How to Run a Martial Arts Summer Camp for Kids

Are you ready to start your summer camp?

Many gyms aren’t. Many martial arts studios mistakenly assume that it’s the same as running a gym. Schedule the classes, get kids in, teach them technique, and then they go home.

It’s completely different.

As you’ll soon see, running a martial arts summer camp for kids requires more than the typical class at your gym. We’ll take a look at why martial arts summer camps fail, the specifics of a successful summer camp, and how to run your camp profitably.

Why do martial arts summer camps fail?

Summer camps can be profitable.

But they won’t be if they’re treated like an extension of your gym. Your summer camp should be treated as its own entity, as if you’re running a completely separate business. Your camp needs to be well planned, with a clear structure and the right people to support it.

This is where most gyms fail.

Here are a few of the key factors contributing to summer camp failure.

1. Poor planning is the norm. Generally, there’s not much in the way of a clearly defined curriculum. The attitude is “we’ll cover the stuff we did in class that one time.” As a result, campers become bored, and parents become frustrated.
2. Poor staffing, minimal training. There’s not really an emphasis on finding or hiring A-player candidates. These camps tap friends, students from the adult classes, or connections to fill employee spots. These owners fill positions as needed and do so in whatever way they can, often using inexperienced and poorly trained candidates.
3. Poor marketing and promotion. These camps often have a targeting problem. They focus on the wrong target audience. They focus their attention on families who are unwilling or unable to pay for their services. They promote their camps to the wrong people, and they wait until the last minute to begin promoting their upcoming camps.
4. Poor financial management. Money should be easy to receive and difficult to spend. Gym owners tend to be generous. They’re not as focused on “salesy” details like payment, because they want to help their students. Your business can’t survive that way. Most gyms require families to pay for their summer camps, but they have no processes in place to collect, manage, and audit payments.
5. No uniqueness. All too often, these “camps” feel like an overpriced week’s worth of class. If that’s true, why would parents and students be interested? If they just attend class, they’ll receive the same, exact material. Why pay extra for things they’re already getting?
6. Overpriced vs. your offering. Parents will look at the other camp options in the area. Why would they sign up for your program if they can get more value for their kids elsewhere? If the perceived value doesn’t exceed the pricing of your summer camp program, parents will give you a hard pass.
7. Unsafe facilities and spaces. Parents will pull their kids from your camp if the facilities are dirty, disorganized, cramped, or unsafe. No emergency protocols? If a student gets injured and there is no documentation, response, or communication with parents, your reputation will take a hit.
8. No/poor performance management. If you ignore parent or student feedback and you refuse to track attendance, satisfaction, or conversions, you’ll find it’s difficult to improve the quality of your program. This makes it difficult to keep students over the long term or convert families to a regular membership.

Are these all of the reasons why summer camps fail?

Not at all.

But these issues tend to be the worst offenders. If you’re going to create, launch, and manage your martial arts summer camp successfully, you’ll need to have the right structure in place.

Here’s what you need to run a successful martial arts summer camp

Here’s a comprehensive list of the to-dos required to start, launch, and run your summer camp program. This list provides the broad strokes; feel free to customize, add to, or remove items as needed. Remember, this doesn’t need to be a complicated process.

#01. Planning and Strategy for Your Summer Camp

If you have a plan for your summer program, you’re able to answer three important questions. (1.) What is my plan (2.) How will I implement my plan (3.) Is my plan working? If you have a plan, you’re in a better position to find, address, and prevent problems that threaten to derail your summer program.

Here’s how you can plan for your summer camp.

• Define program goals and objectives: Who are you teaching? How old are they? What will you teach them? What success outcomes are you looking for?
• Choose your camp format: Will this be a day camp? Will campers stay overnight? If so, where? What accommodations are needed?
• Set dates and schedules: Is your camp weekly or monthly? Does it run for the entire summer? Is your camp open/active during holidays (e.g., 4th of July)?
• Set session duration: Are camp sessions full or half-day? Will you be taking a break for lunch or dinner?
• Create your program and curriculum: Who is your curriculum for? (include warm-ups, techniques, rounds, games, rest, etc.)
• Budgeting and cash flow management: A clear breakdown of your income (e.g., student payments) vs. expenses (e.g., rentals, staff salaries, equipment, insurance, and marketing)
• Pricing strategy: Will you offer early bird, sibling, and family discounts? What about discounts for children of veterans, law enforcement, or active military?)    

Use these bullet points as a starter list for your planning and strategy. Take the time to flesh out the specifics of your summer camp in advance. You’ll find that you’re ready for the people, opportunities, and partnerships that’ll come your way.

