The Whistlekick Report

Martial arts facilities may teach different styles and they may have different ways of doing so, but most have one thing in common; they want to share the love, practice, and history of their art with others. To do this, though, facilities and schools need to find ways to get and retain students, as well as to run their programs in ways that make sense to everyone involved. And no matter how long a school has been in business, there may always be room for improvement or room to try new things to help students, instructors, and owners all succeed.

To that end, Whistlekick has begun a series of surveys aimed at helping schools discover what works and doesn't work in terms of business practices, program design, and other facets of running a martial arts facility. Our goal is to help schools find ways of overcoming some common issues, like retention, recruiting new students, determining what equipment to invest in, program design, and more.

Our first survey went out last year, aimed at getting a general sense of what the state of the martial business world is currently like. Coming soon will be more surveys getting into specific areas and ideas, with the option of having in-depth analysis done for the results.

We've published the results of this initial survey for you below in an easy to read infographic. We hope to provide additional insights in future reports, and further hope that you enjoy these results.

Interested in taking part in our next survey? Fill out your contact information [here], and we'll include you in the next round.

Click on the survey thumbnail below to see the full version.

Why The Whistlekick Report?

As a martial arts school is a business like any other, it experiences ups and downs. It's always easier to run a business when you have strong data, but how about data on where your school stands in relation to the wider industry?

Enter, The Whistlekick Report.

We're initiating a set of surveys to learn more about martial arts schools in the US. In time, we'll roll these surveys out to the rest of the world.

Free Martial Arts Surveys for Owners and Managers

Did we mention that participating and data from this project will be free? Yes, free.

These surveys are intended for martial arts school owners or managers. We understand that some owners are not hands-on in their businesses and they hire managers to handle them, so the managers can answer these surveys. But we encourage the owners to be the respondents because they have the eyesight and authority over their martial arts school businesses.

As the number of martial arts schools grows, many are also closing. There are many factors to consider but sometimes, the school owners fail to advertise their schools. Many are reluctant to spend on advertising without considering the return on investment. Some schools, however, are well-advertised but they lack the facilities that the students like. Or maybe it’s because of the quality of training that the students receive. In that case, then it’s time to hire better instructors.

What to Expect

That’s the reason why we conceptualized and created these surveys—to inform us of what is really happening. In this way, we can learn about the struggles of the school owners in managing their schools. Anyone can take part in these surveys - yes, you read it right, these surveys are open to all and not just in the United States. Of course, the results are anonymous, so no one will know how your business does.

We encourage all eligible respondents to take part in this set of surveys. A few minutes of your time will be beneficial to you and to others as well. Let us help each other build a better community of martial arts schools and promote martial arts to many more people. Thank you for reading!

How to Participate

Every time we release a new survey we'll post it in our blog, social media and to the email list, we specifically started for this purpose.

Each survey will take only a few minutes to complete. We've kept them simple, but they're full of value on where the martial arts industry is headed.