Taekwondo class structure

[isshinryuronin]

i not whining and complaining i am asking for help on how to apply advice some one gave me cause i am having issues in my class with that.

I appreciate that you have recognized a problem and are attempting to find a solution. You sound a little inexperienced - the only cure for that is more experience, and taking to heart some of the advice given in these various replies. Care about your students, challenge them, praise them when they respond, teach with confidence and mutual respect, and remember- you are a role model.

 

[falcon]

If you are supporting yourself and/or Especially a family it is a very tall order. It took us about 3 years to get a solid momentum and consistently making a profit. And we own our building. I have not heard anything from you about a business plan, advertising, P&L, etc...
I have been in similar shoes. Me and another student started our school after our instructor bailed on teaching classes. We were able to take nearly the whole student base with us so we had a very good start. Still, it was not lean pickings, it was no pickings for quite some time. After a couple of years my partner moved out of state. We were just starting to make a Little money and I had to decide how vested I really was. I had a very good job and was very, very into competing. Losing my main 'assistant' instructor was a big hit. Fortunately we had three adults who were close to getting their BB that were very vested in the school. I started paying them (a small amount) for each class they taught. Soon after, the school exploded and we opened another location. I had to make some hard decisions and had to sacrifice a lot of time that I did not have to learn how to run a business. I had to give up competing and focus on how to make our dojang the best it could be; yes that included how to make it the most profitable it could be without any sacrifices.
This is not something to do just because it is really cool to say "I own a Dojang". The failure rate for those schools is incredibly high.
I no longer own the schools (the business) but still own both buildings and actively workout and help in the background. The Martial Arts have Never been my only source of income, but like you mentioned they are such an integral part of my life.
I hear the ideals of a young person who is healthy and fit; thinking they will run a full time dojang and be an amateur/professional fighter. Without a substantial base of students and a strong group of senior belts/leaders (that would be adults) it is beyond difficult. You mentioned family; are they adults and part of the teaching structure?
What is your teaching model?
Who, what, when do you teach?
Who helps out?
Do you own or rent?
Who does all the other stuff (cleaning, advertising, paying bills, collecting, etc...)?
Don't half-*** this. Get in or get out. Hitting up a forum is a logical choice but I would not even call it a start. More of a casual reference, even given the vast amount of knowledge here. You have to seek and find, and most importantly do the work.
I found an AMA on Facebook. That is not the support mechanism you need. That appears to be an "official" certificate source, not a means of experience, support and tools you need.
Research seminars and special or open classes in your area. Soak them up like a sponge. Make introductions and relationships. Vitally important.

thanks for being willing to help. i will try to get your questions answered when i get some time to type stuff out.

 

[WaterGal]

Falcon, I'm going to give you a piece of advice that someone on this board gave to me maybe 4 or 5 years ago after my partner and I started our school and were scratching our heads going "how do we make this thing work".

There are a bunch of Facebook groups out there for martial arts school owners/instructors/managers. Look them up and join some of them.

Now, most of them are run by someone that wants your money - either an equipment supplier (i.e. Century Martial Arts School Network), a company that makes software to help you run your school (i.e. Martial Arts Business Growth), or a professional business coach (i.e. Martial Arts Sales & Marketing). Be aware of that.

But, these groups can be a GREAT source of advice about how to run your school more professionally, how to have a better and more engaging curriculum, what other groups and resources to look into, how to market yourself, etc. They'll let you network with other school owners and get ideas from them, which can be really helpful.

I'd also recommend going on Amazon and grabbing a couple of Mike Massie's books on running a martial arts school. I found the rotating curriculum one really helpful. He has one on drills and games for classes, which I found a little remedial personally, but might give you some ideas for keeping your classes fun. I'm trying to remember which of his other books I read, lol. I'll have to look in my Kindle app.

 

[falcon]

Falcon, I'm going to give you a piece of advice that someone on this board gave to me maybe 4 or 5 years ago after my partner and I started our school and were scratching our heads going "how do we make this thing work".

There are a bunch of Facebook groups out there for martial arts school owners/instructors/managers. Look them up and join some of them.

Now, most of them are run by someone that wants your money - either an equipment supplier (i.e. Century Martial Arts School Network), a company that makes software to help you run your school (i.e. Martial Arts Business Growth), or a professional business coach (i.e. Martial Arts Sales & Marketing). Be aware of that.

But, these groups can be a GREAT source of advice about how to run your school more professionally, how to have a better and more engaging curriculum, what other groups and resources to look into, how to market yourself, etc. They'll let you network with other school owners and get ideas from them, which can be really helpful.

I'd also recommend going on Amazon and grabbing a couple of Mike Massie's books on running a martial arts school. I found the rotating curriculum one really helpful. He has one on drills and games for classes, which I found a little remedial personally, but might give you some ideas for keeping your classes fun. I'm trying to remember which of his other books I read, lol. I'll have to look in my Kindle app.

thanks do you happen to know the name of any of those groups, so i can find them a little easier. I will look into that guys books thanks

 

[Balrog]

so i was wandering if any one could give me some advice on finding drills and structuring a class.

Our classes are 40 minutes long. This is a very generic structure for our non-sparring class:
Warm-up 5 minutes
Basic floor drills 5 minutes This can be whatever I want to work on today: punch, block, kick, stance, combos whatever. These are almost always techniques from the form they are doing.
Impact bag work 10 minutes Using what we just did as the floor drill
Forms work. 15 minutes
Cool-down, stretching and announcements 5 minutes

For sparring class, I do the 5 minutes warm-up, then 5 minutes of a drill on something I want to emphasize, such as block and counter, or V-out round kick counters. Then the rest of the class is one minute rounds, rotating between partners.

Hope this helps!

 

[WaterGal]

thanks do you happen to know the name of any of those groups, so i can find them a little easier. I will look into that guys books thanks

Well, I'd start with the ones I mentioned:
Century Martial Arts School Network
Martial Arts Business Growth
Martial Arts Sales & Marketing

There are others, and I'm sure you'll get invited to more if you join and participate in those lol.

 

[Bruce7]

I am not a fan of Tiger Rock, but they are a real money maker.
They have a very good structure for making kids like TKD.
Go to one of their schools and see how they do it, it may help.

 

[dvcochran]

I am not a fan of Tiger Rock, but they are a real money maker.
They have a very good structure for making kids like TKD.
Go to one of their schools and see how they do it, it may help.

Bruce, I think that is sage advice for someone more tenured who can sort through what/how they do things that may not work in a smaller, less supported environment or a different system. If I recall, falcon does not have much support, MA or marketing related. If he/she could audit a class or get a written curriculum it could be thought provoking.
Tiger Rock is what I call a closed loop system. They do what they do and it does not overlap into other schools, styles, or the real world. That takes a great amount of work behind the scenes. I imagine quite a lot more than actual classroom instructional time.

 

[theboxer]

Just hop onto youtube and watch a few tkd class videos and you'll have more than enough ideas for running a class.