MASuccess Magazine

By Herb Borkland

Andre Tippett’s immaculate professional football career is the stuff of sports legends.

A former University of Iowa All-American and 2008 NFL Pro Football Hall-of-Famer, Tippett got drafted in 1982 and went on to play 11 sea-sons — his entire pro career — for the New England Patriots. He was paid more than $1 million a year to create havoc for quarterbacks.

The 6-foot-3, 240-pound linebacker appeared in five Pro Bowls (1984–88) and, from 1984–85, achieved 35 sacks, the highest two-season quarterback sack total by a linebacker in NFL history.

In 1984, he established a new team record for quarterback sacks with 18.5. In 1985, the Patriots, for the first time in the team’s history, advanced to the Super Bowl. Tippett’s outstanding defensive playing was a major contributing factor to the team’s success.

When Tippett retired after the 1993 season, his 100 career tackles, 18.5 sacks in a single season and 17 opponent’s fumble recoveries were team bests.

He is One...

By Keith D. Yates

Coming to America

Adam Spicar (pronounced, spy’car) first came to the United States as a foreign exchange student in 1996 and went to high school in Arizona, where he graduated in 1997. He returned two years later to visit his host family and was able to travel and visit several other states in America. 

Lucie Stolkova and Adam were what she calls “middle-school sweethearts.” She says she first fell in love with Adam when she was just 12 years old and they met on the school bus. 

When Adam came back to America in 1999, she got permission from her parents to come with him. She was only 16 at the time. 

“My parents were suspicious of America, but they trusted Adam,” she remembers. 

She spent a couple of months attending high school in Arizona, but she admits she barely understood English.

Back in the Czech Republic, students often studied English, but she says it was mainly vocabulary. 

“I knew what was a table and a chair,” she says of her sparse grasp of En...

A poll was created in the Century Martial Arts School Network about teaching 3 to 6-year olds martial arts. Here are my reactions to that poll and some pointers for making your early age program better.

By Melody Shuman 

Something interesting happened last week.

Something that if you weren’t on Facebook, could have got lost in social media’s short lifecycle…

A poll was created in the Century Martial Arts School Network.

In the poll, Danielle Rogers (who deserves all the credit for starting this conversation and to a lesser extent, giving me a spark to write this post) asked a simple question:

The question was:

“Do you have a program in your school for 3-6 year olds? Tell us why or why not.”

Now, if you go to the poll (which you can here if you're a member of the group) you can see gobs of people offering up their opinions on the early age class conundrum…

You can see people stating their cases for and against teaching this age group in their school...

But, it’s fascinat...

“Who’s the Master?” No, that isn’t just a callback to the famous line in The Last Dragon. That’s the question new students and their families have when they walk into your dojo. Our job as teachers and school owners is to show them a professional level of service in teaching the martial arts. Here are the three tips to do exactly that.

By Justin L. Ford

Your school’s revenue comes from. . .

What? I’m waiting.

Meditate on this.

You could trace your school’s revenue to the tuition payments that get made, and the activities and events you host, the merchandisesales and testing fees, etc. But while there are plenty of different streams your money can flow in from, it all boils down to one source:

students.

It’s important to remember that your school is driven by your students. And while big classes don’t automatically equate to big bucks for your school, having lots of students is definitely a step in the right direction.

Let’s generalize how your school functions.

We have I...

Back in the 1970s and ‘80s, legendary fighter Jeff Smith pulled off a dual goal unprecedented back then and extremely rare even today. He became a world kickboxing champion while simultaneously mastering the martial arts school business! Furthermore, he pioneered savvy business techniques still practiced by current school owners. Read Smith’s extraordinary story and prepare to come away inspired! 

By Herb Borkland

In the early 1960s, when Americans were first meeting the Beatles, Jhoon Rhee, the “Father of American Taekwondo,” owned four schools in Washington, D.C., Virginia and Maryland. He also regularly traveled around the country to a dozen taekwondo clubs, where he tested students trained by some of his black belts. One such club was located in Kingsville at Texas A&M University, where teenaged Jeff Smith’s mother worked and Jeff delivered daily newspapers.

“One day on my route, I noticed a sign for a karate demonstration at the student union ballroom,” Smith recalls. “I ...

Every year, many school owners ask, “How do I get more students?” To properly answer this question, you have to keep in mind this maxim: “To be terrific, we must be more specific.” So, let’s do a couple of things in this column to be more specific with the student base that you want. As your consultant and someone who teaches the Law of Attraction, I would ask you, among other key questions:

“Do you want students who pay late or more students who don’t pay at all? Do you want more children, teens or adults? Younger or older children? Children with learning challenges? Students who are always late for classes? Parents who leave their children at your school well after their class is over? Students with bad hygiene?”

With these answers, you are building a Clarity List, using contrast (people, places, events you don’t like) to get a clear vision of the students you want to manifest. Remember, contrast creates clarity, and clarity equals desire.

To reach a firm vision, compose ...

Fitness icon Eric Fleishman (a.k.a. “Eric the Trainer”) has earned celebrity status among his pumping-iron peers and Hollywood’s elite with his unique training programs. Also a high-ranking black belt, Fleishman has combined his two biggest passions to create “Sleek Ninja,” a fitness program designed especially for martial artists and school owners.

 By Terry L. Wilson

CREATING NEW CLIENTS WITH SLEEK NINJA

After earning black belt status in multiple disciplines, Los Angeles’ Eric Fleishman (pronounced, fleesh’man) saw a way for schools of any style or system to upgrade their fitness program and make a profit in the process.

“My martial arts background spans nearly 40 years,” says Fleishman. “Combine that with my being a Hollywood physique expert, creating Sleek Ninja was a natural fit.

“When I heard that martial arts dojos across America were starting to feel a financial crunch because of the economy a few years ago, I wanted to find a way to help them.”

The acclaimed tr...

Last month, we discussed the first three mindsets of a successful martial arts school.

They were:

1. We are the friendliest place in town.

2. We are the cleanest place in town.

3. We only teach great classes, never just good ones.

This month, we’ll address mindsets four and five.

4. We are excellent at student/parent communication. It has been great to see how the level of professionalism has improved in our industry over the last 40 years. Clearly, we have learned a lot about running a friendly, clean school with great classes.

With that said, if there’s one area that we are still weak in as an industry, it is student/parent communication.

What I’m referring to here is the importance of giving consistent, quality feedback to all of our students and their parents on their progress. We do this by sharing with them what they are doing well and how they can become better. As simple as this may sound, it’s extremely hard to implement unless you have a spec...

Many of us like to help other people. We are in a teaching art. My instructor told me years ago that the best way to learn our martial art is to teach it. I’ve been lucky enough to have been given the opportunity to share what I’ve learned in the studio with the ranks coming up behind me.

I’ve also noticed that many of us who share our martial art with others often help people. We know the value of martial arts to change and empower people. One of the studio owners I’ve spoken to recently is exactly that kind of person.

He had the opportunity to bring a child into the school that was struggling with social skills. The child was struggling with home-life and academic problems, and bullying by other kids. Those types of problems usually occur together for kids.

The studio owner had a lot of heart for this child. So, the child was brought in on a scholarship and was enthusiastic about class. He made sure his mom got him to class regularly. He worked hard on being a good ...