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AI Journal F E B / M A R
EDITORIAL
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BY AIO PRESIDENT, SKIP CHAPMAN
a i k i d o i n t r u c t o r s . c o m
A Look Ahead Dear AIO Members: I would like to personally thank all of you for your membership in Aikido Instructors Organization. AIO was created out of necessity due to a growing need for business advice related specifically to the challenges associated with teaching a highly traditional martial art in a modern day world. Creating AIO was not an easy decision, but always a rewarding one. As you are all aware, we are passionate about keeping the art of Aikido pure. In addition, we also recognize that the days of the “Build it and they will come” philosophy are long gone. As we celebrate completing our first year of AIO, we not only applaud ourselves for facing the challenge of Aikido business consulting head on, but give a standing ovation to those members who had vision, looked outside the box, and took a leap of faith to grow their dojos, spreading Aikido to a greater population using AIO techniques. So this BRAVO is for you and your courage to create a better dojo for your members and future aikidoka. As our second year roars on, we are excited to announce many upcoming additions for our AIO members. For those of you in the tech world (and those of you who are not as well!), AIO is honored to team up with Kim Ruschel. Kim has created a new iPhone Application and website for Aikidoka called Aiki-world. Aiki-world will provide dojos and students from different parts of the country a place to share their information and events, find seminars, and meet friends from all over the country. It is an innovative design that will be free to all AIO members for a limited time. Congratulations, Kim, on your new product and thank you for allowing AIO members to be the first to experience this valuable tool! We would like to welcome three new periodic consultants to our team of AIO professionals. Penny Bernath, 6th Dan, Shidoin, is a senior instructor at Florida Aikikai and also travels throughout the world conducting seminars. In addition to her extensive Aikido background, Penny specializes in teaching teachers what and how to teach children. She is also an Education Content Producer for Florida‟s PBS affiliate, creating training programs for pre-kindergarten teachers through online instruction called KidVision VPK. To check out KidVision, visit www.KidVisionVPK.org.
Association’s Physician Organizations and New Jersey Law Journal. We are very fortunate to have John on our team. As featured in this month‟s AIO, Sean Hannon, Aikidoka and owner of Castle Rock Aikido, comes with a unique perspective of simultaneously being an Aikido student and owner of an Aikido dojo. Sean‟s background in sales and customer service brings to AIO the real life challenges faced by today‟s dojo owners and the solutions that blend traditional practices with today‟s marketplace. As if that information wasn‟t exciting enough, AIO is proud to announce that the release of Studio Martial Arts Manager, a software management program for martial art dojos offered by Studio Gurus LLC, is just around the corner. Many of you know that we have personally used Studio for almost a decade and attribute many of our success stories to implementing this program in our dojo. We look forward to working with the new and improved version of Studio for many years to come. As an added benefit, all AIO members will receive a $10 monthly software discount on an already affordable Studio Martial Arts Manager just for being a member of AIO. This past year has been a time of growth, learning, and rewarding success. The testimonials we have received over this past year from our members have been tremendous. With a bit of dedication towards learning one new skill at a time to better the dojo, many members have had light bulb moments that have been astonishing. Is it easy to learn how to run a dojo? No. Is there one miracle thing a dojo can implement to make them successful? No. Learning to run a dojo is not a sprint; it is a marathon. But the first step in creating a successful dojo is educating yourself. So, at risk of repeating myself, I CONGRATULATE you on taking that first step, on accepting the challenge of doing something you have not done before, and on having the courage to create a thriving and healthy dojo that will withstand time.
