody is going to stay & your academy won’t grow.

ON THE MAT and OFF THE MAT!

These two areas you HAVE TO work and improve together, at the same rate, in order to have a successful academy.

So how do you do it?

ON THE MAT- continue to have instructor meetings where you’re working on technique to make sure the “ON” the mat stuff is solid. But, you can’t stop there.

OFF THE MAT - If you want your sales & appointment setter team to crush it, you MUST set up weekly, or at minimum, monthly training sessions that focus solely on improving your appointment setting and sales skills. 

If you personally aren’t very good at appointment setting or sales, no worries! Set up a time for all of you to watch training videos like the Accelerator training courses together! But just like you dedicate your time to get better at jiu jitsu, it’s absolutely critical that you work with your team to improve your skills OFF the mat.

IF you truly want to improve, you cannot be afraid to be awkward or uncomfortable. As with any technique or new combination, you don’t get better just because you saw it once on youtube. You have to practice and implement. When you’re working to improve your appointment setting and sales skills, after you watch the videos, you have to practice & implement.

With things going back to normal and people struggling with the extra 2020 pounds, we know 2022 is going to be a great year for your school!

Talk to us on our Instagram page and we'll see which of our programs can best help your academy goals!