thekuntawman

you know the saying about a baby bird learning to fly? as long as his feet are on the ground, it could be that he will never learn to fly. but if you throw him from a cliff or a tree, he will fly, because theres no way back. do or die, you could say. business is like that. i know people who worked a job and a school, and it took them years to go full time. i know some people who did it for 20 years, and they still are not full time. i do not understand that one at all. i am a foreigner, uneducated, and i am not rich. but i came to california, which is a very expensive place, i worked for 6 months 2 jobs, then open my school, and when i did that i quit both jobs to recruit and teach full time. when i need extra money, sometimes i will work for a few months. most of the time i will go on the road to teach in other cities (this weekend i am going to washington DC, $2500). the money making part of the school is not the teaching, its the recruiting. since i am cheap and i dont like to advertise ( do small ads in the yellow page only) i have to be the advertising, and a job will prevent me on doing this. my advice for you brother, is to work two jobs, give yourself 6 months of eating at your mom house, taking your lunch, live off 1/2 of one job, and save the other 1.5 of your money. in six months (start advertiseing on the 4th month) quit both job and open your school. do or die. you will need good flyers to get people interested, and BIG banner to be seen, and you better be in good shape. students need to be excited to join, and they have to see his own progress (lost weight, muscles getting stronger, get more flexible) in order to stay. students who quit is like losing hours on your job. i know what the experts say, but its very possible to be successful. but you cant put half your butt on the seat, you have to sit all the way.

i have a small school, about 45 students. because i am very stubborn about how i teach, what kind of students i will take, and how i run the business. because we are small, i charge lots more money each month, then the other schools in my area. this way, i can pay my bills. when i need more money, i work or teach seminar. right now, i am saving to open a commercial school, with contracts and kids, and everything else. but the difference is, we are going to control the quality of teaching. it is very hard when you are a traditional teachers.

2. throw a tournament. it doesnt have to be a big one, but invite a few instructors and there students to your place, and charge $15 or 20 bucks, and offer free food. with 30 people, minus food you should have about 300-400 dollars left over. videotape it. 3. you can buy the whole rack of sweatsuits/warm up suits at a discount store, bargain with an embroidery place for your school name and logo, and sell the suits in your school. they look good when everyone is wearing the same thing, and its free advertising. 4. flyers. 2 hours a day in a neighborhood is better than a part time job that takes away from your school. you increase enrollment and give your school the attention it needs. 5. (only if you are confident enough) bounce in night club or bars. i have two clubs in my town i bounce for, and i supply two for one, and 6 for another. i get a flat fee, and my young students get a cool part time job to met girls. plus is good advertising for the school. 6. whenever you travel look in the phone book for martial arts schools. i have found a couple friends that way, and i can make a few dollars guest teaching while i am away. you also get more people to know who you are that way. 7. if you are good enough, when you travel you can almost always find a tournament that offers money. i am a pretty good point fighter, and even small tournaments offer a money prize. plus its fun, and you can build your reputation. 8. satellite classes. i advertise martial arts in four cities less than 100 miles from my home. some people come to visit me once or two times a month, and i have three locations where i travel to them once a month (or two). a park is always available and its free. plus outside training is good advertising. during the summer, i get about 20 to thirty extra students this way, and everybody pays 60 to 100 a month. 9. private instruction. when you put out the word, you might get one or two students. they learn one on one, and pay by the hour. its a good way to fill your daytime, when nothings going on.

i have owned my school since 1993, when i was still in college. i used my scholarship money to open it, and i never closed my original school. we do not accept small children (in my school here in cali the youngest i have is 12) and we are a very traditional school. i dont accept the idea that you have to do anything less than exactly what you want in a school to be successful. if you are unique, than its better for you because you have very little competition. in my school we teach philippine kuntaw and eskrima and kung fu. i teach each class separately. i am also a full time teacher. my advice to you is to always find a way to make your money with the martial arts, so you can always focus to make your school stronger. some of the things i do (when i need money): 1. sell equipment. my mom sends me equipment from the philippines, and i sell some to my students very cheaply, but i sell at a higher price to other instructors, directly to there schools or at a booth in tournaments. once my mom sent me some live muay thai fights on video, and i got rich from it! i have to go, i will post more later.

