pwblackbelt

Hi,
My wife and I are planning to move out to the Marbella area to open up a full time Kickboxing Academy.
We currently run a full time academy and a couple of satellite schools in the Uk.
We have been teaching for around 15 years. My wife is the World Champion at Full Contact Kickboxing for women and I am a British Champion.
We offer classes that have been designed for children with the assistance of child psychologists to help with respect, discipline and good manners not just kicking and punching.
We do classes for kids from the age of 4 years.
Our adult classes are more for fitness and self defence. I have been trying to find information on estate agents for an empty building but all I seem to be able to find is bars and I don't want to open a bar.
My question is basically can anyone point me in the right direction for estate agents on commercial property that aint a bar and also. does anyone know of any other types of services around the Marbella area that would be similar to what we want to offer.
By that I mean REAL KICKBOXING training by CHAMPIONS not a lycra clad boxercise dancy class. (Nothing wrong with that, but we don't offer that)
I would appreciate any info
Thanks

jdr

I think if you go to Marbella, probably all you will get is people who want lycra clad boxercise dancy classes. To many posers there and probably no dedecation to anything else.
In my opinion you need to go to rough areas ie the East End of London etc if you want to train future champions.
Where do all the champions come from ? Yep street kids.
Speaking from experience, but not in kick boxing or posing. ;-)
Its hard work setting a business up in Spain and will need careful planning.
Good luck if you go for it though.

pwblackbelt

Hi,
Hmmm, I guess I wrote that wrong. We don't want to train champions, we gave that up 5 years ago and concentrated on teaching life skills to kids through the martia arts.Our main target area would be kids, teaching the martial arts skills but leaning towards developing confidence while instilling respect and discipline. We have had tremendous success in the UK with kids, including kids with autism.
All I meant by the lycra thing is I have had loads of adults over the years (mainly women) who have came along to my academy to try out a class and been surprised when they have had to do a proper workout as they have done "Kickboxing" at the local gym but have never even see a boxing glove.
Are there any English speaking or British schools out there for expats kids? We do a lot of work in schools here dealing with personal safety, stranger danger and that type of thing.
We just think it would be nice to offer this type of service in the sunshine is all, having a history like World Champion is just handy to have on your cv, but we do not want to get into competitive fightng again, done it, seen it, have the scars, tee shirts and a false hip to prove it.
We still have a load of adults training with us but they are concentrating more on a good physical workout with a self defence element. This is more along the lines of what we would be offering. I have had a look at gyms on the web for that area and they all seem to be charging similar to what we charge here, so people would be used to paying for professional services. What we don't do is charge £2.50 on the door when someone walks in, you pay a joining fee of around £199.00 and then a monthly fee of £79.00. We have a full time fully equiped academy, very professional looking,very clean and tidy, I hope I am not barking up the wrong tree!!

mrsjdr

There are many "British" schools here on the CDS, I worked at the British International College in Benalmadena when I first came over a few years ago, I taught and judged gymnastics in UK at National level, and went into the school when I came over to do classes, problem was after doing it at a high level in UK for many years it was hard doing it at such a low level here after so long. There is the English college in Marbella plus the one mentioned above and St. Anthony´s. They all do a lot of sports, so you could e mail them, all have web sites.

Commercial premises are a lot more expensive in the Marbella area, try the Sur in English, they are online, see what is available, they have offices and warehouses advertised if it would help, but you would have to look at licences etc., for change of use.

Good Luck.

pwblackbelt

Thanks for the info

torie

Darn it - why don't you come up to Girona!? Purely selfish reasons, I assure you. Have been looking for kickboxing classes for the last 4 years!

But going down to Marbella would be a bit far..

Best of luck!

pwblackbelt

Where is Girons? Further north I presume. Are there English schools there?

pwblackbelt

Girona I meant

torie

Girona is up north of Barcelona, probably too far if you wanted to cater strictly (or mostly) for the expat/uk population. I think there might be a couple of english schools, but they are more for learning english rather than -being- english. Although, don't quote me on that - I really have no idea, don't have kids!

Rixxy

It sounds a good idea. I think you will build a solid business over time and there is a rugby club in Marbella which is serious stuff, no namby pambying there.

What about getting involved with a dance studio to start off with or a private gym? I know there is a good room in the one I go to inNueva Andalucia and the owners do speak some english as well.

In fct the more I think about it the more I think this would be good - sort of place I would have sent my son to if you were around - ha has done karate at last school and now is in the rugby club.

There are several english schools to pitch at and parents would be willing to send their kids.

Let me know if you want other info - I live in Marbella

pwblackbelt

Hi,
Thanks for the info, I have been checking out local gyms but it is hard when you are not 100% sure what is what. I mean some of them sound very posh and may not fancy it. I have run classes in a local gym in the UK before opening up my own full time academy.I have done PE classes for schools in the Uk and they have gone down very well with the kids, the teachers and the parents so we have the experience.
I am not trying to blow my own trumpet but obviously people want to know why they should send their kids to us. Both myself and my wife have been trained in teaching kids in the USA. We are both professionally trained teachers, police checked by the local authority and first aid certified by Northumbria Ambulance Brigade. I myself was awarded Martial Arts School owner of the year in the UK. We know our stuff and can really help kids and adults with confidence as well as good physical training.
What is the name of the gym you go to in Nueva Andalucia?
it may be good to talk to them

Rixxy

Crikey now your asking and I was only there last night! Its near the caixa bank and the only one in the village. I will find out next time I pass and the upstairs bit is where they do various classes. There are other gyms around and all of them will have a room free for classes etc so you could travel the coast and have maybe 3 places you can set up at various times of the week - Im guessing people should go twice a week, and if parents dont have to travel too far thats also good.

There arent too many things for kids to do nowadays and schools also in the main finish at 3, so a class at 4pm may be an idea to keep the kids off the street!

Ill get back to you with the gym details - they are nice people who own it as well

pwblackbelt

Excellent, I look forward to hearing from you

HelenFarrar

Hi, I have just moved to Marbella with my 3 children who go to Aloha College (who take in 3-18 years, mainly english speaking), their after school activities are limited and only cater for the older children. I lived in Dakar and my oldest did karate there and searching the internet for karate schools in Marbella brought up your question. If you do come to Marbella please let me know you have one student already (7 years old) and I have done kickboxing style training (pads and gloves) off and on over the years of travelling as an expat and would love to continue, its great exercise and gets rid of any frustrations.

LaCalaChica

Have you tried Fuengirola? There are couple of established gyms and dance studios around, try dancebeats.com or the musicfactory.com, give them a try go might have enough room to fit you in.