wayneshin

Agree with above. We typically do a letterbox drop of pamphlets of around 20,000. Bit you need more than that. I remember reading somewhere that it typically takes someone an average of 7 times hearing about something before they act. We also do school newsletters and cinemas ads and find both wrk well.

I agree totally with the OP. I pay all my Instructors. To do anything else would be to take advantage of them. The only circumstance where it is OK to do any differently is in a school that is set up as a non profit enterprise. Then I guess all Instructors are volunteers.

Don't forget the other side of the equation. I'm 51, been involved in karate consistently for 36 years. Like most I get some knee and hip pain, some mornings it hurts to get down the stairs etc however I am far more mobile and agile than most my age and most I know with similar age and length of training are the same.

To some extent you are only limited by your imagination in how you vary your plyo. Box jumps are a standard but landing technique is important. If you don't have a box go with broad jumps again focusing on landing technique. (You should be able to find info on YouTube) you can vary these with single leg landings and diagonal jumps with single leg landing. Two leg hops over multiple hurdles are great (we normally do 4-6hurdles) then you can vary the height and distance apart of the hurdles, alternate high and low, offset them so you go sideways then over the sideways then over. The progress to the same with single leg jumps. If you don't have hurdles use kick shields or sports bags.

Who doesn't want a student that want to explore and expand their martial arts knowledge. A different club in the same organisation should never be a problem. Different Instructors will always focus on different aspects of the syllabus. A different martial art is great. Those students will often bring knowledge back to the club. I had an Intructor study Krav Maga for some time and it was great talking with him about some of their methods in particular with weapons defence. My only hesitation would be a student studying a different style of karate because the differences may cause confusion. I would still never stop them and if you lose a student under those circumstances so be it. Be happy they have found something that meets their needs and perhaps look at why you didn't.

Where do you train in Australia? I have a club in Bacchus Marsh.

Wicked kicks for a 5 yr old. Congrats to the young lady. Interesting that you start at National level so young. I came over the the USOpen with the Aust team both this year and in 2012 and it was noticeable how seasoned your competitors were by the 11/12 Mark. We don't start at National level until 9.

Just on marketing to adults. We have enormous success marketing directly to the parents of our Juniors. About every 12-18 months (whenever Senior numbers are getting low) we send out a letter inviting them to a 10 week beginners only class. The letter starts by saying "how many tomes have you watched your child train and thought, I could do that,I would like to try," and do forth. . It then covers the benefits ofhaving a shared interest with your children as they grow up, the health benefits, fitness, weight loss etc then gives some examples of Seniors who started after their children and got to Black Belt. Almost all our Seniors came from this letter. An added benefitisif you get the parents the kids are usually with you longer. It also enhances the "family" feel we like to have at our club.

Have you ever trained with an elite WKF fighter. While I respect your opinion and some of what you say is certainly valid the statement I hjave bolded is simply not accurate.

Routine can be valuable. Pack your bag and anything else you need including food/snacks the night before. That way you don’t start the day with any last minute stress (eg where is my belt/gi/gloves etc) How you relax on competition day is different for everyone. Some prefer the company of others, chat, watch some matches, others will lay down with their headphones on. I don’t suggest arriving closer to your match because in may martial arts events the start time is uncertain – that will lead to worry (ie I’m going to miss my match) Most importantly have a set warm up routine that you follow every time. Practise it is class. A full pre competition warm up should commence about an hour before your event is scheduled. You should be sweating when you finish. Also have an abbreviated 10 minute warm up routine for those times you get the “Black Belt Open please report to Court 3” calls. The very act of conducting your familiar warm up will relax you.

Karate (under the WKF rule set) has been “close” to Olympic inclusion on a number of occasions but for varying reasons has missed out. In 2005 we finished with the highest number of votes but att he time needed a two-thirds majority for inclusion. Then prior to the 2009 vote the IOC changed the rules so only a majority was necessary. We finished third behind golf and rugby sevens. Ironically golf were not considered to be in the race until Tiger Woods merged and stated that if Golf made the Olympics he would definitely play. A month or so after the decision he was caught up in his infidelity scandal. Then last year we did not even make the short list. Wrestling was taken off the program to make room for a new sport then wrestling was voted back on. We finished behind squash and roller sports!! I can’t help thinking we are further away than ever. The IOC seem to be favoring sports with appeal to those who pay for broadcasting rights. However we are starting to improve in that area. The last World Championships in Paris were hosted in a 16,000 seat stadium which was sold out every day for months in advance. I understand this years World in Germany in November may already be sold out and many television networks throughout Europe will be televising them live.

Consider diet. England should be OK but when you are travelling internationally availability of what he likes to eat pre event may be limited. This extends to the day of the event. If he likes certain things to snack on throughout the day? Also general availability of food at the venue.

We always have many Black Belts in attendance but I normally run the majority if the grading myself. I also prefer to be up and interacting with the students but I will occasionally allocate one of my Instructors to take portions so I can take a load off. Grading days are long! My favorite part. I love seeing the new white belts. And of course Kumite!

