Started my own MMA gym, need help!

hey,

Where are you located??? Have you hired any legit instructors?? I know a few BJJ BB's and pro fighters that are looking to start their own place. Would you be willing to be affiliated with an established gym?? Hit me with PM.

Good luck the place looks great.
 
I have read the thread with interest since I was at Bragg betweeen 2004 until a few months ago.

A couple of thoughts -

You have to get the instructor situation nailed down. I think this is key. This may have changed and I missed it. Do you have a purple belt teaching classes and a black belt that sometimes helps out? That's going to be the No. 1 factor for me to pay money. Is the instructor any good? Can I learn from him? Is he really teaching, or there to train himself and sometimes hands out pointers? You want one that really teaches. People that make improvements will stay members, sign contracts, and keep coming back month after month. If it's just a mat to roll around with your friends and no proper instruction, I can do that for free at Ritz Epps.

In your marketing, I think you should emphasise that beginners are welcome. Believe it or not, there are lots of Joes (that's what we call soldiers, btw) that would like to get into MMA but think it's only for serious competitors. Lots of folks I think are intimidated by Team Roc and think it's a pro-level camp. Let everyone know that all skill sets are welcome at your place. No experience necessary, you know.

Get your flyers up in all the gyms on post and the minimall and Airborne PX. There are enough young guys in the 82nd to keep your business going.

Good luck. I am interested in seeing the place and will come by when I'm in town soon.
 
have you tried speaking to the pyhsical training instructors on the base you mentioned maybe they could advertise your mma classes in there gym, i know when i was in the forces someone did the same thing and it got a lot of lads down there,i'd pretty much try everthing from handing out flyers to getting a cheap website like rbun said, try and get it in the local papers(if there are any) but don't give up dude, you'll get there!!!!!!
 
Sentinel,
I am stationed at Bragg and am interested in training at your place. I sent you a PM.
 
I can't believe you started this thread...

I hope you have a decent BJJ instructor by now. It's one thing to have a club or something, but its an entirely different to have a whole gym setup and people signing up and paying dues when you HAVE NO LEADERSHIP ABILITY WHATSOEVER. you have no experience. you have no business running a school.

You make McDojo's look good.

Why are you even doing this? There's already a legitimate mma school there. Team ROC is in Fayetteville.

You have no legitimacy at all, and I hope everyone here calls you on it.
 
Sentinel.MMA said:
We don't really have any instructors, I know a decent amount, but like I said i'm not qualified to teach anything and have never fought. I wouldn't want to be a mcdojo. I prefer to leave it as a training facility. I also am clueless when it comes to websites, I don't even know where to start. I had T-shirts made though. I will post pics.
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Calling your place a McDojo is not doing justice to people who actually train at McDojo's and have skills.

I'm offended you're even allowed to post this ridiculous bullshit here and I'll flame you until my fingers get tired of typing.
 
Does your facility have signs on the outside, so that people will know it is a mma school. My school is a warehouse with a couple of independent owned businesses around it. And has no real visable sign there. I drove by my school a million times and did not know it even existed. Until I had made contact with them and decided to train.

I mean no disrespect, but you have to find qualified teachers to help you train your students.
Fighters and ex fighters, who are known around your town or state. That will help draw in studnets to your facility.

At my school our teachers are atleast brown belt jiu-jitsu guys, and fighters. And one of them is a certified cross fit instructor.

Our place is little your place is alot nicer than ours. But what made me wanna train there are the qualified teachers.
 
I did not read all 34 pages so this may be a repeat of what others may have said but I will give you my opinion as a perspective student. I am a beginner. I have never trained other than some backyard stuff I used to do with friends years ago. I have recently decided that I really want to start training MMA/JJ. If I found out about your place I would for sure stop by and check it out and see that you are dedicated to what you are doing and you are providing a very nice place to train with tons of potential. But after finding out that there are no trainers I would most likely not sign up unless you were the ONLY game around. And I mean within an hour or a little more drive from where I lived. I would rather train an hour away with real instructors than at your place. That is not meant to be offensive so please don't take it that way. I am just letting you know how people new to the sport are likely going to think. I know that belts and ranks really don't mean a whole lot if the person training knows their stuff but at the same time if a school advertises that the instructors are black belts in such and such that just gives people a certain impression and a better feeling about the quality of training they will receive.

