Luther unleashed

The chest, actually I look all over and it depends on what my opponent is doing but mostly chest. I was taught that years ago and have stuck with that. Good view on everything. I think looking at the face is something I did before I had experience and allowed me to be pulled in emotionally more so then looking at chest. People communicate through facial expressions more then we realize, don't want to be that intimate while sparring!

Wearing a uniform from the specific dojo is a way of making sure there is a uniformity in the class. I require students get a gi from us. They are only 35, I can understand not liking it if it's more expensive but you know some places charge enrollment t fees, deposited, CONTRACTS. I do None of this so what's a 35 dollar gi? I think if it's a good place just do it and move on. I wore a cheap gi for a year before you could really see it fade. I chose black because of the fact that they stay cleaner looking, but also I like that it's a bit different. Traditional karate/tang soo do has a white uniform, I like to stand out lol

Nice topic.

Teaching can be very rewarding. I am pretty cheap cost wise and still do pretty ok, the hours are much less then my last career which was 50 a week, and it's a rewarding job. You can still offer affordable classes and not hurt people's wallets too much. You won't make as much per student but you just have to take care of peoe and be solid in teaching and most of all ENJOY IT! People can see you enjoy it and the energy is contagious. You will get more students to make up for your cost. This is how I do it and my way of thinking anyways. Not a pusher, just see the interest and wanted to share. I can't remember exactly what you study, what do you feel you need to be ready? I realize we are getting off topic but not too much. This conversation is also a reflection of the topic because as we teach and demand, students can see what we put into it and why. I have only been teaching about a year but I can tell you that you are ready when you teach good martial arts and people enjoy your teaching. The most important approval is the students, they pay the bills and keep you teaching. Don't forget that!

Sorry to post right after you, not my intention to steel your moment. I write slow and when I got done you posted lol. I'd like to say I respect your view on the hobby and it is that to many people, although you never know, that hobby tuned into a living to me so you never know!

This is I nice topic. You know, when I was a student and didn't teach at all, I felt pressure and took a few classes off here and there. As many as 4 probably, that's 2 weeks. I was never one to attend 3 per week, I trained at home a lot, probably 20 hrs a week outside of the do-jang/dojo! As I took time off though it always helped me through my burn out phases. You have to watch out because too many days off can result in dificulty coming back, at least in the same conditioning. As a student I always enjoyed the classes that were different, the classes I became complacent the most in were forms because even learning new forms It became a bit repetitive. As an instructor I remember these, as well as remember everybody is not the same so it's hard to make everybody happy. I think though that the way I personally alleviate the pressure you refer too sensei, is to make a class or 2 a month geared more towards fun. Maybe not the best technical class but a class to laugh with my students and not worry too much about technique, I will always find time to focus on these things but balance is so important. As to your question to cdraper, "Do you feel that you never satisfy your instructor??". I think as an instructor we all have different beliefs, many of us were taught differently, so we teach differently. I make a stronger effort to say things like "excelent" and "this is almost perfect" when they make a drastic improvement and/or they are really doing something right. If they are doing it bad, and this happens often with me because I teach a lot of kids, I say things like "better" if they are working at it and getting it some. My instructors were quick to forget compliments, many can be that way. I have always had a belief as a kid/parent! If we learned from our parents and did things better, as a people I mean, we would have almost perfect parents now. I see instructing this way. I try to take all the good, and build upon the things I thought/felt were not productive. Interesting topic sensei and hard to really dig into, very deep!

Good point, this is a really good point. Although, it's my personal feeling as a teacher that mass attack situations are better won by running or not getting into them. I teach knife and gun self defense at higher ranks, but I'm always very clear this is only desired If you have nowhere to run. As a quick note, the main thing I see as effective for this is to line opponents up, and defend against one at a time. We do double team sparring and this is the main thing I tell them, put your opponents in a line.

It's a free country anyone can build a school anywhere they want. However, we have to remember respect. I personally would not open the same style martial arts school as someone already established on the same road. Same town yes, not the same road. But that's just my point of view. That's what I'm saying. That's why I'm saying I don't view him as a neighbor, but more as somebody I'd have no problem looking at like a school in going to compete hard with. Just strange.

I like that, it's an interesting angle. I do feel I would teach him in a class setting though because I'd have the opportunity to break him down with the rest of the white belts. The biggest issue I have is the private lessons especially traveling to him or even meeting in the middle. Hard to pick off techniques at white belt, and in private lessons I feel he would probably want to dig deeper then should be at the proper white belt level. The group setting is much more appealing for myself to teach him, in a group of people tend to fall in line more and go through the proper motions . We do have the right to be selective though, and I appreciate that sentiment!

