Why Better Coaching Won't Grow Your Gym and the Skill That Actually Will.
Quick answer: Most parkour gyms already have coaching that is good enough to grow. What holds them back is almost never coaching. It is usually sales, marketing, pricing, retention, or systems. The fastest way to grow is to find the one thing choking your business and fix it, not to polish what you are already great at.
It's like gaining skill and ExP. in a video game
Most gyms already have pretty good, if not great, coaching in-house. I would know because we've spent the past few years traveling to parkour gyms, visiting in person, and getting to understand their business on a fundamental level. So I can confidently say that for most parkour gyms, their coaching ability is already level 80 to 90 out of 100.
Kids learn parkour
The classes are safe
The classes are fun
A healthy ratio of new students declare parkour as their new favorite sport.
A handful of kids reach a competitive level or become coaches
To grind that up to a 95 takes forever. Nuanced training. Outside coaches. Hours of fine-tuning.
Obviously, if coaching in your gym is unsafe, unfun, and uneffective, then ya fix that. that's awfull... Its just not usually the case in a legit parkour gym, ran by passionate lovers of our sport.
And here's the kicker. A brand new family can't even tell the difference. A 90 coach and a 95 coach both look amazing. Its like a a parent watching SPL live stream cant understand the skill gap between a tripple full and a quad full, it just looks like an athlete spinning...
Now look at your other skills...🤢
Your marketing is a 10/100. Your sales are a 10/100.
Again, and im being honest based on my experience visiting parkour gyms. Nearly every parkour gym we helped get crushing results for almost always struggled with sales, marketing, pricing, and team culture when we arrived.
For the SAME effort it takes to move coaching from 90 to 95...
...you could take marketing from 10 to 50. AND sales from 10 to 50. My personal experience that kept me stuck for years (yes, years)
For years, Freedom in Motion was stuck. (2014 to 2018)
Same revenue. Same stress. Year after year. Almost went out of business several times. I talk about it in detail in my book for parkour gym owners
So I did what most gym owners do. I tried to get better at the thing I loved.
I coached my coaches.
I brought in third-party coaches to train my coaches.
I built cool new vault boxes.
I redesigned the bars.
I made slick YouTube videos.
Nothing made a difference; the gym still struggled
The gym looked better. The coaching got sharper. The revenue stayed flat.
Then I learned the fundamentals of sales and marketing. That is when everything changed.
I hired a mentor to finally teach me how to run ads, use automations, and launch a CRM
Here is the hard truth I wish someone had told me sooner.
You keep fixing what is already a 95
Meanwhile, vital business systems sit at 10s.
Taking marketing from a 10 to a 50 is easier than taking coaching from a 95 to a 99. And it brings in 10x the members.
You are grinding for a tiny gain while ignoring a giant one.
Great coaching matters. It is just not your constraint.
Let me be clear. Coaching is not a waste.
Great coaches drive referrals. Great coaches keep members longer. That raises your LEG (length of engagement), and that is real money.
Coaching is a huge asset. Keep it strong.
But an asset is not the same as a constraint.
Your constraint is the one thing choking your growth right now. Fixing an asset that is already strong does not remove the choke.
Apex Denver is a perfect example. They had a nationally recognized coaching team. Elite. As good as it gets.
Their growth did not come from better coaching. It came from fixing their internal operations and budgeting. The coaching was already a 95. The business side was the "10". Not saying them were specifically a 10, but their marketing, sales, and some deeper business systems needed an overhaul, which we discuss in the video below.
Why owners keep making this mistake?
Because coaching is comfortable.
You know how to coach. It feels good. It is low stress and low brain effort.
Learning sales makes your palms sweat. Running paid ads feels scary. Fixing your pricing feels risky.
So you avoid the hard, scary skill and pour yourself into the easy, safe one.
That is human. But it is also why you are stuck.
You are not picking what grows the gym. You are picking what feels safe.
How to actually grow: find your constraint
Every business has one thing choking it. One kink in the hose.
You can polish the rest of the hose all day. Until you find the kink, the water will not flow.
Here is how to find yours.
Step 1: Get honest about the goal
Is your goal to grow the business? Then say it out loud. Growth is the target.
Now every move gets judged against that one question. Does this grow the business, or does it just feel good?
Step 2: Find the kink in the hose
You find the constraint by looking at your numbers. Walk your funnel top to bottom and find the biggest drop.
How many leads are you getting each month?
How many book a trial class?
How many trials actually show up?
How many trials become members?
How many members stay past 90 days?
How many members stay past 18 months?
Then look at the money.
How much of your revenue goes to payroll?
Is your rent eating you alive?
Are you keeping any profit at all?
The biggest drop is your constraint.
Rough benchmarks to check yourself against:
Trial to member: 65 to 95 percent is doable with a strong sales process.
Monthly churn: 3 to 5 percent is excellent. 6 to 8 percent is workable. Over 8 percent is a red flag.
If you are converting 40 percent of trials, coaching is not your problem. Sales is. If youre charging less than $199 a months for a once a week, then pricing, offering, sales and marketing are all likly part of the problem.
If members quit at month two, coaching is probably not your problem either. Onboarding or member support are.
The numbers point at the kink. Follow them.
Step 3: Fix that one thing. Then do it again.
Fix the constraint. Only that one.
Then step back and look again. A new constraint will show up. Fix that one too.
That is the whole job of a CEO. Find the constraint. Fix it. Repeat.
What is usually NOT your constraint
Getting your coaches from great to elite
Going viral on social media
Posting more often
Repainting the gym
Buying a new foam pit or spring floor
These feel productive. Some even help a little. A fresh coat of paint or a new toy can make current members happy and keep them around longer. That is nice.
But nice is not the same as growth.
What usually IS your constraint
Your pricing model
Running paid ads
Building a second channel to bring in leads
Keeping members past 90 days
Business systems that free up your time and focus
This is where the real growth lives. And it is exactly the stuff most owners avoid.
The proof shows up every time an owner makes the switch:
F8 Movement doubled their leads and sales and doubled their revenue after they installed real sales and marketing.
One gym owner in our program took his bank account from $10,000 to a 15-year high of $90,000 after fixing his pricing and launching a sales team.
None of them got there by becoming better coaches. They got there by becoming better business owners.
The bottom line
Your coaching is probably already good enough to grow.
Your business skills are what is holding you back.
That is not an insult. It is the best news you will hear all year. Because business skills can be learned. And they pay back faster than anything else you can do.
Stop polishing the 95. Go fix the 10.
Want help finding your constraint?
If you are not sure where your kink in the hose is, let's find it together.
Book a free call with a mentor. We will look at your numbers, spot your one constraint, and give you a clear next step.
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