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© 2019 MAIA, LLC #17823

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ISSN 2380-561 7(PRINT ) 2469-6889(ONLINE )

Future in Focus _ #MASS2020

PRESENTED BY: PRESENTED BY:

JOHN HACKLEMAN’S Toolbox for Street Survival WHY YOU NEED MAIA

Foundations!

Cover_OCT_20

Cover_OCT_2018.indd 2

8/1/18 5:18 PM

CONTENTS FEATURES 24 MARKETING FOR THE 21ST CENTURY

BY RICHARD BLAINE

David Church of Church’s Taekwondo America in Maryville, Tennessee, reveals the techniques he uses to succeed in the grand game of martial arts marketing.

36 STANDING ON THE SHOULDERS OF GIANTS

JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2020

COLUMNS 32 BLACK BELT LEADERSHIP

BY NGUYEN “TOM” GRIGGS

Honesty Does Not Equal Brutality!

34 IN THE CLASSROOM

BY DAVE KOVAR

12 Rules for Training, Part 2

70 TURNING POINT

BY HERB BORKLAND

Al Francis: First Big Tournament Win

BY CRIS RODRIGUEZ

Learn how to use the accumulated wisdom of other martial arts instructors to lay your foundation for success as a school owner.

44 A MINIMALIST’S TOOLBOX FOR STREET SURVIVAL

BY ROBERT W. YOUNG

This is what you need to know about hand strikes, courtesy of John Hackleman, trainer of one of the UFC’s best punchers.

54 BEHIND THE SCENES AT ENTER THE DOJO

BY ROBERT W. YOUNG

Master Ken and Todd talk about what it takes to make their hit web series — and what’s in store for Enter the Dojo!

62 WHAT’S WRONG WITH KARATE TOURNAMENTS?

B Y T H E E D I T O R S O F B L A C K B E LT

Journey back to 1968 when Chuck Norris, Fumio Demura and Ed Parker sounded off on the problems they’ve seen and the solutions they recommend.

82 GOING MOBILE!

BY TU LE

This technological tool will enable you to market your martial arts studio directly to smartphone users and let them shop the way they want to.

72 HEALTH KICK

BY DWIGHT TROWER

How Martial Arts Training Helps People With Down Syndrome

74 YOU MESSED UP! NOW WHAT?

DEPARTMENTS 06 FROM THE

DIRECTOR’S DESK 14 IN THE KNOW 16 HEAR FROM

YOUR PEERS 18 PRODUCT SPOTLIGHT 20 THE MAIA REPORT 22 MARKETING RESOURCE 76 SCHOOL SHOWCASE

BY K AT H Y O L E V S KY

Who Are You?

88 CONSULTANT’S CORNER

BY S H A N E TA S S O U L

4 Magic Questions to Convert Your Trials Into Students

90 MASTERFUL RETENTION

BY CHRIS RAPPOLD

Students Will Enjoy Sparring If You Change the Way You Teach It!

92 THE KICK YOU NEVER SAW COMING

BY BETH A. BLOCK

Student Down!

94 THE LEGAL LANDSCAPE

BY PHILIP E. GOSS JR., ESQ.

Employer Liability for Employee Accidents While Texting — The Problem Won’t Go Away

98 INSPIRATION OVATION

BY KAREN EDEN

Dilapidated

MAXIM OF THE MONTH “Many years ago, my teacher Masaaki Hatsumi and I were talking about a person who did not have much respect for either of us. Hatsumi sensei could clearly see my frustration with the situation. He said, ‘Don’t talk back to this guy; just listen to what he says, listen to what he criticizes. You can learn a lot about the weakness of his perceptions just by listening.”

— STEPHEN K. HAYES

4 MASUCCESS

36 24 44 62

54 82

FROM THE DIRECTOR’S DESK

Define Your Own Success

BY FRANK SILVERMAN

MAIA EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR

“Focusing on business success is what I do as Executive Director of MAIA. That said, I cannot determine what success looks like for your school and your life. What I do know is everyone should be driving toward a picture of success as they define it.”

6 MASUCCESS

S

uccess has many forms, and everyone defines what it looks like for himself or herself. But no matter how different their views of success, there is one time of year when nearly everyone contemplates their goals: January 1.

If you jump into the new year like I do, you find that your thought process begins to revolve around goals. The start of the year is a springboard for introspective evaluation and, often, change. We do this in our personal lives, as well as in our work and business lives.

Focusing on business success is what I do as Executive Director of MAIA. That said, I cannot determine what success looks like for your school.

My definition may not be the same as yours. But what I do know is everyone should be driving toward a picture of success as they see it. And you must first define success in order to achieve it.

Think about it: No one wakes up in the morning and says, “I’d like to fail today.” But without a clear, personal definition, how can one tell the difference between success and failure?

Going into the holidays and the new year, I want to encourage everyone not only to set goals but also to create a “measuring stick” so you know if you are, in fact, succeeding. Without speaking to you one-on-one, I can’t tell you what your “stick” should be. For some of you, it may be how many students you can enroll. For others, it may be getting your students to qualify for a certain tournament or having a certain number of students reach the level where they can test for black belt.

