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This past summer I asked the AXT Jiu-Jitsu club members several questions related to club operations and I want to share the data with everyone. Hopefully, you find this information as useful as I did as it helps guide my decisions when formulating how the club moves forward.
Regarding Kids/Youth classes, parents equally preferred Tuesday and Thursday as the most popular training days, with Saturday coming in second place. There was 12% without a preference. The most popular time for the 6-9 year old Kids Class was 5:00-5:45pm, with the 5:30-6:15pm slot coming in a close second. The 10+ Youth Class unexpectedly preferred the 6:00-6:45pm time slot, with our current 6:30-7:15pm class coming in second.
When it came to the Adult BJJ classes, most folks preferred to train on Tuesday and Thursday. Monday and Saturday were somewhat popular, with Wednesday and Friday being the least. Surprisingly there were almost 14% of students that liked Sunday as a day to train as well. The 7:00-8:00pm time frame was the most popular with our current 7:30-8:30pm coming in a close second. Of the morning time slots, 7:30-8:30am was the highest at 15%. The most preferred class is Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, followed by NoGi by almost half.
The MMA For the Street class has its own following, and when asked if MMA For the Street or BJJ For the Street was preferred, the MMA FTS program was chosen almost 4x as much. This was very interesting because we are technically a Jiu-Jitsu club. However, the members have spoken.
A large proportion of students stated they knew about our club guidelines, rules & policies handbook and claimed to have read it. However, about 20% of you know about it but haven't read it, and 8% of you don't know anything about it. It's highly recommended that every member become familiar with that handbook. It's really what guides how we operate and function as a club and business.
Finally, when asked why you or your children train in the martial arts, it shouldn't be surprising to find out that there were multitudes of answers regarding this. After reviewing every one of them I noticed many similarities and was able to categorize them for simplification and tallying the numbers.
MENTAL (focus, discipline, responsibility, competitiveness, sportsmanship) = 18
PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT (growth, confidence, challenge, well-rounded) = 21
EMOTIONAL (fun, enjoyment, happiness, camaraderie, coaching) = 22
PHYSICAL (exercise, fitness, strength, agility, activity, health, lifestyle) = 35
KNOWLEDGE (learning, build skill, self-defense, work/employment) = 37
The numbers simply represent the amount of interest in that related area. The same person could have contributed to multiple areas as well. However, this gives us a good visual when it comes to why people train in the martial arts.
I want to point out that the Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu taught at AXT Jiu-Jitsu is very sport oriented. "Being physical" as a reason for training scored very high in our survey. It's safe to assume that sport-oriented training is going to provide the physicality members are looking for (increased strength, mobility, flexibility, agility, fitness, plus exercise, improved health and even weight loss). But will sport oriented training work to defend yourself against a violent attack? Possibly.
So, here's something to think about. The overwhelming majority of members stated that they train for self-defense purposes. However, notice that there isn't any striking associated with our sport-oriented adult Jiu-Jitsu classes. No dealing with armed attackers. No multiple attacker situations. No scenario training. ALL of that is done in our MMA For the Street class. Again, something to think about if members are looking for self-defense training.
Thank you for all of the fantastic suggestions regarding club operations. There were over 30 submissions that I have to review, research and decide on to see if it's feasible for us. Information like this is so important and makes me excited about the club's future. 2022 was a good year for us. Can't wait to see what we can accomplish in 2023.
Coach Chris
AXT Jiu-Jitsu
Learn. Drill. Roll. TRANSFORM!