Sincerely, John P. Murdoch II, Esq. is a practicing Aikidoka from Aikido of Red Bank. John comes to us as a valued legal advisor versed in various forms of law including small business formation and lease negotiations, as well as a published author in the journals American Health Lawyers
Skip Chapman
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COVER STORY
Sean Hannon, 4th kyu (not 4th dan)
AI Journal
“„There is more than one way to skin a cat,‟ one of Mark Twain's fictional characters once said. Well, similarly, (and contrary to popular belief) there is more than one way to run and grow an Aikido dojo. For almost 15 years, I have wanted to open an Aikido dojo. There was only one problem: I was neither an instructor, nor a black belt in Aikido. Would that stop me? Apparently, not.” As an avid reader of AIO Journal, I know that each issue has featured a powerful interview with an experienced and successful Aikido Sensei and those dojos featured usually have hundreds of students. So, I was just a little bit surprised when Skip and Paige Chapman asked our young, small dojo in Castle Rock, Colorado to be this issue's feature! Castle Rock AIKIDO is unique in that I, the owner of the dojo, am not an Aikido Sensei, nor do I hold a black belt in Aikido. In fact, I just tested for 4th kyu last November. On top of that, we've had a turbulent start. In just under two years we built a school consisting of almost 40 adult students. Then, we lost it all, reorganized, and rebuilt the school to over 40 new, adult students in less than six months. So, although complimentary, the idea of being featured in AIO Journal was initially confounding. Still, Skip and Paige believed my story was worth telling. Later, I realized that maybe they were right. Many Aikido schools are much smaller than the one I have built and so maybe telling my story might benefit many AIO readers. Perhaps my story could inspire some schools to help them bridge the gap from where they are now to where instructors like Veltri Sensei, Stickles Sensei, and Salvatore Sensei are today. Perhaps growing a school to 40+ adult students might seem like an infinitely more attainable stepping stone to other dojos that are still struggling with just a handful of students. I was willing to give it a shot. This is a real privilege for me. "There is more than one way to skin a cat," one of Mark Twain's fictional characters once said. Well, similarly, (and contrary to popular belief) there is more than one way to run and grow an Aikido dojo. For almost 15 years, I have wanted to open an Aikido dojo. There was only one problem: I was neither an instructor, nor a black belt in Aikido. Would that stop me? Apparently, not. I began my martial arts training in 1989 at the age of sixteen with a kind, older gentleman named Emil Santoro Sensei. It was a small, fun karate program in a local New Jersey YMCA. After about six months, I switched AIKIDOINSTRUCTORS.COM
to a more formal dojo and four years later earned a shodan in Isshin-Ryu Okinawan Karate. At that dojo, I eventually became partially responsible for running the school. I taught classes for both children and adults, oriented and processed new students, helped organize and execute testing events and other special events like charity fundraising, answered phone calls from prospective students, and assisted other instructors from the dojo in getting their own dojos up and running in surrounding areas. I had always hoped to follow suit at some point in the future. Wanting to add more diversity and fluidity to my martial arts repertoire, I began Aikido training with Greg O'Connor Sensei in Morristown, New Jersey in the mid 1990s. Training with O'Connor Sensei had a profound effect on me. Not only was it a lot of fun, but O'Connor Sensei had built an impressive dojo. It was a large and beautiful work out space and classes were always well attended. Unfortunately, my time with O'Connor Sensei was short lived as a career change took me to Iowa to train to become a chiropractic physician. There I continued Aikido training with "Joe" Masayuki Kaneshi Mesa Sensei across the Mississippi River in Rock Island, Illinois. I trained with Mesa Sensei for the better part of a year and even was invited to be an uchi-deshi. I had to decline that honor because I was moving once again, this time to South Carolina, to complete my graduate studies. I continued my Aikido training briefly at another school there, but again had to stop due to intense career commitments. In early 2002, I moved to northern Colorado to open my chiropractic practice. Once again, I joined a local Aikido dojo, but had to stop training almost immediately due to, of all things, a spinal injury I sustained while moving some heavy equipment for my clinic. Matters got worse in 2006 when I experienced a complete collapse of my lumbar spine. Three herniated discs in my lower back took away my ability to walk for over a year. According to an MRI, one of the herniations was occluding 80% of my spinal canal. Some worried that I might never walk or be FEBRUARY/MARCH 2010
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physically active again.
Aikido school?"
For the better part of a year, I spent my days laying face down on a sturdy coffee table in my living room while, Allison, my patient wife, essentially waited on me hand and foot while I slowly learned to stand again. Initially, I relied on the heavy use of a walker and a cumbersome back brace, then I progressed to use of a cane and back brace, and eventually to just a back brace. It was a stressful time in many respects.
"Well, first of all," I said, "unless you haven't noticed, I can barely stand or walk. Secondly, I'm not qualified to teach. I'm not a black belt."
