Personal Fitness Professional - October 2008 - (Page 13)

edge within their respective sports, the demand for qualiﬁed youth exercise instruction has never been higher. The average school day lets out between 2:30-3:00 PM; this is a perfect time for facilities, from a down-time perspective. Filling your facility or a self-contained space within your facility between the hours of 3:00-4:00 PM is a perfect ﬁt just prior to the post-workday prime hours. The suggested schedule (below, left) separates your classes from an age perspective and provides a natural cut-oﬀ point so that your training staﬀ and the kids never feel as though they are working in group settings that do not reﬂect an appropriate age-related split. Financial Boon On average, a reasonable fee to charge per class would be in the range of $15 to $25, depending on the economics of your demographic. Via active promotion in your community and through your current membership base, you may be very surprised to see how quickly generating 10 to 20 young clients per class will be. I have found that parents are absolutely ecstatic to learn of new fitness initiatives created for their children. At 10 young clients per class each paying a $20 fee at ﬁve classes per week in total, your facility will gain an additional $4,000 per month or roughly $48,000 annually. It is important for club and facility owners to think outside the box when considering additional revenue generators for their businesses. Understanding market trends, using your down time effectively and opening up to a new and virtually untapped demographic may be just what’s needed for business owners to establish the success they have been looking for. Brian Grasso is the Founder and CEO of the International Youth Conditioning Association. Become a certiﬁed Youth Fitness Specialist or learn about the speciﬁc aspects of training children, youths and teens for free by visiting www.IYCA.org. ● Class Structure Classes can be structured in a way that services children and teenagers of various ages throughout the week without placing the burdensome cloak over your training staﬀ of having to manage a large group consisting of six- to 15-year-olds, all with diﬀerent ﬁtness needs and interests. A successful weekly class structure could look something like this: Monday Ages 6-10 Tuesday Ages 11-14 Wednesday Ages 15-17 Thursday Ages 6-10 Friday Ages 11-14 3:00-4:00 PM 3:00-4:00 PM 3:00-4:00 PM 3:00-4:00 PM 3:00-4:00 PM *Through my own experiences of running youth-based programs and facilities, the age range of six to 14 contains the most potential of clientele. Although teenagers are certainly a viable demographic, I have had more success in creating ﬁtness programs for younger children from an interest and regular attendance standpoint. OCTOBER2008 · WWW.FIT-PRO.COM 13 http://www.IYCA.org http://wwW.FIT-PRO.COM

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Personal Fitness Professional - October 2008

Personal Fitness Professional - October 2008 Contents Letter from the Editor, Writers Current Controversies Combating with Obesity Pilates and Yoga for Athletes New! The Balancing Act The Top Prize Building a Base of Special Populations Datebook The Success Image The Anatomy of a Fitness Assessment Branding Training Ruts Product Profile New on the Market

Personal Fitness Professional - October 2008

For optimal viewing of this digital publication, please enable JavaScript and then refresh the page. If you would like to try to load the digital publication without using Flash Player detection, please click here.