Class Is In Session

How to add a new curriculum to benefit your gym

By JoAnna Haugen

CBN Aug/Sept 2010

If you run a typical all-star gym, you probably have cheer classes running from early afternoon into the evening every day of the week, and with hours of open gym or tumbling practices on the weekends, it may seem like the gym is constantly in use. But are you really getting the most out of your cheer facility? If you’re already paying rent on the space, and you’ve got to keep the electricity running, is there anything you can do to capitalize on the time, space and people you haven’t yet captured with your all-star cheer program?

As the current economic situation forces people to reevaluate their financial strategies, some gym owners have introduced a new curriculum of classes, which have, in turn, benefited their cheer programs. With forward thinking, creative planning and commitment, you too can make the most of your facility.

Curriculum Considerations

Although you might feel overwhelmed by the cheer and tumbling classes you already offer, planning a new curriculum is possible when you think outside the cheer box—programs that require minimal to no extra overhead or equipment.

Among the more popular offerings now popping up at all-star gyms are various forms of yoga, mommy-and-me exercise, kickboxing and other martial arts and dance classes such as zumba, belly dancing and salsa.

Benefits of Expanded Class Offerings

When you begin to think about coordinating new classes, managing the certification processes and handling the logistics, you may ask yourself if it’s worth all the work. All-star cheer directors who’ve already implemented new courses almost overwhelmingly agree that it is.

With sound planning, new classes should require minimal financial overhead, meaning any fees paid by participants (after paying instructors) go directly into the gym’s bank account. That extra money can be invested in expanding and promoting cheer programs, upgrading the gym or advertising the cheer program.

For some cheer directors, offering different classes has directly impacted their cheer programs. Stephanie Smith, owner of Intensity All Star Gym in Murrieta, CA, says that there have been no negative effects with adding classes, and, in fact, new classes have only increased all-star cheer enrollment. “[Having new classes] has added girls to the cheer program because their moms are now in zumba,” she says.

Even if it doesn’t result in new athletes for your cheer program, offering additional classes helps spread the word about your business. At Summit Cheering Athletics in Missoula, MT, gym owner Carrie Olson is reaching a whole new demographic. “A lot of the people who take classes [at our gym] are older and don’t have kids,” she says. “But [because of them,] I’m getting other people in my gym who wouldn’t normally be there. They talk about my gym and about where they take kickboxing classes.” That word-of-mouth advertising is free and can be helpful in making your presence known in the community.

Overhead Costs and Making Space

When planning new classes, it’s important to consider the space requirements for the activities you’d like to offer without forgetting your gym’s priorities. “You don’t want to overcrowd the gym, but you do want to utilize the dead time,” says Jason Ybarra, managing partner of 360 Gym Performance, a consulting company that helps all-star gyms become more successful businesses.

Some gyms have vacant space that could be utilized for new curriculum. Pre-equipped dance studios or smaller rooms in the building can easily be turned into class space. If you’re already paying rent on the rooms, you’ll only need to consider the cost of utilities and any extra equipment the class needs. Pilates, for example, requires equipment expenditure, but a core class that incorporates a few basic Pilates moves would essentially cost nothing to start. Dance classes may only require sound equipment, which you probably already have available to you.

Many gyms that have introduced non-cheer/tumbling classes have taken advantage of a population waiting and willing to learn: the parents. “We had all these parents sitting around while their kids were at cheer,” Smith says. “Our dance classes give them something else to do.”

Ybarra agrees: “Parents want to do something with their time, but they don’t want to leave the gym just to turn around and come right back again,” he says. “If there’s empty space, take advantage of it.”

Even if you don’t have extra space in your gym during cheer classes, chances are your facility isn’t being used 24 hours a day, and there are probably people who’d be more than happy to stop by for a morning boot camp or an early afternoon mommy-and-me class. Don’t write off any possibilities until you’ve compared the profit you could make with the cost of turning on the lights for a couple extra hours during the day.

Finding Instructors

Creating new curricula generally happens one of two ways: Either instructors approach a gym looking for a place to teach a class, or gym owners search for instructors to teach specific classes they’d like to offer.

Because the idea of adding new courses may seem like a burden rather than a benefit, many gyms that offer non-cheer classes have done so because certified instructors have sought out the opportunity to teach. Outside instructors often come with a following of students, and these instructors are invested in creating a successful program because, without students, they’re out of a job. “My contract instructor basically just rents a room at my gym,” Olson says.