While recovering from my injury through some intense non-surgical therapies, I had to completely reevaluate my life and career. Now, four years later, I require no mechanical assistance at all, have returned to Aikido training, and have also taken up Iaido. I'm about 80-90% back to normal. I still over do it from time to time and have to stop training for a week or two, but essentially I can train fairly consistently. During my long and difficult recovery, it was important that I have something to look forward to in order to facilitate my healing. A friend asked me, "What is one activity in your life that has given you the most pleasure?" My answer was simple: Aikido. "Then why don't you start an
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"So? You're great at sales and marketing. Can't you find some teachers to do the instructing for you?" "That's not really the way it works in Aikido," I retorted. "So what?" she pressed on. "Who says you have to do it the way it's always been done? Can't it be done another way?" "I don't know. I've never really given it any thought." Thus began‌ The Big Experiment. Today, I live in a south Denver, Colorado suburb called Castle Rock located approximately halfway between Denver and Colorado Springs. The closest Aikido school I could find was located deep in downtown Denver. Actually, it turns out, there were others that were closer, but
AIKIDOINSTRUCTORS.COM
Sean Hannon, 4th kyu (not 4th dan)
AI Journal
“I put advertisements on the Internet and sent e-mails to all of the Colorado Aikido schools I could find saying that I was interested in opening a dojo in Castle Rock. The ad said that I would finance, market, and run the dojo if people were willing to teach the classes.� they had such poor web presence and marketing that I didn't know they existed. Did you hear that? I was trying to find Aikido schools in the area on the Internet, but couldn't! That would be marketing mistake numero uno. I visited the downtown dojo to watch a class, but it took over an hour to get to in heavy afternoon traffic. Class started at 5:30pm, which was not convenient, and the staff only allowed me to watch 15 minutes of class before asking me to join or leave. I asked if I could speak with an instructor or some of the students. I was denied. What horrible customer service, I thought. It took me another 40 minutes to drive home. For me, this just didn't work. So I said to myself, "I wonder if we could get a dojo going right here in Castle Rock?" I put advertisements on the Internet and sent e-mails to all of the Colorado Aikido schools I could find saying that I was interested in opening a dojo in Castle Rock. The ad said that I would finance, market, and run the dojo if people were willing to teach the classes. I received several responses from people in Colorado and a few people out of state who were willing to relocate to Colorado. That was a surprise considering that I was not advertising a salary of any kind. I interviewed several great people in person and by phone, selected one as chief instructor, and three months later we held our first adult-only Aikido class inside a gymnastics studio on their floor exercise spring floor. It wasn't pretty, but we were off and running. We signed up four new students on our first day. To us, that felt like a big success. Our first month in business, we profited two -hundred dollars. The plan was that since I was not yet physically capable of training, I would focus on building the school. I ran 99% of the business operations. I attended and watched nearly every class, but it was primarily my job to bring people in the door and convert them from prospects to students. The experience was (and still is) so much fun. I love it
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when new people come in to try class. I love greeting them, orienting them to the class, introducing them to instructors and students, finding out what their motivations for considering Aikido are, and signing them up after their trial class. Sales has always been something I have loved to do, as long as I was selling something that was of high integrity, treated people fairly, and didn't hurt anyone. In fact, Sales is a kind of "budo" in and of itself, in part, because of its capacity to serve others. It's a shame that few Aikido instructors recognize this. Aikido is such a clean product/service. It helps people. It's fun. It has no adverse side effects. It has never been recalled or pulled off the market. It changes peoples' lives for the better and it tends to attract very nice people. I can't think of a better product/service to promote and sell. The whole experience was very exciting. Early Challenges & Beginners' Mistakes We grew fairly steadily. But, of course, we had our ups and downs. We went through learning experiences that all dojos go through such as tuition collection, but we quickly fixed that with an easy auto-pay program. That decision was a no-brainer and paid for itself in its first month. We saw significant attrition especially around the holidays when some students would tell us they were "taking some time off during the busy holiday season." We came up with ways to deal with that, too. We also experienced attrition every time our schedule changed. We had to be super-flexible since the gymnastics studio would move our class schedule around regularly. It made things very tough for us. Weeknight classes didn't start until 8:15pm and that was way too late for many prospective students who contacted us. For these and other reasons, we had a lot of difficulty breaking above 20 students or so. We believed that it largely related to the quality of the experience we were offering. While the spring floor and carpet bonded foam flooring was acceptable (but definitely not ideal) and we were very fortunate that the gymnastics studio let us rent on a basis of a flat percentage of monthly collected tui-
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tion, there were still tremendous challenges with the facility. First of all, our website (www.CRaikido.com) created the impression that we offered a very Zen-like, tranquil environment in which to train. However, when prospective students would show up to try a class looking for their tranquil experience, they were greeted by 50-100 screaming children and the facilities smelled like little girls feet (the flooring we trained on was not very clean). In fact, I would often bring in carpet cleaning powder, vacuum the carpet, pick up trash and wipe down the bathrooms because they were not well maintain. The bathrooms were the only facilities for students to change into their uniforms, so privacy for students, especially female students, was limited because children were constantly entering and exiting the bathrooms and being children, they were not very cognizant of people's modesty. In short, there was a tremendous lack of congruency between the impression our web site gave (which generated more than 90% of our prospective students) and the visual and tactile experience prospective students had when they visited us. It created disappointment and let down among prospective students and that hurt our conversion rate. Like most Aikido dojos, the teaching itself was excellent, but to grow a large, successful dojo, a whole lot more than just great teaching is necessary. Many instructors either don't recognize this or deny this reality and that is partly why they struggle for so many years with just a handful of students.
