chargining for open mats, opinions?

This is the way it was 10 years ago. Open mats were for paying members to come roll with other paying members, no instruction. Drill if you wanted to, but most just chose to roll.

Seems like in recent years I've seen gyms advertising its open mat as "BJJ is one big family, no drama here, we train with everyone, etc." I assume with this change in ethos also came the idea that open mats should be free. If you want to roll with folks from the crosstown gym, you'll have to keep it free. Not many are going to pay $10-20 to roll on a Sunday afternoon at a different gym.

Charging a fee is a time-honored way of limiting scare resources (the scarce resource being the mat.)

So it is like a golf club that would let other paying members from other golf club drop in for a game in Sunday.

But most Bjj gym are business and not social clubs.
 
Free open mats are a fantastic way to bring in more people, and forge solid relationships with members of gyms you might not otherwise meet. It also gets people through the doors if your school is still establishing itself. It is a very smart move business and culture wise.

The idea that an open mat, by its nature, has to be free... is insane. If the school asks you to pay a drop in, and you think that's wrong, something is wrong with you.
 
maybe an indirect way to help with this is to simply put out essentially a tip jar. people who want to contribute, people who dont dont.

it wont directly decrease the volume at open mat initially, but perhaps over time a natural social pressure to contribute once in a while will develop and eventually tighten up the classes (and getting the school some monetary compensation.)



ive known of instructors in honolulu that a while back had an issue essentially with guys who identified open mats around the island and managed to essentially train for free on a regular basis by hopping to different ones that ran on different days.

I live in Honolulu and my school is near the downtown area. This is basically one of the situations Im facing that made me reconsider the free of charge
 
I'm frankly surprised that open mats tend to be free. Everyone should be charging.

Eh, not everyone. If you're a small school, the benefits to your members of having more diverse rolling partners is a net good. If as in OP, the mat is crowded, you should charge exactly enough so that the mat is less crowded.
 
Free open mats are a fantastic way to bring in more people, and forge solid relationships with members of gyms you might not otherwise meet. It also gets people through the doors if your school is still establishing itself. It is a very smart move business and culture wise.

The idea that an open mat, by its nature, has to be free... is insane. If the school asks you to pay a drop in, and you think that's wrong, something is wrong with you.

that was the original intention of holding a weekly open mat, and not charging non-members. Basically the only non-members coming in are higher belts (former training partners) I personally invite and friends of other members that come in. Some people who were members stopped their membership and basically do what others referred to as "open mat surfing" and go around training for free at different gyms.

I don't think we've had any new members sign up from a friend bringing them to open mat. More new members came from their friends bringing them to a class instead
 
Another thing to keep in mind- I make a strong effort to have a fun, safe, and encouraging environment in my academy- and as a result, everyone is friendly and nice to each other- and we still have great competitors, as well as older hobbyist.

When I have an open mat- I have no idea who is coming in to train. Worse yet, most likely they don't even bother coming to one of the classes that I teach- but they just want to come and see who they can beat.

Like I said, I encourage all my guys to compete- but unless I am there to supervise, I'm not down with randoms coming into an open mat environment just to try to tap out my students. (If they want to do that, I am more than happy to have them visit a class- where I can supervise it, instruct them, and make sure people arent rolling like dickheads)
 
I like the idea of member's open mats because it encourages people to take control of their game by assigning "class time" to work on things outside of normal instruction and sparring.

I think for a big weekly roll-sesh like TS is describing, a drop-in fee is totally appropriate. You don't have to charge higher belts or particular friends of the team. But that $10 signifies that everyone who shows up is appreciative and ready to work. I take advantage of open mats on a regular basis, and I would pay a reasonable fee simply to acknowledge the host for providing the environment and the training partners.
Also, @BJJ Coffee Drinker , I can imagine how packed your mat gets. I got invited to it within a day of being on Oahu, and I didn't know anyone there previously. It must be great training. Next time.
 
I'm not opposed to charging non members. If you've got a problem with it, vote with your feet.

My team has run free, weekly open mats for years and even from the get go, I've advocated for a nominal charge of $5 for non members. While it's great from a community point of view but I've recommended the charge because the facilities are being used. Mats depreciate, facilities have to be maintained, cleaning detergents are required etc etc.
 
Like I said, I encourage all my guys to compete- but unless I am there to supervise, I'm not down with randoms coming into an open mat environment just to try to tap out my students. (If they want to do that, I am more than happy to have them visit a class- where I can supervise it, instruct them, and make sure people arent rolling like dickheads)
Its a thing to consider, you have the crazies dropping by to call out the fighters to prove something. You have no idea who this guy is, and what if he's there to injure the competitors when they're in the middle of camp.
 
I think for a big weekly roll-sesh like TS is describing, a drop-in fee is totally appropriate. You don't have to charge higher belts or particular friends of the team. But that $10 signifies that everyone who shows up is appreciative and ready to work. I take advantage of open mats on a regular basis, and I would pay a reasonable fee simply to acknowledge the host for providing the environment and the training partners.
Also, @BJJ Coffee Drinker , I can imagine how packed your mat gets. I got invited to it within a day of being on Oahu, and I didn't know anyone there previously. It must be great training. Next time.

