Ukrainians have long professed their love for boxing. Probably since the time when the famous fairy tale about Kotygoroshko appeared, who was not afraid of obstacles on his way and deftly knocked out each new opponent. The real boxing craze among Ukrainian teenagers in the turbulent 90s came with the first victories of the Klitschko brothers on the world stage. At that time, almost every boy wanted to have a T-shirt or poster with their image on it.
In fact, boxing seems to be a spectacular show of endurance and the capabilities of the human body only at first glance. Ukraine has given the world many famous boxers over the entire period of professional boxing’s existence. The biography of each of them is reduced to the facts of victories and sometimes defeats. Only in their individual interviews do Ukrainian boxers tell us how hard they work on themselves in the gym and how hard they have to work their way to the world sports Olympus. Despite this, young Ukrainians still continue to be fond of boxing, although there are not many high-quality training grounds in Ukraine (despite the large number of different martial arts sections). This is especially true for small towns.
As part of the special project “Children’s Sports: A Business that is Impossible Without…” Komersant ukrainskyi
talked to Olexiy Trofimov, a Ukrainian professional boxer, winner of the 1999 World Amateur Championship, multiple Ukrainian champion, coach and founder of the Alexei Trofimov Boxing School. We talked about whether boxing clubs can be a successful business in Ukraine in times of war, the specifics of entrepreneurship in this area, and why the human factor plays a big role in this business at all stages.
You’ve been in professional boxing all your life. And today you continue your coaching career at your own school. It’s a business that has become a continuation of your hobby and later your profession. So please tell us what unusual challenges a former athlete should prepare for when deciding to start a business.
Firstly, you can never predict or estimate what another person is thinking. There are many different factors why this is so. We understand and anticipate things in a stereotypical way, but we don’t take into account all the factors. Plus, again, the image is earned over time: with hard work, sweat and blood, and lost in a minute or two. Often not because of you specifically, but because of the actions of people who are close to you and who may act differently. This also applies to coaches. The decision to start such a business is a very big responsibility.
Moreover, good coaches are actually very rare today. Many train the way they were trained before, but this is a completely different approach. Most athletes who used to box well don’t even remember themselves as children. They remember themselves as mature athletes.
Your school’s brand is your personal name. The rules of advertising and marketing say that this is the right step, because the client goes to the person. However, what additional responsibility does this impose on you?
Children’s sports are completely different. This sport needs to be loved, explained and explained in such a way that children understand that they can do it, that it will not push them away, that it is not scary, it is interesting, it is a multifaceted development. Many coaches conduct training sessions in a very boring way or simply conduct them without paying attention to the shortcomings or characteristics of the young athlete. For example, a teenager has developmental disabilities, and they train him or her using a common stencil – to fit everyone else. Today’s sport is about individuality. Each athlete and child needs their own approach. This is very important.
Coaches who are used to coaching like 10-20 years ago are already the last century. New realities set completely different tasks. I select coaches very carefully. I’ve made a few mistakes in this regard. Because of this, I lost people, lost clients. It came to situations where I had to close one or two groups. This is a serious blow to both business and image. These moments must be taken into account. They are the most difficult.
Not just one coach teaches at a school, right?
I spend a lot of time training coaches so that they understand the whole training process – from the moment a child comes, how to get him or her excited, how to help him or her understand the essence of boxing and get used to it. After the first lesson, the child should understand what he or she is facing, what ways he or she has to achieve certain goals. This should be explained in an accessible way, captured, helped to develop physically, and then on this basis – spiritually, intellectually, etc.
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In one of your interviews, you said that it costs about $2.5 to $10 to bring 1 client to the club. Have these figures changed?
No, nothing has changed. The cost per client is the same, from 2.5 to 10 dollars. These are advertising costs for posting information about classes, page maintenance, chat bots, etc.
What communication channels do you consider the most effective for attracting new students?