Whatever goals you set for success in 2020, make them your own. Believing in your goals is key to achieving what you set out to accomplish.

The Martial Arts Industry Association was created to help you accomplish these types of goals, and it can help all martial arts professionals become more successful on their own terms.

We provide support in many ways — through the articles in this magazine, for starters. MAIA has a

myriad of programs, from its Elite one-on-one consulting program to MAIA consultant Cris Rodriguez’ MAIA Foundations social media marketing course.

(See her feature article in this issue.) We offer curriculums created by the world’s best martial artists and business pros. We built the MAIA Edge website to be perfect for both small and large schools. The Martial Arts SuperShow, presented every July, has the sole purpose of taking you farther along your path to success.

Every year, the goal of MAIA is to provide even more effective help to all school owners. To accomplish that, we need to define your success and find your pain points. Please give us a call, attend an event or send an email identifying any problems that may be standing in your way. Together we can help you attain success, no matter what your goals may be.

To contact Frank Silverman, send an email to teamcfck@aol.com. Find him on Twitter and Facebook at @franksilverman.

CORRECT KICKING

MADE FUN!

kicKing training products help teach kids correct kicking forms at home or in class with kid-friendly shields that guide kicks to the correct position.

Learn more about kicKingŠ and a variety of other youth training products by visiting our website at CenturyMartialArts.com

G

s www.CenturyMartialArts.com (800) 626-2787. “Century” is a registered trademark of Century, LLC. All rights reserved. © 2019 Century, LLC. #17730

STAFF F R A N K S I LV E R M A N I S T H E E X E C U T I V E Director of the Martial

FROM THE DIRECTOR’S DESK

Arts Industry Association, and the owner and operator of 11 martial arts schools in Orlando, FL. He’s also the author of Business Is Business: Passion and Profit in the Martial Arts Industry. Follow Frank on Twitter and Facebook @franksilverman. Contact him at teamcfck@aol.com.

MELISSA TORRES IS THE DIVISION

THE MAIA REPORT

Manager of the Martial Arts Industry Association. She is a practitioner of kung fu san soo, Cage Fitness and yoga. She is passionate about helping school owners succeed and achieve their goals.

She can be reached at mtorres@masuccess.com.

DAVE KOVAR OWNS AND OPERATES A chain of successful martial art schools.

NGUYEN “TOM” GRIGGS, ED.D., I S a sensei in Japanese jujitsu at TNT Jujitsu

BLACK BELT LEADERSHIP

under Hanshi Torey Overstreet in Houston, TX. He’s the owner of Lead Connect Grow, LLC. Organizations hire him to develop black belt-level professionals in the areas of Teams, Leadership and Conflict Management. Feel

IN THE CLASSROOM

free to email him at tom@ntgriggs.com.

Additionally, he operates Pro-Mac (Professional Martial Arts College), dedicated to helping martial artists become professionals in Business Management, Mat Mastery, Sales Mastery, Wealth Management and CuttingEdge Classroom Concepts. In 2010, he was the recipient of the Martial Arts Industry Association’s Lifetime Achievement Award.

Contact him at dave.kovar@kovars.com or check out his blog at kovarsblog.kovarsystems.com.

HERB BORKLAND WAS ONE OF

TURNING POINT

Jhoon Rhee’s original white belts at America’s first taekwondo school and, later, a closeddoor student of Chinese “soft” styles pioneer Robert W. Smith. For three years, starting on ESPN, he hosted the weekly Black Belts TV show. He did the screenplay for Cynthia Rothrock’s HBO-featured Honor and Glory and is an Inside Kung-Fu Hall of Fame martial arts writer. He can be reached at herbork@comcast.net.

CHRISTOPHER RAPPOLD IS THE

MASTERFUL RETENTION

founder of a successful martial arts organization, Personal Best Karate, headquartered in Norton, MA. He’s a five-time world karate champion and is currently the executive director of the world-renowned Team Paul Mitchell, a championship team supported by sport-karate’s longest-running sponsorship.

Rappold is the author of the landmark MAIA program Retention Based Sparring. He can be reached at founder@personalbestkarate.com.

KURT KLINGENMEYER OWNS T H R E E karate schools in Southeastern

CONSULTANT’S CORNER

10 MASUCCESS

Wisconsin. A former elementary school teacher turned martial arts school owner, Klingenmeyer holds both a bachelor’s and a master’s degree in education. He has applied his experiences as an educator to the field of martial arts instruction, and as a MAIA consultant, he enjoys supporting other school owners as they maximize their potential and reach their goals. He can be contacted via email at kklingenmeyer@masuccess.com.

BETH BLOCK, A 4TH-DEGREE B L A C K belt in karate, is the president of Block

THE KICK YOU NEVER SAW COMING!

Insurance in Orlando, FL. Block has protected businesses that serve children for the past 24 years. She is the writer of Martial Arts Minute, a weekly risk-management newsletter.

You can reach her at (800) 225-0863 or beth@blockins.net.

STAFF MASUCCESS IS PUBLISHED BY

SARAH LOBBAN IS THE A S S O C I A T E Publications Editor for

IN THE KNOW

the Martial Arts Industry Association.

