Kyvann Gonzalez has no problem saying exactly how he feels about being late on the mats…
And at his academy, Bodega BJJ, the rules change dramatically depending on whether a student is paying or training for free.
Speaking on the Jits and Giggles podcast, Gonzalez laid out his philosophy:
If you’re a paying member, come whenever you want, dude. If you pay me to go to my gym, I work for you.
You show up when you want. If you can make it, if you can make it on time, if you can’t, whatever.
But that flexibility disappears entirely for non-paying students:
If you’re one of these free members, I will lock you out.
And if you come in and you’re late and you’re like: “No, please let me in”, I will talk s**t the whole time and make you feel like you’re an idiot.
Gonzalez acknowledged that his stance wasn’t always this nuanced. Early on, his zero-tolerance approach cost him members:
In the beginning we lost a lot of members because I would just be like: “Dude you’re late. Like you suck. Like stop being late.”
I used to lock people out all the time.
They’d be like: “I pay you to be here.” I’m like: “No, you used to.”
Gonzalez agrees that the old approach wasn’t great for business, but says it came from frustration with a specific pattern of behavior:
I really didn’t want the culture of like… If you’re late because you work a job, dude of course, your kids, sure.
But there was people that are late like 15 minutes no matter what time.
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