#02. Legal and Administrative Requirements for Your Summer Camp

It’s essential to address the legal aspects of your business. Oftentimes, you’ll find that one set of legalities depends on another. For example, your insurance company requires that you have waivers and agreements in place. You’ll need an attorney for that, which means they’ll probably advise you to establish a corporate entity (LLC, C-corp, etc.).

Here’s a short list of the items you’ll need.

• Business registration: If necessary, set up your corporation, register intellectual property, and request a tax ID number.
• Request licenses and permits: You may need to register for licenses and permits at the city, county, state, or provincial level. This includes health, childcare, and zoning permits.
• Draft legal documentation: Collaborate with your attorney to develop the necessary waivers, agreements, contracts, and documents.
• Create emergency procedures: Map out procedures, protocols, workflows, and steps your staff should follow in the event of an emergency.
• Draft a parent handbook and policies: Outline the dos and don’ts, rules, and regulations for parents to follow. Rules regarding pick-up and drop-off, behavior, etiquette, health, and other matters.

#03. Facility and equipment management

How will you manage your facility and your equipment? How will you convince parents that your location is safe, secure, and well-maintained?

• Security for your venue/location: Who has access to what, when, and why? How will security be maintained? How will breaches be handled?
• Ensure restroom and water access: Are there enough restrooms and drinking fountains for the number of people attending your camp? Will you need to provide campers with refreshments?
• Order summer camp equipment: This includes gloves, pads, jump rope, weights, balls, heavy bags, mats, and other miscellaneous supplies.
• Purchase first-aid kits and safety equipment, including bandages, wraps, antiseptic ointments and sprays, pain relievers, and an Automated External Defibrillator (AED) machine. You’ll also need to have specialized medications and resources available for those with specific conditions or allergies.
• Purchase cleaning and sanitation supplies, including multi-purpose commercial disinfectants, sanitizers, air fresheners, and odor eliminators.

Parents will want to see that you’re prepared for routine, day-to-day maintenance, as well as worst-case scenarios.

#04. People and Staffing Requirements

What’s an A-player?

According to Dr. Bradford Smart, author of Topgrading, an A-player is defined as the top 10 percent of talent available for any job, at a given salary. Don’t misunderstand, this isn’t the best candidate ever, it’s the best candidates that are available.

If you want your summer camp program to go well, you’ll need to hire A-players.

Why?

Because A-players attract A-players!

• Hire A-player candidates for your camp: Look for qualified instructors and assistants who are capable, have a proven track record, and are great with kids.
• Verify and certify staff members: You’ll want to perform background checks on all of your staff members, especially if your camp serves minors. Obtain certifications and documentation for each staff member who will be working directly with children.
• Onboard and train your staff: Provide your staff members with the procedures, workflows, and structure they need to take care of your campers and their families at a high level.
• Offer training on child safety and conflict resolution: Your campers will need help from your staff to resolve the occasional conflicts and disagreements that come up. Train your staff so they’re better prepared to handle the inevitable conflicts between kids.
• Assign roles, rights, responsibilities, and schedules. The rights and responsibilities your staff have should be directly tied to their role in your business. It’s essential that you empower your staff members with the autonomy they need to address specific issues within your company.

To keep families in your program happy, you’ll need to find, attract, and retain A-player talent. These are the staff members who will go above and beyond to take care of your campers, parents, and other staff members.

#05. Marketing and Promoting Your Summer Camp

Marketing is selling in a system. Instead of selling one-on-one, marketing allows you to sell one-to-all. It’s an essential requirement if you want to promote your summer camp and maximize your enrollment.

• Create a compelling value proposition for your summer camp. Your value proposition answers the “why” question. Why should families send their kids to your martial arts summer camp specifically?
• Create and launch a marketing campaign for your summer camp. You’ll want to create content in a variety of formats—ads, email, search, social, and print. Your marketing campaign should attract, connect with, and maintain relationships with your audience.
• Draft registration documents, which include forms and waivers for parents to sign for their kids. These forms should be available in both print and online formats. You’ll also want to create an online registration system that parents can use to pay and sign up (e.g., your website, your payment processor, or Google Forms).
• Use urgency triggers to incentivize immediate action. Discounts, early-bird specials, vanishing bonuses, contests, loss aversion timers, VIP access, and waitlists are all great options you can use. Urgency triggers provide genuine motivation for families to register quickly.
  Host open houses to promote your camp.  These events provide skeptical families with the opportunity to preview the sessions and classes offered in your summer camp.

