Posted by Mike Massie on January 27, 2009
What exactly will you leave behind when you are through teaching martial arts?
“Have you ever wondered what your legacy will be when you stop teaching or doing martial arts?”
That’s a close approximation of the question I posed to the students and instructors in attendance during a recent black belt test I helped preside over. When I presented this question to the students who were taking the examination, I was admittedly surprised that my question seemed to garner the attention of the entire room.
Obviously, this is something that gives people pause, when they are confronted with their ever-present but not necessarily imminent mortality.
The question has been on my mind for many reasons, and I’ve given it a lot of thought recently. My motivations for puzzling out my own answers on the subject have to do partly with the fact that I’m reaching a point in my martial arts career where it’s time to start passing the bulk of my teaching responsibilities on to the next generation, and also partly with the fact that I simply think it’s an important question to ask yourself as an instructor.
And, I have to wonder… what is it exactly that I’ll have passed on during my time on the mat?
Seasons Change, And So Does Our Focus In Teaching Martial Arts
What do you want to be remembered for as a martial arts instructor?
There are a number of reasons why your focus changes as a martial arts instructor as the years go by. You might grow old (gracefully, we hope, as did Ueshiba and Funakoshi), you may face physical challenges (God forbid, nothing serious or life threatening, but the very real possibility of such a thing is something the pragmatic in me accounts for), your life situation may change, or you may simply have an epiphany regarding what you really want to accomplish during the remainder of your career.
The fact is, our instruction is a reflection of ourselves… our ethics and moral shortcomings, our knowledge and ignorance, our nobility and prejudices, our inner world turned right-side out.
Martial arts instructors tend to be iconic personalities, presenting an image to the world of what a martial arts sensei, sifu, sabumnim, guro, or coach is supposed to be. How ironic that our souls are laid bare on a daily basis through the lessons we attempt to transmit on the mat.
That such a reflection of our lives should be made public through the lessons we pass on to our students is not a thing that should be taken lightly. Still, it’s often something we give little thought to, all the while trudging through our classes as either lackluster automatons reminiscent of instructors long past, or perhaps, if we’ve executed the responsibilities of our chosen profession ideally, even as the source of inspiration for a younger, better generation of martial arts teachers.
At least, we hope that the latter is a challenge we’ve risen to meet before our time on the mat is done.
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Mike Massie is the author of Small Dojo Big Profits and runs a martial arts business coaching website for new instructors and small school owners, StartingAMartialArtSchool.com.
Posted by Mike Massie on May 6, 2008
Tools.
You need them for your business.
But most people don’t use them at all, and those who do often use the wrong tool for the job, or they use them improperly.
Money is a tool. But most people have deeply ingrained beliefs about money that keep them from achieving their goals.
Many people believe that money corrupts, money is the root of all evil (see 1 Timothy 6:10 for the correct quote), all rich people are crooks… I think you get the point.
These irrational beliefs cause them to self-sabotage when it comes to building their school. In the back of their mind, someone who holds negative beliefs about money is thinking, “If I become successful I will become a corrupt person who is greedy and takes advantage of others.”
But the truth is…
Money is a tool – nothing more.
I can kill with a knife… the knife is not inherently evil.
I can protect myself or others with that same tool, or use it to perform numerous useful chores and tasks.
It is my action that is evil if I harm others for my own gain or pleasure.
Money is a tool that can be used to help others.
Do you want a nice school? Lots of students? Do you dream of coaching others to success in competition, and traveling far and wide? Do you want to inspire others through martial arts instruction? Do you believe
you have something valuable to give, and you’d like to help as many others as possible with your gift?
Money is a tool that will help you achieve your dreams.
It is not something to be lusted after. You should be completely unemotional about it, and simply use it as a tool that allows you to achieve your dreams and help others.
Change the way you view money, and it will change your life.
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Mike Massie is the author of Small Dojo Big Profits and runs a martial arts business coaching website for new instructors and small school owners, StartingAMartialArtSchool.com.
Posted by Mike Massie on March 10, 2008
Teaching martial arts by its very nature requires a great deal of interaction and trust
There was a time when I had more students than I could handle, and I was miserable.
Let me explain.
As my school grew larger, it was nearly impossible to provide individual attention to each and every student. Pretty soon, I found myself filling the role of a human resources manager more than a floor instructor.
Now, that may be fine for some martial arts school owners, and I know there are several who are happy teaching the occasional class or just their black belts and spending most of their time counting bills… and I’m not knocking it if it makes them happy.
However, for me personally, I enjoy knowing every student’s name, what they like to do, how their grades are, where they work, and so on. And, it’s my experience that when you do, your school has a “personal touch” that leads to greater student satisfaction and higher retention.
(Not to mention the lower overhead due to reduced payroll… but that’s a story for another post.)
Now, there are certain things you can do to add even more of a personal touch for your students, and that includes staying in touch with them when they aren’t in class. There was a time when you pretty much had to do this manually, and I have to admit that in the past I tended to avoid writing good job notes, birthday cards, and MIA letters.
At my old school I just passed it along to my assistants, but currently I don’t have that option.
Thankfully, there are now technologies and systems you can implement in your school, very inexpensively I might add, that will allow you to automate a lot of the work that goes into keeping in touch with your students.
I have started implementing just such a system in my school, and I love it. Even with the limited time I have, I can now keep up with the “high-touch”, relationship side of running my studio.
And, that’s really what it’s all about… if you want to have a strong school, you MUST build strong relationships with your students.
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Mike Massie is the author of Small Dojo Big Profits and runs a martial arts business coaching website for new instructors and small school owners, StartingAMartialArtSchool.com.