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Yes, Aikido is ultimately about the training. But it is also so much more than that. To many people, the Aikido dojo is an oasis from people's daily lives, responsibilities, struggles, and challenges. Some students don't even train for the martial application at all! It is a total experience for them, not just martial training. Think about it. When you go to a spa for a massage, is it just about the massage? Or is it about the total experience. Would you enjoy the massage if it took place in a cold, stinky, brightly-light room, and had noisy construction going on next door? Of course, not. How would you then feel if the massage therapist said to you, "Try to ignore everything else. Remember, this is about the massage." I bet you probably wouldn't go back, would you? This is often how some Aikido instructors treat their dojos and then they wonder why they can't build their student base. I know it can be hard and expensive to have a nice place to train and sometimes this can't be avoided, but
AIKIDOINSTRUCTORS.COM
Sean Hannon, 4th kyu (not 4th dan)
AI Journal
“Many dojo owners get frustrated at the idea of having to address the business side of a dojo, but guess what? These are realities and ignoring them may be part of the reason so many talented Aikido instructors struggle.� you've got to do whatever you can to improve the experience people have when they visit your dojo. Offering great customer service will considerably compensate for less than ideal training facilities. Many dojo owners get frustrated at the idea of having to address the business side of a dojo, but guess what? These are realities and ignoring them may be part of the reason so many talented Aikido instructors struggle. For example, I will admit that my least favorite chore of the week is cleaning the bathrooms at the dojo. But it has to be done. I choose to think of it as a free marketing chore that makes me money instead of a degrading task that is beneath me. Cleaning the bathrooms generates revenue each month because I know that it helps keep students around longer by positively contributing to their experience. Sure, students frequently help after class with cleaning tasks, but the bathrooms often must be cleaned before students arrive. I try to remember that the word samurai comes from the word 'saburau,' which means to serve. I remember that it is my privilege and honor to be able to offer the service of Aikido to our students. It is important for instructors to remember that it is a privilege to serve their students. This service, in turn, creates the reciprocating, respectful behavior from the students, and not the other way around. To be fair, many Sensei don't care how many students they have, but I'm quite certain that AIO members feel differently. After all, that's why we're members of AIO! We're trying to build our dojos and professionalize the Aikido industry. Many of us want to share Aikido and O Sensei's powerful message and gift with the world and we want to do that on a scale that is greater than just one or two students at a time, right? Breaking through Resistance So, we were having tremendous difficulty breaking beyond 20 students in our present facilities. Allison and I then spent the next six months looking for a new place to train. We looked at over 30 locations. Some were recreation centers, churches, municipal buildings, day care
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centers, and commercial properties for lease or sale. Castle Rock is a small town (45,000) and there was not a lot to choose from. Since we was very committed to growing a dojo (and perhaps a little crazy), we purchased a 2,500 square foot commercial warehouse. After including property taxes and building maintenance, the building was about the same monthly cost to purchase as it was to rent. So, we also decided that it was a more prudent choice for us to buy. That way, if the dojo failed, we could still rent out the building to another business. If we were renting and the dojo failed, we would still be required to fulfill the terms of the lease. By owning the building, we were, theoretically, building equity instead of giving away rent to a landlord every month. Furthermore, there is a good chance that in 10 or 20 years the building would be worth significantly more than the business itself, so for us, buying made sense. I don't necessarily recommend this approach