How has mma effected your dojo/business?

[Himokiri Karate]

I know that most of you guys are traditionalist for most part and from what I have read, most of you have a join date of 2003 to 2006 and 06 was the year that mma really got big.

My question for you is that, how has the popularity of ufc effected your dojo? Are you guys benefiting from its popularity due to karate fighters like george st piere,chuck liddle and machida.

Or do you find that people are not interested in traditional martial arts and only want the "mma gym"?

Just curios to know if the popularity of ufc is rekindling peoples interest for the more traditional martial arts?

As a boxing practioner, we get many mma fighters that want to do private lessons or to spar. Same with the muay thai gym my friend trains at and the coaches like that since they get to be busy working with people and make some money in this tough economy that we have.

[Harkon72]

MMA has added students to our group because our competitors are flirting with training for the cage and leaving behind traditional Karate. We are a modern Dojo, but we train in real undiluted Karatedo. For people that still value this we are the best option.

[Dobbersky]

MMA hasn't affected my Dojo its the tippy tappy McDojo's and belt factories that have with their programmes etc. guarantee'ing grades etc for just turning up.

I enjoy MMA and my Style is like a precurser to MMA anyway.

Being Full Contact (including thigh kicks), we tend to have a niche Market anyway so only those interested in doing Full Contact will train with us.

I don't expect huge classes but I wont lower my standards to keep students either

[Zaine]

Harkon and Dobbersky are right. Especially about the fact that it is the McDojo that hurts us the most.

[Wastelander]

We have gotten some new students thanks to the MMA craze. People who want to do MMA do not typically seek out traditional martial arts, regardless of how those arts are trained--instead, they look for MMA gyms, BJJ schools or Muay Thai schools. People who just want to train in martial arts, and MMA just gave them the idea or inspired them, are not usually as picky and will look into everything, and some of them end up with us. We can provide all of the skills necessary for MMA at my dojo, but we don't market that too much at the moment.

[bushido_man96]

I don't think I've seen too much of an effect from it. Our numbers have actually been down over the past few years, especially our adult students.

[ShoriKid]

We just bought our TapOut shirts and train UFC now! Okay, kidding.

The effect has been mostly positive. Good open finger gloves are cheaper, as are several other pieces of gear we use. Our approach to training is a lot less likely to get funny looks. Same with the sparring rules.

On the down side, everyone expects an MMA gym and we have to take time explaining the difference between what we do and a fight gym. Also, marketing as anything not MMA makes getting adult students a little tougher.

[sensei8]

MMA and the like have had no effect in my dojo and/or the Hombu. Basically, the MMA and the like are just another form of the MA, and in that, I don't worry about 'it' being the rage of the page.

[JohnASE]

I think that everyone has been affected by the rise of MMA to some extent. Some have embraced it, some have ignored it, and some have rejected it, but it has touched everyone, and just about everyone has an opinion. I'll share mine.

To be honest, I don't know that much about MMA. I watched some of the early EFC stuff on TV and have only seen a few MMA fights since. I had a customer compete in the first EFC event. I have another customer who referees MMA fights and is (or was) on one of the reality shows. I have a customer who trained one of the most famous MMA fighters. I don't know much, but I hear some things.

Obviously, it's been good for most of the people involved in it. I know people who are making a pretty good living from MMA. Does that mean it's been bad for those in other arts? I think, overall, it has been, but only a little.

I don't think MMA has spiked a general interest in martial arts like some things have in the past. The success of Power Rangers, Ninja Turtles, and Kung Fu Theater brought people in the door to whatever martial arts school was in their area. There's some of that with MMA, but I think most people excited by MMA are looking for more specific types of programs. They're not really interested in family martial arts or traditional karate or Olympic TKD.

I believe the popularity of non-MMA martial arts have gone down since the birth of MMA, but I'm not so sure how much is directly due to MMA taking people away or the struggling economy or what. My guess is that the number of people MMA takes away from other martial arts isn't negligible, but it's not very significant when compared to the total number of people involved in those arts.

I have no empirical evidence for any of this. It's just my impression.

[vantheman]

MMA has not made any big impacts (as far as I can see) in my dojo. The higher level classes begin to integrate elements from other martial arts, (including the kickboxing/muay thai that is used often in MMA) and BJJ and submission grappling classes are offered on the side, though I wouldn't consider my school an MMA gym by any means. My art/instructor focuses more on self defense than competitive aspects, but the overlap between the mindsets brings out some MMA ideologies during class.