ideas for buddy night

[scad]

i want to run a buddy night to enroll new kids by having my current students bring in a friend or two for a few hours of learnig and fun in TKD, if anyoen has ideasplease let me know , i bet there are some of you that have thought of something i haven't, if anyone has any experience, please, give me new ideas!!

-scad

[username8517]

Not really sure what kind of ideas you're looking for (class exercises & drills or how to promote it), but he's what I would probably do if I was in your shoes:

First thing you have to do is get your students interested in bringing in their friends. Then once their friends are in, you'll have to work on capturing their attention.

One easy way to inspire students to participate is to give them an incentive if they accomplish some sort of goal. One example off the top of my head (and I'm just going to throw out a number here)--if you have 20 students in your class, if 60% of the class (12 students) bring in a friend they as a class get a reward. The reward would be that the friends that came along get to hit you in the face with a creme pie at the end of the next class. Not the "bring your friend" class, but the following one. So if Bring Your Friend was on a Monday, then it would be at the end of class on Wednesday, or whatever days you operate one. This is for three reasons:

1). You have to make sure that they succeed in hitting their goal before you go to the trouble of setting it up.

2). It's easy to clean up. You won't have to worry about a huge mess as long as your take precaution to lay down a trash bag under you and bring a towel to wipe up with afterwards. You might need a shower when you get home too.

3). What student wouldn't want to see their instructor get hit with a creme pie? It's not going to cost you anything but cost for the creme and bit of dignity.

But the most important thing is to make it clear that only the friends get to do it. This will give them incentive to come back again, even if it's only to hit you in the face with a pie.

Once you have your incentive there, you will need something to capture their attention. In other words, the class has to be fun and educational at the same time. This will be the hardest part.

However, one possible guideline for the night would be

--general warm ups

--let the friends stand aside and watch as you have the class demonstrate some forms (two or three at most)

--take the friends off to the side with a senior student and work on very basic moves while you run the rest of the class up through forms

--combine class and work on self-defense applications. Let your students pair up with who they brought in. It will make it easier on the buddies if they already have some kind of relationship with their partner

--Do some light sparring (maybe even one step so the buddies get used to what their supposed to be doing)

--End with some bag work--let the new guys and gals end out the day by beating on something hard. Make sure you once again try and explain proper technique in a fun wa

Hope this helps.

[scad]

those all sound like good ideas, and i thank you fo rtakign the time to tell me, i was goingot try giving away a bicycle to the person who brings the most friends, does that sound good to you?

[username8517]

If your class is primarly younger students, then yes a bicycle is an acceptable prize.

However, for older students, once they get their driver's liscence, their desire to use a bike greatly deminishes.

I know this sounds a bit like marketing, which it is, but for effective selling (your promotional night) you'll need to either give your customers (your students) something they want/need or something that they think they want/need.

[scad]

my school speacilizes in children...ages 3-13 only, thats why a bike sounded good to me

[username8517]

Gotcha--a bike would work fine then

[AT]

what about a practice weapon? Like nunchaku with the rubber around it. Or a shinai (bamboo kendo katana). So that way they'll get something cool for free and also it could be educational. Or maybe promise them an embroidery on their next belt that way when they wear their belt, they'll have that "i'm special" feeling, then you might have others compete to get that embroidery! (unless you already are doing that o_O) Most of these ideas would probably only work with your older kids though. Maybe 10 - 13 yr/olds. I can't really think of anything that a 3 yr old would want however i really doubt any 3 - 5 yr old is going to go through the trouble of telling their friends to come to their karate class.

What about an electric RC car?

i dunno just throwing ideas.

Edited December 8, 2006 by AT

[Jiffy]

If you're going to give a prize like a bike, beware of a couple of things

a) you MUST clear it up with the parents first.

b) it will mean only one student gets rewarded. Also, the one will get it will be the one with either the most friends, or with the gift of the gab. The pie idea is better I rekon!

[obiwansbane]

remind them... we had a buddy night no1 brought a buddy.. i was going to but it simply slipped my mind

As for getting the students to join after doing 1 class... the best way is to show them some basics (preferably kicks as kids like these more than boring punches and stuff) and then take them through some fun excersises... self defence techniques that they can show their parents, things like that because last class even though it wasnt a buddy night i got 2 of my friends to show up and thats what our instructor did... both friends are now going to join cause they feel like they learnt alot... main thing is DO NOT TEACH THEM KATAS! or even like the first steps of katas... cause i can tell you from experience... nothing is more boring to a firstie than having to learn a routine when u dont even know the basics..

hope it helps

[MisterRadley]

what about a practice weapon? Like nunchuku with the rubber around it. Or a shinai (bamboo kendo katana).

That's a pretty good idea. Also, rubber shuriken could work well.