I was thinking about something the other day. I thought I might throw it open to the board here to see waht you all think. There are many ways an instructor starting out can run a club. Ultimately your goal if you decide to start a club is for the club to be successful. So what is success for a club? There are several things it could be:- *Make money *Produce students who do well at competition *Get respect from other martial arts *Make students who are very able to defend themselves *Make students who dominate MMA and cage fighting Some of these are somewhat interlinked. My point is if you think about the goals of a club, then look at clubs that don't seem to be doign well for whatever reason - you can see where the problem is. It's lack of balance. If the club is too focused on making money, the martial art gets watered down, other arts lose respect for your art/club and that's not good for your art. If the club is too focused on making you into as deadly a fighter as is possible then it won't be for alot of people. People are generally only willing to compromise their daily lives so much. If it means regularly fighting full-contact without pads, no holds barred and sustaining regular injuries, most people wouldn't join. Same with clubs that focus too much on semi-contact sparring for competitions. Say WTF style TKD, it's good to have good fighters win competitions. However focus too heavily on that and you will gain a reputation for being a sport rather than a martial art - which again can't be good. So what are your views on the balance of the clubs you train at? Or do you think I'm talking a load of crap?
well, it all depends on the instructor and what s/he wants. i myself don't want to make a business out of my club. it's enough that the club finances itself, that i can cover the rent and buy equipment every now and then and whatever else needs to paid. at my club i have competitors but there are also people who train for recreational purposes and there are kids. the entire club trains 3 days a week but the competitors train 5 even 6 days a week. they have training sessions only for them. when the entire club trains, we do sparring, but also, forms, self defence, breaking...
Success for a club(i hate this term i prefer school)is one which can produce a decent quaity of student quality of martial art outweighs medals and trophys.
Have a quality product and you develop a strong customer base. A flashy product with poor instruction will only bring in beginners and children who don't know any better, but will not stay for a long period! Both marketing schemes seem to be working but the second (McDojo style) get lots more attention due to the fact they must advertise to keep numbers. A school with good student retention and a small but effective advertising strategy is a much more stable business as long as it is delivering to it's students! As an instructor more interested in producing students who can help push me further in my studies and not relying on club profits for a living I am much in favor of a quality product without have a constant turnover of new students. If you are only ever teaching beginners it is nearly as satisfying unless you are only their to collect their fees and sell them new gear and uniforms when they sign up. If you wish to start a class with the intent to run it commercially at some time, you should look at what your product will be and what markets to aim at! This will very depending on the instructors, locations and other factors. The product is some form of martial arts instruction (quality depends on you) and then you must organize a business strategy around this. Will the be a market big enough to teach full time or will it only be a small community class? What is the capital investment available for hall leasing/hire , equipment, insurance and other start up costs. Once you have looked truthfully at these you will be able to see what option are viable for you and can progress from there!
Personally I like the term club rather than school. I can see why people might say otherwise, but a degree of cameraderie(sp?) amongst students and the instructors and senior instructor makes it something people will enjoy coming to. I also prefer less structured lessons, with alot of time to work on improving what I want to improve. School makes it sound more rigid and structured to me. From my point of view I don't think there would be any capacity for me to run clubs full time. It might be a nice idea, but I think in the areas where I am it wouldn't be feasible without sacrificing some 'quality'. That won't be true of all areas of course.
Smoke I was part of a club for many years. I idea that camraderie amongst students makes it more enjoyable is a noble concept. Try it and it may actually work for a few years, but IMO there has to be a definative person in charge. I want to like that person in charge, but I don't want him/her to be my buddy. In my old club the head instructor was like a crazy dictator. He liked to throw the word "club" around when it fit his little plan, but no one ever had a real say...... um... there's my 3 cents
