Philosophical One

I need some advice preferrably from an instructor with a very large school. Does anyone have a school with over 100 currently training students?

Whenever this question arises I always think of standard gym memberships. You pay for your 6 -12 month contract and you workout when you can. Gyms expect people to drop out, it's up to the individual to work out their private lives and motivations. It's nice of instructors to be accomodating but it's really none of our business, the student can be directed to the various pay structures and choose the correct one for themselves.

Pay as you go can be a good option, but monthly is better for instructors... that way you get the fees regardless of the students particular motivation to train. I would say it is harder to sign people up to a monthly fee schedule but more valuable in the long term. Gyms offer both types but they make sure casual works out to be more expensive... we do the same - we offer both for our Dojo.

No it's not sectioned off. We move from hall to hall during the week so we have no actual static dojo... unfortunately. We are going to have to do something - people are so rude sometimes.

We franchise parts of our curriculum. Some instructors are dead against changes - some are open to it. All the instructors that have given ours a try has been really happy

Wow, your set up sounds awesome! I hope we will have a similar set up in the future... we also have problems with the parents getting 'over involved' You know the type always harping on their kids? Arg - karate parents

Hi everyone. I was just wondering what your various policies were regarding allowing the parents of your students to watch the classes. We have a very relaxed policy - ie. ANYONE can watch... It usually works really well, but occasionally we have people who abuse our 'hospitality' (bringing noisy babies/ toddlers + talking loudly to other perents) Yesterday for example we had a mum with 5 kids (only 2 were training) and the other 3 were running riot into the equipment - shouting- playing and really making a nuisance of themselves. I kept looking over to the mother and she acted like she couldn't see or hear them! Disgusting! I know someone should confront individuals like this - but they are usually the type to fight about it... Unsure how to handle these situations - we definately don't want to alienate paying customers - but something has got to be done... I'm sure this has happened to others. How do you handle these situations?

Being a victim of bullying myself (I've got posts on here about that too) I'm probably not the best person to give advice... But 1 thing I have learned is that these people come into our lives for a reason... we bloody well don't want them there, but they're there... If you handle this situation properly you won't ever get another bully back in your life (unless you forget the lesson) Don't show fear and face up to him. You're tougher than you think. BTW don't let him get away with those derogatory comments "My dogs do that" Tell him where to go.

I didn't vote because I, personally, have never had to make any decisions on loyalty like that. It's almost always ugly when instructors break away like that. It's almost always the better idea to stick with the original club. I say this because running a dojo IS HARD WORK and a huge committment. Most 'breakaways' think they can do it better - the head instructor has made it all LOOK so easy. But it's like any new business - 95% fail in the first year. and of the 5% that survive - 95% of THOSE will fail within 5 years. Maybe they know their Karate, maybe they are passionate - but are they business minded??? Wanna gamble on it? Perhaps the original dojo won't take you back if they fail because then you will have failed to show loyalty. Something to think about anyway.

Just make sure he isn't backstabbing his current instructor... leaving on bad terms and deliberately competing for students in the same area. Not a good sign. If he is behaving less than honourably then how can you trust him with your training? IMO Karate is more than just kicking and punching. It's about personal development and growing your spiritual strength. Don't forget, the original head instructor will have invested time and perhaps money in the 'breakaway' instructors. He will also most likely have spent money on advertising to get YOU as a student. Stealing students is theft. Of course it's impossible for me to know the exact setup that you are speaking of. So do what you think is right.

The ringleader girl was expelled from the club a few months ago. I was really surprised - believe it or not. Things (I thought) had calmed down a lot and I was moving on... but my partner (head instructor) was still not happy with her training or her behaviour. Apparently she was having a negative effect on one of the other girls who was going for her Blackbelt. Also, both she and her mother kept on questioning my partners decisions regarding assistant and junior instructors... because they wanted control over which classes she worked at and who with... Big mistake. After he got angry with them for questioning him, they approached another instructor (a long-time friend) - asking to train with him. Well that instructor - out of respect- told my partner and asked if he minded. My partner said "Sure take them - but demote the girl to White belt, and beware - she and her mother are both trouble makers" He was (at that time) unsure if they began training with the other instructor but he got an email informing him that said girl was "Taking a break from Karate" After several months of her 'break' he terminated her membership, for failure to show loyalty, amoung other things.

Yeah I'm thinking about baked beans, fresh fruit and yogurt. But I'm open to ideas. Salads are probably out of the question- too much prep time. Just about every other tournament I've been to does things the unhealthy way - but one time I attended a weekend Black Belt grading where they had fruit salad and yogurt for everyone.

Zanshin, he gets a cut of the money like $2 per student +10% of all sales including all new members signed up in his class. He calculates what he is owed and gives the rest to the Head Instructor. We pay for all the advertising, recieve and process all karate enquiries, we organise and pay for the hall hire. He was originally providing just the bottom of each sign in sheet with the totals added up - until we got sus and asked for the tops as well. All reciepts are given to the students - written on their training cards, but You've given me a good idea... to look at their cards. But this guy is dishonest - he might not even be providing reciepts to the students. Who knows?

Wow, criminal prosecution... I never even thought of that. I think he should be expelled outright too - trouble is we know he has/is stealing but how to prove it? We have been suspicious of this instructor for some time now, he made sure we never saw the sign on sheets and he would present really small amounts for each class he took (like $20) That class usually makes around $170 on average. Then because of the suspicion we made him hand in the sign in sheets so we could account for every student - see their names, what each paid etc. HE WAS NOT HAPPY that we asked... Then a few weeks later money was missing - written on the sheet but not included in the total- $80. Head instructor asked him what was up and he said sorry, he'd just overlooked it. And that was that. But seriously, if we had never asked for the top of the sheet he would have pocketed the $80. We are on to him, but we do need to prove it more difinitavely. We are thinking seriously about hiring someone unrelated to the club to pretend to be a new student and watch the whole sign on process. We really need to catch him leaving people off the list or not writing up sales - that's more blatant. It's a cash business so we rely on the trust in the Blackbelts and Dan grades that the head instructor (my partner) has known for years. It's just so hard to know what to do, the final decision isn't even up to me, but I do get to have some input.

I hope this is the correct place to post this. I usually work in the canteen at tournaments and I'm also responsible for buying the food... I have just continued on in the tradition of my predecessors - sausages bread, chips and chocolate, soft drinks... But I really hate serving junk to athletes at athletic events. What do other clubs do? Does everyone do the same?