for others. We were in a position to do this, but, of course, not everybody is. In retrospect, I do wish we had been able to find a slightly smaller building and structured our debt servicing a bit differently. However, at the time there was absolutely nothing else available that met our needs and the restrictive zoning regulations of the town, and yet we believed we had completely maxed out our ability to grow at the gymnastics studio. This seemed to be our only choice other than to stay stagnant or close. The warehouse we purchased was one of eight units in an office/warehouse condominium complex located in a quasi-industrial section of town. On the downside, our location did not have high traffic or high visibility. That was a big downside – something I probably wouldn't do again. I very much agree with Veltri Sensei in his Sept/ Oct 2009 AIO interview that a location with high traffic and visibility is absolutely critical. However, on the up side, the building was easy for prospective students to find and had convenient interstate access. It needed almost no build out and was otherwise ready to go, after a good scrubbing and fresh coat of fresh paint. We purchased 80 tatami from Zebra Mats, built a 14' tall kamiza, hung up some kanji scrolls, and began holding classes in the new building in mid summer 2008.
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Thinking Outside the Bento Box nancy classes since our mats were conducive to the seminar-style of the birthing classes. We generated a lot of interest. However, a challenge we ran into was that everyone wanted to use the space at the same time, generally right after work. Nonetheless, we were able to get Zen meditation classes, a small children's afternoon Karate program, and a women's dance fitness program, called Nia (run by Allison), to use our space during non-Aikido hours. They generated a modest amount of revenue to help carry the building. It was up to the teachers of these additional activities to promote and grow their programs, but we helped wherever we could.
It was fantastic! Things improved quickly in our new location. Existing students were excited, lots more people were signing up, and fewer people were quitting. Why? In large part it was because we were offering a far better experience. The service was exactly the same. We just packaged it more attractively and offered a better class schedule. In a relatively short period of time we had just under 40 adult Aikido students (we do not offered children's classes) and we were exploring the idea of introducing an Iaido program. We even ran television commercials for a brief time. That, by the way, is something else I wouldn't necessarily recommend. It was exciting, but failed to generate a positive ROI (return on investment). In our new facility, we now had new challenges, but things were looking very promising. To help carry the additional costs of owning the building, we began advertising our space for sub-leasing to other physical arts like yoga, Pilates, fitness professionals, and even specialty services like natural birthing and preg-
The Price is Right! As far as I could tell, we were the most expensive Aikido school in Colorado. A $100 start up fee which included a new uniform and a handbook got them started. The monthly tuition structure was somewhat unique, as well. We charged $125 per month for a student's first 30 hours of training. After 30 hours of training, we would reward the student for their commitment to Aikido by lowering their tuition to just $100 per month. Then, we locked them in at that rate with a promise to never raise their tuition for as long as they remained an active student. We called this the "Committed Student Rate." If they wanted to stop training for a few months, they would be required to pay the "regular rate" of $125 for 12 consecutive months plus a reactivation fee if they returned. This incentive-based fee structure encouraged new students to attend class often so as to "earn down" their tuition rate as quickly as possible. Simultaneously, this structure discouraged students from quitting for fear that they
“Consider this: To an uneducated prospective student looking to practice a martial art, a $200 per month Tae Kwon Do program may be perceived as four times „better‟ than the Aikido program that is just $50 per month. After all, why else would there be such a price discrepancy if Tae Kwon Do were not superior to Aikido?”
