We want a club in Dalkey

It’s an issue of the times I think.

Personally, as I’ve moved back to the Dublin area, and I’m back at square one with “Wudang Sanshou” www.sanshou.webs.com (very Daoist ;-) training in various gyms, institutions and even parks) besides this I’m employed by UCD to coach their Tai Chi club, it has been the life-raft of Wudang / Practical Tai Chi Chuan on many such occasions. Most clubs experience such ebb and flow.

Over the years (since 2000) I’ve ran classes in all areas of Dublin, some premises got sold, some “Bridgefoot Street” were siezed from the landlord by “Bank of Scotland “and lie empty since 2010. Can be depressing as a coach! But that doesn’t really relate here.

Just before the craziness of the boom we had a long standing base in Rathmines, until rent went up to €60/hr. These days it seems €20-€50 / hr is normal. (Depending of facilities offered e.g. boxing ring) If you benchmark the cost of a martial arts class today, not even considering the monthly membership offers of anytime training in “pure” martial arts gyms usually €40-50 / month, average classes are basically charged at €5-7 for 1.5 hours.

Anything less than 1.5 hours is a waste of time, MA being highly dependent on skills gained through repetition. 3 days a week would be a minimum requirement for a student to really progress.

A lot of spaces offered are of a volume that only suits the teaching of 8 to 10 students max, these same spaces could probably suit 20-25 yoga practitioners. Yoga is €12 - €15 per hour on average. So 25 students x €15 = €375, yoga only takes 45mins to 1 hour, so rent -€40 leaves €335 profit for the teacher / guru

So basically an MA teacher often finds that renting space costs them €50-60 per class, with a max possibility of 10 students paying say €7 max so they take in €70 and pay €60 that’s €10 profit??? Well not if you consider travel and equipment costs, never mind insurance, association costs etc..

These days it seems co-ops etc. are the way forward, renting units in industrial parks in “affordable / disadvantaged” areas between a few MA groups. Maybe it’s always been like this? Maybe the reason most world-class pugilists are from “rough areas” is due to the commercial reality of gym leasing rather than the toughness of “de stretz”. Bar my UCD tenure I moved out of the affluent Southside areas long ago, or maybe was driven out by those ruthless Yoga guys?

Something to consider if you are serious. Basically from a business perspective a sports centre would need to “sub” a MA club with lower rent than they could get from Yoga and the likes. And initially, during its build-up, a period of grace wouldn’t be a bad idea. Alternatively “employ” a coach like UCD do. Other than that you could look to offer a better deal to a near-by already established club, though bear in mind, because they certainly will, that every time a club moves it haemorrhages members.