Ed,
What are you doing to bring new students in? Marketing is my main problem.
Alvis
Me too! ttt for that
Thanks guys! Awesome ideas all around...these are things that I think most of us do 'on occassion'. The skill is to make sure that we do it all the time and make it a part of our teaching. It's easy to forget to do this stuff if we've had a bad day, or some other student rubbed us the wrong way.
The biggest thing I think is to have a support system of instructors and assistant instructors that ALL follow the same ideas and protocal. I've always said that even if you have 5-10 instructors doing the same thing yet you have ONE person on your staff not enforcing the goals of the team of instructors, it weakens the everything you are working towards.
For marketing I am very aggressive to the comp. I have ads in a bunch of bathrooms at resturaunts and bars. I have a 1/4 page yellow page ad that has a headline " Why you shouldn't choose Karate or those other self defense programs". I have an ad that reads "if you want to kick wood take karate, if you want to kick but take this..." I have a good website that is at the top of the search engines for my area. I have a bigtime anti karate them and people seem to like it.
When I first decided to go this direction I had a ton of people that were against it. I believed in my idea and was very aggressive in what I was doing and it worked better than I can believe. 94 new studnets since June!
I also put systems in place in the school to where everyone felt a part of the family. The biggest help I got was from Lloyd Irvin. Lloyd gave me a ton of support even though he has a different approach in his advertising. I do a lot in my school just like he does...well I try to. That guy is amazing.
As far as retention I make sure everyone is treated the same. I run the gym in a professional manor and try not to play favorites. My retention with a blackbelt here was about 25%. Now it is up close around 85% and he is no longer here! You've got to run your business like a business and all of your staff has to be on board.
you want to kick wood take karate, if you want to kick but take this..."
I like this idea. Sure your going to piss some Karate guys off but it's aggressive and sets yourself apart from the crowd.
That was the idea Rodney. I have a lot of respect for the local Karate schools in my area that are successful from a business standpoint. They have done a great job with their Karate or TKD programs and have big schools. However I don't respect what they do as far as it being a self defense. Their stuff is good if you want to stay fit or for kids self confidence. But for self defense it is a joke! That is the diea behind the aggressive advertising... Calling a spade a spade.
Ed,
whats your web address? If you don't want to put it on this board, email me: alvis@solismartialarts.com
I think this is it. I did a google search for Ed Clay Jiujitsu. It's a nice site.
MA in general is not good for self-defense. For dueling it's great. A moron throws a haymaker at you, it's fine. You wake up to find some lunatic holding a gun to your kid's head, ordering your wife to tie you up, a rear naked is about as useful as a jumping spinning kick.
TTT for some really good help, thanks guys!
I put up a listing of gym and free membership services that are not martial arts related but also provided on the same premises, eg. dry cleaners, sports massage therapist, cafe and mini market, free annual members dinner, etc.
Nice web site. I need to get my butt in gear and get my web site up and working.
Start newbies off slowly. Try to protect them from injuries. Most schools try to divide the newbies from their powerful, most aggresive and explosive grapplers, and they may tell the students to go at less than 100 percent, but it just doesn't shake out that way. And the newbies themselves are too self-conscious to say "no" when they fell threatened or uncomfortable.
On my 2nd day, I was paired with just a blue belt. But he was a former state wrestling champ and aspiring professional fighter who didn't have "take it easy" as part of his worldview. And it's not like I don't respect him for that. But rolling with him that day was terrifying. I think its experiences like that which keeps new students from coming back.
Well, Gregor, you can believe it or not, I guess. If everyone had been like you, my experience would have been more positive.
But I'm telling you what I did experience and what I saw around me. I kept with it, got my blue, and became competitive with most of the guys who were working me over. On the way, I suffered a lot in injuries, however. A broken finger, disjointed finger, broken toes, etc. And I was training with a bunch of good guys in a real school, don't get me wrong, not a bunch of goons in a garage somewhere.
zip zin...your suggestions are dead-on! And we do something similar at our place. All new people that a 1/2 hour intro that goes over the basic positions and scenario's. Also, new students are encouraged to start by taking the beginner bjj classes and our bjj self-defense class. If they can only take a mixed or intermediate class, they are not allowed to roll if they are new. We have them stay in class and walk around and observe how the higher ranks roll and exchange techniques and positions, pointing out to them how noone is really spazzing out or trying to kill each other.
We hope that this helps let new people understand how sparring should look and feel.
Thanks zip...We are in Michigan, around the Farmington Hills area.
Take an interest in every one of your students, and in their growth as martial artists and as people. Show them your loyalty to them, not just expect them to be loyal to you...
We have a REALLY HOT chick who works at the front desk at our academy. We all show up to get our hot chick time and end up training. She is only 17 so everyone will show up until she is fair game (18 years, 1 second old). This will be followed by a "Hit on the front desk chick frenzy" until she either rejects all of us or picks a lucky winner. Regardless, at this point she must be fired and a new slamin 17 year old must be hired to replace her. Then the cycle begins again...................I think it will work.
LOL...interesting...I will jot it down in my notes.
I agree totally with the takedown part