Teaching kickboxing the most lucrative gig for UFC fighters?

Ogata

Ogata

Gold Belt
@Gold
Joined
May 30, 2013
Messages
18,868
Reaction score
9,802
I noticed that in MMA gyms the kickboxing classes are packed like crazy. Grappling classes have people but nowhere near kickboxing classes.

When it comes to teaching, is kickboxing best discipline to teach in order to make money?

I mean karate dojos teach kick boxing and kung fu places are doing more san shou. Taekwondo dojangs are also doing kickboxing as well.
 
Kickboxing is easy to market to more people. Fighters, fat loss, martial artists, self defense, etc.

Not everyone wants to roll on the ground with a bunch of sweaty and smelly dudes that are trying to snap their limbs and crush them with pressure.

Even less people will want to do stand up grappling.
 
Slatersan said:
Kickboxing is easy to market to more people. Fighters, fat loss, martial artists, self defense, etc.

Not everyone wants to roll on the ground with a bunch of sweaty and smelly dudes that are trying to snap their limbs and crush them with pressure.

Even less people will want to do stand up grappling.
Click to expand...

I get ground grappling and how folks can be hygienic but stand up grappling is the best way to defend and have a good base and develop great strength.
 
Inb4 op becomes a kickboxing teacher for fat mom's who are trying to lose weight.

To answer your question op, I don't know. Karate was extremely mainstream back in the day and it was seen as a thing that everybody could do. BJJ tries to sell the same concept but I think it just isn't as accepted for being casual enough

I guess kickboxing is the new karate/tkd
 
Last edited:
Ogata said:
I get ground grappling and how folks can be hygienic but stand up grappling is the best way to defend and have a good base and develop great strength.
Click to expand...
Yeah stand up grappling is really important but that also means it is very hard. Most people don’t want that. Most people was easy and safe.
 
Ogata said:
I get ground grappling and how folks can be hygienic but stand up grappling is the best way to defend and have a good base and develop great strength.
Click to expand...
Your first question was about teaching for the masses (or at least that’s how I read it), but this post suggests your asking about people training for actual fights.

Which is it?
 
The head coach at the gym I trained at used to tell us that there’s no money in teaching MMA. I think he’s probably right. For every Henry Hooft there are probably 1,000 gyms where their best fighters are local guys who fight professionally on the side of their job as a cop.
My coach was a phenomenal TKD and BJJ fighter, qualified for the olympics, but his money came from construction and he coached pro/am/just off the street guys as a side gig because he loved it.
 
Kadyrov or Hans :p
Screen_Shot_2016-04-05_at_9.05.06_AM.0.0.png

upload_2021-4-16_17-17-27.jpeg
I hear these guys also pay well as a side thing :D
 
BJJ isn’t as practical for the streets as it is for mma and most people are not trying to be mma fighters while kickboxing supports both. So it makes sense to me. Probably cheaper without having to buy expensive gi and get their pockets squeezed during the rank up process
 
It seems about right, striking definitely has more mainstream appeal than grappling, plus the main concept is a lot easier to understand than grappling. Everybody knows what boxing/kickboxing is, but that's definitely not the case for grappling.
 
Slatersan said:
Yeah stand up grappling is really important but that also means it is very hard. Most people don’t want that. Most people was easy and safe.
Click to expand...

Stand up grappling? So takedowns and defending them? Judo? Wrestling etc? Because they call clinch fighting vertical grappling.

Yeah, a lot of gyms have you roll starting on your knees and very few gyms offer proper wrestling or judo classes ontop of BJJ or no gi, they often just toss in bits of wrestling/judo within those BJJ and no gi classes. To be fair theres a lot of issues with fighting for takedowns. Depending on claws and mat size, space is an issue, theres a super high risk of injury compared to starting on the knees and...its super difficult, physical, grueling , rough. It is super important for a fighter or self defense though.
 
Last edited:
It's obvious that teaching Jazzercise classes is far more lucrative. Just look what it did for Dana White.
 
HuskySamoan said:
Stand up grappling? So takedowns and defending them? Judo? Wrestling etc? Because they call clinch fighting vertical grappling.

Yeah, a lot of gyms have you roll starting on your knees and very few gyms offer proper wrestling or judo classes ontop of BJJ or no gi, they often just toss in bits of wrestling/judo within those BJJ and wrestling classes. To be fair theres a lot of issued with fighting for takedowns. Depending on claws and mat size, space is an issue, theres a super high risk of injury compared to starting on the knees and...its super difficult, physical, grueling , rough. It is super important for a fighter or self defense though.
Click to expand...

I have been training for 8 years, never heard of “vertical grappling” lol. You knew what I was talking about when I said stand up grappling. I meant any type of grappling from standing hence stand up grappling.

He asked about what will bring in the most customers not what is the best to learn.
 
Slatersan said:
I have been training for 8 years, never heard of “vertical grappling” lol. You knew what I was talking about when I said stand up grappling. I meant any type of grappling from standing hence stand up grappling.

He asked about what will bring in the most customers not what is the best to learn.
Click to expand...

Varies from gym to gym, at mine currently the boxing classes fill up instantly and are the most popular. Kickboxing and Jiu Jitsu are about on with each other, no gi being more popular than Kickboxing and Gi being less for obvious reasons.

I think a huge factor is the coach for each class.
 
Kertol said:
BJJ isn’t as practical for the streets as it is for mma and most people are not trying to be mma fighters while kickboxing supports both. So it makes sense to me. Probably cheaper without having to buy expensive gi and get their pockets squeezed during the rank up process
Click to expand...
You really think a gi is more expensive then buying gear for kickboxing?

With just the gloves alone you can get 3-4 gis. That's not counting shin pads with foot coverings and headgear.
 
Which is ironic as there cannot be much money in actual pro Kickboxing cause of how fringe a sport it is.
 
Ogata said:
I noticed that in MMA gyms the kickboxing classes are packed like crazy. Grappling classes have people but nowhere near kickboxing classes.

When it comes to teaching, is kickboxing best discipline to teach in order to make money?

I mean karate dojos teach kick boxing and kung fu places are doing more san shou. Taekwondo dojangs are also doing kickboxing as well.
Click to expand...
I've noticed the same thing, unless it happens to be a BJJ centric gym. Females, in particular, are much more rare to see in grappling and even rarer in wrestling classes. Kickboxing / boxing seems to be a safer bet for a packed class. If it's a Gracie gym that also teaches striking or something, that's obviously different.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Latest posts

Forum statistics

Threads
1,237,081
Messages
55,466,388
Members
174,786
Latest member
plasterby

Share this page

Back
Top