Discipline and Attendance

[Shooto Panama]

I´ll try to be short with this.

I'm having problems with discipline and attendance with my bjj class. My group is fairly small with no more than 15 people top and I teach from M. to F. evenings.

Since a couple of months I started to notice the following:

People show up mostly on Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Any of these day there are up to 10 or more on the mat but following days like Tuesday and Thursday it drop all the way to 1-2.

Then, it started to spread like wild fire. Now any given day there are 10 or more on the mat and next day it drops again to 1-2.

MY people are just regular folks with jobs and personal life outside BJJ. We are not the next Atos or anything like that.

Now I´ve swing from both sides, you know all zen and calm about it, trying to talk with everyone looking for a solution all the way to the other side of the fence when I get mildly angry about it and let them know its not fun to teach single person class & its not fun for your teammate to show up for 2 persons class, nobody will improve if they don´t show to train, etc.

Besides that don´t know what else should I do?. I´m not really into people getting punished for showing late to class or not showing at all. Actually I´m kind of afraid if I get too strict like "do this push-ups or whatever punishment every time you are late or miss class" kind of attitude is going to drive people away.

Someone might say "as long as they pay your monthly fee" they can show up whenever they want but you know what, I don't care about that. I won´t be rich anytime soon or future through Jiu-Jitsu and it was never my goal in the first place. I want them to be good and see how beneficial is the art, same way it happen to me.

Thoughts?

 

[dsktje]

You have to inspire them, get them to do competitions and do competitions yourself. If they see you do well, they'll be far more dedicated to put in the work. Punishing people for not showing up is silly.

 

[Poochie]

I think you should be grateful that the majority of your students are showing up 3 days a week. I for one have too much on my plate to train more than 2-3 times a week and it would be ridiculous for my instructor to be even annoyed I'm not showing up 5 days a week. If I was spoken to much less punished I'd be so turned off I'd considered leaving. You said it yourself you're not the next Atos, why would you want your students to train as if they were?

 

[randomg1t]

if you're not a competition oriented class, there's really not much you can do to make people train. our classes are similar, 10-15 people, some nights there's 20, some nights there's 5.

what i noticed with my group is that our coach pushes us to do a lot of cardio, which means we'll often be doing shit that isn't directly related to jiu jitsu for over 30 minutes. like we'll warm up and then do some HIIT stuff for 20min. it annoys the hell out of me, but i do it because it does actually help my cardio.. but i'm 28, single, with nothing else to do in my spare time than train. i can totally see how some of the older guys with families might want to sit one out after being smashed to shit with cardio on a normal tuesday. do you do anything like that?

punishment is never a good idea, especially if you're working with adults. i can't imagine yelling at a grown man with a job, a wife, and three kids for being late. telling them to do pushups or anything like that won't help either, especially not for missing training.

you have to understand you probably belong to a very select group of people who are rather obsessed with the sport. don't take this the wrong way, it isn't an insult, most of us on this forum are like that. but you probably need to accept the fact that normal people don't train 5 days a week. training every day is hard - you have to be absolutely in love with the sport and enjoy every second of it to make it to practice every day.

and that's ultimately it. if they enjoy it enough, they show up. if not, they sometimes skip it.

 

[Jawa]

You don't want to force people to go to your class and get angry at them because they don't show up. That would only discourage more people from attending. I never do back-to-back days of BJJ just because I'm older and I want a day to rest in between. Also some people have busy schedules and have other priorities besides BJJ.

I would shoot a survey to your students and ask them for feedback. Ask them how they feel about the class schedule and what changes they would want. Do they want more gi or nogi classes? Maybe some of your advanced classes and beginner classes should switch time slots on some days? Start from there and then you can tweak your class schedule and maybe more people will show up on your Tues/Thurs classes.

 

[Shooto Panama]

You have to inspire them, get them to do competitions and do competitions yourself. If they see you do well, they'll be far more dedicated to put in the work. Punishing people for not showing up is silly.

I´m retired from competition. Now only teaching and coaching. We have competed in local tournament and did very good so as a group we are doing something right when we compare next to other local schools with 30-40+ students.

What mostly took me out of base is when I compere this to my BJJ experience. I´m used to go train every single day 5 times a week and been doing it for many years now. They don´t see to get the same drive as I did through my years.

 

[Shooto Panama]

if you're not a competition oriented class, there's really not much you can do to make people train. our classes are similar, 10-15 people, some nights there's 20, some nights there's 5.

what i noticed with my group is that our coach pushes us to do a lot of cardio, which means we'll often be doing shit that isn't directly related to jiu jitsu for over 30 minutes. like we'll warm up and then do some HIIT stuff for 20min. it annoys the hell out of me, but i do it because it does actually help my cardio.. but i'm 28, single, with nothing else to do in my spare time than train. i can totally see how some of the older guys with families might want to sit one out after being smashed to shit with cardio on a normal tuesday. do you do anything like that?

punishment is never a good idea, especially if you're working with adults. i can't imagine yelling at a grown man with a job, a wife, and three kids for being late. telling them to do pushups or anything like that won't help either, especially not for missing training.

you have to understand you probably belong to a very select group of people who are rather obsessed with the sport. don't take this the wrong way, it isn't an insult, most of us on this forum are like that. but you probably need to accept the fact that normal people don't train 5 days a week. training every day is hard - you have to be absolutely in love with the sport and enjoy every second of it to make it to practice every day.

and that's ultimately it. if they enjoy it enough, they show up. if not, they sometimes skip it.

Thanks.

