How many times have I heard this statement – and how wrong can it be?

There are instructors that have to spend all their time recruiting new students, they are out every day knocking on peoples doors and standing around in the local shopping precincts handing out leaflets and trying to persuade passers by to join them, but is this the most efficient use of their time 

They have to constantly recruit in this way because the people that join them have been ‘pressure sold’ martial arts training and generally won’t last long.  If their ability as coaches is also low, they will be unable to maintain the students interest in the school, with a fast attrition rate they have to spend all their time recruiting and make as much money from the students as they can during their short tenure with the school. 

The problem is that they may be using the marketing expertise of others and focusing on the front end of the business and not working sufficiently at the other end on their martial art skills and student retention.  Good management companies and top associations will help an instructor retain students and not just market for new members.

There is nothing wrong with good marketing, but you have to look at the ‘business’ of Martial Arts holistically 

Martial Arts businesses suffer from some of the worst marketing on this planet.  All the ‘hype’, ‘management consultants’, ‘Leadership Programmes’, ‘upgrades’, door to door sales, mass leafleting and buzz words that have lost their meaning such as ‘self discipline’, ‘confidence’, ‘self defence’, the self made ‘Masters’, countless ‘World Champions’, clubs that throw every Martial Art into the hat with lists that they couldn’t possible supply has left potential and existing students sullied, confused and lost. 

Schools wanting to develop relationships with outside sports clubs have had their fingers burned by the expansionist, badly run and heavily marketed clubs. Under the guidance of their marketing gurus these clubs used all the right buzz words to get into the school curriculum and subsequently taught poor quality and often downright dangerous Martial Arts.  They then rip off the children and their parents after persuading them to join their club with upgrades of up to ten times the original joining monthly subscription.

Business and life are not separate.  A Martial Arts Instructor has to decide exactly what his aims in life are and where he wants his dojo or kwoon to go.  As an Instructor and Martial Artist, he has to define exactly what success is for him.  Management companies and business advisors are rarely experienced Martial Artists and are therefore often prepared to sacrifice all that is holy in the Martial Arts to simply earn as much as they can from a client as quickly as possible.

There was always a pile of old martial arts magazines in the corner of the Dojo for parents and students awaiting their classes to read.  It was reminiscent of the old fashioned barber shop with the tattered and slightly rude magazines lying around to read whilst you waited for your turn to get your hair cut – or the ancient pile of ‘Tatler’ and ‘Home and Garden’ in the dentist waiting room.

Greg and Tanya were flicking through looking at the various adverts and articles with obvious distaste. 

“The Worlds greatest what?  How does he know?”

“How about this one, the World’s leading authority… 

“Probably according to his mum…”

“I guess it makes the Martial Arts just another market place…”

“Reminds me of Jesus in the Temple”

“What do you mean? 

“Thinking of Martial Arts as a spiritual pursuit, – I’ll tell you the story…  It was the feast of Passover. Jesus went to Jerusalem, when he entered the Temple, he found chaos. Merchants were selling sheep, bullocks and doves; money changers were sitting at their tables and trading. The noise of the cattle, the sheep, people talking, the quarrels about prices, the jingle of the coins — all this gave the Temple the semblance of a bazaar rather than the house of God.

‘Leadership’ is a much-maligned word in the Martial Arts these days; it tends to be over used, often by the wrong people in the wrong way. If you run a Club it’s essential that you fully understand the responsibility that you are undertaking. You primarily have a responsibility to yourself as the Leader of a Club and will be the pivotal figure that everyone is going to look up to. The Emotional Intelligence of the Leader will dictate how the rest of the Club will behave. If the Leader is disingenuous, a bully or financially greedy it will reflect negatively through the whole Club.

Over the 40 years of my training history I have watched so many clubs fail through inadequate training and preparation of the Leadership when a few simple changes would have altered the entire outcome. Some were good Martial Artists but emotionally unintelligent, some were lazy and many simply upset their students and staff without realising it!