Yeah, and less pseudo spiritualism and more conflict resolution and risk awareness training.
The problem with the whole sport fighting thing is that to win them you have to train for that format. When I was training for San Shou,my kung fu sucked but my kickboxing and wrestling were great. At the end of the day, if your main reason for training is to win competitions, then chances are you’ll do a competitive style. However, I also think the total lack of competitive sparring that you see in some schools is also destructive. Better to fight like a kickboxer than not being able to fight at all. The problem is that San Shou and Qing Da aren’t really the answer either. You need a format that allows open hand techniques, grabs and joint manipulations, as well as punches, kicks, sweeps and throws. Maybe Koushu Lei Tai is the way forwards, with a bit of a rule revision, or mabe we should go for a format closer to sport Ju Jitsu.
To Say that CMA guys can’t hold their own in MMA is a bit untrue, as very few have entered and half of those who have were from seriously iffy schools and lineages.
To gain wider acceptance in the public opinion and eyes. Its not how I feel, I was just recapping whats been said thus far.
F*CK! 
just accidentally deleted a whole paragraph that I made a good point… and forgot what the hell I wrote remembering my response to R5s question.
**** my shortterm memory loss.
As I with you NP. 
I liked the thread I read a while back about removing testing fees and increasing monthly fees to compensate this. I feel this is a win-win situation. The instructor won’t be loosing any money and it is a great marketing tool. ‘You don’t pay for your belts here, you earn them.’
I’ve also been toying with the idea I’ve seen other schools offer. I see the package deals they offer a lot. You get a uniform and a month or two for a flat rate. I don’t care if we make a dime on the sale of the uniform. If a student buys one this way they almost feel obligated to stick with lessons because they already spent the money on the uniform. For schools that make you sign contracts this isn’t an issue, but I’m not keen on the idea of contracts. If you don’t want to be taking classes anymore, I don’t want you there.
Any other ideas?
James Cagney would choke Bodhidharma the f@ck out! Then he would put out his coffin nail on the fat *******s forehead.
Heeeee…Yahhhhhhh!
“they almost feel obligated to stick with lessons because they already spent the money on the uniform.”
Yessir.
Earning your belts does sound nice, and I also like the fact that for every student you bring in (if they stay), you get 10$ off your monthly tuition… (thats how it is at my kwoon at least) Eventually you can get rid of tuition all together…
Nice.
SD … who’s your teacher? I liked that the SD school in Lexington had a seminar by Master Joe Schaefer on the business aspect of MA. I wish I could have made that. I’m trying to remember what the brochure said about it. Something to the tune of Master Joe wanting to get a ‘Ph.D’ in MA school administration. He read like 200 business books on the subject and under his instruction the number of students in schools under him went from 0 to over 600 in 10 years. I know nothing else about the man, but I liked this about him. I wish we had more of this. I like to be around more people like this, so I can pick their brains.
Speaking of tuition what is everyone paying out there?
Our school offers Tuesdays and Thursdays from 6 till around 8:30 for $30 a month.
It comes down to matial arts schools as teaching the arts, centered around different aspects, some emphasise different things. Different strokes for different folks.. When does a school become a mcdojo/kwoon. Unfortunately it is a business, that needs to make money to survive, there are many methods to this. Contracts can work, they are just overemphasised (sp?) in most cases. We do contracts, but they aren’t all that binding, we do uniforms now, but we also do a fair amount of training in forms and for forms competition. We fight too, do two man sets, the whole deal, it just gets frustrating when people can’t make the commitment and don’t always show up, now we have all these people in different spots and have to split up our lessons which makes much more work. I’d have to say that the lack of fighting at some schools is disheartening, but it is also usually centered around the focus of the students there, if they want to fight more than can switch schools, etc.. obviously a contract will hinder that, but only (hopefully) for a month or two, and in the mean time hopefully this person is getting some decent training in fundementals.
Sifu Ryan.
When I signed up was cheaper that it is now for sure…
Now its… 75$ if you have direct deposit, 85$ if not. Thats not what I pay tho
For that you can go up to 10 times a week.
NP- We have contracts too… but they dont really mean anything.
Master schaeffer… Neurophysiologist. Extremely intelligent man. Very nice too, but kinda c o cky. Lots to be learned from him, he educated himself in all fields of MA. (business, spiritual, physical…ect)
Originally posted by norther practitioner
it just gets frustrating when people can’t make the commitment and don’t always show up, now we have all these people in different spots and have to split up our lessons which makes much more work.
I HATE THIS!!! I have to put up with this all the time. I’m teaching a double broadsword form right now and I have a couple of students that try to hit and miss. This form is too complicated for me to rush through and catch them up on what they missed. Anyone have solution ideas for this?
They fall behind everyone, or make the extra effort to come in to saturday classes or the like. You get what you give, at least thats how it is here, as it should be.
