Summer slow down

[White_Tiger]

Typically industry wide martial art schools slow down during the summer months. Does anyone run any type of specials or camps to keep enrollment up during the summer months?

[Sandan]

I do try and run a summer camp, which is particularly for kids, although the adults can come along also if they wish! I also try and do it outside of the dojo so that they see it as something new!

[White_Tiger]

Thanks Sandan!

How long does the camp last? How much do you charge? Any additional information would be appreciated as well!

Thanks again!

[taiji fajin]

In Kuk Sool, our grandmaster holds seminars at different schools people can go to, I am looking forward to him coming to my school.

In Taiji, my laoshi holds a summer camp I am going to (broadsword, I can't wait. I haven't done any weapons with taiji yet).

For general recruitment to my Kuk Sool school, I generally just rely on word of mouth. My students are college students, so there's not really much I can do when almost my entire pool of prospective students goes somewhere else for the summer. Interestingly, though, the students who started Kuk Sool but stopped due to too many university classes tend to come back during the summer, if they are going to be around.

[Squawman]

We have about 4 summer camps. They are on Fridays and are from 9:00am to 3:00pm. Are camps are bamboo sword, Bo staff, Sparring and a demo camp which is teaching some of the stuff our demo team does (gymnastics, specialty kicks, board breaking, weapons) and then putting it to music.

We also have a whole lot of dodge ball during that time because the kids attention span isn't that long. We also used to do week long camps that were from 9:00 to 3:00 but by the end of the week you pretty much wanted to kill every kid.

[JusticeZero]

Still haven't gotten that far, but one solution I have seen is to move classes outdoors. ___ in the park, and so on.

[Sandan]

If I can book the hall, I have training on Friday Saturday and Sundays. The idea is also that they get out of the dojo and so I have outdoor training and there is a beach nearby so we take them there also. There are a few issues with people only able to come one or two days but for the most part people are delighted to be along. It's really a case of having something to do with them for the time you have them.

I don't charge a huge amount for this generally it's €10 so that they have to make some sort of commitment to the day. I also get a bouncing castle for them and we have a barbie on the last day... it's a great way of getting the parents involved as well. Of course they do all the work for the barbie

I would suggest having more than one instructor if at all possible as it does make life easier!

[Fox_NFLs_GG]

During the summer, Adult attendence and enrollments / re ups seem consistent year around. However kids seem to leave in a mass exodus during the summer months. No matter what you do, their parents are going to push them into baseball. However this is the time of the year, to advertise that Martial arts will give them the competitive advantage in sports and those same kids will return the day after there last game in July instead of waiting until september. Plus it will bring in an influx of new students, inwhich their parents want them to excell and karate will help them do that. In total you should only have a month and a half of down time.

[Menjo]

My dojo has a camp but only for the senior belts in the U.S., but im not an instructor myself and i havnt attended so thats all i know...

[ShotokanKid]

Your martial arts schools slow down during the summer? THey should go up because moms don't want their kids sitting around playing grand theft auto all summer. Most parents enroll their kids in something during the summer so they wont just sit around the house.