An interesting situation to be starting a dojo from

Hello,

I hope you are having a good day. My name is Tyler and I'm looking at starting my own martial art school within the next 6 months. I'm young (19 years old currently) and I only received my first dans this past summer (Goshinkwai taijitsu, kobukwai jiujitsu and a street survival course called operative combat system (kiku sentou shisutemu). Despite this I've been training to teach for the past 2 years and have run some of the classes and was an assistant in a youth class (ages 4-12) for just over a year. I'm even taking a business management course at collage to learn how to run my own business successfully. I can no longer train with my sensai as I live too far away now (he is in Germany and I'm in Canada) and there was the expectation that I would teach when I moved. I have been here for about 4 months and currently only have one student but that is because he is the only one I've talked with at this present moment.

My instructor and I have had our differences recently though due to the dojo dynamic in Germany. As a result of many of his students leaving withing such a short time period after I left, he has taken to blaming me rather than accepting it as his issue. Believe it or not that isn't even the issue. The problem arose about 2 days ago when I requested permission to use the operative combat logo for advertising. Despite reviving a yes , he brought up the point that I need to get all the certificates , the grading information and the membership passes through him which he in turn gets from another source. He also said that there would be a fee, to which I replied that I would need to get the materials at-cost due to the fact that it would break my contract with the school I'm teaching at. There is a clause in my contract that prevents me from taking money from my students and another one where outside organizations can't make money off of this club. I told him that I'd end up having to pay it out of my own pocket and that I can't do that, to which he replied that I'd have to figure it out and then informed me that it is "not allowed to teach the content of OCS or tai jitsu without a membership to the buda organization" and that I'm not allowed to grade my students without their certificates or memberships.

Since this will be my first venture into the world of owning my own dojo I don't know the rules but I'm wondering if I can teach it without the memberships. If I can't would there be a way for me to teach OCS as a form of MMA (since they focus on the same techniques , principals and motions)? Is there a way for me to do my own thing and not have to keep in contact with my former sensai? I know it sounds like I'm a bit cowardly trying to get around this but we've exchanged harsh words and he expressed his lack of faith in me recently and he has turned form a sensai into a bully. It seemed to me when he said about how I'd have to "go through him to get the material" and he'd talk to the associate to get me a "good price" that he's taking a cut off the action. Before when we discussed my starting of the school he said that 10 euros was the registration, 4 goes to the organization, 4 goes to my school and 2 goes in the bank for future costs. Now he has changed to price that I have to pay to 12 euros and that means that I'd have to charge my students around 20 dollars to follow his method. I guess I'm just trying to find away to run my school, independently where I don't have to pay him for me to run my school. I value your thoughts on this matter. Thank you for your time and if you get a chance I'd love to hear back with hopefully good news but I'm always ready for the worst.

Sorry for such a long post, I'm a bit stressed from the whole situation.

 

I think you should spend less time training and use that free time to learn how to use paragraphs....I think I've gone blind trying to read that.

 

Sorry about that english is not my first language.

 

Just change the name of the style you are going to teach and do it independently.

 

If I did that would there be any infringements? You can't copyright a martial art style can you? He can't say I stole it then?

 

You think he made up his style on his own?

 

How long have you been training for in total? You are young. It is likely that your knowledge and skill base is fairly restricted.

Get a coaching qualification, get a teaching qualification. Look for a new school where you can carry on training and learning while at the same time getting paid as a teaching assistant. Spend 3 or 4 years really learning your craft and making connections with other martial artists. Then you will be in a better position to go solo as an instructor.

 

Fair point, I'm feeling a bit better about that. He has threatened over the last 2 days that if I teach the content of the classes without being registered that there would be serious problems and that has been freaking me out.

 

Where in Canada are you?

 

Ottawa, just moved here this summer

 

Ignore him ...

yeach the stuff you know ...

But train elsewhere too ..

Get affiliated to a decent organisation that will recognise your grades / skillset and teach under their Banner..

 

True but without him you are a 19 year old with no formal grade in a system and without a grade what are you teaching?

Echoing what others have said, affiliate with another group, train and grade with them and then "plug in" the existing knowledge from your previous style

Personally I would give another few years before you even think of opening a dojo

 

http://www.taishindokan-akademie.org/Training.php

These guys?

 

Yes, that is my old school

 

Hmmmm......

 

Find somewhere else to train in Canada and start again.

Your school/org looks like garbage and your ex sensie sounds like a moron. YOU on the other hand seem like a perfectly intelligent and reasonable young man and at 19yrs old the world is still your oyster.

 

And once again KR proves he can read my mind.......

 

I'm a man of many talents. Easy with you though as its mostly just FUS ROH DAH.

 

Fixed that for you

#cryinggame