For example, Instagram has worked well for me. Facebook is also very good if you have a sufficient number of subscribers who can hear and see. But if we are talking about efficiency, I think the most effective is the so-called word of mouth. Good quality training and approach always leaves some kind of emotion. Information is passed from one person to another, and in this sense, in difficult times, when advertising does not work, there is no electricity, no water, severe disasters and so on, it is the word of mouth that there is good quality training and approach that helps to attract new clients and retain those who are already training with you.
In general, if we’re talking about business development or starting a business, you don’t need to stick to just one social network and advertise only there. Ideally, it’s good to have several in order to analyse them properly. And this is where control comes in, concentration on the business, control over the people who work for you and the advertising that is directly done: the same pages, the same advertising banners, etc. All this is very important. Important points are to comply with the law, not to spam, and so on. Because many pages that advertise on social media are closely monitored, especially for plagiarism, and can even be closed or banned. As a result, you may not be able to run ads for a month, two months, or even six months. That’s why you need to have an adequate approach everywhere. And most importantly, you need to clearly control all processes and analyse them. This will help in the future.
Individual and group training are completely different checks. Is there a “golden formula” for balancing such training that would be optimal from a business perspective? What parameters should be used to prioritise the number and formats of training sessions?
Of course, it all depends on what goals the business organiser has – either to keep himself busy because he is bored, in which case it is, of course, individual training.
You train, say, one hour, or one and a half or two for one client, and thus fill your eight-hour working day. You can take up to 8 clients. From the point of view of profitability, these are different cheques and the return is completely different. You work with a person in such a way that they are constantly under control. You feel their dynamics, you constantly have to understand what state they are in now, what kind of load they can withstand.
As for group training, this is an ideal approach, because in a group training session you can work not with one person, but with 10, 12, 15. If the gym allows it, then 20 people. On the one hand, the personal training cheque is large, but if you look at it in terms of numbers, I will tell you that group training is more profitable. It’s also more profitable for the athletes who come, because they pull for each other, you get a sense of shoulder to shoulder, a team feeling. This also helps to keep clients in the gym.
Plus, again, you pay attention to both the leaders and the laggards and create a load in such a way that the laggards start to pull up to the leader. In return, the leader hones his skills. And the guys catch up to him and create healthy competition for him. As business teachers say, a person who owns and creates a business is a name. This means that he should not be involved in the process. He or she should be engaged in the business itself and its development, scaling, vision, plans, and strategy. And if he or she is immersed in the process, there is simply no time for business. Therefore, you need to choose – either personal lessons or group lessons – and it is important to understand this at the initial stage.
To make our business successful, we need to be interested in keeping our clients healthy. When they are healthy, they are more motivated and in the right mood to play sports. Moreover, you don’t get distracted by looking after someone who is in poor health. Therefore, the first step is training to improve your conditioning. The next is training to improve coordination. Coordinated athletes learn the material much faster, which creates additional motivation. The third stage is technical data, tactical data, when the athlete begins to analyse what he is doing, apply additional skills, combine everything he has learnt in training. He begins to combine these skills into certain combinations, creating a certain dance, if you can call it that. And then the next step is to focus on high-performance sports, on participating in competitions. Psychological preparation is already important here. It takes athletes probably 60 per cent of their time. The rest is about maintaining the skills they had before.
As a coach with a lot of experience, please share the rules for motivating children. Is it possible to find an approach to every child? Does the children’s sports business have prospects in Ukraine? Under what conditions will the answer to this question be as firm as possible?
When it comes to motivation, it doesn’t matter whether it’s children, adults or teenagers – you can always find an approach to any athlete. The best motivation is interest in what they do, interest in how they do it, interest in what they are good at. You need to develop interest. This is the best motivation. No amount of money, gingerbread, or gifts will do anything like that. And even if they do, it will be for a very short time. The most lasting motivation is interest. A real-life example: a child was born, grew up, learnt to hold his head, and started crawling. What motivated him to get on his feet? Interest, curiosity… She got up and saw a completely different world, and she started to move. It’s very difficult, hard, uncomfortable for her. She falls down, bruises her elbows and knees, but still gets up and continues because she is curious. She takes a step, two, three – and she can already run, which is even more interesting. Thus, interest encourages further action. The more interesting it is, the more positive emotions, the stronger the motivation.