“We actually have two open mats on our schedule, and one of them is completely free and one of them the drop-in fee is half,” Johnson explained.
Devhonte “Bones” Johnson recently shared his perspective on charging fees for open mats during his appearance on the
Jits and Giggles podcast.
Johnson, who opened his own gym in 2019, takes a balanced approach to open mat fees. His academy offers two weekly open mats – one that charges a reduced fee and another that is completely free.
“A lot of the students who take that class also stay and they’ll do the open mat,” Johnson said. “If you make open mat free, you have a lot of visitors who just come in.”
His rationale centers around protecting his regular students, particularly during the paid open mat which follows a class.
“I’m not trying to let my students – I have some guy who’s like 50 years old or 45 years old, or even 40, 35 years old, but he’s like an engineer or something like that, and he’s just trying to have a nice training day – and some random that I don’t even know does a flying triangle or something like that.”
The paid open mat serves as a deterrent to these types of visitors:
“You should pay to come here during this class because it’s kind of a way of me protecting my people. You will deter those people from coming in most of the time because they don’t want to pay.”
In contrast, Johnson‘s free Sunday open mat at 10:30 AM attracts a different crowd, primarily competitors looking for challenging rounds.
“If you are that kind of person and you want to come in with that energy, you come to our second open mat, which is generally on Sundays. Most of our competitors do that class, and you can get your a** kicked.”
Johnson also addressed the broader sentiment that jiu-jitsu services should be free.
“I don’t understand why people think anything should be free in jiu-jitsu,” he stated. “People come to my gym and they’re like, ‘Training’s not free?’ Who’s supposed to pay for bills? How do you think these lights stay on?”
“The people who always want to train for free, they require all the work. They’re mentally unstable, they’re having panic attacks in the middle of the round whether they’re winning or losing.”