I don't necessarily agree with this unless the school owner claims to be on the mats every day. If you come in the door and try out a few classes and the owner is never on the floor, it should be obvious what you're getting. For an owner, there are really two choices he/she can make as their school grows. 1. Become the manager and "hire" instructors 2. Remain the instructor and hire managers. I've seen both options work just fine. Again, it comes back to whether you were lied to or not. I see your point. My thought is not so much relating to how much time the owner spends on the mat. More relating to what is driving his decision making. When you running a school as a business it is very easy to get caught up in profit margins. Whiile this is not entirely unreasonable there has to be a balance to ensure it is not at the expense of the integrity and quality of your program.

Great link. Thanks. I'm going to give this a go (30 minutes aargh) The squat is a great exercise for both improving mobility and assessing where you are at. If you can't do it with all the key points in the posted link then you have movement restrictions that need to be addressed. Can't recall if I've posted this before but also take a look at Mobility Wod http://www.mobilitywod.com/episodes/page/7/ Start at exercise 1. It's no coincidence that this is also the squat.

I have a few in my dojo and encourage my advanced students to come in and roll before class. There are often a few Black belts rolling around in the corner before training. Myofacial release (also known as massage) has become an important part of the pre workout routine in most elite sports. They normally look something like this. http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/90x15cm-EVA-PHYSIO-FOAM-AB-ROLLER-YOGA-PILATES-EXERCISE-BACK-HOME-GYM-MASSAGE-/231013704732

As a school starts to grow the owner is going to find they are no longer be able to do everything. The decisions that are made about what you are going to do and what you bring others in to do will define what sort of school you become. When the club owner/chief instructor spends more time in the office than on the floor while other less experienced instructors teach and decisions are made for purely financials reasons then you are starting to look like what most define as a Mc Dojo.

If you are very good then in a standard situation hopefully a few seconds, but what if? Check the news where people have endured prolonged attacks, nobody will wait for you to catch your breath. But surely everyone would want to be as fit as possible so they can train hard to get the most out of their training? Fitness is a very generic term that comprises anything from 5 to 8 or more components depending on who you talk to. I would say you need to be fit for the purpose you are training for. I may be wrong but I would suggest the circumstances you are talking about are more prolonged beatings than a prolonged fight where are person was engaged in a battle that required them to call on a level of endurance to continue. Just some additional thoughts. Firstly a significant majority of Seniors begin martials arts training to improve general fitness and quite often to lose weight. I would also agree that a minimum level of endurance is required both to ensure you are able to execute your defence skills if needed, but also to train at a level required to continue to improve your karate. However as a student progresses to intermediate and advance levels they should have gained a solid base of endurance I don’t believe it needs to be a focus in their training. Increasing intensity and power output is more important (of course along with continued skill development and learning). Lastly there have been studies done that show that endurance training has a negative impact on power output.

I would just like to play devils advocate for a moment and question the benefit of endurance training for karate. How long is a self defence situation going to last. 30 seconds? A minute? Less?

Great to watch – thanks for posting. That performance appeared to be during the athletes with diabilities demonstration event at the 2012 WKF World Championships. Please also check out the performance at the same event by legally blind Australian martial artist, Ray Morcomb. After performing at the Athletes with disabilities demonstration event Ray was asked to return on finals night to perform to a capacity crowd of over 16,000– where he received a standing ovation. I believe the WKF are planning to introduce the athletes with disabilities event as a fully fledged part of the program for World Championships – a great initiative IMO.

Yep. Mine. My wife and 3 kids (20,17, 14)all hold Dan grades. Between the 5 if us we have around 90 years of training. I have many parents and children that train but only one other entire family with Dad 1st kyu 2 girls 2nd kyu and mom 6th kyu.

I am with wastelander. (I'm not goju either). If you translate hiki-te as pulling hand, think of grabbing a wrist/forearm with that hand then the twist as it returns to your hip starts to make sense. Then realise that uke does not mean block, it more closely translates to receive and you may start to think about what many learn as blocks differently.

When it's been gone for that long painkillers are no longer the solution. You need to find out the cause. As we get older (I'm 51) our bodies recover slower but event a muscle strain should be improving by now. You need to go to a decent physiotherapist (I believe you call them physical therapists) and probably get some scans done.

So to clarify. You have an ununited fracture on your foot and your Doctor has given you clearance to train. It is not going to get better (without surgery) I presume? I have a similar thing in my wrist since 1991. Still there. I occasionally jar it when I hit something hard but it hasn't really got any worse. The answer is yes. You can spar without using that foot. Most fighter favour different techniques and hands over feet or vice versa. Bill Wallace has already been mentioned.

I'll restrict my comments to the traditional form. Your son shows good power and intensity. The main area that stood out for me that he would benefit from working on is his feet. At times he adjusts his feet prior to moving fwd or back to help him with weight transference. The supporting foot needs to be stable when moving. I think i also noticed at times he lifts his rest heels when landing on a forward stance. Get him to work on the first part of his movement to get the weight moving without moving his foot. Hope this makes sense and helps.