Hiring outside the cheer staff takes a lot of stress off gyms and can also make for a diverse roster of class offerings. If you’re worried that outside instructors could leave at any time, be sure to work out a long-term payment plan and keep communication lines open to keep the partnership mutually beneficial.

If you’d like to add new classes but don’t have instructors knocking on the door, there are several places to find them. First, check with your cheerleaders’ parents to see if any of them are certified fitness instructors. You may be able to work out an agreement where a parent will teach a class for no pay in exchange for free or discounted tuition for her child. If there are no parents able or interested in teaching, find someone outside of the gym who is. Craigslist.com is a good place to search for and recruit certified instructors.

Gym owners can also assign new curriculum responsibility to one of their coaches, who may or may not need additional certification to teach a new class. However, this choice has its advantages and disadvantages. On the one hand, there are no surprises about the instructor—gym owners already know and likely trust the employee who would be running the class. On the other hand, this person must [ital: want] to teach something besides cheer. If he or she would rather teach cheer and is being paid by the gym anyway, he or she may not make the effort required to sustain the class.

Program Offerings and Certification

New curriculum is only restricted by a gym owner’s imagination. If you have the space and a certified instructor, chances are you can offer the course in your gym.

In addition to mainstream course offerings, ask people what classes they want, and you may be able to tap into a niche that your community is lacking. Olson, for example, has a friend who offers ski conditioning classes, and she used to offer a boot camp cardio class as well.

Regardless of the classes an all-star gym has to offer, it’s important that instructors be properly trained and certified to teach. “Any time you add a class, you want there to be as little liability as possible,” Ybarra says. Certified instructors know how to safely and properly guide people through a class. Certifications also lend credibility to course offerings and help gym owners leverage class pricing.

There are many certification programs available to potential instructors. Some gym owners like to have their class instructors go through standard coaching organizations for safety certifications, which is especially appropriate for dance instructors, though zumba has its own instructor training program. The American Association of Cheerleading Coaches & Administrators and the United States All Star Federation are popular choices for spirit safety and risk management education.

Yoga certification requires several hours of exercise training, observation and training hours and anatomy coursework. Written tests, book work and required reading might also be necessary. Yogafit is one of the most popular certification programs for yoga.

The American Council on Exercise and the Aerobics and Fitness Association of America both offer group fitness certification, which primarily consists of written coursework and exams that focus on anatomy, kinesiology, exercise physiology and instructional techniques; ongoing class participation on the part of the instructor is expected as well. AFAA also offers kickboxing certification. Regardless of what classes you decide to offer, every instructor teaching a class should be certified in CPR and first aid.

When putting together a new curriculum, one of the things gym owners need to decide is whether the gym or the instructor will pay for certification. This will probably depend on whether your instructors are on payroll with the gym or hired as contract workers to teach the class, but if you actively search for someone to teach a class, make sure he or she is already certified. This is also beneficial for contract instructors, who are then not obligated to stay with a gym, especially if the arrangement doesn’t work out for both parties.

Charging for New Curriculum Courses

If you’ve decided that new curriculum classes would be a beneficial addition to your gym, and you know what courses you’d like to add, the next question, of course, is how much you should charge. In general, cardio/aerobics, yoga and basic exercise classes run between $10 and $35 per person per class, depending on the class type and area you live in. Do your research on related businesses in your city to determine an appropriate price.

To ensure that people continue to return to the class, consider offering a discount for paying for several sessions in advance. At Summit Cheering Athletics, Olson sells punch cards for classes, which requires people to pay in full before attending classes. And though she charges $25 per month per person for kickboxing, class participants are locked in for a year.

Also, if you offer more than one type of class, consider giving participants discounts for signing up for two or more of your courses.

Advertising

To make a new curriculum pay off, it’s important to keep overhead low. This means that you should mention your new class offerings in e-mail newsletters, by word of mouth and in mailings about your all-star program, but don’t invest in special advertising.

Many cheer directors have worked out pay structures so that advertising on behalf of the class is an incentive to the instructor. Some instructors make a certain amount of money per person in the class while others make a percentage of the total profit brought in by the course. In both cases, instructors make more money when there are more participants in the class, so they are inclined to actively recruit students, therefore helping to relieve gym owners of this responsibility.

Adding new classes to your cheer gym may seem daunting, but the financial rewards can be significant, and as many gym owners who’ve already implemented such programs will testify, it’s worth exerting the effort. “Use your floor and keep talking about your gym,” Smith says. And most importantly, she says, “be open to any possibilities.”