Creating a long-term fitness program in your martial arts school is not as hard as you think. Most likely, you already have one in your conventional martial arts program. All you must do is sell it differently to the adult fitness market than you would to typical prospects looking for conventional martial arts.
Fitness students want activities that will slow the aging process and improve their shape. You must be able to create a vision in students’ mind of what they could be if they trained with you for years.
When it comes to physical fitness, many people think only of cardiovascular and strength conditioning, but fitness is also balance, focus, body coordination and flexibility. Where else, but at your school, is someone able to experience such long-term health benefits?
The challenge is that most martial arts schools have no system or process to attract a large enough segment of the adult population to convince students to train long-term. If you market the multitude of health benefits in paid advertising that uses the term “martial arts” or there is a photograph of a student wearing a martial arts uniform, then you will lose a large segment of the potential adult population.
This is why you must have some type of program that will attract the adult market to your school-programs that are focused on fitness, and obtaining results in a short period of time. This is what a program, such as the Ultimate Bodyshaping Course (UBC), is capable of doing: A short, ten-week fitness course in which anyone is able to participate. This is the only way you will draw enough people to your facility to give you an opportunity to up-sell them to a long-term program.
Last month, I recommended that the best time to up-sell students is during their mid-evaluations. Five weeks into the ten-week course is when you will want to present additional programming. Your students have improved their fitness levels and are now in a peak state to talk about training options, following their ten-week course. You will also want to give them some kind of financial incentive to enroll early.
At the mid-evaluation, we ask students to complete a questionnaire about their current fitness level and what they would like to achieve in the future. With questions such as, “Which of these activities would you be willing to set goals to achieve your desired fitness level?” I then list the programs I have available.
The more activities in which they’re able to set goals, the more students you will be able to up-sell and retain.
You can also add to or modify your conventional program to accommodate adult fitness students better. We have what we call the “UBC Elite Training program,” which consists of three
elements: Elite Kickboxing, Elite Weightlifting and Elite Running.
Elite Kickboxing is a non-traditional, adult-only martial arts course. This safe, easy-to-follow program will take students step-by-step toward achieving their goal of Black Belt in American kickboxing. The course is patterned after my extensive training with the legendary Joe Lewis.
Elite Weightlifting is personal attention, motivation and results. This is a group weightlifting class where a qualified instructor gives students the personal attention they need to achieve goals in weightlifting. This program can also be combined with an Elite Strength and Conditioning class, using strength tubing, calisthenics and medicine balls.
Elite Running trains students for 5K-road races, with sunset beach runs and workouts at the park.
All for one low price! Students are able to mix and match these classes to fulfill their individual needs. Some students want to earn their Black Belts. Others want to train and go to road races with a group of people. Another group of students loves the benefits of personal attention in fitness and conditioning at a fraction of the cost of personal training.
The idea is to give students a long-term perspective on fitness training. Adults must exercise for the rest of their lives if they’re to live long and happy. Why not set a three- to four-year fitness goal? You must present your program in a way that attracts people who want the long-term benefits of fitness.
