Do you run/own a branch school?

[Spartacus Maximus]

For those who’ve had the experience of representing your martial by running a branch school, what advice could you share with someone about to go down the same path?

Although neither especially skilled, nor experienced; running a branch is an opportunity difficult to ignore. It’s also quite an important sign of trust and approval. Personally it means being trusted and considered good enough to teach others.

Sharing and teaching karate has been an eventual goal. What was not expected was having this opportunity put before me so soon. Usually only 5dan and higher are approved to have a branch

[bushido_man96]

I ran a school for some time years ago. It can be a lot of fun, but you want to make sure you don't bite off more than you can chew.

First off, have your classes planned in an organized manner. Knowing what you're going to do and for how long in the time allotted helps to make sure classes run efficiently. Be flexible, too. If you see a glaring issue that needs to be dealt with, do it.

Obviously, make sure you've got the curriculum down and set your classes up to transmit that in as efficient a manner as possible. Seems obvious, but it can get easy to get side tracked. Understand how your testing cycles work, and set up your class itineraries to accomplish learning the material accordingly. You probably already have a good idea of how to do this.

Be an instructor first, and a friend second. Building Martial Arts camaraderie is something we all do, and doing so with those you train/train with comes pretty naturally. But don't get so far to the friendly side that when you have to come down on someone for any reason that they feel blindsided by the action. Be a good instructor first; they'll benefit the most from that, and in the long run, as they advance in rank, the camaraderie will grow stronger through the mutual respect between student and teacher.

Get good at the business side of things. Paying the bills is not fun, but if you want to stay open, you've got to stay on top of it. Make a budget and stick with it; prioritize the necessities right away, and worry about the luxury items down the road. You may be able to provide some items from your own collection, or just out of your own pocket, which helps with the bills. Just keep up on all that not-so-fun stuff.

I hope this stuff helps out some. I'm sure some of the other instructors will have some great input, too.

Just out of curiosity, what kind of class schedule will you be running? How many classes per day, what demographics, and how many per week?

[KarateKen]

I don't own a school, never have. When I was in TKD I would occasionally fill in as weapons instructor if the head instructor was out of town (I once spent an entire summer doing this because of a lack of anyone else being available) but that is it. Otherwise, I have only been a student.

My feedback as a student would be, try and keep things consistent and announce major changes well in advance whenever possible. There are few things more frustrating to me as a paying customer than when schedules frequently change and with little or no notice. I have not run into this in MA, but in other businesses I have. I realize at times it could be unavoidable, but if it is a constant problem, it is very frustrating.

I wish I had more to offer but I am not really the person you are looking for advice from. There are lots of people here with more experience and who have actually run a school for a long time that can be helpful. Hope your journey is one that you enjoy.

[sensei8]

Every MA school are managed differently one way or another, to say the least. I owned/operated a dojo/MA supply store for well over 4 decades, as well having had the distinct honor and privilege of being elected to several positions, including Kaicho (President) of the SKKA, which was the Governing Body of Shindokan for over 3 decades. So, I've somewhat of an idea an understanding of just how a MA school is managed.

First thing: A school of the MA IS a business. It should be treated as a business at all times. If a MA school has an overhead that must be meet monthly/quarterly/annually than that MA school IS A BUSINESS.

Any business must be managed professionally in every aspect possible. A business must have a clear understanding of what a "Need" and what a "Want" is, and if not, the demise of said MA school will happen very quickly.

Rent, ALL utilities, and supplies/equipment, for examples are NEEDS!! Anything else are WANTS!!

I wrote several articles here at KF that addresses this topic. Hopefully, these two articles will answer some of your questions/concerns...

https://www.karateforums.com/treating-your-dojo-martial-arts-school-as-a-business-vt47192.html?highlight=dojo+business

https://www.karateforums.com/running-a-dojo-is-about-more-than-martial-arts-knowledge-vt48908.html?highlight=dojo+business

[Spartacus Maximus]

Besides the general challenges of running a school, are there any that might specifically apply to branch schools in which a martial artist would be teaching as a local representative for a specific martial arts lineage and governing body.

The situation briefly: Sensei is head of the style in Japan. Not against the idea of teaching but didn’t expect the opportunity so soon. In the last discussion on the subject, explicit support and approval to teach was clearly expressed with a few conditions.

Anyone else been through something like this?

[ryanryu]

Congratulations, Spartacus! This opportunity is a big deal and reflects a lot of trust and confidence in you from your seniors.

I ran a university club as a branch school of my old Sensei’s organization and there are a few thoughts I have that may be useful to you–

• What do the conditions imposed by the Honbu tell you about what this relationship will be like? Do you think they’ll be unnecessarily restrictive? Or are they reasonable? Are there other conditions you can think of that haven’t been made explicit that you need to discuss?

• What do YOU get from this arrangement? Specific training in martial arts instruction? Private lessons or more facetime with the head honcho? Yes, it is an honor to be asked to do this… but it’s also a boon to the organization as well and they should have an interest in fostering your growth in tangible ways.

• Will you be permitted to test and award rank to your students? Does the HQ need to certify those ranks?