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AIKIDOINSTRUCTORS.COM
Sean Hannon, 4th kyu (not 4th dan)
might lose their discounted rate. Our thought process was that the more often students came to class the more likely they were to stay. We were correct. For some students, earning down their tuition rate only took 5-6 weeks and for others it took 5-6 months depending upon how often they came to class. Under this model we were generating 20% more revenue on the less committed students. Less committed students were much more likely to quit, so, from a revenue perspective, this had advantages. In my opinion, tuition pricing is an important, and often overlooked marketing tool for an Aikido dojo. Many don't realized that the price of your tuition says several subtle, sometimes subconscious things about your service such as, do you as an instructor value the teaching? Is the art of Aikido valuable compared to other martial arts? Are the students here serious about their training? Does the instructor have high self-esteem about what they teach? Or even, is the teaching competent? An excessively low fee may silently imply a "No" to all of these questions in a prospective student's mind. The prospective student may
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AI Journal
not even realize their erroneous, subconscious assessment of your dojo! It happens innately. The result is that they decide not to join. Some people within the Aikido profession raise an eyebrow at our pricing. However, I can't tell you how many times I've had prospective students call and ask why we cost twice as much as other dojos. I tell them, "We're not twice as expensive as others. Others are half our price. If price is the most important factor to you, then you should go to the cheapest school you can find. But you're still welcome to come try a class with us." Frequently, those people signed up with us anyway. Our price subconsciously says to a prospective student, "We value and respect the service we offer enough not to give it away for next to nothing." And, guess what? It works! More people sign up with us because we are more expensive than other dojos. Since we are on the subject of tuition price, many have asked me what, in my opinion, would be the best thing the Aikido industry could do to improve their dojos and profes-
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sional image. My answer is always: Raise your tuition. I am shocked at how many Aikido dojos either don't charge or charge only $45 or $50 per month. Some Sensei theorize that the lower their price the more students they will attract. But I fear that this usually has the opposite effect. In America, people often assess value based on price. Consider this: To an uneducated prospective student looking to practice a martial art, a $200 per month Tae Kwon Do program may be perceived as four times "better" than the Aikido program that is just $50 per month. After all, why else would there be such a price discrepancy if Tae Kwon Do were not superior to Aikido? That is the irony about price in the United States: Often, the more a company raises their price, the MORE business they do. Obviously, though, there is a ceiling to this effect. I, for example, wouldn't charge $200 per month for our Aikido program. That would be beyond both the affordability of most of our students and the perceived value of the service we currently offer. Furthermore, I would never charge a fee that I would not be willing to pay myself. I wouldn't join a dojo that was $200 per month. But, perhaps you feel differently. Perhaps you would. Aikido tuition should be competitive, but not dras-
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tically low for your dojo. We should price our beautiful and valuable art of Aikido not on the same cultural and economic factors that may have existed when Aikido was created, but instead on the contemporary perceptions of our American culture today. Fall Back, Spring Forward In February 2009, our dojo went through some very painful changes. Our chief instructor, dissatisfied with my marketing efforts and our growth rate (I felt it was a healthy, progressive growth rate), left the dojo. This was a real challenge for us. Many students simply quit, many followed the instructor who left (this was to be expected), and only a handful stayed. Luckily, those who stayed were fantastic people and, in many respects, ideal students. At this point, we had some difficult decisions to make. We could either close the school and sell or lease the building, or we could try to save it and rebuild. We crossed our fingers, trusted our instincts and skills, and chose the latter. As I began looking for replacement instructors, one thing I began to notice was there were a lot of talented Aikidoists in the area capable of teaching, even wanting to
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Sean Hannon, 4th kyu (not 4th dan) teach; however, most of them had full-time jobs, spouses, and young children. They didn't have the time to operate an Aikido dojo with a decent schedule and with decent facilities. With all of their personal responsibilities, most of them had no desire or ability to teach several times per week. My thought was, "What if we didn't have a chief instructor? What if we could get several instructors to cooperate together and share the teaching?" If we pool resources like teaching, students, time, and facilities we could build a great dojo. Everyone could benefit IF we could cooperate with one another. With the generous support of the Colorado Aikido community, the supportive counsel of Skip and Paige at AIO, and that other helpful Sensei from Los Angeles, Chicago, and New Jersey, we were successful in quickly recruiting several talented instructors. These new instructors understood that our new business model of no chief instructor was different than most Aikido schools. This was a new concept for some of the new instructors, but not all, and I think most of them saw the true potential of what we were creating. We designed a new dojo kamon (logo) containing two waterfalls to signify the multiple sources of power of our dojo. Our dojo's newfound strength comes from the acknowledgement of the value of each of our instructors and their unique backgrounds, experiences, and lineages. The waterfalls converge into a single pool where we can all teach, learn, share and grow Aikido together in a collaborative spirit. Within six months we were bigger and better than before, now approaching 50 adult students even in a "bad economy." Not only did we rebuild the Aikido program, but we also added a formal, traditional Iaido program that became very popular. Our new business structure of having no chief instructor was modeled after several successful dojos in the US such as the Midwest Aikido Center out of Chicago. A board member from that dojo was kind enough to counsel me on how their dojo functioned. She was very candid in sharing with me the importance of cooperation among a diverse staff of instructors as well as some of the potential challenges of their model and how they overcome them.
