What is your school Model?

[MatsuShinshii]

Our school is quite small, and is run by the master instructor himself. He rents space for training (a church gym with a tile floor in Gladstone, MI and a basketball court in a rec house in Gwynn, MI.) Many of the students and their families are quite involved, so a fair amount of grunt-work gets done by volunteers.

He's not teaching martial arts to make money, however. He's doing it because he loves it, and he feels it's something people should learn because it will improve their lives on so many levels.

Based on your description I love your instructor!

[MatsuShinshii]

Our school started out as a husband and wife team. They both had day jobs and taught in the evenings for fun. There are no financials to deal with-- everything is free. The program is run out of a youth club, so they've always let him use the space for free in exchange for teaching the club members as part of their membership. All youth students must be members of the club to join the class.

Eventually the wife decided to stop coming and the husband ran the program himself. Some of his students who had trained to the dan ranks began assisting him.

Now our founding instructor and his wife have moved away and two of their original students have taken over. One of them works at the club full time as their programs director. The martial arts program is now just one of the programs he manages and runs at the club.

When he retires, I hope to take over the program myself. Hopefully that won't be for a few more years yet (he's turning 60 this year, but he still competes in Iron Man competitions, so he's no feeble old dude). I still have a lot to learn before I'm ready to take over.

Quite a noble goal. I hope you accomplish it.

[JR 137]

MatsuShinshii, you’d probably love my dojo too...

I just found out our dojo turned 30 years old on Tuesday. My CI his wife started the dojo after their teacher and another local dojo left Seido. They both taught for a few years under both of them. After their teachers’ split from Seido, they decided they didn’t want to play politics and decide who they’d follow, so they opened a dojo directly under Nakamura. They opened it as a way to continue training and teaching Seido.

A dojo mate and I were contemplating the financial state of the dojo, so to speak, a few months ago. Looking at the number of students, and average cost of rent and utilities, I think the dojo pays for itself, a dozen or so trips to honbu for my CI, and maybe, just maybe, a few days of vacation for my CI and his wife a year. The other guy thinks it’s break-even and doesn’t cover all the trips to honbu. Either way, it’s been a 30 year labor of love for both of them.

We’ve got about 25 adult students and about 30 kids/young teens. He knows what everyone else charges, but he’s said several times “I charge what I think is a fair price.” To put it into perspective, my CI charges $55 per month for adults and $45 per month for kids. And there’s $10 off for family members. The average commercial dojos charge $125-$150 per month per person.

[singularity6]

Our school is quite small, and is run by the master instructor himself. He rents space for training (a church gym with a tile floor in Gladstone, MI and a basketball court in a rec house in Gwynn, MI.) Many of the students and their families are quite involved, so a fair amount of grunt-work gets done by volunteers.

He's not teaching martial arts to make money, however. He's doing it because he loves it, and he feels it's something people should learn because it will improve their lives on so many levels.

Based on your description I love your instructor!

He's great! Unfortunately, he's probably going to retire in the next 5 years, or so. The students of his who're currently teaching at my location are keeping the spirit.

I also like how they teach martial arts to be practical, and not for tournaments.

[MatsuShinshii]

MatsuShinshii, you’d probably love my dojo too...

I just found out our dojo turned 30 years old on Tuesday. My CI his wife started the dojo after their teacher and another local dojo left Seido. They both taught for a few years under both of them. After their teachers’ split from Seido, they decided they didn’t want to play politics and decide who they’d follow, so they opened a dojo directly under Nakamura. They opened it as a way to continue training and teaching Seido.

A dojo mate and I were contemplating the financial state of the dojo, so to speak, a few months ago. Looking at the number of students, and average cost of rent and utilities, I think the dojo pays for itself, a dozen or so trips to honbu for my CI, and maybe, just maybe, a few days of vacation for my CI and his wife a year. The other guy thinks it’s break-even and doesn’t cover all the trips to honbu. Either way, it’s been a 30 year labor of love for both of them.

We’ve got about 25 adult students and about 30 kids/young teens. He knows what everyone else charges, but he’s said several times “I charge what I think is a fair price.” To put it into perspective, my CI charges $55 per month for adults and $45 per month for kids. And there’s $10 off for family members. The average commercial dojos charge $125-$150 per month per person.

Yes sir I would.

[MatsuShinshii]

Our school is quite small, and is run by the master instructor himself. He rents space for training (a church gym with a tile floor in Gladstone, MI and a basketball court in a rec house in Gwynn, MI.) Many of the students and their families are quite involved, so a fair amount of grunt-work gets done by volunteers.

He's not teaching martial arts to make money, however. He's doing it because he loves it, and he feels it's something people should learn because it will improve their lives on so many levels.

Based on your description I love your instructor!

He's great! Unfortunately, he's probably going to retire in the next 5 years, or so. The students of his who're currently teaching at my location are keeping the spirit.

I also like how they teach martial arts to be practical, and not for tournaments.

We definitely share common traits.