You Are Not Just Teaching Kids. You Are Managing Their Parents.
Every kids program lives or dies on parent communication, household billing, and visible progress. Red Belt Gym was built with all three from day one — not bolted on afterwards.
Why Kids Programs Are the Hardest Part of the School to Run
The training is the easy part. This is what actually consumes the week:
Parent messages arriving by text, email, Facebook, and a note handed over at pickup
Three kids in three different programs on three separate invoices
Kids aging out of one program with nobody tracking when they should move up
Parents calling the front desk to ask what belt their child is working toward
Testing invitations, promotion announcements, and reminders all sent by hand
A child stops coming and the parent never tells you why
Parents do not cancel because their child stopped enjoying class. They cancel because they stopped being able to see the point — no visible progress, no communication, and a bill they have to think about every month.
Built for the Parent as Much as the Student
Give every parent a window into their child’s training
The number one reason parents disengage is that they cannot see progress.
The Red Belt Student Journey app gives parents the class schedule, their child's rank and progress, assigned documents such as waivers and medical forms, and training videos — on their phone, without calling you. Push notifications handle cancellations and reminders. A parent who can see progress renews; a parent who is guessing starts shopping around.
One household, one payment, three children
Family billing is the difference between a simple renewal and a monthly argument.
Link a parent or primary account holder to every child in the household. You bill once, on one payment method, with sibling pricing applied — while each child keeps their own attendance record, their own rank progression, and their own program enrolment. The parent gets one clear charge instead of three confusing ones.
Run real age-band programs
A four-year-old and a twelve-year-old should not be in the same class or on the same ladder.
Create age-group programs — Little Tigers, Juniors, Teens, or whatever you call yours — each with its own schedule, class length, pricing, and rank set. Age groups are configured per program, so when a child is ready to move up, you reassign them and their full history comes with them.
Make belt progress visible, not mysterious
Kids train for the next stripe. Parents pay for the next stripe.
Track each child's rank, the stripes within it, the date each was awarded, and the attendance or time-in-rank requirements for the next one. Parents can see where their child stands in the app, and you can pull a list of who is genuinely eligible for the next test instead of working it out from memory the week before.
Automate the messages you send every single month
Class reminders, testing invitations, promotion announcements, re-enrolment nudges.
Build these once as automations and they run on their own — triggered by a missed class, an upcoming test, a rank promotion, or a payment that failed. Parents get timely, professional communication from your school's number, and nobody at the front desk spends an evening sending the same text forty times.
Catch the quiet dropout before the parent cancels
Children rarely announce they are quitting. Attendance tells you first.
When a child's attendance drops off, an automation can reach out to the parent while there is still a relationship to save — often the difference between a conversation about a scheduling conflict and a cancellation you never saw coming. Retention reporting shows you whether those interventions are working across the whole program.
Every Age Group Is a Different Business
Class length, pricing, rank structure, and retention risk all change with age. Red Belt Gym lets each band be configured on its own terms.
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Little ones
ages 3–5Short classes, high turnover, enormous parent sensitivity. Their own program, their own rank set, and their own class length — configured separately from everything else.
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Juniors
ages 6–9Usually the largest group in the school. Stripe-based progress keeps motivation high between belt tests, and attendance requirements make eligibility objective.
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Older kids
ages 10–13The group most likely to drift toward other sports. Attendance-gap automations and visible progress in the app are your main retention tools here.
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Teens
ages 14–17Often ready for adult classes or a leadership role. Reassign them to the teen or adult program and their full rank and attendance history moves with them.
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Leadership / assistant
taggedTag your junior leaders so you can schedule and communicate with them as a group, and track the classes they help with.
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Adult program
transitionWhen a teenager ages into the adult ladder, their history is preserved. They are not a new student who happens to have the same name.
Your age bands and their names are yours to define. Whether you run three groups or six, each one gets its own program, schedule, pricing, and rank set — and children carry their history with them when they move up.
How Kids Programs Actually Make Money
Standard configurations in Red Belt Gym — including the seasonal revenue most software ignores.
Single child, month-to-month
The default kids membership.
- How you build it
- Set up as: One age-band program with recurring billing.
- How it bills
- Billing: Month-to-month on the parent’s payment method.
Family plan with sibling pricing
Two or three children from one household.
- How you build it
- Set up as: A primary account holder with all children linked.
- How it bills
- Billing: A single household charge with sibling rates applied.
Free trial into enrolment
Every prospective family starts here.
- How you build it
- Set up as: A free trial assigned on the student profile, with automated follow-up.
- How it bills
- Billing: No charge until they convert to a paid program.
After-school program
Families needing pickup and supervised time as well as training.
- How you build it
- Set up as: A separate program with its own schedule and pricing.
- How it bills
- Billing: Recurring, often at a higher rate than standard classes.
