Martial Arts Professional Magazine

During the next two months, I’ll focus on a critical transition in the life of a martial arts school. The transition is the one that takes the school owner from being a tactician to being a strategist and frequently takes us away from what we love the most, teaching classes. First, I want to set […]

Last month, I told you how I moved away from the deck. This month, I want to take the role of devil’s advocate: How can I return to the deck again?
 
If you’ve ever read Michael Gerber’s business book, The E-Myth, then you know that most of us who opened martial arts schools were technical experts […]

This month, I want to continue my presentation of the Conditions of Learning by focusing on goal setting as it relates to teaching. Most of us think that we have a rather good notion of how to engage in goal setting. After all, we reached Black Belt and beyond, and we run our businesses successfully.
We […]

The basis of any successful business is a series of reproducible, result-producing systems. Small and large businesses, including martial arts schools, create and implement systems for accounting, customer services, marketing, etc. You hire staff members to implement those systems and you train them to implement them correctly.
Then, you teach, which is something else entirely. Or […]

Is it possible to over stretch? Is it possible to over reach a technique? Is it possible to over commit resources?
Obvious answers, right? I wonder why so many of us do exactly that as business owners. We counsel our students to do appropriate stretches; we reinforce the correct form. Yet, we sometimes find ourselves trapped […]

As I explained in Part 1 of this multi-part column, our Black­ Belt tests are very large rank-requirement classes filled with students from Green through Black Belt. There is much hard work, fun and sweat during our Black Belt tests. The tests take an entire evening, but they are not rigid, discipline-driven events; and they […]

When I promote students to Black Belt, I want them to feel enriched, excited, nurtured and worthy. Black Belt tests should be a celebration of victory, not a journey into the unknown reaches of physical exertion, some mystical event that isn’t to be discussed in the dojo, or even an opportunity for the grading board […]

The 13 additional business mistakes that I’ve made owning and operating my school are presented below. Words of wisdom: Don’t repeat them in your school, and if you already have, then it’s time to take corrective measures.
Mistake #8: Changing too much, too soon. This is the other side of the coin, where you trash everything […]