If you’ve read E-Myth, you’ll understand the basic problem with the martial arts industry. Great students train hard for years, grow up, get some teaching credits, and decide to open their own school. Rinse and repeat.

But being a great martial artist doesn’t make you a great manager. It doesn’t make you a great entrepreneur, a great accountant, a great marketer, a great organizer, or a great business leader.

The martial arts industry is full of great instructors and Black Belts who haven’t made it past white belt in the realm of business. That’s a problem. And wherever there’s a problem, there’s an opportunity.

Enter the martial arts industry associations. MAIA, NAPMA, and others sprang to the rescue of struggling martial arts business owners by creating gigantic associations to provide assistance and collaboration on how to operate their schools, structure their curriculums, and make more money.

What seemed like a lifesaver to lost martial arts business owners has created more than a handful of problems. For one, all the association-subscribed schools look and feel the same. It’s hard to be remarkable when you’re following the same advice that tens of thousands of other schools around the country are following.

But that’s more of a personal problem for each individual school owner. Far larger problems were created as the mindsets of the associations and business owners began to shift from sound business planning and advice to what can I do to get massive amounts of new students, retain them, and suck the most money from them while they’re with me?

This shot heard around the world marked two events. The first was the starting gun in the race to find the next best marketing gimmick. The second was the martial arts industry shooting itself in the foot.

One of the biggest gimmicks they came up with was the Black Belt Club. This “special club” was a way to “upgrade” students into long term contracts. They’d get people to pay for three years up front or sign a three year contract and make staggered payments. If you were in the Black Belt Club you were basically guaranteed a Black Belt as long as you didn’t move to another state, or die. You tested every 2 or 3 months regardless of whether or not you were ready, and the curriculum was watered down to make it easy on instructors.

The Black Belt Club solved a lot of problems for struggling business owners. They didn’t have to focus so much on serving their members because the members were locked in for three years. Their teaching job was easier because the curriculum was meaningless; pretend to teach martial arts and play lots of games. Money was guaranteed as long as you were a good salesman. So good salesman they became.

They structured their class schedule to make it hard on non-Black Belt Club members. If you didn’t opt for the three year contract and the guaranteed Black Belt your class times were limited, you didn’t get any of the special treatment, and you didn’t get to do the stuff all the cool Black Belt Club members got to do. So you had a choice: join the Black Belt Club or move on.

But you can only operate like a used car lot for so long before people catch on. And people are catching on.

There’s a reason why the average parent views martial arts the same way they view soccer, baseball, basketball, or any other sport. The martial arts industry inadvertently made it that way by using every marketing gimmick they could collectively come up with, watering down the curriculum, removing the standards, and devaluing the ranks.

But it’s even worse than that. Because of the gimmicks and used-car-lot-sales-strategies, people are wary to even step foot in a martial arts studio anymore for fear of being suckered. So the price war began. And what should be worth hundreds of dollars a month in tuition has been reduced to a commodity: a mass-produced unspecialized product that’s going for as low as $55/mo in some places.

The Black Belt Club is only one of the gimmicks that’s led the industry down this path. There are many more skeletons in their closet beyond that. And if the industry doesn’t change direction soon, martial arts will eventually be reduced to child daycare. Real schools will have a difficult time convincing people that they’re different (we already do). The bubble will burst and then we’ll have a shot at rebuilding, but I’m hoping that doesn’t have to happen.

The beacon of light in our industry is found in the world of Brazilian Jiu Jitsu. The Brazilians don’t mess around. And the ranks in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu still mean something. They mean a lot actually. There’s no special “clubs”, there’s no guaranteed belts, there’s no reduced standards, there’s no watering down of the curriculum, and the instructors can back up what they teach. Consequently, BJJ schools collect higher average tuition (from my experience) for their product. As for curriculum quality and standards, we should all take note.

New leadership is needed to reverse the ship. Schools need to collectively change the direction we’re headed by ditching the industry associations. If you’re a school owner, you need to analyze your membership structure and get as far away from the gimmicks as possible. Charge people by the month, offer a month to month option, offer longer term memberships at a discount if you want, but get rid of the clubs, special treatment, and belt guarantees.

Let your product, your image, and your teaching sell memberships. Be unique. Be remarkable. Be a living example of what you want your students to become. If you have to trick people into joining your school, you’ve failed.

Lastly, take a long hard look at your curriculum; both the physical and non-physical aspects. Design a curriculum and promotion structure that puts the meaning back into each rank. And protect the Black Belt. By all means, protect the Black Belt.

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