How Do You Start a Mixed Martial Arts School?

Having been involved in the Martial Arts for almost 10 years now, I have noticed that Mixed Martial Arts schools come into existence in many different ways.

The first way is when an aspiring martial artist decides to become an entrepreneur and opens up shop.  This is how my Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu school and most others got started.  It’s a very similar situation to that of a sous chef at a fine dining restaurant deciding to open up his own place or a computer programmer who decides to start his own company.  Most of the individuals all share a genuine enthusiasm and love for their subject matter although they often differ in the quality of the product they are able to offer as well as their business acumen.  Unlike the examples given above, most of these individuals stay connected in varying degrees to their original teacher / business (lineage being very important esp. in the Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu community).

The other extreme is the true franchise model.  A business man buys into the franchise, opens up a gym, and hires martial artists as employees to teach classes there.  Due to the popularity of MMA, these types of gyms are becoming increasingly popular.  I believe this is the LA Boxing model.

You also see lot of “fake” MMA schools popping up nowadays.  Many reputable coaches and fight teams will authorize usage of their name… in exchange for a fee, of course.  For example, American Top Team, a very successful professional fight team located in Florida, offers American Top Team School certification for schools that need to “tap into the hard-to-reach demographic: teens and young adults!”  So Evan Gideon’s Kung Fu (fictional), a traditional martial arts program, could present itself as an “official” America Top Team school after going through some seminars.  You also have the school owners who just changed their name from So-and-so’s KARATE to So-and-so’s MMA with no real difference on the inside.

For the potential student, I think it is important to distinguish how the program you are visiting came about as that information holds implications about what you, the consumer, can expect out of each program.  So make sure you do a little research prior to making a decision!

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