While most students in North America learn martial arts in classes alongside many other students, there are other ways one can study the arts. Many martial artists you meet in class haven’t been fortunate enough to have a master as a mentor and trainer but private martial arts lessons are a great addition to the warrior’s arsenal.
What Are The Benefits of Offering Private Classes?
Private lessons bring with them some noticeable benefits for any martial arts school that offers them. For instance, they can increase revenue, boost your students’ skills more quickly, keep retention rates high, and even help market your school. Here are some points to remember, when using private martial arts lessons to grow and improve your dojo.
#1. Increased Revenue
Private martial arts lessons create an additional revenue stream for your martial arts school and can really help a growing school pay the bills. Teaching private martial arts lessons can also be lower impact for instructors, allowing them to generate more income without burning out. Many martial arts schools only have classes in the evenings, leaving the gym unused during the day. Having a good strategy for booking private lessons during this time – while booking out your space for others to use, during your empty time slots – can bring in a healthy amount of supplementary income.
As an aside, because of the higher price of admission for a private lesson, an instructor should do their best to provide a high value during the lesson. Being able to figure out how you can best improve your student’s performance in the given time period can help bring you more business from both the student and those they refer to you.
Related: 4 Tips to Help Grow Your Martial Arts School
#2. Tournament Preparation and Pro-Teams
Martial arts tournaments can be a great experience for many martial artists. They provide students a goal to aim for, motivating them to focus their training and to work harder. While many medium to large-sized martial arts schools provide a dedicated class for students who want to improve their tournament competitiveness, students competing for state/provincial, national or international competitions will need private martial arts lessons, to be at the top of their game.
For martial arts schools with elite level athletes, a trainer team may be the best way to get the most out of them. Pricing for these additional classes will need to be calculated based on the increased amount of time put in by instructors, but this is necessary for staying competitive at elite levels, especially for the mixed martial arts.
#3. Private Citizens
Many celebrities practice martial arts, along with other types of private citizens. This might include law enforcement officers, politicians, CEOs, or otherwise. Some of them may avoid going to a public martial arts school, due to the distractions for them, and for others. For these students, hiring the best martial arts masters and/or world champions is their most effective way to learn martial arts.
As the instructor, teaching your passion to one of these students can be a thrill on its own and the increased revenue is well worth it. While it should never be the focus, a martial arts school can greatly benefit from the marketing opportunities that can arise from a celebrity frequenting their school or seeking tutelage from your school’s master. Combined with a healthy roster of elite athletes, martial arts schools can create a real buzz, without putting large amounts of resources into advertising.
Related: How to Build Business Partnerships for Your Martial Arts School
#4. Individual Attention
Sometimes, your students may need a little personal attention. Students who are really close to belt promotions can really benefit from a one-on-one session, especially if the instructor can pinpoint a specific issue holding them back. This ensures students feel that strong connection towards your school, while growing their martial arts fundamentals.
Good martial arts management software should be helping you track attendance, letting you know which students are most likely to cancel their memberships, should they not be given a little extra help and encouragement. Having a private lesson can show you where they may feel frustrations or a lack of motivation, boosting your retention rates. Finally, a student who is going through injury rehabilitation may be able to more effectively take a personalized class, before they’re ready to start back up with their regular class schedule.
Keep In Mind...
Private martial arts lessons can add a wrinkle to your booking system, if you haven’t built your system to anticipate one-off bookings. See how Xplor Recreation seamlessly adds bookings to your class schedule and calendar organization, from any smart device.
Have you had any experiences with running private lessons at your martial arts school?