Student/Instructor Ratio?

[Club quotNAHAquot K]

What is your student/instructor ratio for you school?

[Harlan]

One to one.

[mal103]

Normally between 10 and 20 to 1. More than 20 makes it harder to manage and to have any quality time with all of the students, or they spend too much time waiting around.

I have 2 assistant instructors but one is on the run up to black belt and the other is busy with exams (my son), when they are available we can split some of the session into smaller workshops which is brilliant.

One of the problems is when you are teaching senior grades you also want your assistant instructors receiving that training rather than being at the other end of the hall teaching.

Some of the best sessions I give is where there are only a handful of students but this doesn't cover the hire of the hall...

I'm hoping that in a couple of years time I will have a lot more seniors as our club matures.

[Nidan Melbourne]

Normally it is between 6-10 to 1 depending on the class size and the number of available instructors.

[Harkon72]

8 - 15 to 1.

[Lupin1]

The kids class is usually kept around 10-15 students with 2-3 instructors and one assistant. Adult doesn't really have instructors and students-- we just all work out together and the more advanced help the less advanced, although 4 of the 7-8 adults are official instructors.

For such a hands-on activity that can be very dangerous without constant supervision, I'd say any higher than 10-1 for kids is too much (and even then I wouldn't feel comfortable without another adult in the room). For adults 20-1 would be absolute maximum, although with that level you certainly wouldn't get much individual help and attention and poor habits could form unnoticed fairly easily.

[Spartacus Maximus]

My lessons are semi private so there is rarely more than 5 or 6 of us being taught. Then again, I am only able to attend on weekends so I don't know how many usually show up on weekdays. The total number of regular students is no more than 20. Most are working and/or studying adults so only a small number out of those are present at all dojo days. In other dojos I trained at there was usually one or two seniors assisting the sensei with each leading a group of up to 5 students.

I think between 5 and 8 students to 1 instructor is ideal. It depends on the instructors experience though. Even for someone accustomed to teaching and managing large groups, it can be very difficult to watch every one.

[hammer]

Small dojo, ratio is 4 to 1 on a crowded day. Was the only student on Monday night. We need more students...

[armanox]

Small dojo, ratio is 4 to 1 on a crowded day. Was the only student on Monday night. We need more students...

One of my schools is like that (3:1), with me being the one student (ranked shodan...).

The other school isn't much better, the students are all between ikkyu and nidan....

[Wastelander]

Typically, I would say that we average a 10:1 ratio. Some classes are smaller, though.