• Where does the money go? Does the Headquarters of the organization have a “licensing fee” or something similar to teach under their name? What about ongoing expenses paid to the HQ, related to testing or something? Are you going to need to pay (federal, state, local) taxes? How does sending money internationally complicate things?

• Does the HQ provide any insurance policy to the branches? What liability insurance do you need, for yourself, in your own name, vs what is covered by the organization?

For context, my university club was free, non-profit and got most expenses covered by the university – we met on campus at the Rec center, insurance was covered, there was no fee to start a club, I didn’t earn any money from the club, all finances were run through the student center, we had a website from the university, etc. – so I’m not really sure what you’ll run up against business-wise.

But teaching-wise, I ran into one major problem – my Sensei wouldn’t allow me to test my students, at all, for any rank. I was a Sandan at the time (still am) and was required to record the testing sessions with a video camera, upload the relevant portions to a USB flash drive, and FedEx it across the country to my sensei along with my written comments for each student. She would review the video, determine who passed, print and sign certificates and send them back. There are much easier ways to do this (even 10 years ago there were), but my Sensei was tech-illiterate and this was the system that worked.

But it meant 1) the bulk of the testing fees went to Fedex and the Honbu with our club not really able to afford new equipment or any swag, 2) the timeline of the test was at least 1 week, more often 2, which limited when the test could be scheduled and 3) Much more work fell on me to record, edit, comment, package and send everything as soon as possible after the test. Even when it was pretty clear that the student passed their 8th kyu test. We were limited to a single test each semester because of how long it took to run the testing process and the need to avoid holidays and breaks. I also couldn’t work around any single student’s schedule to test them separately.

My teacher never countermanded any of my suggestions for promotion and we did have interesting conversations about teaching and evaluating students that probably helped me improve as a teacher… but as a whole it was a negative experience for me and I vowed to never run a dojo like that again.

Just remember that, regardless of being a branch dojo or not, you are your student’s Sensei. The broader connections to our HQ were mostly meaningless to my students because I was the one training them day in and day out. Unless your students are also getting a direct link to Japan and to your teachers, they will look to you for leadership and instruction. Yes, you will have a responsibility to your Headquarters organization as a branch dojo, but be aware that you are also taking on a responsibility for your students.

[bushido_man96]

Ryanryu, that's a great angle to look at it from. Great post and great questions!

That sounds like quite the testing ordeal. I'm surprised as a Sandan you weren't allowed to promote. Was that a stipulation of your instructor, or of the organization as a whole?

[Spartacus Maximus]

The purpose and motivation for running a branch school is to create an opportunity to further personal progress in karate while sharing it with others who like training as much as myself. It is also a very good way to show appreciation and thanks for a highly respected teacher’s time and energy spent passing on years of experience.

Secondly, there isn’t a better way to create the means to support personal progress by providing more opportunities to continue training with my teacher and hombu dojo peers by going there or hosting them so that I and my potential students may enjoy training with Okinawan/Japanese or others with karate in common.

The association headed by my teacher has many dojos in the Americas and a few in Europe and the opportunity to exchange with some of these people who often visited would be truly awesome.

Following the association’s model, it would be non-profit and 100% of my dojo income will be used for the benefit and purpose of promoting karate the way it is taught by my teacher/mentor. With the dojo’s income I intend to make regular intensive training trips to train at the main dojo alone or with small groups. Some may also be used to host/organize seminars as mentioned before. Most of it will be used to maintain a facility and essential supplies for everyone to use. Basically a self-sufficient dojo. I do not want or need any personal income from it .

[ryanryu]

On 8/28/2024 at 10:10 PM, bushido_man96 said:

That sounds like quite the testing ordeal. I'm surprised as a Sandan you weren't allowed to promote. Was that a stipulation of your instructor, or of the organization as a whole?

I wasn't too surprised. This was my first time acting as a Chief Instructor and in the organization only Godan and above were allowed to promote independently. Since my Sensei was the head of the org, I figured this was the standard they would uphold. Looking back, I still see value in the recording and sending, but I would have pushed to promote students myself and just consulted with my Sensei after the fact. It would have made the timeline much easier, still given me mentorship opportunities with my Sense, and given Sensei some oversight of the branch dojo. I was just excited about the opportunity and naïve about the workload, so didn’t think too critically about the “process” stuff. And then never revisited it when I should have a year or so in.

Spartacus, best of luck with this. It sounds awesome and truly a great opportunity – for you, your teachers, and your future students.

[Spartacus Maximus]

Anticipating difficulties and challenges involved can be tough. Its really easy to be overwhelmed because of unpredictable circumstances. Restrictions for evaluating progress are not a major issue, at least for now.
The entire project of opening a dojo/teaching is just the best solution to support and facilitate my continued training under my teacher while at the same time sharing what little skills I learned.

After realizing the non-existence of Okinawan karate dojo where I live, it seemed like the best thing to do was to start one. Luckily my sensei and CI of the hombu dojo made an exception to allow a 3dan to teach. Usually this isn’t allowed until 5dan.