Things Need to Change

I've run a martial arts school for the past 14 years and I've seen some really awesome schools and then some really crappy ones. The most awful schools I've seen are stand up martial arts instructors who have been around for 25 or 30 years who run Dungeon Dojos and a close second are Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu and MMA schools. Many BJJ schools are run by men from Brazil who run the school like they have them in Brazil. This would be dirty, littered and unsanitary. I've seen schools that stink to high heaven, fuzzy mats, no toilet paper or paper towels in the bathroom, filled up bloody garbage cans, toilets that haven't been cleaned ever, students with dirty gi's, protective gear that is never disinfected and the list goes on and on. In Brazil it's really no big deal because they have a lot of fighters who want to train. In America it's different. Average Americans expect to train in a clean gym. A clean school is the "least" an owner can do. There is nothing worse then passing staph and ringworm around from student to student. Running a school isn't about the style you teach. I have seen so many pathetic and unqualified martial arts instructors with full schools because they run the school like a business. If BJJ/MMA is going to dominate the martial arts landscape then school owners are going to have to step up. Don't think that just because you are the greatest BJJ instructor in the world that you are going to have a full school. You have to do more to keep the American student! I'm constantly helping my students, sending good job cards and emails out and making sure if I don't see my students in class I give them a call. There is so much more then just opening your doors and throwing some mats down in having an awesome school! I think in the next decade you will see American BJJ instructors with overflowing schools and the Brazilians who haven't come on board with not so many. If you want to see Brazilians with awesome schools then look no further then the Gracie Academy or my instructor Pedro Sauer. They are on board!!