Running Intros & Classes for Adults- Mark Slane
Posted by Member Solutions on Tue, Apr 12, 2011 @ 08:16 AM
I get calls nearly every week from gym owners asking me how we do so well with the adult market at our gyms in Ohio. We sign an average of 44 adults each month, do between 50 and 100 adult intros every month, and have three gyms with 637 members ... 553 of which are adults. I tell them that we have a system that works and we don’t deviate from it!
Once our marketing gets adults in the door, we must “wow” them. Here is the framework for our self-defense intros and classes. While some of these tips are specific to self defense, you can apply the concepts to any adult fitness program.
1. Make sure that you are teaching real-world techniques and are responding to real-world challenges.
Adults aren’t looking for Martial Arts, and the ones who are have already found you! We aren’t competing against other Martial Arts schools. We are competing with Gold’s Gym, L.A. Fitness, Lifestyles Fitness and the other big box gyms. Like I tell anyone who will listen: If you ask 1,000 people in your area if they are more interested in learning (insert your style here), or in losing 10 pounds, 985 of them answer “losing the ten pounds!”
2. Do NOT run an intro on one day and have prospects come back for a class on another.
We run a thirty-minute group intro and a class with a T-shirt for $19. If you run an intro one day and the class on another, the potential member might think that the intro is like a class, not see much of a workout, and not come back. Also, never just throw a new person into a class with no intro. They will feel overwhelmed and stupid. Overwhelmed and stupid doesn’t get you a sign up!
3. Use the intro to show some techniques and also to sell!
In self-defense classes, you are showing prospects how easy what you are teaching is, how effective it would be in the real world, how logical the approach is, and how fast it can be learned.
Women are hearing that what you teach doesn’t rely on brute strength or size and that it will be effective for them. Big guys are hearing how awesome they’ll be because of their strength and size. Everyone is getting a feeling of accomplishment.
At Ohio Krav Maga & Fitness, we talk about the founder, how and why he designed the system, how it is used by the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) and is the most battle-tested self-defense system in the World. We explain that in the IDF, they have both men and women, ages 18 to 55, that everyone is in the IDF (not just the athletes), and that they only have soldiers in boot camp for six weeks. Therefore, anything they teach has to be easy to learn, easy to remember and can’t rely on size, brute strength or athletic ability.
This all translates well to us as citizens today. We have prospective members do several combatives and show them a choke defense. We then talk about how class is fast-paced and to please take it easy in class and pace themselves. We tell them that it is our job to get them into shape and not to push it today. Again, the intro is used to show some of the techniques and also to sell the method and put it into real-world context.
4. At Ohio Krav Maga & Fitness, we give a ten-minute break after the intro, and then start classes that are non-stop workouts. Our members attend class in T-shirts and shorts. They don’t call me “Sir”, and they don’t bow. Again, adults aren’t looking for Martial Arts. They want to be treated like adults. We aren’t trying to instill an ancient code of ethics, we are trying to make people safe. The cool thing is that we still get the best people … very respectful, humble and hard working!
For our classes, we start with a 7-minute dynamic warm-up, then 10 to 20 minutes for combative (punches, kicks, knees, elbows, etc.), 10 to 20 minutes for self-defense techniques (choke defense, bear hug defense, etc.) and last but not least, a 4 to 8 minute drill. Classes are 45 to 55 minutes.
I get comments that 50 minutes doesn’t sound very long, until they do the class. After class nobody ever seems to think they are too short! We keep class moving. I tell the instructors that it is way better to under talk than over talk.
5. To get a great workout in class, create great energy and a better experience for all, we never teach techniques alone. We teach a philosophy of going hard at all times.
Teach to go until the threat is no longer a threat. It is a major sin to just work a technique. The philosophy we teach is that if someone needs hit, they need hit as hard as we can, and if a person needs hit once, they need hit fifty times. All combatives on the lesson plan are taught the same way.
We’ll take our punching lesson plan as an example to show how we make class such a fast-paced workout. First we show how to punch correctly. The members don’t punch to the air (this was done in warm-ups) but start hitting focus mitts right away. We will punch a few times to the mitt working form. We then have the mitt holder move around and when they hold out a mitt, it is hit immediately to work on reactions. Then we punch twice when the mitts are shown. We rapidly move to four punches, then six. Then it’s six punches an elbow and then grab the mitt holder in a clinch and throw 4 or 5 knees and front kicks. We then switch mitts over for the other side to do the same.
The point is … this is how we work ALL combatives.
It is boring, and not showing a good self-defense philosophy to stand in one place, punch for a while, and then go on to another part of the lesson plan. For self-defense training, if the member is ever attacked, the training will come out of them. Those that worked single techniques will stand and throw single punches. If our members are ever attacked, we want them to move, strike without stopping and clinch and knee the attacker until they are safe. You can also see what a workout this is compared to single punches to a target.
6. Don’t forget the drill at the end of the class!
If you are teaching self-defense without putting techniques under exhaustion and stress, you are not teaching self-defense, you are teaching self-defense techniques ... there is a difference. Drills are just 1 minute of going crazy! We will have the members, for example, punch mitts as hard as they can until we yell “switch”. They will then sprint across the room bursting through two pad holders trying to block them until they get to the third pad holder where they will clinch and knee as hard and fast as they can until we yell “switch”. They then sprint back to the mitt holder and repeat this process over until the time is up. This builds stamina, shows them what a real fight would be like and puts whatever they learned under stress and exhaustion. This is a must to make people safer!
In summary, give adults a great workout in your classes. Use your intros to reinforce real-world techniques that address real-world challenges. Most adults aren’t looking for Martial Arts but almost all are looking to get into better shape, and lose weight. And for self defense, as they get into shape they are also learning skills that could save their lives some day. Let them have fun and see results, and your adult program can’t help but grow!
Mark Slane is a retired firefighter who has been in the Martial Arts for 28 years. He is a 4th dan in taekwondo, a second degree black belt in Krav Maga and has owned Martial Arts schools since 1993. He is the head instructor for the United States Krav Maga Association, the owner of Ohio Krav Maga & Fitness and is the author of Krav Maga for Women: Self Defense for the Real World. OKM&F has had one of the fastest-growing adult programs in the nation over the past three years.
Read Mark Slane’s related article: How To: Growing Your Adult Program.