As wastelander pointed out, grapplers like to get close and strikers don't. In what I teach as a striker, there is a "green zone" a "red zone" and a "yellow zone"! For a grappler there the opposite or maybe even 2 "green zones". Let me explain as to me this is the major difference from a technical standpoint. Striking Arts •Green Zone - You are too far away to be harmed and therefore your safe. •Red Zone - you are right in the striking area, can be reached by strikes and can't directly grab your opponent. •Yellow Zone - you are close enough to grab and use close quarter striking/throws/basic grappling. Although not the green zone, your safer then in between which is the primary striking range. Grappling Arts •Green Zone - you are too far away to be harmed therefore you are safe. •Red Zone - you are right in the striking area, can be reached by strikes and can't directly grab your opponent. •Green Zone - here a grappler is safe, and can presumably feel right at home. They can control their opponent and protect themselves. Especially an untrained fighter is less of a threat because close quarter strikes are much less powerful in this zone. I always teach students that the green zone "safest place" is where somebody can't reach you, again, a grappler may not agree. Mentally I find this to be the most significant difference in mental approach or "game" if you will.

That was a little bit of a weird video but actually kind of cool. Makes you think about it a bit

Thanks guys for the congrats on the new location. Pretty exciting stuff. Jr 137 the biggest thing is that I'm not saying I won't teach him, I declined doing private lessons were I drive to his home 30 miles from home. I probably wasn't clear enough on that. I'll teach him though if he does the drive but that's not usually an acceptable drive for students.

Haha yes this is very true. I actually slept on it another night and told my wife I'm not going to do it. I informed him today that I just don't have the time as I'm working on opening another location to be driving places for private lessons. It was just my nice way of letting them kn slept on it another night and told my wife I'm not going to do it. I let him know today already. I actually just got word that I'm able to open a second location at a place I was trying to attain, to me this is what I'm focusing on. I personally do this because I like it, not because I need things on my resume like helping an up-and-coming MMA fighter. I was telling my wife though, that when we talked he continued to tell me about his experience and I felt as though I was calling him for somebody to help me train LOL. The more I thought about it the more I realized it just is not a fit and not something I am personally interested in. I wish him all the best in his endeavors but we all are following our own path . It definitely made for an interesting experience though, and I appreciate the input you guys gave on this one.

Glad you guys don't have to worry about competitors ! Ironically I made a thread in "general" section of the forum about an mma fighter that wants private lessons from me! He said he looked at this guy and wasn't satisfied and was more interested in myself BUT still he was the first call haha! I am not trying to sound insecure, I feel confident in what I do, and my program. My issue I guess is less that I am actually threatened by him, and more "how do you do that to another Buisness" honestly. It does take from my iMessage area so it's frustrating because it's literally close enough to through a baseball. Also, I'm not a store front, I am in a rec center. Although I teach in the gym area because they lack the usual "multipurpose room" we ma instructors seem to get stuck with so I have a great deal of space, and certainly I can outdo him in this way as the fitness place is small. To me, it's just a matter of principal. I'd prefer to treat other businesses as neighbors with likeminded goals. It I hate saying it, this guy I tend to view as a Buisness competitor because he put up his Buisness on the same block in a good sized city where there is very little competition really! Thank for the input

Sensei8 and sparaticus, thanks for the input. This is a concern to Mae as well of course. If I had a very in depth conversation on the topic in general (new thread?) I would probably sound a bit like an mma hater. To me it lacks the core foundation of traditional martial arts as a whole, and resembles that of boxing more accurately. After a knockout while the opponent is Bradley hurt on the mat you typically will see the winner gloat and scream, possibly even beating their chest. Just doesn't do a whole lot for me personally. Showing compassion gets me going. In general I don't feel an mma person is an ideal student, and I hate to put people in a box, and obviously each person can be different but this is what I see in general, within the movement. It's also been very important to the resurgence of martial arts popularity imho so it's not all bad and I don't mean to offend anybody, just not for me. I sound like an old man, I'm 38 what the heck is going on haha!?!? I don't think there is anything wrong with wanting rank in his position BUT there's a problem when it's all you see, so if my personal goal (to him) should be to help him earn rank he will have missed the point and needs to read my posts here about rank lol! Hence the reason I feel it's as damaging as it is beneficial. We have discussed chasing rank and it's very negative impacts, but also how's my of us have done it so we can potentially relate as well. I honestly just haven't decided yet. My wife says do it, and find out in person but to be completely honest my gut tells me it's not a fit for what I am about in my journey. Tough spot mentally.

