Happy New Years Everyone,
Just like last week, I would be kind of amazed if anyone actually reads this post – let’s face it, it is just that time of year where family, friends and celebration are so much more important than health and fitness – but, just in case there is a crazy person out there (or people who either don’t like or aren’t liked by their families!) here goes!
2019 has been a pretty massive year for Round 1. We have done some ‘stuff’ and set some records, that’s for sure!
Throughout much of 2017 and 2018 we worked with our landlords and the City of Cockburn to expand our facility from 500m2 to a little over 1100m2 – and add the ‘Strength Gym’ to our facility. The intention from the start was not so much to ‘convert’ Round 1 from it’s ‘Boxing for Fitness’ heritage, but rather to provide a pathway for those people who wanted to supplement their training with some ‘traditional’ Strength and Conditioning work with the option to do so.
The cost of this has (obviously) been enormous – both in the initial investment to set up the facility AND the ongoing costs of additional rent, rates, staff, cleaning products, lighting…STRESS…you get the idea. I THINK we are starting to get somewhere with most classes (particularly those in the morning) now seeing ‘solid’ if not ‘amazing’ attendance from members. Certainly I think the decision to outsource our class programming has been positive – and whilst it would sometimes be great to have a little bit more ‘input’ into what is happening on a macro level, we are getting more adept at managing the day-to-day of the program to ensure it is suitable for Round 1 and our members.
Speaking of programming, there has been a shift in programming in the boxing gym over the past year with each of the trainers now taking a turn at putting their ‘shoulder to the wheel’ and creating a week of training sessions. This has been great for me – I now only need to try and ‘set the agenda’ every 2nd week instead of every week – it has been great for the coaches who now get an opportunity to express themselves a little more and it has been great for our clients who now get a little bit of ‘something else’ in the classes…each of the trainers has a little bit of a ‘bent’ towards one exercise/style of training and the swings and the continual swings and shifts in focus have added even more variety to our sessions.
What else? Well, raw numbers are interesting. When comparing October 2018 (the last ‘full’ month before the Strength gym opened) with October 2019, the numbers stack up like this.
12-months ago we had an additional 40 members than we do now…but despite having a lower base of people (which, sadly for me means less revenue!) we had an additional 1021 people (or 17%) attend sessions. So we had less money coming in but serviced more clients? Now, something tells me that’s probably NOT the plan for ultimate business success (well, any idiot can tell you that having more costs and servicing more clients but receiving less revenue is 100% not the plan for ultimate business success) but focussing on the positives at least those people who are with us are enjoying the training (as represented by the increase in total attendance and, of course, the number of sessions being done by each member).
2019 also saw the introduction of the Developing Athletes Program – and the success of this program is a little hard for me to assess right now. I know that statement doesn’t make a lot of sense – surely I ‘know’ whether something is successful or not – but let me try and explain. I think the premise of the session – provide a mechanism for teenage athletes competing in field sports to gain speed and strength that will result in a competitive advantage ‘on-field’ is a good one. And I know that my 13yo (Dempsey) loves the program and his development because of it has been very impressive. BUT. Oftentimes the class is lowly attended and I cannot help but wonder if offering a Functional Fitness session at 4:30pm would be a better use of our resources AND provide a better service to our members. I have a high personal attachment to the program but have to wonder if the fact that I ‘want to do it’ is compromising my ability to assess whether or not we *SHOULD* be doing it?? In all honesty, it feels like half of my life is spent battling with things such as this!
I guess this just leaves the important question to be answered…what is happening next??? From an investment perspective, the biggest issue for the gym at the moment is the flooring in the boxing gym (despite the screams from the Functional Fitness people about the lack of fans in the strength gym!). To provide some perspective on this, when the fit-out for the Strength gym was completed, the total cost of the flooring was a touch over $60K – and whilst this is probably NOT a lot of money for some people/businesses it is an incredible amount of money for Round 1. That said, it is the current priority and I am working to try and upgrade the flooring during 2020. To be truthful, in terms of ‘stuff’, there is not much more on the list (fans and stereo for the strength gym, additional storage etc but nothing really beyond the $10K mark).
What’s next for classes is a good question. As already noted, I am grappling with the question of whether or not to continue with Developing Athletes – but aside to that, I am hoping to include a new 4pm class in the Strength gym each day called ‘SPARTA’. Now, for people who attended the Sparta sessions back in 2018, you will remember the classes as SHORT (30 minutes), HARD and AWESOME. These wont be ‘BEGINNERS’ workouts but anyone who has been FULLY participating in our group sessions at Round 1 for more than 4-weeks will be FINE as long as you bring an attitude of ‘CAN’…I CAN do pull-ups, I CAN do 50 Burpees, I CAN lift that/do that/beat that…I CAN get to the end! The SPARTA classes are not intended to be part of a ‘structured’ strength and conditioning program with progressive overload / linear progressions. They are supposed to be a ‘BLAST’ session – 30 minutes, full-speed ahead training – that leave you gasping for air with burning muscles…I think these will start as 2-3 times per week sessions in the Strength gym (4pm Tues, Thurs and 8am Sat) but will pin this down as February gets closer.
What else? Well, hopefully more of the same. 2020 will mark the ten year anniversary of the gym – it all kicked off late in March 2010 – and right now it is great to think that the place really is firing along…seeing so many people in the gym this morning (New Years Eve) is a great feeling for myself and the coaches and we really do appreciate everyone’s support.
Happy New Year.
See you all in the gym!
Michael.
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