My sifu has been encouraging me to host harder contact sparring outside of the kwoon, with people I feel comfortable training with. I wanted to host a higher speed chin na class at the kwoon, but insurance reasons and people who horse play prevent this, which is reasonable. So im probably going to start meeting people from the kwoon at the park to beat each other up, cause Id really like to see some advancement in SD around here… to say the least theres a lot of… err… “misconceptions” being held around here…
Our school offers Tuesdays and Thursdays from 6 till around 8:30 for $30 a month.
Thats pretty cheap.
I’m not sure what we charge, but it goes down as your commitment goes up.. a year is say x, but a month by month would be (x/12)+$15 or something like that… We also do first month free, but after so many classes you should be in uniform etc…
We’re about to test our first new crop… We’re deciding how to do it, they will definitely be earning there new level, but we need to decide how to pay for whatever signifies there next level somehow. We also do a trial period type thing…
Anyone have solution ideas for this?
makeup classes at there own dollar, or they just won’t be ready to do that form if they are testing or whatever.. motivation…
You get what you give.. one of our mottos (the grass is always greener where you plant it).
“the grass is always greener where you plant it”
You sure you dont smoke?
I don’t remember…
Originally posted by themeecer
I HATE THIS!!! I have to put up with this all the time. I’m teaching a double broadsword form right now and I have a couple of students that try to hit and miss. This form is too complicated for me to rush through and catch them up on what they missed. Anyone have solution ideas for this?
Depending on how far ahead the ‘regulars’ are, and how much the hit and miss ppl ‘hit’ you could try letting them stay where they are for a good review, while the stragglers learn what they missed. Kung fu means time/effort, so it would be a good time for the regular students to practice and refine what they’ve learned, and let the ppl who missed catch up and still feel welcome at the class.
Also, a good thing would be to let the students that were there to get the material try their hand at teaching those ppl that missed out. Let them catch up the absentee’s, this is good reenforcement too, since you do learn a lot just from teaching. Plus you can take the opportunity to teach your future assistants how to teach at this point. Or you can see who will make a good instructor in the future. And if you need to go help or instruct somewhere else in class this could free up some of your time.
I know that at different times in my training I’ve had to miss once or twice, and sometimes for months. I’m just glad that everytime I returned to my training there were good instructors there who understood and were able and willing to get me back up to speed on the things that I’ve missed. As a result I feel like I should pass this same understanding on to those ppl that can’t always be there, whether they be a raging teen, or the business man that has to leave for work. Or even the guy that can’t always afford class and has to take a break for financial reasons, as long as their heart is in the training, I appreciate all students that put forth the effort to better themselves through martial art training.
Originally posted by MonkeyKing
As a result I feel like I should pass this same understanding on to those ppl that can’t always be there, whether they be a raging teen, or the business man that has to leave for work. Or even the guy that can’t always afford class and has to take a break for financial reasons, as long as their heart is in the training, I appreciate all students that put forth the effort to better themselves through martial art training.
I like the idea of letting the others teach them .. I think I am going to start doing this. Thanks. My problem is that I have some that miss every other week. That just runs through me. I have went through all the stages you have mentioned, raging teen through businessman out of town and I can count the times I missed for several years on one hand. And we have never turned a student away that couldn’t afford it. It comes back to commitment level. The ones that aren’t committed are just customers, I don’t even consider them students yet.
Commitment, and something else that I’ve seen happen before is whether or not the students feel like they’re getting quality instruction. Sometimes we have students hit and miss that are committed, but what happens is they don’t always like the instructor. That’s something else that we all should be doing on a regular basis too, is evaluating ourselves to make sure that our students are receptive to what we have to teach.
If no one likes you as an instructor it’s hard to retain good students. After reading some of your posts on this forum, it’s plain that your very opinionated and aggresive with that opinion. If your this aggresive in your instruction maybe your turning some 'customer’s off to what you have to teach. They can ‘sense’ the fact that you hate their lack of committment and hit/miss attendance. I’m not trying to be flaming or critical, but constructive criticism does help sometimes, and this is just my observation based on what you’ve presented here. So that might be something else to consider, if your having attendance problems, try listening to what your students have to say about your instruction. Ask them for a critique of all instructors at your school and submit them anonymously, that way you allow them to express their feelings without putting them on the spot. AND this is a great way to get into their heads and find out what they want that you may not be providing.
This is some of the things we’ve done at our school, and it’s really helped get some word of mouth going about how approachable and flexible we are as a school by adapting to the learning curve of various students. Our ‘regular’ attendance has been much better, and our committment level from our students has doubled, because they now see us as committed to THEIR training. To quote someone I don’t know, “People don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care.” About their goals.
letting the others teach them
That would be me at my school…
We are starting everything hard core again in September, summer is a hard time to get started here, everyone is into the outdoors thing (myself included). I’ve learned so much more about detail recently (especially concidering I haven’t taken a day off in a few weeks). We are trying to discourage stragglers, however we do a lot of comprimise to keep the school “up and running” so to speak…