The better you are at marketing and promoting your martial arts summer camp, the easier it will be to attract, retain, and grow your summer program.

#06. Program and Session Management

If you plan your program and sessions ahead of time, you’ll find it’s easier to hold your students’ attention.

Here’s how you do it.

• Share weekly themes and promotion-oriented goals. Your students should always have goals they’re working towards. Create rewards and incentives for students who hit their goals.
• Create values and live them out to create culture. For example, you may want to emphasize values that focus on respect, discipline, focus, and commitment. You’ll need to define how that’s done in your camp.
• Create the daily structure of each session by adding daily warm-ups (e.g., granby, shrimp, bridge, shoulder rolls), drills (e.g., guard passing), and games. Schedule hydration and snack breaks so students are always performing at their best.
• Define your behavior management system: Generally speaking, these include some form of punishment vs. reward. You’ll need to define the approach you’ll take (e.g., incentives, warnings, and timeouts).

Instead of fighting students or begging them to pay attention, you can create structure. Planning your curriculum, creating a summer program, and making each session fun and enjoyable, that’s what keeps students focused.  

#07. Customer Experience and Feedback Management

Students and parents need ongoing communication. Keeping parents in the dark about what’s happening with their kids is a huge no-no. Ignoring students, failing to manage their expectations, and ignoring feedback is a great way to lose families.

If you want to keep families happy, focus your attention on:    

• Parent communication: Develop a system of communication that keeps parents informed. Parents should be aware of all information that affects their children. This includes posting weekly (public) updates via email or social media. Sending progress reports and certificates home, or simply reaching out to parents when appropriate.
• Camper welcome and onboarding: Take the time to welcome each of them individually. Provide campers with a group onboarding process that enables you to set clear expectations with each camper. Use this onboarding to identify and address the fuzzy (I’ll know it when I see it), implicit (everybody knows), or unrealistic expectations that campers have.
• Welcome emails and packing lists for parents: Help parents prepare their kids for camp. Provide them with a list of essential, nice-to-have, and bonus items their kids will need for camp.  
• A daily check-in/check-out process: This is important for parents—it gives them peace of mind; their kids are safe with you. Their children are only released to authorized parties. These policies provide safety, accountability, and legal protection in the event of an incident. Another bonus? Parents can share important health updates, medical instructions, or requirements with camp staff.    
• Collecting parent feedback and testimonials: If parents are satisfied, they’re much more likely to share their feedback, write a review, or offer a testimonial. However, you also want to collect feedback from unhappy parents; this is an important trust factor that helps you to improve your summer camp.  

The better you are at managing your communication, the easier it will be for you to maintain strong bonds with parents and your students.

#08. Summer Camp Assessment, Debrief, and Evaluation

As your camp winds down, you’ll want to take some time to evaluate your team’s performance. How did things go? Were there any chronic issues that we failed to address? Did students leave our camp happy and satisfied? Are their parents happy and satisfied?

• Team debrief: Meet with camp staff to discuss the summer program. Identify what worked well, what was good enough, and what needs improvement.
• Cleaning, organizing, and storing equipment. Verify that all mats, pads, gloves, shin guards, pads, and materials are cleaned, sanitized, and properly stored. They should be kept in a state that’s ready-to-use.
• Update medical records and emergency contact information. If any data needs to be added to your records, verify that it’s stored in a secure and compliant manner.  
• Send out parent debrief and follow-up offers: You’ll want to give parents a rundown and mementos of their kids’ time at your summer camp. Share photos, videos, stories, and achievements privately with each parent. Take the time to request feedback and reviews from parents and students.
• Plan to implement the improvements discussed in your next camp. Take the time to assess the feedback you’ve received. Make plans to implement the feedback you’ve addressed at the appropriate time.

Take the time to evaluate and debrief; record the feedback you receive from your staff members. Collect the feedback you’ve received from students and parents. Document the feedback and outline items that you want to take action on. Then, set a time to take action on the feedback you’ve received.

Your Martial Arts Summer Camp can be Successful

Martial arts summer camps are profitable when they’re done well.

Many martial arts studios mistakenly assume that it’s the same as running a gym. Schedule the classes, get kids in, teach them technique, and then they go home.

It’s completely different.

If your summer camp is treated as its own entity, it’s a business that’s well-planned, with a clear structure, and the right people to support it.

This is how you win.

Today, we’ve taken a list of the most important to-dos required to start, launch, and run your summer camp program. This list provides the broad strokes; feel free to customize, add to, or remove items as needed. This doesn’t need to be a complicated process, but it does require careful planning.