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Adult attendance low - what do we do?

Thu, 09/04/2009 - 09:21 — Sensei Geoff

The numbers in the adult sessions has been getting very low lately. This happens now and then, but it's been low for quite a while now.

So are people fed up with the club? Too busy on other things? Can't afford the prices? Don't like what we teach? Train on the wrong days?

Any members out there have an opinion?

Geoff

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Mon, 01/02/2010 - 18:35 — Anonymous

Training session should be earlier

I stopped attending purley due to the course time. A 10pm finish was too late for me.

Thu, 16/04/2009 - 16:28 — Anonymous

I think the times should be

I think the times should be changed, particularly Fridays. Most adults find it hard to train until 10.00pm on a Friday night, it has always been a problem since I've trained at Shenley.

How about Juniors 6-7.30pm then adults 7.30 -9pm?

regards

Lee Donald.

Wed, 15/04/2009 - 09:01 — Anonymous

Low Attendance

Hi,

Monday and Friday training can be a little inconvenient. Friday is either family or party night depending on circumstances. Also I doubt many people want to start the week shattered.

It may be worth visiting other clubs Judo/Karate etc to see what turn out they get particularly if they train at different times.

Mon, 20/04/2009 - 09:33 — Sensei Geoff

Low Attendance

Changing to a different night may be a good idea, but at Shenley the gym is booked every other evening. We might be able to get the Theatre on a new night and could switch the times too. Starting earlier on Friday might be possible too, I'd need to check who's in before us.

We'd have to be careful of course - the club can only run due to the well attended juniors class so we can't risk losing them.

For me of course, I need to be able to get there to run the class and a later time is easier once work is out of the way. Perhaps other instructors may find it easier and could take on the kids class on a regular basis?

Another option is to run adult and junior classes at the same time as they do in some Karate clubs and at Leighton Jujitsu. I'm not so keen on sharing the mat, but two separate ones may work on Friday as there's plenty of room. We'd need at least two instructors for the whole night of course. Or just overlap the classes by an hour or so.

Mon, 20/04/2009 - 15:43 — Anonymous

Low Attendance

Hello,

Hopefully I can help a bit with the low adult attendance figures because I intend to start at your club very soon.

After two lessons in November 08, I realised that Jujitsu is a really powerful and practical Martial Art and that your club seems very friendly. After having done Karate for a few years when I was younger, just two Jujitsu lessons converted me to Jujitsu.

I also started Karate again a few month ago, but I'll won't be going back to the club because I feel Jujitsu is much better.

I thought I would give you the reasons why I'm going to be joining your club:

  • Jujitsu is a very practical Martial Art. Some of the things taught in Karate aren't practical for street self-defence and I got bored doing lots of kata. I personally want things that are mainly orientated around practical self-defence. The odd kata here and there is fine, but not all the time.
  • There are separate children and adult classes. This a major factor for me personally because the kids in the Karate class were not disciplined and were very disruptive to the class as a whole. This was the single biggest reason for me leaving my old club.
  • The club is focussed on teaching and isn't a money making scheme. I've seen a few clubs where the emphasis is more about making money rather than teaching Martial Arts.
  • Reasonable prices. The prices for both the training and the gradings are very reasonable compared to other clubs.
  • Good club training times. For me personally I think the training times are pretty good. I love the Friday evening slot because you can train hard and recover on the weekend. However, finishing at 9pm or even 9:30pm would be more preferable. One of the other reasons for leaving my last place is that training would start at 6pm which was very difficult to get to even if you live and work in Milton Keynes.
  • Friendly/good instructors.
  • A good web-site. This web-site provides all of the information about the club and is also a very good way of keeping students informed about what's going on.

      • Small adult classes won't be a problem for me personally because the teaching is generally more effective in smaller classes. (Providing there is enough attendance to keep the adult classes running.)

      I hope my thoughts were useful and I'll hopefully be seeing you guys soon. :)

Sun, 26/04/2009 - 19:58 — Sensei Geoff

Great to hear that

That's all good to hear - nice to know we're doing the right thing a lot of the time!

Perhaps the problem isn't so much times or what we do - it's just that people have plenty of other things to do and less time to do it in. There are way more martial arts clubs of various types around now too. Perhaps advertising is a way to go.

Shenley have an open day on the 25th of May - I think we should be there in force to give plenty of people a taste. It'll cost us only time and might bring in a few people. It's a free training session either way.

Mon, 27/04/2009 - 18:33 — Sensei Jason

Club numbers

Geoff,
We should definately advertise in local newspapers and with flyers. I would be more than willing to put flyers up in the shops/community halls near me.

I personally also think that we should have more variation in our classes, eg: devote some sessions to non syllabus stuff, realistic self defence, ground fighting, competition practice, weapons etc to name a few ideas.

Perhaps we could try running a short term self defence course (over a period of a few weeks), that might promote interest in the club.

Hope these comments are useful