The Martial Arts Industry Association's MASuccess Magazine exists to help grow martial arts participation by helping school owners succeed.
By Herb Borkland
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Andre Tippettâs 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 â his entire pro career â 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 (1984â88) and, from 1984â85, 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 teamâs history, advanced to the Super Bowl. Tippettâs outstanding defensive playing was a major contributing factor to the teamâs success.
When Tippett retired after the 1993 season, his 100 career tackles, 18.5 sacks in a single season and 17 opponentâs fumble recoveries were team bests.
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He is One...
By Keith D. Yates
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Coming to America
Adam Spicar (pronounced, spyâcar) 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.Â
Lucie Stolkova and Adam were what she calls âmiddle-school sweethearts.â She says she first fell in love with Adam when she was just 12 years old and they met on the school bus.Â
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.Â
âMy parents were suspicious of America, but they trusted Adam,â she remembers.Â
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.Â
âI knew what was a table and a chair,â 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 ShumanÂ
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Something interesting happened last week.
Something that if you werenât on Facebook, could have got lost in social mediaâs short lifecycleâŚ
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:
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The question was:
âDo you have a program in your school for 3-6 year olds? Tell us why or why not.â
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 conundrumâŚ
You can see people stating their cases for and against teaching this age group in their school...
But, itâs fascinat...
âWhoâs the Master?â No, that isnât just a callback to the famous line in The Last Dragon. Thatâs 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.
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By Justin L. Ford
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Your schoolâs revenue comes from. . .
What? Iâm waiting.
Meditate on this.
You could trace your schoolâs 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.
Itâs important to remember that your school is driven by your students. And while big classes donât automatically equate to big bucks for your school, having lots of students is definitely a step in the right direction.
Letâs generalize how your school functions.
We have I...
Back in the 1970s and â80s, 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 Smithâs extraordinary story and prepare to come away inspired!Â
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By Herb Borkland
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In the early 1960s, when Americans were first meeting the Beatles, Jhoon Rhee, the âFather of American Taekwondo,â 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 Smithâs mother worked and Jeff delivered daily newspapers.
âOne day on my route, I noticed a sign for a karate demonstration at the student union ballroom,â Smith recalls. âI ...
Every year, many school owners ask, âHow do I get more students?â To properly answer this question, you have to keep in mind this maxim: âTo be terrific, we must be more specific.â So, letâs 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:
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âDo you want students who pay late or more students who donât 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?â
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With these answers, you are building a Clarity List, using contrast (people, places, events you donât like) to get a clear vision of the students you want to manifest. Remember, contrast creates clarity, and clarity equals desire.
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To reach a firm vision, compose ...
Fitness icon Eric Fleishman (a.k.a. âEric the Trainerâ) has earned celebrity status among his pumping-iron peers and Hollywoodâs elite with his unique training programs. Also a high-ranking black belt, Fleishman has combined his two biggest passions to create âSleek Ninja,â a fitness program designed especially for martial artists and school owners.
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 By Terry L. Wilson
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CREATING NEW CLIENTS WITH SLEEK NINJA
After earning black belt status in multiple disciplines, Los Angelesâ Eric Fleishman (pronounced, fleeshâman) saw a way for schools of any style or system to upgrade their fitness program and make a profit in the process.
âMy martial arts background spans nearly 40 years,â says Fleishman. âCombine that with my being a Hollywood physique expert, creating Sleek Ninja was a natural fit.
âWhen 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.â
The acclaimed tr...
Last month, we discussed the first three mindsets of a successful martial arts school.
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They were:
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This month, weâll address mindsets four and five.
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With that said, if thereâs one area that we are still weak in as an industry, it is student/parent communication.
What Iâm 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, itâs extremely hard to implement unless you have a spec...
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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. Iâve been lucky enough to have been given the opportunity to share what Iâve learned in the studio with the ranks coming up behind me.
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Iâve 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 Iâve spoken to recently is exactly that kind of person.
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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.
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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 ...
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