Summer retention

[Squawman]

I was just wondering how other schools were doing with summer retention. Are alot of students taking the summer off and what kind of special activities do you do in the summer? i.e. camps, picnics...

 

We seem to have alot of students go on hold for the whole summer, this summer more than the recent past. We heard that if the economy is good then people tend to take bigger vacations. But what ever it is it sure is a pain to try and get them back at the end of summer.

[karatekid1975]

A few students take a week to a month off. But not many in my dojang. It's always the same people, though.

 

My dojang has regular picnics, outings, fun days in the park, ect for the students in the summer. We also have Holiday get-togethers.

[TangSooGuy]

Summer retention is tough...I have about half my class going on vacation at different points over the next month or so...

 

We are having a demo this weekend, a clinic and picnic in August, and I'm trying to get an amusement park trip put together, but it seems like there just isn't time....

 

In the end..some may decide not to come back, and it is always a shame when that happens, but if they don't come back, the drive was never really there to begin with. Hold on to the ones you can, and focus on the students who do come to class, even in the summer. Focusing on the ones who leave just isn't productive most of the time.

 

Don't get me wrong, you should ask yourself why thy don't come back, but 99% of the time it isn't anythng you did, and they were going to quit eventually, anyway....sad but true...

[texaskaratedo]

I too am having about 1/2 of my classes taking 1 to 4 weeks off at a time this summer. The one thing I have going in my favor is contracts and a billing service to help motivate them back into the DoJo when summer is over.

 

We just have to hold on until the local school system starts back and then the DoJo will be full again.

 

We are also doing 1 tournament a month to keep the ones in class motivated. It seems to give them another reason to train and makes them not want to go on vacation.

[CloudDragon]

Some ideas that seem to work are: Camps, anything from day camps to full blown week long ones. Seminars: get a known name to come to your school and invite other schools to attend. Special classes: This is where you introduce new concepts or material that isn't emphasized in your regular cirriculum, you can get students input and see if you want to include it in regular training.