If you weren't running out of a Rec Centre would you consider running birthday parties? I probably would not! I would conifer it but I don't care for the idea. Although as an interesting topic within itself, I do things now that I don't like to do. I always had a passion and dream to teach. Now that I have my own Buisness I'm blown away at the amount of things I do on a daily basis to make by Buisness successful, the things I let slide, the times I push my place like a drug dealer. Sometimes I don't care for it as a Buisness, I'd probably be much happier teaching for free and having a different source of income but we all make a living some how. I left 16 years in the auto repair Buisness to teach martial arts full time now. The b-day parties are t bad to me, just not my thing. The same way a hardnosed instructor can't be the goofy instructor, and the other way around. Throwing a birthday part doesn't really appeal to me, I like to teach martial arts! As a Buisness that desires success, I would consider it, but I'm pretty led by my heart and I'm sure I'd still pass.

I had a guy start teaching at a fitness center about a 2 min walk from me. REALLY? My previous nearest competitor was 15 min drive and was ATA Taekwondo which in all fairness is competition, but different enough in my opinion to allow us to really "coexist" if you will. I teach Tang Soo Do "primarily" but admittedly I do blend quite a bit of other stuff at times. This guy is Tamg Soo Do specific, but really man? I saw he had a photo of like 10 students in never seen, I thought of course "he's taking from my student source/neighborhood"! I'm not greedy but can you open up a few miles away at least? How about you guys? Nearest studio?

Thanks guys yeah, clearly I need to draw a line from what I do and what he does! I'm not much for mma stuff to be honest. 90 percent of martial arts stuff I have done is traditional. My aim would be to through a kick to a vital point for protection, I don't think about the rules. Something I need to keep in mind. Also, he has a small amount of karate history from our discussion as I understood it. The fact that he says he wants to build credentials in martial arts tells me he doesn't have much, and is looking to grow his knowledge, or hopefully his knowledge anyways, could be after the paper more, the certification. We will see. I watched a fight of his on YouTube, he got tak n out pretty quick after a missed (and heavily telegraphed) front kick. I watched video to decide weather I had anything to offer him in my honest opinion, I felt that the way I go about a fight would bE very different. I could see that trying some new things could be good for him. Much like machida is awkward to many mma guys, as the footwork is different and the manner in which karate executes strikes is different, it could be fun. He sounds like a bit of a braggart/know it all, so in all honesty I am just not convinced it's a fit but we spoke on the phone. We are shooting for this weekend. You want to know something crazy though? I may be weird but I grew up fighting, I was ignorant in my youth. I got beat up a lot lol! I gear my training towards self defense not sport, but what I'm afraid of is can you imagine if I showed him something new for him and he used it, something like an under the chin upward strike? Anything idk, but can you imagine him really hurting somebody and knowing I had a direct part in the injury? This bothers me greatly. I just don't like the sport aspect for these reasons. I don't know, Im sure most would say I'm making a big deal out of nothing, and really who knows if I can offer him anything at all, but just a thought I had about moving forward and some of these things make me think twice. I spend so much of my time attempting to teach people to fight so they don't have to, and I am going to attempt to add to a guys arsinol knowing he's going to? Internal dilemma indeed!

So I got a guy that's trying to make a name for himself in the mma world. Seems like he's had some lower level fights and had moderate success. He said he wants to add to his game and have some traditional rank to add to his resume from what I understood! There is some positives to it of course as a newer instructor I'd have a good opertunity to make an impact on his game, but some reservations of course as well. There are guys in this generation of mma that ha e a strong blend but lack a foundation. In this way it could be much harder then teaching a student with no experience. Also, I have plenty of ideas how to impact his game from videos I saw, but him wanting to earn rank is a slower/ different process as I see it. It's an interesting situation. Lastly there's the ego factor. Karate does imho, a great job tearing away the ego and helping to facilitate the growth of humility, interesting predicament indeed! I'm supposed to set a time to meet this weekend, so I suppose we will see how this goes. Thoughts?

