Making money from martial arts is a contentious issue to many , some believe its not ethical to make money from Martial Arts whilst others make you wear all their own equipment charge you to start a syllabus then charge you again to grade you. For me there is nothing wrong with charging a fee for a service or product. Everyone needs to learn and everybody pays someone to learn from so its an continuos thing that everybody does, quality instructors will have paid thousands over the years to get to the level where you are willing to learn from them. so giving them some back is just keeping the world turning. Nothing in this world is free and certainly nothing of great quality is free nor should it be.
Making living off Martial Arts is a dream come true but its a real full time job that doesn’t end when the class finishes. The day starts off at 05.00 with planning sessions for clients and organising class plans, i take private clients between 06.00 and 10.00 everyday and each person has very specific goals and objectives so each person has to have their own plans worked out. Fitness and Wellbeing tend to be everyday people’s main concern and half my clients are not martial artists so i spend a lot of time working out training regimes that are different enough from standard gym based training whilst still accessible and enjoying, Taking a lot of the warm up routines from various Martial Arts often forms the backbone of personal training sessions leaving the client satisfied , tired and energised whilst learning valuable skills that could get them out of a bad situation. Coaching fighters is very different as they will often have a very specific detail they want to understand and a session with a fighter could be 50% talking 50% practical, with Kickboxers there will always be pad work with a focus on offensive or defensive movements attached to the more common routines, with BJJ drilling positions and ” how do you get out of XYZ” based questions is often the format, in MMA the sessions could be any and all of the above. Wing Chun and self defence sessions are often the most rewarding as these sessions often get people out of their shells and more self confident, Bullying is everywhere in the street , at work , socially , its everywhere and the percentage of people coming for self defence as a result of bullying is massive , i always try to empower these clients with a very basic skill set that they can perform under stress and after possibly a lifetime of bullying its often very hard for people to change so seeing these people improve is some of the best times at work.
Class’s start at 17.00 with JNR classes consisting of BJJ and Chinese Boxing then moving into the adult classes, finishing at 21.00 each night after nine hours of mat time and untold hours of planning , watching fights, working out opponents for my fighters, my own training, eating, getting the gym clean and ready, updating website, answering emails, it never stops and i love it.
People have said to me ” you only work 3 hours a day ” . i just smiled…………….