MASuccess Magazine

Punches, kicks, pivots, throws, and jumps. Your students throw thousands of them over the course of training, and they’re all exciting and essential parts of a martial arts program.

But … how many times have your students been limited in class because of knee pain?
In some circumstances, have you ever had an athlete in your program miss months of training because of a serious injury such as an ACL tear?

To the “older” population here: how many of you have blamed years of practice for your current knee pain? How many of you find yourselves walking funny around the house in the morning? It’s easy to point to years of wear and tear as the cause. Make no mistake: knee injuries aren’t cool ‘battle wounds;’ they’re serious limitations on the kind of life you truly want to live.

Instead of trying to treat pain later on, I believe we should take a...

When you require the services of an attorney, there are two primary things you should  take into consideration, and one thing that you absolutely should not. Unfortunately, the latter oftentimes overrides the former.

When you hire a lawyer, no matter the issue, I suggest that you look for an attorney who has, in no particular order of importance, experience and a reputation of success in handling legal matters. However, in many situations, clients choose legal talent based upon who charges the lowest hourly rate. Limiting your hiring decision solely to financial considerations can be a very costly decision. Allow me to explain.

Attorneys are market-driven professionals. The fees they charge are in direct correlation to what expenses they have and what the specific market will bear. There exists a balance, or tipping point, between the fees charged and the business generated. This...

Chances are, you have had your share of students quit after they received their black belt. I know that we have. If you are looking for ways to minimize this from happening in the future, here are some ideas that you can put to work.

1) Emphasize to them that a black belt is NOT the finish line.
If you ask brand-new martial artists how long they want to train, the most common answer you’ll hear is, “Until I earn my black belt.” While this is an admiral goal for a novice, you need to gradually dispel the myth that a black belt is the finish line. Earning one’s first black belt is a huge milestone. It is a rite of passage and an achievement to celebrate. But it isn’t the end of the journey. You and your staff would be wise to adopt the attitude that martial arts is a lifelong activity for all your students. Clearly, students who are working their way toward their...

Martial artists have the best questions in the world. Studio owners and senseis take those questions to a whole different level. The latest question some posed to me was about volunteers.

Volunteers are a big part of our programs. For many of us, the success of our  programs hinges on volunteers stepping in and assisting in everything from teaching junior students to scrubbing bathrooms. As I started researching it, I found some information that I believe is a serious concern for our community.

If you use a volunteer model, the U.S. Department of Labor and State Revenue Departments have made it law that for-profit businesses cannot use volunteers. If you do that, you can be audited and charged back payroll tax, interest and penalties. While we’re racking the tally up, you could also be held accountable for the unpaid wages to the volunteer.

So, I started thinking, “Are...

I recently got a call from a member who needed help with their school. Specifically, they wanted to get some different ideas on how they could help their school grow. After one suggestion from me, the first words out of their mouth were, “That didn’t work for me the last time I tried it.”

This response reminded me of the theme of the book “The Science of Getting Rich:” you must do things in a “Certain Way.” To explain what this means, I’ll use the analogy of baking a cake.

Suppose I’m known for making the best cakes. If you ask me to teach you how to  make them, I will show you my method that I use. If you bake a cake in the “Certain Way” that I showed you, you will be successful. Remember, success leaves clues.

But, let’s say you have a different idea for your cake and want to change the method. If you change the...

Three-time senior international gold medalist and Martial Arts Success Canadian Correspondent Perry Kelly is a can-ryu jiu-jitsu 5th-dan. He’s also a certified instructor in karate, muay thai, Inosanto kali and Bruce Lee’s jeet kune do and jun fan gung-fu. Kelly is also a fully trained Correctional SWAT operator and a graduate of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s Federal Law Enforcement Training Centre’s Defensive Tactics Instructor-Trainer program.

At the 50th Battle of Atlanta in June 2018, he took silver in the Over 60+ sparring division and received the Joe Lewis Eternal Warrior Award from Joe Corley, Jeff Smith and Bill Wallace.

Perry Kelly: I was born in Ottawa, Ontario, which is the capital of Canada. Canada’s the only country where the national sport allows fighting without being ejected. They simply give you five minutes to catch your breath before you can “drop the gloves”...

I don’t like sporks — those odd cutlery combinations of not-quite-a-spoon and not-quite-a-fork.

These flimsy plastic utensils will neither hold liquid food or stab solid food. Evidently, sporks are an easy way to cut corners and save money. I’m convinced it was someone’s brainchild who certainly didn’t have the customer’s best interest in mind!

Believe it or not, the spork has been around since 1874. Originally, the spork was metal and larger, giving it better capabilities for both holding liquid and stabbing solids. But as the years went by, the entire spork idea just got worse and worse. Today, sporks are comprised of cheapgrade plastic, and some of them are so small they could be used to feed babies.

And I know I‘m not the only “spork-hater” out there. We martial artists fight like warriors and we expect to be able to eat like one, too. Let me just...

After the murder of both of his parents in childhood, Fred DePalma turned tragedy into triumph when he discovered the martial arts. Today, he and his wife, Robin, own eight thriving schools in Arizona. Through his desire to help his employees become successful school owners, he cultivated a mastery of staff development.

 By Terry L. Wilson

Taking Care of Staff

From the beginning of Fred DePalma’s multi-school martial arts career, his primary goal was to take care of his staff. Even at the young age of 18, when he opened his first location, the fledging school owner realized the importance of taking care of the people who would take care of him.

“From the minute I opened my first school, I was all about developing and training the staff,” DePalma says. “And in return, they take care of the students. All too often, a school owner will take care of the students first, without giving much thought to the needs of their staff.” 

“Of...

Knoxville, Tennessee’s Barry Van Over went from the hills of Appalachia to the forefront of the 21st-century martial arts revolution. Franchising is his dynamic vision for the future of martial arts businesses. 

By Keith D. Yates

 While people have been practicing martial arts for thousands of years, the ancient disciplines have never been more popular than they are today. Statista is an online statistics, market research and business-intelligence portal that provides access to data from market and opinion research institutions. The last time the company conducted a survey, in 2016, into how many people practiced martial arts, it discovered that almost four million people, ages six and older, were practicing martial arts. 

With more than 20,000 martial arts studios operating across the nation and the rise of martial arts in the mainstream, there is reason to believe that those numbers would be even higher today.

One of the reasons why martial arts is so...