My class is not competition oriented but I do take my training time seriously. Perhaps way to serious.

Also class is not cardio heavy oriented.

I guess your last phrase somehow hit the nail. Perhaps they don´t see BJJ as I do and perhaps this is what I am yet to understand

 

[cms9690]

Not much you can do other than work with people.


I run a couple BJJ classes (the nearest brown belt being 1hr+ away, which I tell people to go to if they can make the drive consistently) and I can relate to your frustrations of wanting people to be there. It's a vicious cycle of no one comes to class because no one is there, but no one is there because no one comes class.


Do your best to work like a sales person to get people into your studio to fill those gaps. Offer special, discounted rates for certain evenings; think of it as a stimulus package of some sort.


Other than just trying to get more people, you have to work with what you got. Talk with your students about their personal lives, make sure you know what's going on (in a friendly, non stalker, kind of way). Under no circumstance do you 'punish' anyone for not adhering to your will; rather try to make them feel missed and welcome to make every practice. Always tell your students that it's nice to see them at class or maybe compliment an aspect of their game you believe has improved.


As some others suggested, mix stuff up! Recently I had a couple guys getting ready for competitions so y'know what I did one night? Instead of regular sparring after showing techniques, I seeded a bracket and had everyone play against one another in a double elimination tournament! Be creative, have fun with it. Make experienced guys do things they aren't used to, maybe a handicap match where a blue belt can't use his hands against a fresh white belt? Anything to build a sense of community amongst your gym family and have fun! That will definitely drive up your attendance.

 

[Dogstarman]

If I could I would attend more classes. I'm lucky if I get in 4 times a week. With my shitty work schedule and a family it's really hard to squeeze it in, and this is my wife hardly ever giving me a a hard time about training.

To add if my instructor started punishing me for stuff out of my control when I don't show up to class,I think I would find somewhere more accommodating

 

[Shooto Panama]

It's a vicious cycle of no one comes to class because no one is there, but no one is there because no one comes class.

Oh boy the story of my BJJ class.

Thanks for your input.

 

[EGDM]

As everyone here has said, negative feedback on attendance is a losing proposition. For everyone outside of professional BJJ instructors and competitors, work/family/rest will trump training with regularity. You just have to live with that.

That said, attendance breeds attendance. If someone shows up to a class and there's only one other student, the odds of them coming the next time are much lower. Any class time will falter if you don't have a core of 5-10 people showing up on a regular basis. Your Tuesday/Thursday classes are in a death spiral.

You have two options:

1) Change the class format. Standard lesson plans and instruction suck with only 1-2 people. Treat them as open mat or semi-private lessons instead of a "class". If that doesn't appeal to you or your students that do show up...

2) Cancel the low-attendance classes. Why waste everyone's time and get frustrated about it? You can always open up the schedule again if you get feedback from your students about wanting to attend on those nights.

 

[Kaffe]

3 times a week from not that actively competing worker Joes doesn't seem that bad to me. 5 times a week means you're dedicated AND have quite a lot of free time from other engagements. That isn't the case for most people in my experience.

Negative feedback on lack of attendance has always seemed like wetting your pants to warm yourself to me. Never worked in any of the clubs I have attended.

 

[Uchi Mata]

I´m retired from competition. Now only teaching and coaching. We have competed in local tournament and did very good so as a group we are doing something right when we compare next to other local schools with 30-40+ students.

What mostly took me out of base is when I compere this to my BJJ experience. I´m used to go train every single day 5 times a week and been doing it for many years now. They don´t see to get the same drive as I did through my years.

Well no, most people don't take it that seriously. Most people do it for fun and exercise and don't really care that much about reaching a high level. 3 days a week of big classes is pretty good, if that's all you can get just cancel the T/Th classes. It's unrealistic to expect normal people with jobs and families to train every night of the week, especially if they're a little older as recovery becomes very hard. It actually sounds like a decent small school, I think your expectations are unrealistic.

 

[mb23100]

Im unmarried with no kids and still would be hard pressed to dedicate 3 nights a week to something

 

[Coati858]

Oh boy the story of my BJJ class.

Thanks for your input.

Maybe use the slow nights as an opportunity:
Help the attendees in a more specific way. Teach to their needs rather than to a preset curriculum. Make it fun for them and help them polish rough spots.

These are your diehards, give them a semi-private class/reason to love being there.

 

[sh1tehawke]

it a hobby for most people man. getting a hard time for being late and not being there everyday is what happens at work. you don't need that shit on your time off too. you got to let them come when they want to and when it suits them imo. otherwise they might not come back.

 

[Shooto Panama]

One thing maybe I didn´t explain myself clear enough.

I'm not expecting people to go train every single night (deep inside I will love it but not gonna happen). What it actually worries me are low attendance days are affecting those who actually want to go every night because in the end when you have a small group and the majority missed a class for any reasons, whoever is trying to go more than 3 days will soon follow the same path.

 

[sh1tehawke]

has always seemed like wetting your pants to warm yourself to me.

i like this analogy.

 

[CYKO]

Get more students if you can, more marketing, etc. That way you won't end up with 1 student classes, etc. If you have so few number, then it's to be expected especially if they're all just working, family hobbyist.

Also, some people just get bored of things faster than others. It's not a big deal, just different strokes.

 

[jr jr]

on "off" nights do something different.

IE

Tuesday is dodge ball warm up night.

Thursday is drink a beer after class night.

Play music for rolling if you typically don't. Bonus points for best demonstration from the class before gets to pick the tunes.

Open Mat one night (people dig open mats).