AI Journal
At Castle Rock AIKIDO no one instructor is considered superior to any other – regardless of rank! That means the instructors have to cooperate with one another and be willing to recognize the fact that there are many different ways to execute Aikido techniques. This, I have found, is very difficult for some instructors. In our dojo, we don't have a "right way" and a "wrong way" of doing techniques. A "my way or the highway" attitude won't work here. I fully understand that this is the way that many, perhaps most dojos operate, and I respect this approach. However, since I am not qualified to teach and am completely dependent on multiple instructors to provide the training, we have to think and operate differently. Our instructors must respect the differences between each other. These instructors come from a diverse background of training and, therefore, have to say things in class such as "Here is one way to do Nikyo." Or, "I know some instructors teach this technique differently, but tonight I'd like you to try it like this." Saying, "Here is the proper and only way to execute Iriminage" won't fly in our dojo. It's disrespectful to the other instructors who may have learned that technique differently. Without a doubt, there can be challenges with this approach, especially when it comes time for testing, but I believe there are many ways these challenges can be worked out and that the benefits of our model outweigh those challenges. Furthermore, many students tell me how much they appreciate the diversity of instructors. They say that it makes the classes more fun, more challenging, and almost seminar-like. Secondly, by operating this way we can avoid burn out of instructors. When a teacher is only teaching one time a week, or even just 1 or 2 times per month, that keeps spouses and children happy, keeps the instructors fresh and excited about teaching, and allows every teacher to share their love and experience of Aikido with students without having to carrying the tremendous burden of trying to run their own dojo all by themselves. Also, should an instructor have a personal crisis of any kind, the dojo doesn't come to a halt. There is always someone available to step in and cover. How many times have we heard about dojos having to close
“With our model, we can all win if we work together. We can have ideal training facilities, lots of students, and the teachers can continue their own training by attending other instructors' classes. Our model is different. It isn't without consequence, but it does work if people want it to.” AIKIDOINSTRUCTORS.COM
FEBRUARY/MARCH 2010
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AI Journal
Thinking Outside the Bento Box
because a Sensei became seriously ill, moved away due to a career change, or was getting divorced? This doesn‟t have to happen. With our model, we can all win if we work together. We can have ideal training facilities, lots of students, and the teachers can continue their own training by attending other instructors' classes. Our model is different. It isn‟t without consequence, but it does work if people want it to. With our model instructors have to be flexible and adaptable. In other words, they have to be able to metaphorically apply the principles of Aikido to their own personal psychology, not just their physicality. The Journey Continues Castle Rock AIKIDO has been open now for almost three years and in that time we quickly grew to one of the larger programs in the state offering only 6-8 hours of training per week. Currently, we are going through another serious, dojo-threatening challenge. However, there's a chance we'll meander our way through that one, too. Based on what others tell me, this is par for the course for many Aikido schools.
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FEBRUARY/MARCH 2010
As you can see, there is definitely more than one way to skin a cat – or, in this case, to build and run an Aikido dojo. The point of telling my story for the AIO audience is this: If a formerly crippled kyu rank, like me, can grow a dojo to over 40 adult students, twice, in less than three years, then you should be able to also with only a fraction of the effort that I had to put forth. How? Learn to be more flexible and creative. Let go of your preconceived ideas of how a dojo must and can only function, and learn from those who are producing results like many of those associated with AIO. If you're willing to think a bit differently than you have in the past, you're much more likely to get better results than you have in the past. To quote a former martial arts instructor of mine, "To remain is to regress; to improve is to progress." We are always looking for new Aikido teachers to join our team. If you live somewhere in the Front Range of Colorado, and would like to be a part of what we are growing here at Castle Rock AIKIDO, please feel free to contact us. Thank you, Skip and Paige for allowing me the opportunity to share my very young Aikido story. I hope some will find it of value.
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