Passing the torch

[terryl965]

Has anybody ever seen an instructor pass the torch of a school down and how is it really done without having the school go into shock? I know my wife and son wants to continue teaching and training but I am in need of finding someone that can help them on there journey as well. As some of you may know Zachary and my family have been training with me forever and now I must find someone to continue the type of training they need. Any help is appreciated since I have alot of decissions to make ove r the next couple of months.

 

[Bruno@MT]

In traditional Japanese arts this is fairly common. I don't know about Korean arts though. In terms of Japanese transmission, the usual procedure is that the ownership / grandmastership is passed to one of the highest ranking students who has achieved full mastership. Usually that person is already taking care of teaching to the other students so the amount of 'shock' is really rather small. Especially since everybody knows that systems are passed from generation to generation.

For you specifically, I imagine a similar approach would work: don't quit from one day to another, but choose whom to pass the torch to. Have a talk with that person to see how they feel. Then start putting that person in charge of class and daily operations while keeping oversight to insure a smooth transition, and remain visible so that everybody knows that you are overseeing this.

Then you can hand over more and more until the other person is fully in charge and can fade to the background, and possibly be an adviser / confidant to the new person in charge. This would also have the advantage that you can step out of the exertion fairly quickly so that you don't hurt yourself.

If you were to make an announcement out of the blue and simply pass the school to someone else, then indeed you could land your school into a crisis.

 

[Manny]

In traditional Japanese arts this is fairly common. I don't know about Korean arts though. In terms of Japanese transmission, the usual procedure is that the ownership / grandmastership is passed to one of the highest ranking students who has achieved full mastership. Usually that person is already taking care of teaching to the other students so the amount of 'shock' is really rather small. Especially since everybody knows that systems are passed from generation to generation.

For you specifically, I imagine a similar approach would work: don't quit from one day to another, but choose whom to pass the torch to. Have a talk with that person to see how they feel. Then start putting that person in charge of class and daily operations while keeping oversight to insure a smooth transition, and remain visible so that everybody knows that you are overseeing this.

Then you can hand over more and more until the other person is fully in charge and can fade to the background, and possibly be an adviser / confidant to the new person in charge. This would also have the advantage that you can step out of the exertion fairly quickly so that you don't hurt yourself.

If you were to make an announcement out of the blue and simply pass the school to someone else, then indeed you could land your school into a crisis.

Exelent advise!!! Terry I think you can rely on you son and wife and still be the head of your dojang, however try to find inside your dojang a candidate to help you too.

Manny

 

[ATC]

In traditional Japanese arts this is fairly common. I don't know about Korean arts though. In terms of Japanese transmission, the usual procedure is that the ownership / grandmastership is passed to one of the highest ranking students who has achieved full mastership. Usually that person is already taking care of teaching to the other students so the amount of 'shock' is really rather small. Especially since everybody knows that systems are passed from generation to generation.

For you specifically, I imagine a similar approach would work: don't quit from one day to another, but choose whom to pass the torch to. Have a talk with that person to see how they feel. Then start putting that person in charge of class and daily operations while keeping oversight to insure a smooth transition, and remain visible so that everybody knows that you are overseeing this.

Then you can hand over more and more until the other person is fully in charge and can fade to the background, and possibly be an adviser / confidant to the new person in charge. This would also have the advantage that you can step out of the exertion fairly quickly so that you don't hurt yourself.

If you were to make an announcement out of the blue and simply pass the school to someone else, then indeed you could land your school into a crisis.

This is exactly what happened with our school. Our GM or owner actually opened other schools in other cities and left our school that was his first school that he opened. He passed that school on to his nephew who had already been the head instructor of that school. Also there were two other 4th Degree black belts that also taught at that school as well that stayed and became head instructors under the GM's nephew that was now the new school owner.

The school at first had some issues as the new owner was still pretty young and was still competing and had to travel a lot, to train. He would be in other states and even countries for months at a time training and the school had no real direction. Each time he returned he would see this and knew that he had to pick competing vs. running a business. He had to make the decision regarding his future and chose to run the business. Now the school is doing well and he is about to open his second school.

Too bad that he could not keep competing as he was really good and was on track and pushing for this upcoming Olympics. Many top fighters out there know of him and at every major event he is always asked to get back into the game. He is still young enough to do it but he states that it is very hard to run a business and try to compete at the same time. He still trains very hard but does not have the time to train around the world like he would like to. Even with the lack of training as set by his standards he still from time to time gets together with people like James Moontashari, Johnny Nguyen, James Howe, Philip Yoon and the list goes on and works out. They all say he is still on top of his game but he says he needs to run the business.

Maybe once he feels that he can leave the schools in good hands for a little bit he can take some time to focus on that once in a life time dream of world champion or even Olympic champion.

In saying all this let it be known to you and your son that he will need to focus on one vs. the other to be successful at either. I know that he wants to compete so it will not be that easy for him to focus on the school if he get really serious about the competing.

 

[IcemanSK]

Sadly Terry, I've only seen it done badly. Very badly, actually. I'll share this as a cautionary tale only.


My instructor/school owner was beloved by all of his students. When he decided to sell the school to an outsider, he told no one about it until the day before it was to happen. All the students & BB's were shocked!

The new owner & the old owner didn't see eye to eye on anything as far as I could tell. He intended to change everything to suit him as quickly as he could. As a BB, I went to him privately to get to know him. In this conversation he told me, "Master X taught you the wrong way. I'm going to teach you the right way." With that, I got up from my chair, said, "I don't think so sir," & walked out never to return. Within a month, all of the BB's did the same.

If the BB's aren't behind the transition, it will be very rough going to say the least.

 

[Bruno@MT]

Sadly Terry, I've only seen it done badly. Very badly, actually. I'll share this as a cautionary tale only.


My instructor/school owner was beloved by all of his students. When he decided to sell the school to an outsider, he told no one about it until the day before it was to happen. All the students & BB's were shocked!

The new owner & the old owner didn't see eye to eye on anything as far as I could tell. He intended to change everything to suit him as quickly as he could. As a BB, I went to him privately to get to know him. In this conversation he told me, "Master X taught you the wrong way. I'm going to teach you the right way." With that, I got up from my chair, said, "I don't think so sir," & walked out never to return. Within a month, all of the BB's did the same.

If the BB's aren't behind the transition, it will be very rough going to say the least.

Yup. That is why the school should pass to an insider, and preferably someone who has been with the school for a long time and is respected by all BBs. That said if the school is run as a full time business, I can see how that can be difficult.

 

[IcemanSK]

Yup. That is why the school should pass to an insider, and preferably someone who has been with the school for a long time and is respected by all BBs. That said if the school is run as a full time business, I can see how that can be difficult.

Quite true. I don't see too many folks who do something as a hobby deciding quickly that they'd want to change careers. And those young folks with the enthusiasm & drive who would jump at the chance often lack the skillset to run a school.