MASuccess Magazine

By Justin L. Ford

The Many Benefits of a Great Demo Team

            Do you hear that?

            It's faint, but it sounds like a heartbeat.

            Is that. . .the sound of your school?

            While your students can be likened to the heart of your school, the reputation of your school can be considered the heartbeat. It is the echo of your success. If your “heartbeat” is weak, then your school is likely on the decline to death.

            Simply put, your reputation comes from word of mouth. And you should be aware that people will talk about everything! This includes the cleanliness and appearance of your school, what happens on the training floor and, especially, how your students act wherever they go outside your walls.

            One of the most potent methods for advertising/promoting your school and spreading a positive reputation is to have a standout demo team. Having a dedicated group of students who are picked to demonstrate their skills at events and...

By Deb Cupples

Repetition is critical to the improvement of technique. But finding ways to disguise the same old thing can diminish enthusiasm from both students and instructors. Injecting new life into old techniques, however, is not as difficult as you might think. Try this approach.

Inspiration sometimes comes from the most unassuming places. It may be hard to believe, but the inspiration I had for putting a new face on old teaching techniques came from a story that I was told, many years ago, in my teens. It’s a simple story about innovation to motivate out of desperation.

Here’s the story that crept back into my mind some 30-plus years later, and how it helped me keep the fire burning during classes when I’m not teaching anything new, but sewing down the seams of basic training.

I was told the following story when I was in my teens and it has stuck with me since then. It’s a simple story about a small town and how one man’s creativity saved the economic futures of many f...

By Christopher Rappold

An ability to be tough is needed to pursue any high-level training. And while different coaches, teachers and instructors may have different definitions for what it is, for the purpose of this discussion, I will break down being, “tough” into two different categories. They are mental toughness and physical toughness, both of which have great value in sport and in life.

Elements of Mental Toughness

As I think of mental toughness, three things come to mind:

1. The ability to problem-solve.
2. The ability to handle frustration.
3. A high degree of confidence in battle.

Within the confines of a martial arts class, how can you teach these important skills? A simple solution may be to set up a scenario that requires a student to come up with what a solution to a problem in a limited amount of time.

At times, we as instructors are in a rush maintain a schedule, and do not allow students to explore different options. We forget that this process, though not as struc...

By Cris Rodriguez

The 6 Key Stages

            If you’re struggling to get more students, if you’re confused with all of this social media mumbo-jumbo, if you’re frustrated by not being able to communicate to your leads why they should join your school – then this article was made for you.

            Sound like it’s too good to be true? Well, it’s not.

            Let me give you some context before we jump in.

            Every decision we make in our academy is based around the framework of our “Customer’s Journey.” There are 6 Key Stages that every martial arts student will go through on his/her customer journey in our schools:

            Key Stage 1 - Awareness: How do we make this person aware of our academy?

            Key Stage 2 - Consideration: What are we going to do to maintain their attention so they choose our academy and not our competitor’s?

            Key Stage 3 - Purchase: How are we going to get them to become a new student?

            Key Stage 4 - ...

By Kathy Olevsky

I've been operating a martial arts school full time for 45 years. I think I may have made every mistake that can be made in this business. The reason I'm still in business, I believe, is because I asked for help. I learned quickly that others before me had already found solutions. In this reality-based column, I'll point out key mistakes I made in my business career, which are common errors among school owners, both large and small, throughout our industry. Then I’ll share the solutions I applied to overcome them.

If you’re looking back on last summer and remembering that it was not a good business season, there is still time to make changes what will allow you to generate income during this upcoming summer season.

As school owners, we often look for new students and opportunities to find leads to those new students. In many schools, those leads dry up a bit over the course of the summer months. If this is the case for your school, then it’s imperative that...

By Christopher Rappold

The successful retention of students in a martial arts school is of paramount importance. It saves the school money by cutting down on monthly advertising budgets and replacing them with free referrals. It increases the cash flow by creating happier students who stay and train for longer. And it enables staff members and owners to earn a higher pay for the great services they provide.

All around, everyone wins when retention is high and the quit rate is low. But if this makes so much sense, then why, for some, does it seem to be so hard to do?

One answer to this that I would like to explore is the quality of the teacher. As you may well know, if you replace a bad teacher with a good one, all of a sudden, a school that was limping along will start to grow.

Conversely, I have seen a great teacher replaced by a teacher who was only “good” and the exact opposite happened. Perhaps you have seen the same. So, what is it that makes the difference between one inst...

By Herb Borkland

Richardson was born in Charlotte and took his first martial arts training there at age 13. But, as is true of every aspect of his highly successful school, he says he opened LMA only after a great deal of study, planning and research.

Location Is Everything!

Charlotte is the most populous city in North Carolina, boasting around 860,000 diverse citizens — 45.1% white, 35.0% black, 13.1% Hispanic and 5.0% Asian. It’s the third-fastest-growing major city in the United States and the nation’s second-largest banking center, housing the corporate headquarters of Bank of America and the east coast operations of Wells Fargo. The NFL’s Carolina Panthers, the Charlotte Hornets of the NBA, and a strong NASCAR All-Star Racing presence are among the local major sports attractions.

Why is all of this so important to a martial arts school owner? Because location is everything.

“I began with demographic research on 64 markets in the United States,” explains Richardson, who ...

By Christopher Rappold

A student gets punched in the nose and starts to bleed. He’s embarrassed and fear starts to set in. He thinks to himself, “Maybe this isn’t for me.”

A woman in her 40s gets partnered up with a 17-year-old boy. Try as she might, she’s in a position where she can’t do anything. She is self-conscious and feels like she’s diminishing his workout.

Another student enjoys the martial arts class until the instructor says, “Everyone get your gear on and find a partner for sparring.”

Yet another student secretly hopes to not be partnered in sparring class with one particular peer who lacks control.

Do any of these scenarios sound familiar? If the answer is yes, then, like many others, you have a very real problem that’s killing your ability to grow your school.

Let’s face it: Getting a new student isn’t easy. It requires time, effort and money. Why, then, would you ever leave to chance a curriculum that isn’t focused on retaining a student long term...