This is one thing I'm tremendously aware of. Can you outgrow your teaching space? For me, I'm in a large gym and at 5 students across (leaving plenty of space for forms or drills) I can fit about 4 rows comfortably and could probably squeeze in one more, so 25 students would be my maximum I suppose in one class. I do 4 classes though, so on theory this allows me about 100 students before space is an issue. Basically space is not an issue lol. I think the size of the class is a bigger deal when I figure how many I can teach effectively. I'm fortunate as I'm also in a rec center, but in many rec centers there is a "multi-purpose room, which is generally small, and is great for dance and other classes, I am the only one I k ow of that uses the much larger gym! Just lucky. No instructors, open for Buisness 8 months now and just not there yet, but I have a great family. My wife, and 2 of my kids (13 & 10). Take groups and help leading different portions of class. Could t do it without them. Sounds like your instructor may be content where he's at in numbers, and that's ok too though! That being said I hope to never have to limit advertising due to a lack of room to grow. My goal is 60 students because that's roughly 15 students (3 rows) in each class.

I like Patrick's response a lot. I will say however, that I don't care for them. I can completely relate to the OP! I am on a rec center so I don't do things like that mostly because other programs go before or after and I only get my time slot. Ultimately I think they end up being a bit gimicky, but there are many things I see in the martial arts world that take cross this barrier for me personally. In the end though if you want to continue teaching it seems you need to do what you can to keep Buisness going. There are many things you should probably have your hand in, in order to really stabilize the program/school! I'm not knocking those that may do it, just saying it's not really for me and I can relate to the original posters feelings.

Everyone is different I think. I leave every class thinking I really could have done better. I personally believe this is what gives me the opportunity to be a great teacher. I'm not great now, I think I'm pretty good, but my point is if you think you have a ways to go then your open to learning, if you think Your greatest you probably won't soak much in. As to the question above, I wanted to teach since I was17. At 37 an instructor pushed me hard once I shared this with him. He had me leading a full class at 4th rank in his tang soo do program, I had other experience however. I had an amazing teacher, and he taught how to teach incredibly. I actually think he was better at teaching how to teach then teaching how to do martial arts. A good mentor is invaluable! Personal drive and desire are essential in becoming a great teacher. You may get to a point where you think you' know it all, stay humble and allow growth to take place, be humble! Best advice I can give a fellow! If you like something you are much more likely to be successful at it!

Like an introduction only? As a way to filter them into the school? If that's what your saying it's genius. I have seen one other program do this that teaches chun kuk do in the Phoenix area. Smart! Although I have to wonder what's more beneficial. Is it to do it that way, or to simply make that recreation center a second location? Very interesting. @lupin1 I think that's awesome that there's a program like this. I would love to see more programs that got state/city funding and payed for it all, so that people in a certain income range could do it for free. I have been thinking of it myself, and how I would even start. Wado, The one area I am truly lacking is being ready to do any type of demo, I have only been open as a program for eight months now and it is something I should look into more, I find that the flyers don't seem to get me anywhere . I posted all over town and put flyers everywhere with a special, it offered a free uniform for that particular month, I got new students that month but nobody with the flyer for the for uniform LOL. Sensei8 i'd say I would've pegged you for a guy that doesn't advertise, I suppose the question would also be too many instructors, is this your only job. If it is not been advertising and creating an income Is less important, in my case with it being my only source of income at the moment it is more important. There's a fine line here though that if people become too dependent on it they need to watch themselves to make sure they are not just becoming a belt factory with a bunch of hype. The goal needs to be to drive to school forward With the thought of good karate in mind, and not money first. my personal goal at the moment is to offer martial arts in my area for a much more reasonable rate and some of the other competitors, Targeting a different financial group if you will. Sensei was right on about finding a gold mine if you can find a school that will let you hand out flyers, that's a very big deal. We have a program that already handles all of the martial arts programs for the district called young champions. They are contracted with the district so that leaves little guys like me out Lol

I thought this could be a fun angle, I didn't see that it had been posted yet so hopefully this is the first for this topic. What would you say is your main focus on advertising, or do you not worry about advertising at all? as my only career at the moment I advertise because I have to make a living, also because the more students I get the more fun it is for everybody and the more profit I make total the better equipment and things like this the school can have. I do much of my advertising on Facebook and YouTube, I just made a new video yesterday, it only took a few minutes and it was supposed to be kind of funny but I thought it might be a fun angle On getting out there a little, tell me what you guys think. Also, would love to hear you guys do yo pull new students, if anything?!? https://youtu.be/R4MuAkxwU-c

I would not know the answer to this, in general the world tanks you know association is much more popular here in Arizona it would seem , also I personally do not belong to a Federation, and neither did I belong to a federation and studios I trained in for maybe 50% of my martial arts training places . Sorry but hopefully somebody else can answer that question for you, I think they are all over in the taekwondo forum having a party LOL