Rock Steady Boxing’s rapid expansion helps them reach more Parksinson’s patients looking to fight back.
Around the time that we visited Rock Steady Boxing at their home gym in Indianapolis in 2015, they had 83 affiliate gyms in 23 states at 6 gyms internationally. Today, they have grown to include 415 gyms in 47 states with 7 gyms internationally, in cities as large as Chicago and San Francisco, and places as far as Oslo, Norway and Auckland, New Zealand.
Joyce Johnson, the Executive Director of Rock Steady Boxing, says new gyms pop up like mushrooms.
“When someone opens a new gym, they want to tell everyone,” Johnson said. “Others start to look at our website and decide they want to start a gym too.” Joyce emphasizes that Rock Steady doesn’t have a marketing department to help them expand. Instead, people find them. Even as a small non-profit organization, Rock Steady is contacted by physical therapists, gym owners, and people with Parkinson’s from all over the world to help them develop Rock Steady Boxing programs in their areas.
This is why their Small Forces video is so important to them.
“The video is such a perfect evergreen,” Johnson said. “I really value it and still show it to people. It is still relevant two years later,”
Now, over quadruple the size that it was two years ago, Rock Steady is planning to hold an international conference to bring all of its coaches together. Here, everyone will come together for a refresher training course on the Rock Steady program, and be among other coaches from across the country and the world.
We are thrilled by the growth that Rock Steady Boxing has had over the past few years and we are so excited to continue to be part of Rock Steady’s worldwide effort to help people with Parkinson’s fight back.