Your Walls Should Sell the Program: Martial Arts School Signage That Keeps Students
On one of our recent coaching calls, a school owner picked up her laptop and walked us around her school. Inside the front door, right where students go to put their shoes away, she had a row of vision sheets on the mirror, every one with a child’s photo on it. Behind the counter were signs. Around the top of the walls was a line of names: every student who had signed up for black belt training. There was a board of past MVP winners, a “meet our staff” display with each instructor’s rank, and a TV screen running upcoming events.
Then she turned the camera around, and I asked everybody on the call one question: does this open your eyes to what your school should look like?
Because I see a lot of pictures of schools. And a lot of them have blank walls.
Your Walls Are Talking Whether You Like It or Not
Martial arts school signage is not decoration. It is the part of your program that keeps teaching when nobody is talking. A parent sitting in the lobby for 45 minutes twice a week reads everything on those walls, and so does every student waiting for class. Over a year, that’s a lot of reading.
So what are they reading? If the answer is nothing, you’ve wasted the best advertising space you’ll ever have. If the answer is a dragon, a poster of a famous fighter or some other picture that doesn’t mean anything to them, you’ve wasted it too. Put something up there that is going to motivate them.
What Belongs on the Wall
Here is what I’d want to see in every school:
- “We are a black belt school.” This one goes above the mirrors, where everybody sees it every class. It tells every family that you are not here to teach them month to month or year to year. Nobody goes to a university to be a freshman. They go to get their degree.
- Short black belt quotes. “A black belt is a white belt who never quit.” “Discipline is the bridge between goals and accomplishment.” “Leadership is not a position or title. It’s an action and example.” “Will it be easy? No. Worth it? Absolutely.” Put them on the walls and on the counter where students pick up their attendance cards.
- The names of your future black belts. Every student who commits to black belt training goes up on the wall. When you run out of wall, keep going around the corner.
- Your black belt instructors. Students should see who made it, and that people like them made it.
- The next black belt test date, with photos of the students who are going to promote. A school owner who visited our Thornton school told me that was the thing that impressed him most.
- Vision sheets and character sheets. The students’ own goals, in their own handwriting, with their own photos.
- Your MVP winners. Recognition on the wall is worth more than you’d think.
- “Meet our staff.” Each instructor’s name, photo and rank, so parents get to know who is teaching their kids.
- A screen with upcoming events. Testing dates, save-the-dates, special classes. Keep it current.
You see how the school sells the program for you? Before you or your staff ever sit down with a family to talk about black belt, the walls have already been talking about it for months.
Turn a Sign Into a Lesson
Here’s the part most owners miss. The signs are not just for the parents in the lobby. They are a teaching tool for your instructors.
I hear it all the time from newer instructors: “I don’t know what to say for the black belt talk.” Well, read the signs. That’s what they’re there for.
It goes like this. In the middle of class, point to a sign and ask, “Has everybody seen this? Who wants to read it for me?” Somebody reads it. Then you ask, “Who can tell me what that means?” They’ll take a shot at it, and usually they’ll get close. You say, “That’s pretty close. Let me be a little more specific,” and then you explain it.
And don’t stop at what the words mean. Explain what that sign has to do with them reaching black belt. What does “a black belt is a white belt who never quit” have to do with the student who’s thinking about skipping class next week? Connect it to them. That’s two minutes, and every instructor on your floor can do it on day one.
Why This Comes Before Any Renewal Conversation
When an owner tells me nobody wants to renew, the first thing I want to know is what those families have been looking at for the last six months. If the walls are blank, nobody has talked about black belt in class, and there are no vision sheets, then the first time that family hears the words “black belt program” is when you’re asking them for a commitment. Of course they say they’ll think about it.
When the walls, the instructors and the class itself have been saying black belt from the first week, the conversation is different. They already believe it. You’re not selling them something new. You’re asking them to keep going on a path they’ve been looking at every time they walked in the door.
So walk into your school tomorrow like you’ve never seen it before. Stand where a parent sits. Look at what they look at. Then go fix your walls.
Questions School Owners Ask
What signs should a martial arts school have on its walls?
Start with “We are a black belt school” above the mirrors, then add short black belt quotes, the names of students committed to black belt, your black belt instructors, the next test date, student vision sheets, MVP winners and a staff board with each instructor’s rank.
How do instructors use signage in class?
Point to a sign, have a student read it, ask the class what it means, then explain it and connect it to reaching black belt. It gives newer instructors something to say and keeps the black belt message in every class.
Does wall signage really affect student retention?
Signage alone won’t keep a student, but it does part of the preparation. Families who have been reading about black belt every week are far more ready for a black belt commitment than families seeing the idea for the first time.
Grand Master Jeff Smith is the first PKA World Light-Heavyweight Kickboxing Champion, who defended the title seven times and retired 32–1 with 16 knockouts. He earned his black belt under Grand Master Jhoon Rhee in 1969 and served as Senior Vice President of the Jhoon Rhee Institute from 1970 to 1985. He is Chief of Instruction for Mile High Karate and co-author, with Grand Master Stephen Oliver, of Extraordinary Teaching. Read more from the Martial Arts Professional columnists.
