One rule change actually mattered this week, and it did not happen in the United States. On 1 September the United Kingdom deleted the supervision exemption from its legal definition of regulated activity with children — which means the teenage assistant who has been running your kids’ warm-up under a head instructor’s eye is no longer exempt from a barred-list check. Everything else on this week’s list is the same story in different clothing: money is moving toward operators who can prove they run a real business, and away from operators who cannot.
Eight items below. I will tell you plainly: on martial-arts-specific business news, this was a thin week. So this is eight real stories rather than twelve padded ones.
1. Britain removed the supervision exemption. Your assistant instructors are now in scope.
As of 1 September 2026, the rule that kept sufficiently supervised paid staff and volunteers outside the legal definition of regulated activity with children has been removed under the Crime and Policing Act 2026. The Disclosure and Barring Service says work counts as frequent enough to qualify if it happens “on more than 3 days in any 30-day period” or once overnight between 2am and 6am. Days are aggregated across every setting a person volunteers in. It covers England, Wales and Northern Ireland, and the DBS has confirmed it applies across sport, charities and youth organisations — not just schools. Volunteer checks are free of charge, as is the DBS Update Service for volunteers.
The DBS published a “common misconceptions” note on 25 August, last updated 4 September, addressing nine misreadings of the change — including the assumption that every role involving children automatically becomes regulated activity. It does not. Each role has to be assessed individually.
Stephen: Read the sentence that everyone is going to skip. One compliance firm put it correctly — 1 September is “an eligibility change date, not a deadline.” Nobody is going to fine you on Monday. That is exactly why most owners will do nothing, and why the ones who do something will be the only ones holding a clean file when a parent, an insurer or a solicitor asks. I have said for forty years that in the kids’ market you cannot be too conservative. This is that sentence turning into law.
2. August CPI: 3.4% annual, 0.4% for the month
The Bureau of Labor Statistics released August CPI on 11 September. The all-items index rose 0.4% for the month on a seasonally adjusted basis and 3.4% over the 12 months ending August. Shelter rose 0.3% for the month and 3.0% over the year. Services less energy services also rose 3.0% year over year. Food away from home was up 3.4%.
Stephen: Shelter up 3% is your rent. Services up 3% is your payroll and your insurance. If your tuition has not moved in eighteen months, you have taken a quiet pay cut and called it loyalty to your families. Here’s reality: price is a value problem, not a market problem. The question is never “can my market afford more,” it is “am I worth more.” Average student value of $250 to $300 a month is achievable in almost any market in the developed world. If yours is $100, inflation is not your problem.
3. Retro Fitness signs a multi-unit Utah deal — with investors, not operators
Athletech News reported on 11 September that Retro Fitness signed a multi-unit agreement with the Kerry Holt Group, partnering with Greg Harris and James Davidson, who already own and operate the brand’s Cedar City, Utah location. Retro declined to specify the unit count or which additional states are included. The notable detail is structural: the franchisor is offering management agreements for investors who want ownership without day-to-day operations. CEO Andrew Alfano has previously stated a goal of more than 1,000 gyms nationally plus international locations.
Stephen: Pay attention to who the franchisors are recruiting now. It is not the passionate black belt with $80,000 and a dream — it is capital groups who will hire an operator. That is your competition for the good end-cap in the good shopping centre, and they will outbid you on rent without blinking. Your advantage is that they cannot buy what you have: a relationship with 180 families and a reason for the mother of a seven-year-old to trust you. Stop competing on facility and start competing on that.
4. Shoot 360 raises $7 million to put tech-driven youth training inside big-box gyms
Athletech News reported on 10 September that Shoot 360 raised $7 million from COPA Innovation Laboratories and COPA Venture Capital. The connected basketball-training company has more than 65 locations in the U.S. and internationally and is expanding through both franchising and partnerships that convert basketball courts inside existing big-box clubs into tech-powered training facilities. Three Bay Area City Sports Club sites recently added Shoot 360 courts through a partnership with the Golden State Sports Academy, with further pilots in Oregon and Washington. Founder and president Craig Moody said the investment lets the company “accelerate our technology, and give more athletes the ability to understand their progress in real time.” The partnership was announced on 8 September.
Stephen: This is the item on the list that is actually about you. That $7 million is aimed squarely at the same parent, the same Tuesday at 4:30, and the same discretionary dollar you are trying to get. And notice what they are selling: measurable progress the child and the parent can see in real time. That is the oldest idea in our business — a belt every three months, a stripe the child earns and shows Mum in the car — and they have rebuilt it with sensors and a screen. If your school still asks a parent to wait three years for a milestone worth celebrating, someone with venture funding is going to eat your lunch with your own recipe.