Just like how the open mats are intended to be used

Awesome! how did you hear about our open mat? Where do you train? The school is called Sapaterio Jiujitsu Honolulu
 
I think you should charge for instruction, but not open mats. The point of hosting is to give your own students experience rolling with strangers.

You should only charge for open mat when you think your school is so thick with talent that your open mat is instructive AND your own students do not need fresh meat.
 
Let's ignore the fact that you facilitate a service that you should be reimbursed for.

These open mats are run in your gym and offer no advantage to your students that it does not offer to strangers. I think that's kind of unfair to your guys.

But it depends on context. If you feel the extra practice your students get from strangers has higher value than cash AND mat space, then go ahead and keep things the same.

I can certainly see how this problem starts. When a gym is new, giving the paying members more bodies to roll with really is does benefit them. Ours is currently in that stage, and everyone understands the value in letting visitors train for free. Once it's big enough that space becomes an issue, though, things need to change.

I hit open mats quite often, but I pay drop-in fees for regular classes plenty, too. I don't think anyone would think you're being unreasonable by charging a drop-in fee for open mat (or any other training in your facility, for that matter).
 
Been to open mat at 8 different gyms in my area and not a single one charged a fee. No instruction is given and about half the time the main instructor isn't even there. It's just a time for some die hards/enthusiast to get together on the weekend and get a good workout in (nothing too serious, never had to pay cash).
 
I think you should charge for instruction, but not open mats. The point of hosting is to give your own students experience rolling with strangers.

You should only charge for open mat when you think your school is so thick with talent that your open mat is instructive AND your own students do not need fresh meat.

There is pro and cons against such mentality. .

To start with, the instructor is usually not there to supervise as it is his day off. ..

The space is paid by the members. Anyone expecting to rock up for free is a free loader. .

My friend went to Cali on a holiday and hoped to attend an open mats of a "famous" gym.

He was told that he was not really welcome because they had their share of Bjj tourists picking on the white belts doing their open mats on Saturday.

Bare in mind, it was a top dog academy but it just happen that all their hardcore competition team do not train on Saturday as they only train week days.
 
All of the gyms in my area charge a drop-in fee for non-members. I've never actually been to a gym that didn't. A lot of gyms are generous about waving the fee, but yeah, most of them charge.

The gym I train at just went through that this past year. We've been open a few years now and we initially didn't charge anyone for open mats. Whether member or non-member. We are at the point now where our open mat is one of the most popular in the area. We've had to start charging a drop in fee (technically, there was always a drop in fee but we tended to wave it) for non-team members. We also have a separate "team only" open mat, and at the public open mat, the guys and girls who from other gyms who have trained with us from the start don't get charged.

This system seems to work really well for us and most of the gyms in the area do something similar. If someone who doesn't train at your gym shows up and is mad that they have to pay a small fee, it's really not your problem ...
 
We rarely have guys from other gyms coming in, the open mat aren't even on the website schedule, it's pretty much on our private facebook group that we organize them. The general idea is to have more time for our team to train. We let the guys bring in friends but they are responsible for their behavior.

One of the only problem is that some guys have stopped paying for the classes and just come in for 1 or 2 open mats a week, it's not an out of control issue right now but we may

Real open mats are far from being the norm in the area, nobody really does it. I can drop at other clubs from my affiliation but they are 2 or 3 hours away.
 
One of the only problem is that some guys have stopped paying for the classes and just come in for 1 or 2 open mats a week, it's not an out of control issue right now but we may

Real open mats are far from being the norm in the area, nobody really does it. I can drop at other clubs from my affiliation but they are 2 or 3 hours away.

Some of the guys coming in used to be paying members, always came to class late, only rolled and never di technique. They eventually stopped their membership, still come to our open mat (no mat fee) and I noticed they basically try and hit up all the other free open mats in town

That started to bother me
 
Some of the guys coming in used to be paying members, always came to class late, only rolled and never di technique. They eventually stopped their membership, still come to our open mat (no mat fee) and I noticed they basically try and hit up all the other free open mats in town

That started to bother me

This would bother most sensible people too. This is how you meet guys who have been training 7,8 years still white belts but have the skill/knowledge of blue belts.
 
Some of the guys coming in used to be paying members, always came to class late, only rolled and never di technique. They eventually stopped their membership, still come to our open mat (no mat fee) and I noticed they basically try and hit up all the other free open mats in town

That started to bother me
I have not had people that did this and I don't charge for drop ins (even for regular class) if it's a 1 off and I know you train at another gym. If you stopped paying and only came to open mats, I would have a conversation with that person personally to work out something that would work for both of us (i.e. you pay me or you find a new gym to train at).
 
Some of the guys coming in used to be paying members, always came to class late, only rolled and never di technique. They eventually stopped their membership, still come to our open mat (no mat fee) and I noticed they basically try and hit up all the other free open mats in town

That started to bother me

Cheap bastards!!!

But really, it's just annoying how some people think they have nothing to learn or to drill anymore, most of them are low level blue belts or perenial white belts with always good excuses for why they suck today.

Also it's disrepectful for the coach / owner

At our gym, which is only about 4 years old in is current form, it seems to be the first time that people do that on purpose, I always say a little something like: Hey are you coming back to class soon??'' We have about a 4-5 guys that seem to do it.
 
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