Summer and holiday camps
Seasonal revenue and a strong feeder into regular membership.
- How you build it
- Set up as: A time-limited program or a one-time item sold through a landing page.
- How it bills
- Billing: One-time charge with the waiver signed at purchase.
Birthday parties and events
High-margin one-offs that introduce a dozen new families to your school.
- How you build it
- Set up as: A one-time item sold online with digital forms attached.
- How it bills
- Billing: Single charge, capturing every attending parent as a contact.
Everything About a Child on One Screen
Rank, attendance, the parent's contact details, the waiver, and every message you have exchanged.
When a parent stops you after class with a question, you should not have to say you will check and get back to them. One profile holds the child's rank and progression history, how often they have trained, which documents the family still owes you, whether the last payment went through, and the entire conversation history with the household.
Where Generic Gym Software Fails a Kids Program
Parent visibility
Student Journey app with schedule, rank progress, documents, and push notifications.
Household billing
One linked household, one payment method, sibling pricing applied.
Age-band programs
Separate programs per age band, each with its own schedule, pricing, and rank set.
Testing eligibility
Attendance and time-in-rank requirements per belt, so eligibility is objective.
Routine parent comms
Automations for reminders, testing invitations, promotions, and re-enrolment.
Children’s data handling
Information is collected from parents, who manage the child’s account.
Parent visibility
Parents phone the desk to ask about progress.
Household billing
A separate account and card for each child.
Age-band programs
One kids class with a wide age range.
Testing eligibility
Worked out by hand the week before.
Routine parent comms
Sent manually, forty texts at a time.
Children’s data handling
Children asked to create their own logins.
What You Get on Day One
Student Journey parent app
Schedules, rank progress, assigned documents, training videos, and push notifications — on iOS and Android.
Family and group accounts
Link parents, siblings, and guardians to one household with a single payment method and sibling pricing.
Age-band programs
Separate programs per age group, each with its own schedule, class length, pricing, and rank system.
Belt and stripe progression
Rank, stripes, award dates, and per-belt attendance and time-in-rank requirements for every child.
Digital waivers and medical forms
Send the paperwork for signature and store it on the student profile instead of a filing cabinet.
Automated parent communication
Class reminders, testing invitations, promotion announcements, and re-enrolment nudges, sent from your school’s number.
Attendance tracking
Check children in by name or phone at the desk, or run a kiosk — with full attendance history per child.
Retention reporting
New enrolments, cancellations, and attendance trends so you can see which age bands are holding and which are leaking.
A kids program needs parent communication, household billing, age-band structure, and visible progress. Generic CRM software offers none of those. We started there.
Red Belt Software was founded by a school owner who runs a kids program himself. See what that looks like on the case studies page.
From School Owners Running on Red Belt Gym
"Some of the best software on the market for helping every martial arts academy run smoothly! If you haven't checked them out, you're missing out!!"
Daniel O'Brien "I'm so excited to be one of the first gyms to get on board with Red Belt Software. Not only is Brian one of the best guys I know in Martial Arts, but he's also one of the smartest and hardest working people in the game. The software is everything we need for our gym, packaged into one easy system."
Brandon Mccaghren "Red Belt software is everything you want and nothing you don't. Easy to use, highly customizable and the best customer service in the business. It saves me money but more importantly, time."
Johnny Buck Frequently Asked Questions About Kids Martial Arts Software
Can parents see their child’s attendance and belt progress?
How does billing work for a family with several children?
Can I run separate programs for different age groups?
Does a child automatically move up when they reach the next age?
How do I know which children are eligible for the next belt test?
Can I manage after-school programs and summer camps?
How is children’s data handled?
What happens when a child stops showing up?
How These Features Work Inside Red Belt Gym
Create Program Age Groups
Setting age-based categories helps you assign students to classes with the appropriate skill level. Learn the process for creating and editing groups.
Read the guide How-to guideManage Family or Group Accounts
Learn how to add and archive dependents to your martial arts school.
Read the guide How-to guideCreate Belt Ranks
Setting color-based categories helps you keep track of student progress. Find the creating and editing process for ranking in this article.
Read the guide How-to guideAssigning a Belt Rank to a Student
Once you have created your class schedule, follow this step-by-step guide for managing martial arts ranking systems, tracking student progression, and updating belt levels.
Read the guide How-to guideAdd a Contact
Proper record creation keeps data organized from day one and helps keep communication, billing, attendance, and automations functioning as expected.
Read the guide How-to guideUpdate, Freeze, or Cancel a Membership
Edit, pause, or stop a student’s membership to control access to your martial arts school. Read on to make changes to your customers assigned programs.
Read the guideSee Red Belt Gym Running Your Kids Program
Bring your age bands, your sibling pricing, and the parent questions you answer most often. We will show you how much of it stops landing on your front desk.
- No credit card, no commitment
- Full data migration included
- Live in 48 hours