5. Planet Fitness rebrands: 21.5 million members, $10 a month
Planet Fitness announced a refreshed visual identity and enhanced mobile app on 9 September — new logo, updated purple-and-yellow palette, custom font, and an app that now logs weights, reps and sets, syncs to wellness platforms, and shows a real-time crowd meter. Chief Marketing Officer Brian Povinelli said the goal was to “continue to reflect our welcoming and supportive ethos while also allowing for a more seamless and flexible presentation of the brand.” As of 30 June 2026 the company reported 21.5 million members across 2,930 clubs in eight countries and regions. The release referenced a limited-time $1-down, $10-a-month offer. Rollout runs from this month through the first quarter of 2027.
Stephen: 21.5 million members at ten dollars. Every year some owner tells me he has to price against the gym down the street. That is a stupid statement on the face of it — you cannot win a race to ten dollars and you should not want to. What you can do is be the only place in town where a child is known by name, corrected by an adult who cares, and given a goal he can reach by Christmas. Nobody has ever cancelled a $10 gym membership in tears. Build the thing people cry about leaving.
6. Xponential Fitness names a new CFO while the sale review continues
Athletech News reported on 11 September that Xponential Fitness appointed Jennifer Ryu as Chief Financial Officer effective 19 October, replacing Robert Julian, who moves to a consulting role. The company remains in the review of strategic alternatives it initiated on 6 April 2026, with Jefferies LLC engaged as financial advisor and a sale, merger or other transaction all on the table. Earlier this year the boutique fitness franchisor settled with the FTC for $17 million and with more than 500 current and former franchisees for $22.75 million — $39.75 million combined, with no admission of liability — over allegations it misled franchisees about financial projections, studio profitability and the financial health of certain brands. The same reporting put its franchise pipeline at roughly 1,590 studios, down from about 3,000 in 2022–23.
Stephen: Five hundred franchisees who believed a pro-forma. This is the Bozo Explosion with a stock ticker — people selling a business model who never had to make one work on a Tuesday night in February. If you are thinking about buying into any system, martial arts included, do exactly one thing before you sign: get the Item 19, then call six current franchisees the franchisor did not give you, and ask them what they actually netted last year. Not revenue. Netted. If the system will not let you make those calls, you have your answer.
7. VASA Fitness puts HYROX training zones in 10 of its 72 clubs
VASA Fitness announced a HYROX enterprise partnership on 10 September, launching at 10 of its 72 locations across Colorado, Oklahoma, Utah, Arizona and Illinois. Members get access to HYROX-style equipment — wall-ball targets, sleds, medicine balls, battle ropes — and a training environment for competition preparation. CEO Michael Osanloo said the partnership gives “members another powerful way to get stronger.” HYROX Chief Growth Officer Douglas Gremmen said it gives members “the tools, space, and local support to thrive.”
Stephen: A big-box chain just bolted a goal-and-event structure onto a commodity membership. Why? Because retention is relationships and goals, and they finally noticed. HYROX is doing for adult fitness what a belt system has always done for us: it gives a grown adult a date on the calendar and a reason to keep paying. Look at your adult programme this week and answer honestly — what is the next thing your 38-year-old adult student is working toward, and does she know the date?
8. Curves: +7.5% membership, and the reason is not the equipment
In a 10 September piece, Curves reported 7.5% year-on-year membership growth across a network of more than 3,000 locations in 42 countries, and attributed it to community rather than facility — 30-minute circuits, one-to-one onboarding consultations with a certified coach, and coaches specifically trained to understand changing female bodies across life stages. Paige Littlejohns, Sales Director of Curves Europe, said “community sits at the very core of Curves success.” Franchise investment starts from £45,750 including equipment and technology.
Stephen: Note the mechanism, not the marketing word. A one-to-one onboarding consultation with a coach in the first week. That is an Info Call and a first-lesson process by another name, and it is worth more than every piece of equipment on your floor. Most schools I look at have no organised intake at all — the new student is handed a uniform and pointed at the back row. Then the owner blames the market when she quits in week five.
What I’d do about it this week
- List every adult and teenager who touches your kids’ classes — paid, unpaid, assistant, demo team parent, the 17-year-old who spots on Thursdays. Next to each name, write the date of their last criminal-records check and whether it included a children’s barred-list check. If you are in England, Wales or Northern Ireland, do this before Friday. If you are anywhere else, do it anyway, because your jurisdiction is coming.
- Raise your tuition or justify why you didn’t. Shelter is up 3% and services are up 3%. Either your price moved or your margin shrank. Pick one on purpose rather than by accident.
- Put a date on the next milestone for every student. Every child and every adult should be able to name what they are testing for and roughly when. If they cannot, that is not a curriculum problem, it is a communication problem, and it is the cheapest retention fix you will ever make.
- Build a real first-week process. One scheduled one-to-one conversation with the new student and the parent inside the first seven days. Curves is growing 7.5% a year on exactly this.
- If you are looking at a franchise, make the six phone calls. Current franchisees, chosen by you, asked what they netted. Xponential’s 500 settlement claimants all skipped that step.
Stephen Oliver, MBA, 10th Degree Black Belt
