Am I a Great Martial Arts Instructor?

Sensei Nick Dougherty

When people contact me, the first question I get is “How can I get 30 students per month?” Or something like “How do I get in the school system?” Well, today I was going to provide school owners, instructors with the secret. It’s not about the marketing, sales, or network resources that you have in your community.

It’s about how you teach…..How you look…The message you deliver…..The response you get from a class….If you teach average classes, you will have an average school.
So today, we are going to over the 10 ways to double your enrollment through teaching.

First, I would like to give credit to Larry Brown. Coach Brown is a legendary basket ball coach who won a national championship with Kansas University, and a World Title with the Detroit Pistons. He is known to turn around a team by making the team do the little things to be successful. Some of my ideas are following some of his principles that he applies to his basketball team. So Coach Brown if you’re reading this, Thank You Sir!
“If you do the little things, they take you to the next level!”

What are the little things?

  1. Knowing EVERY students name. # 1 by far. If you don’t, then do these before you even go down the rest of my list.
  2. Demonstrating your technique. All the time. This is a little thing that most instructors DO NOT DO!!! THEY think they do but they DON’T.
  3. Start Classes on Time-Simple, just do it!
  4. Allow students to do something incorrect, and don’t correct the student. I have met instructors that have told me they were taught to not correct the students. Is that just ridiculous? Were they serious
  5. They stop training. Training! I mean training, what do we tell our students? Right now I train three days per week. Train three days per week, not just walk through half speed
  6. No passion….No job. If you have an instructor who has no passion to train, they can’t have a passion to teach. Don’t be afraid to let them go, it creates an opportunity for someone new.
  7. Being behind the counter between classes. Instructors instruct, motivate, inspire, give extra help, and communicate with students and parents. It’s not checking your text messages and MySpace accounts in between classes.
  8. Not networking with industry leaders…The best instructors are always bringing new classroom drills to the table. Do You? Or do you do the same thing year after year. If you do the same thing, do you think that’s why you’re not in the school systems or not getting paid to be a motivational speaker? Think about it
  9. Unable to duplicate themselves. Duplicate and replicate. Reproduce yourself. It’s not what your school can do for you, but what you can do for your school! The best instructors and business people in the world understand the importance of this principle. How does that help you? Because if you can do this, the sky is the limit!
  10.  Its’ not how many classes an instructor does, it’s how they do the classes. Don’t count. Michael Jordan never counted or tracked how long he practices

EXTRA

1. The students are a reflection of the instructor. So if you say any of these phrases, I tell you what you’re really saying.

  • “My group wasn’t motivated.” – Your not motivating
  • “My group didn’t know any of their material.” – You didn’t put them in a position for them to know their material.
  • “No one in this class can do a spin hook kick.” You didn’t teach a spin hook kick good enough.

2. Accountablilty-Hold yourself accountable, if you’re the head instructor it’s your job to manage the SWAT Team, your assistants, making the test list, making sure EVERYNOE on the test list is ready, the C students list, the upgrade list, and knowing the status of every student in the school. If you can’t do this, in my opinion then you shouldn’t be a HEAD instructor.

Do you NEED instructor Training for your staff?-CALL ME. Because I love it.  I can train your entire staff on EVERYTHING.