Is MA slowly dying out in the U.S., or is it just in the Denver area?

[MADENVER]

For the past several years, I've been witnessing schools diminishing and closing in the Denver area, and also hearing that it's Colorado in general too. Is this a national thing, or just around here?

 

[Monkey Turned Wolf]

I haven't heard of anything similar around me.

 

[Danny T]

In my area, 10 years ago there were 7 schools. Today there are 5 however the 5 are both larger in sq footage and total members. In my case 10 years ago I was in a 1600 sq foot area with about 60 students, today 6000 sq feet with over 200 members. The other towns within 2 miles all have more numbers of larger schools than there were 10 years ago.

 

[Reedone816]

Similar here, the tma school is in decline, beside wc.
The fitness based school like mt, mma is increasing.
The kids school like karate and tkd is still steady at the top.

Sent from my BV8000Pro using Tapatalk

 

[WaterGal]

Where I'm at, seems like more and more schools open up all the time. Some of them close, some of them don't, which is how any business is.

 

[MADENVER]

Maybe we have a unique situation here in the Denver area now. We have a boom here - in great part because people are flooding in here from all over the country - especially from California. ( also remember that pot is legal here now, too ) Housing prices and rents have skyrocketed and it's being called the "San Francisco of the rockies". BUT people are having to double and triple up with roommates in apts. So if teachers don't make much, it leads to a severe loss of teachers. Yes, teachers most often have to have a "day job" anyway, but it's crazy here now.

 

[Buka]

It's cyclical, it ebbs and flows with population changes, especially amongst youth numbers, business trends, real estate situations, the ageing of instructors.

Martial Arts ain't going nowhere. And it will probably upswing in your area eventually as well.

 

[skribs]

The problem we have at my school are that the classes are too big for the amount of space we have in our dojang.

 

[Gerry Seymour]

For the past several years, I've been witnessing schools diminishing and closing in the Denver area, and also hearing that it's Colorado in general too. Is this a national thing, or just around here?

Are you counting boxing, BJJ, and MMA places when you count the total population you see? It's quite likely there are schools closing, and population moving elsewhere. MMA gyms are sometimes much larger than you'd expect from MA schools, so a single MMA gym can take the students you'd find in 2-3 schools. There's been a general upswing in those places over the last decade or so (probably further back than that in some areas).

 

[Mitlov]

Where I am, there are fewer traditional karate schools then there used to be, but more MMA gyms, and probably equal or more martial arts participation total.

 

[MADENVER]

MMA is ok, but I want to stay in the self defense aspects of MA - not the young guy sports stuff.

 

[Gerry Seymour]

MMA is ok, but I want to stay in the self defense aspects of MA - not the young guy sports stuff.

While MMA started out as competition, there are folks who train at MMA gyms without competing. They can be a good place to train, where arts haven't been isolated. And training with competitors (and instructors/coaches who work with them) has some added benefits. There are even some folks who teach at MMA gyms with at least a partial focus on self-defense.