School enrollment?

SAMURAI SPIRIT

Blue Belt
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First question is what do you believe is the total enrollment of your school? By that I do not mean people on the mat at any given time but the total enrollment. Secondly, do you think schools with small enrollment limit the number of training partners you meet and therefore limit you game? Please comment.
 
We have maybe 20-30 adults tops. Kids probably similar amount.

Yes it limits your game. The more you're exposed to the better. To supplement I go to a lot of open mats of other schools.

For example, I am a brown belt but nobody does any leglock meta at my school. I'm planning on moving to a 10thp school and I'm sure I'll get leglocked into oblivion for at least 6 months.

I do what I can to also work my stand up but nobody does stand up at my school. I'm sure I'll also get doubled out the building for a while too as 10thp seems to attract a lot of wrestlers.
 
My old team Checkmat - Over 200
My old team 10th Planet Oceanside - Over 70
My new team Cobra Kai - Over 90

I have been on teams with less than 50. Definitely not ideal
 
We are about 60 adults in our club. Right now I can only go to the days class where we are about 20 regulars.

The level is very good but I roll a lot with the same guys over and over again. So they know my stuff and I know their stuff, it forces me to try new techniques to surprise them instead of honing my craft.

Everytime I can go to the night class I don't make eye contact with my ''day class'' friends so I can roll with new people

We are working hard to get over 75 people, that would help a lot to have more dynamic open mats
 
50 kids
75 adults, but many of them are infrequent, and morning and evening people rarely intermix. It certainly limits development IMO. It hurts us at tournaments especially since the larger schools have so many styles at each belt level. Smaller schools are better for hobbyists and non competitors since there's more access to the instructors and fewer steroid freaks.

Rolling with the same people daily gets a little boring, so trying different techniques works like the other guy said.
 
I think my school is around 60 adults. No clue how many kids are there. I am sure that I would get to experience more diversity in partners at a bigger school.

I have visited some big schools and I didn't like it. I'm not sure how much attention the instructors can give students when there are 100 people on the mat in a day class.
 
I just opened my gym two weeks ago today. I'm at 38 members and counting. I'm signing up an average of 2-3 people a day. But to answer your other question, it's very limiting. I can't sign guys up quick enough to fill the classes just yet, so most classes have been averaging about 4-10 guys. I'm thinking we'll have to double our enrollment before we start seeing really packed classes, but I've trained at gyms that were this small permanently, and it sucks. My first instructor was really hard on people, and tried to make them quit. He wanted to weed out people who weren't tough enough to train at his place. After a couple of months, you've gotten so used to rolling with everyone you just know their tricks and don't develop new defenses. Needless to say, I got out of that place.
 
My instructor has changed his business model over the years to fit the type of people that are coming in. When I started 6 years ago we had a good mixture of competitors and hobbyists. Now we don't get a lot of people that want to compete regularly so we end up with a lot of hobbyists. His approach to teaching is now more laid back because hobbyists were quitting when the classes were more intense.
 
When you first start out is when you need the most individual attention. Then there comes a critical tipping point at purple belt where you have a pretty good idea of what's happening, and need more training partners to try shit out on. Having a small school (or a large school that has some sort of mentorship program for newbies to be paired with upper ranks, and/or upper ranks that invest a lot in newbies) is a boon for this first period. Having a large school is a boon for the second period.

I started at my gym when it had maybe a couple dozen people, now it's up to 200. Got to enjoy the best of both worlds. At 200 people, you either compete and earn the right to be selfish, or if you're recreational you help out the white/blues with individual attention. Seems like it works.
 
I just opened my gym two weeks ago today. I'm at 38 members and counting. I'm signing up an average of 2-3 people a day. But to answer your other question, it's very limiting. I can't sign guys up quick enough to fill the classes just yet, so most classes have been averaging about 4-10 guys. I'm thinking we'll have to double our enrollment before we start seeing really packed classes, but I've trained at gyms that were this small permanently, and it sucks. My first instructor was really hard on people, and tried to make them quit. He wanted to weed out people who weren't tough enough to train at his place. After a couple of months, you've gotten so used to rolling with everyone you just know their tricks and don't develop new defenses. Needless to say, I got out of that place.

Congratulations on the new gym.

Any tips on how you sign 2-3 people per day.
 
Probably about 25 people on the books, but 16 is the most we've ever had at one time on the mats.
I agree with what others have said about rolling with the same people over and over.
The other side to that is we are a close knit group.
I've trained at bigger places, places with 50 people in the mat. Didn't like it. Nothing wrong with it, just didn't work for me.
 
There are pluses and minuses to both large and small classes.

Large class= more sparring partners but less 1on 1 time with the head instructor

Small class = more 1 on 1 time with head instructor but less sparring partners.
 
ask someone from morning class, theyll tell you their gym sucks only 10-15 people

ask someone from night class, theyll tell you their gym is too packed for the mat space with 40-50 people

small enrollment doesnt matter as much as experience of training partners, can have 50 whitebelts in class and 10 brown/black/puple belts in class, everyone with proper functioning brain should choose the 2nd option.
 
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