Teaching at the YMCA

[XtremeTrainer]

If you don't own a martial arts school but want to teach martial arts Im wondering if you could rent a room from a YMCA for a certain time each day and teach at the YMCA. It would involve making a deal with the YMCA on renting and teaching.

[Wastelander]

You can, and many people do. You just have to make sure that they don't already have a martial arts program, and if they do, they would probably expect you to teach the same thing.

[Spartacus Maximus]

The YMCA is but one of many low cost options to teach martial arts without owning a dojo. If the Y has too many constraints, there are community centres and other public places which could have adequate space available to rent cheaply.

[MatsuShinshii]

If you don't own a martial arts school but want to teach martial arts Im wondering if you could rent a room from a YMCA for a certain time each day and teach at the YMCA. It would involve making a deal with the YMCA on renting and teaching.

There are far cheaper alternatives. Do you belong to a church? Does it have a basement or large enough area?

Ask your preacher, minister, priest, rabbi if they would consider renting you space. I did this for many, many years when my tenant space was tripled in rent to force me out for a retail store chain. It costed me a little less than a 1/4 of the rent (they already own the space). The one church I taught out of did not charge me rent at all for the first three years. Just a thought.

The only thing you will need is insurance. The church will require you to hold your own insurance. But this is not a draw back since you have to have it no matter where you teach. Unless your privately wealthy and can pay for claims out of pocket that is.

[singularity6]

I think our school pays less than $400 per year to rent at the church (which has a nice view of Lake Michigan) plus whatever the insurance costs.

[Nidan Melbourne]

We don’t really have any YMCA locations here where I live; but we have similar places just operated by the various councils or other private organisations.

My club operates out of one the council run centres, as did my old club. We use 2 Multi-Purpose Rooms which can be used as 1 large room, albeit we pay for the two rooms.

In total we use it for 16 Hours each week; which is spread out over a span of 4 days (5 Mon/Wed, 4 Fri, 2 Sat).

Although annoyingly when they renovated the centre, they closed the nearby centre which housed another karate school. Albeit we are actually quite friendly with them, and don’t tread on each others toes.

The centre does not control what we teach, their only requirement is that we respect the other users and don’t cause issues.

[JR 137]

My former sensei ran 2 dojos - one in a commercial space, and one in a church hall. The commercial space was a good 45 minute drive each way for him, the rent kept going up, and the landlord was more and more an absentee landlord every lease renewal.

He sat down and evaluated. Everything. The commercial space wasn’t worth his time and the numbers weren’t justifying it anymore. He closed it and focused on the church hall dojo. He’s got less students overall, he charges less in tuition, and he’s making better money.

There’s drawbacks to this arrangement though. His schedule is a bit erratic because he has to change things when there’s church events in the hall. This was all stated from the outset and they give him an agreed upon notice of it. I think he’s got to move class every 1st Saturday, religious holidays, etc. Some potential students may not like that if they’re looking for specific nights due to other commitments.

[sensei8]

As an alternative, the YMCA can be quite pricey, but that depends on the location. Some charge a flat fee, while others charge a fee based on how many members sign up for the classes.

Time slots are the challenge because the YMCA holds many different classes of varying interests, and some of those time slots are already grandfathered in; prime slots are usually already taken.

[JR 137]

As an alternative, the YMCA can be quite pricey, but that depends on the location. Some charge a flat fee, while others charge a fee based on how many members sign up for the classes.

Time slots are the challenge because the YMCA holds many different classes of varying interests, and some of those time slots are already grandfathered in; prime slots are usually already taken.

And they’ll juggle around the times and days on you. A friend teaches Zumba at the Y. They change her night and time every 4 or 5 months. Move it up an hour, back an hour, stuff like that. If you’re looking for a specific age group, you’ve got to consider what you’re going up against. The Zumba teacher does very well with the kids’ class until swimming season starts. She does very well with the adults, but then the yoga schedule will change and she’ll lose students to that. She doesn’t get paid per student, but if the numbers are too low she’ll get moved or replaced. If someone’s going to teach MA and get paid per student, that’s an issue.

If you’re contemplating teaching at the Y, look at their schedule and try to avoid being scheduled against popular group activities. If you’ve already got a core of students and are just looking to relocate, that’s a different story. But don’t lose sight of the scheduling because you could miss out on potential students. At my local Y, going up against yoga, tabata, and spinning/cycling classes would be a sure fire way of not getting new adult students. If someone was trying to get more kids, those times would be great for kids’ classes; the parents could have the kids in MA while they did yoga.

Just some thoughts.

[JR 137]

Another thing to consider is local gyms. My former sensei renter space at a local gym for a period of time. It was supposed to be temporary, but ended up being longer term because it was working out very well for everyone. He made a great arrangement with the gym - gym customers got a free trial period and discounts to karate, and karate students got the same to the gym. He got several new students, and so did the gym. And all karate students had access to the lockers, showers, stuff like that.

It was great until the manager got caught stealing my sensei’s rent money. Apparently he never told the owner my sensei was renting the space. When that came out, the owners wanted him to stay under the same deal, but understandably declined and went on his own way.