How to Set Up an Effective Demonstration for Lead Generation

By: Jaimie Lee-Barron

"A martial arts display has, of simple necessity, to be a marriage between good, solid technical demonstrations of martial prowess and a bit of “Razamataz” for the crowd."

-Prof Jaimie Lee Barron

Martial arts displays and demos tend to be extremely popular events. Indeed, there is hardly a village fate or County show in the land that does not regularly include the local martial arts enthusiasts demonstrating their skills. Even so, many of these displays leave a lot to be desired, and it is possible to see people losing interest and walking away after only a few minutes.

This can be for a variety of reasons. For example: The content of the display is far too technical for the audience to fully appreciate, the actual “pace” of the display is too slow to maintain the attention span of the average spectator, etc.

This is most definitely NOT the fault of the average martial arts instructor, who has little or no idea regarding how to go about putting on an entertaining “show”. Because, that is exactly what this kind of martial arts display is: A show!


THE AVERAGE MARTIAL ARTS DISPLAY


By this sweeping statement made above I do, of course, mean that we need to understand what a martial arts display is NOT.

It is not a lesson.

It is not grading.

It is not a technical demonstration in front of one's “peers” (Though, sometimes there may well be some martial artists in the audience.

You will recognise them as being the ones that keep laughing and shaking their heads at your attempts at “martial arts”! (just kidding!))

It is, however, a type of a show!

And, as such, it is required that it be interesting, informative and (most importantly) exciting and entertaining. A martial arts display is a golden opportunity for a local instructor in several ways: It affords him the opportunity to stimulate and highlight his students by giving them particular areas of responsibility, as well as enabling her/him to demonstrate in a very concrete manner that the club is an integral part of the community.

In short:

It is an important operation in public relations, and so need to be handled with due care and professionalism in order for the martial arts club to capitalise upon this.

So, you have been approached be some official or other who has asked that you perform a martial arts display at some local up-coming event. The first thing you need to do is to glean as much information as you can from this person using the good old WHO, WHAT WHERE, WHEN, WHY and HOW:

WHO- Will you be performing in front of?
(Is it just the general public? Or is it some type of “special interest” group such as local dignitaries or (horror of horrors!) other martial artists?)

WHAT- precisely do they expect of you and your demonstration team?
(Are they looking to encourage more people into sports? or raise awareness levels of the need for people to learn some form of self-defence? Etc.)

WHERE- Are will the event be held?
(Will it be indoors or outdoors? Will there be mats? Etc.)

WHEN- Will it take place?
(Will it be in the heat of summer, or the cold of winter? Will it affect your travel arrangements?

WHY- Are you being asked?
(Is it because they have heard good things about your club? Or is it just because the Mayor's Daughter happens to be one of your students?)

HOW- Long do they want the display to last?
(Is it to be a short, sharp type of show, or a more lengthy, drawn-out kind of affair?)