i think is depends to the amount of experience that instructor has. the getting of degrees has become very cheap today, so that a man with 10 years of study can have a 5th degree black belt, when 20 years ago he would only have a second degree. in some places you will find a true black belt teacher, who does not chase rank and found a strong teacher to study under. lets say this teacher only has a second degree or third degree black belt. but he been studying for 10 years, or maybe his teacher died or is in another country. who could turn down his teaching just because he is not a "7th degee black belt master"? i think its funny to see a 40 years old man with a 6th degree black belt, who has about 10-20 years.

jow ga under dean chin. jow ga is made from hung gar, choy gar and northern shaolin (through malaysia). my sifu, dean chin, also studied lau man fat's eagle claw and bak mei, so we also have some of those style in our system. my school is a philippine martial arts school, but i teach jow ga to a small group of students separately.

the sad thing about martial arts schools that are commericalized, is that most of the students, who worked very hard for the black belt they got, think they have good martial arts. many times they did not notice that the school they go to is not a "good" martial arts school. met a lot of people who are sincer about the martial arts they do, but they just had bad luck to find a teacher who didnt do a good job teaching them well.

did you know that pinoys are full of pride? oo, pride pish, pride rice, pride chicken, pride lumpia,

my friend, i have three things to tell you about your posting. 1. the philippine style, or any style really, cannot be absorbed when you are only going to "cross train" just to learn a few basics. especially the philippine art, which is more involve than people thing, yet is simpler than the seminar and video teachers want you to know. for you to benefit from the filipino arts of arnis/eskrima, you should find a teacher and stick with him for at least a year, before you moved on. this way, he can develop you as a fighter, instead of just show you how to swing some sticks. 2. here in the US they say "what have you done for me lately?" we say "what have YOU done"? my point is, who cares who the teacher is, and who he studied with. your skill will come from how well you train, how much you learn about combat, and how good you can use your skills in the fight. here in the US, they love to ask, who is your teacher. popularity and how many students you have do not mean that you can teach someone to fight. we have another saying, that your reputation is made by your opponents, not by your lineage. this is a FILIPINO philosophy. find your teacher, and get some matches to gain your experience, this way you dont have to talk about, i study from master so and so, who studied from grandmaster so and so. 3. training is always worth it, as long as you are able to make his techniques work in a fight. even if you never saw that teachers name on the computer or in a magazine. my advice again, is study where ever you can, and give that teacher enough dedication and loyalty to mold you as a fighter, then go and get your own fighting experience to test your skill. good luck, i know your going to do good. the filipino fighting art is a great place to start.

you will have more about the similarity from arnis to eskrima to "kali" which some people think is a philippine martial arts. but the difference to kali, is, they are using the name because he never been to the philippines, or he is trying to make you think his style is older than the people who say "arnis" or "eskrima". there is more in common between silat and kuntaw, which are basically the same thing, regardless of what the dutch try to tell you. but there is a difference between filipino kuntaw, and "kuntaw ng pilipinas", which is the organization of carlito lanada, which resembles more like japanese karate. many people study only the skin of the philippine martial arts, so they lost out, since our native arts have so much to teach you about fighting and true combat. people get lost in the politics, the rankings, the drills, the stories and posings of tough guy want to be instructors, and titles. they do not stay around long enough to gain the benefit of studying a warrior art and making there art a way of life for them. instead, they buy video and go to seminars. when they get bored, or hear of a new style they didnt know before, they switch over. so these poor people (poor in knowledge, not money) do only get the skin of the art, and never learn the deeper parts of the art which make you a tougher, smarter fighter.