Martial Arts Class Scheduling: Building a Timetable That Fills Classes

Design around the 4-6:30pm youth core

For most schools, weekday 4:00-6:30pm youth classes are 60-70% of revenue — schedule those first and fit everything else around them. Split by age band (typically 4-6, 7-9, 10-13) rather than belt alone; a 5-year-old and a 12-year-old white belt need different rooms, and parents judge fit by peer group at the trial class.

Adults land at 6:30-8:30pm after work, plus early-morning and Saturday slots for the dedicated. Saturday mornings also carry trials, makeups, and family classes — protect that block.

Offer each program at least twice a week

A program that meets once a week can't survive one conflict — the family that can't do Tuesdays simply can't enroll. Two to three slots per program per week is the floor for enrollment growth, and it's also what makes your attendance-based belt requirements achievable.

Watch instructor load while you build it: back-to-back classes from 4 to 8:30 five days a week burns out your best people. Cap consecutive teaching hours and stagger assistant instructors — the schedule has to be sustainable for staff, not just attractive to families.

Use fill-rate data, not vibes

Review per-class fill rates monthly against capacity. A class under 40% full for two consecutive months is a candidate to merge or kill; a class holding above 85% needs a second section or a waitlist before crowding degrades the experience and reviews. These thresholds turn schedule changes from arguments into policy.

When you do add a section, seed it — move a few flexible families over with a personal ask, because a new empty class stays empty while a new class with eight students fills.

• Under 40% full for 2 months → merge, move, or kill
• Over 85% full → open a waitlist now, add a section when it hits ~10
• Kill classes at session boundaries with 30 days' notice, offering a specific alternative slot to every affected family
• Waitlists are demand data — a 15-name waitlist justifies a new instructor hire better than any forecast

Publish it where parents actually look

Your schedule needs to be current on your website, in the parent portal, and at the front desk — and those must be the same schedule, which means one source of truth rather than three separately-edited copies. Calendar sync into parents' phones cuts the 'is there class Friday?' texts to near zero, and schedule-change notifications beat the taped-to-the-door sign.

MyDojang manages class templates, capacity caps, waitlists, per-location schedules with a public schedule link, calendar sync, and the utilization reports that make add/kill decisions obvious — one timetable, everywhere it needs to be.