With that being said, the first couple pages I did read you did not give yourself much credit. You need to do the opposite. You need to market yourself as a good trainer and a black belt in whatever (even if you think it is a BS discipline) and reach out to appeal to what people are looking for in a martial arts school. I am sure MA schools are like gyms, you will make more money from the people that are wannabes that come in for a couple months and never return rather than the handful of hardcores that will be there every week rain or shine. That is how I see it. Maybe I don't know what I am talking about but that is my opinion and I hope that is helps at least a tiny bit. So even if you don't get a real instructor you need to at least promote yourself as an instructor.
 
Nubster said:
With that being said, the first couple pages I did read you did not give yourself much credit. You need to do the opposite. You need to market yourself as a good trainer and a black belt in whatever (even if you think it is a BS discipline) and reach out to appeal to what people are looking for in a martial arts school. I am sure MA schools are like gyms, you will make more money from the people that are wannabes that come in for a couple months and never return rather than the handful of hardcores that will be there every week rain or shine. That is how I see it. Maybe I don't know what I am talking about but that is my opinion and I hope that is helps at least a tiny bit. So even if you don't get a real instructor you need to at least promote yourself as an instructor.
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You're a fool with horrible advice. There are people in that area who actually know what they are doing (I think) and he will be branded as a joke for as long as he's there if he were to pull a stunt like that.

The only thing he has going for him at this point is his honesty. If here were to get someone who knows what they are doing as a teacher, he might be able to turn it into something (though I think his intentions are still bullshit). Not if he tries to pass himself off as something he isn't. He definitely does not want to do that.

Some real smart people in this thread...
 
Yeah and your a tool with nothing beneficial to add so STFU.

I don't mean to lie to people, I mean to not put himself down like he has done here and to put himself out there as a capable trainer, if he feels in fact that he is.
 
Nubster said:
Yeah and your a tool with nothing beneficial to add so STFU.

I don't mean to lie to people, I mean to not put himself down like he has done here and to put himself out there as a capable trainer, if he feels in fact that he is.
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He isn't a capable trainer you dumb fuck, whether he thinks he is or not. He has no experience in ANYTHING. Want to learn from him? I don't give a shit, he can teach you fuk sang do for all I care because we already know you're a noob and if anyone doesn't belong here, its you.

And no shit i have nothing beneficial to add. Anyone who is giving this guy advice needs to reconsider what people like this are really doing for the sport. It'd be one thing if there were no where else to train, or if this was just a club. But this guy is obviously trying to buy his way INTO OUR SPORT.

He should not be supported in any way at this point, unless its to tell him to get a real instructor.
 
Not until about a year after TUF 2 was when Jackson's had a big gym i used to train there and my bedroom was just as big as it it was small as hell but they still had Joey Villasenor,Diego Sanchez,Rashad Evans,Keith Jardine,Damico Page all in that tiny place.What im saying is size Doesnt MATTER AT ALL.
 
website, advertising, try to bring in guest teacher to get awareness and buzz perhaps
 
DropBows said:
He isn't a capable trainer you dumb fuck, whether he thinks he is or not. He has no experience in ANYTHING. Want to learn from him? I don't give a shit, he can teach you fuk sang do for all I care because we already know you're a noob and if anyone doesn't belong here, its you.

And no shit i have nothing beneficial to add. Anyone who is giving this guy advice needs to reconsider what people like this are really doing for the sport. It'd be one thing if there were no where else to train, or if this was just a club. But this guy is obviously trying to buy his way INTO OUR SPORT.

He should not be supported in any way at this point, unless its to tell him to get a real instructor.
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Yeah, because the garbage that is coming from your cock suck is helping the sport a lot.
 
Sentinel.MMA said:
Yeah, I agree. We have a guy that's 12-0 boxing teaching hands, and I have a couple years training Muay Thai, but I have never trained solely striking, so it wasn't full time kickboxing.
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ok, you can do with this so as long as long as ur good from a technical standpoint. ur prices are a ripoff, and i still think ur doing everything ass backwards.
 
dude, I read you said you had good money. Maybe to draw people to your gym, you should hire some instructors to just drop by a couple days a week to teach class. You said the black belt BJJ guy had his own little place but you could go talk to him try hire him to teach maybe a class or two regularly then that would at least get the name out a bit. Many black bet BJJ instructors do this even though they have their own school.

also, you could possibly invite some amatuer boxing coaches and fighters to come to your facility sometimes to have sparring sessions with other fighters.Many amatuer boxers from opposing camps will meet together to spar with each other every once in awhile to get ready for national or international competitions. just another way to get people to know you exist.

and one more thing, post flyers at community colleges
 
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