She has trained and fought in MMA and muay thai, and currently trains in jeet kune do. She can be reached at slobban@centurymartialarts.com.

VOL. 21, NO. 1 // JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2020 MAIA LLC, 1000 Century Blvd., Oklahoma City, OK 73110;

EDITOR EMERITUS

John Corcoran

KATHY OLEVSKY AND HER H U S B A N D , Rob, own and operate Karate

YOU MESSED UP! NOW WHAT?

International in North Carolina. Kathy is the managing partner in their five-school operation. She’s an 8th-degree black belt with 32 full-time years of teaching and operating martial arts schools. She can be reached for questions or comments at kathy.olevsky@raleighkarate.com.

(866) 626-6226.

EDITOR

Robert W. Young EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR MARTIAL ARTS INDUSTRY ASSOCIATION

Frank Silverman MAIA DIVISION MANAGER

Melissa Torres ASSOCIATE EDITOR

Sarah Lobban

E R I C T H E T R A I N E R ( E R I C P.

HEALTH KICK!

THE LEGAL LANDSCAPE

Fleishman) is a Hollywood-based celebrity personal trainer with over 28 years’ experience. He has worked with top actors and musicians, MMA fighters, and the military. He hosts the popular TV show “Celebrity Sweat,” which you can watch on Amazon Prime. His enthusiastic message of living a healthy life has been adopted by many groups, most recently the American Culinary Federation. For questions or comments, contact Eric the Trainer at Mainemonster@gmail.com.

M A I A I N T E R N AT I O N A L C O N S U LTA N T S Kurt Klingenmeyer Robby Beard Mike Metzger Jason Flame Adam Parman Antonio Fournier Shane Tassoul Cris Rodriguez ADVERTISING DIRECTOR

Jan Szijarto ART DIRECTOR

Paul Duarte COLUMNISTS & CONTRIBUTORS

David Barnett

Sarah Lobban

Beth A. Block

Mike Metzger

Herb Borkland

Kristin Miller

PHILIP E. GOSS, JR., ESQ. IS a member of the Florida and several other

Karen Eden

Kathy Olevsky

Jason Flame

Suzanne Pisano

Federal Bar Associations. Phil welcomes any e-mail comments or questions at PhilGosslaw@gmail.com and will attempt to respond personally, time permitting.

Eric P. Fleishman

Christopher Rappold

Antonio Fournier

Frank Silverman

Philip E. Goss Jr., Esq.

Shane Tassoul

Nguyen “Tom” Griggs

Melissa Torres

IBISWorld.com

Dwight Trower

Perry William Kelly

KAREN EDEN IS A 6TH-DEGREE

INSPIRATION OVATION

master of tang soo do. She’s a broadcast journalist who has appeared nationally on CNN, FOX and Animal Planet as well as on local affiliates for NBC and PBS. Karen is also a published book author and magazine columnist who has written for or been featured in every major martial arts magazine globally. Contact her at renedenherdman@gmail.com.

Kurt Klingenmeyer Dave Kovar CORRESPONDENTS

Herb Borkland (VA) Karen Eden (CO) Andrea F. Harkins (AZ) Andre Lima (CA) PUBLISHER

David Wahl

Perry William Kelly (CANADA) Terry L. Wilson (CA) Keith D. Yates (TX)

Return postage must accompany all manuscripts and photographs submitted to MASUCCESS, if they are to be returned, and no responsibility can be assumed for unsolicited materials. All rights for letters submitted to this magazine will be treated as unconditionally assigned for publication and copyright purposes and as subject to the editorial staff’s right to edit and to comment editorially.

MAIA, its owners, directors, officers, employees, subsidiaries, successors and assigns are not responsible in any manner for any injury that may occur by reading and/or following the instructions herein.

As publisher, MAIA makes no endorsements, representations, guarantees or warranties concerning the products and or services presented or advertised herein.

We expressly disclaim any and all liability arising from or relating to the manufacture, sale, distribution, use, misuse or other act of any party in regard to such products and/or services. MASUCCESS is a trademark of the MAIA. © 2019 MAIA LLC. All rights reserved.

Reproduction in whole or in part without permission is prohibited.

The mission of MAIA is to grow, promote and protect the martial arts industry, and to provide benefits to its members to help them become more successful.

JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2020 11

RE ADY TO B UI L D YO UR

DREAM GYM?

WE’VE GOT YOUR BACK. ZebraAthletics.com

IN THE KNOW

BY ASHLEY LUGRAND

WORDS OF WISDOM A CERTAIN AMOUNT OF OPPOSITION IS A GREAT HELP TO A MAN. KITES RISE AGAINST, NOT WITH, THE WIND. — LEWIS MUMFORD

MARTIAL ARTS TRIVIA 1

True or false: Slapping techniques, such as repeatedly slapping an opponent in the face, are often seen in sumo wrestling matches.

2

True or false: Wing chun is a northern style of Chinese kung fu that emphasizes streamlined self-defense methods.

3

The first notable use of Asian martial arts in Western literature occurred in a short story featuring what famous fictional character?

4

Nicknamed “The Queen of Mean,” which female martial arts competitor was Black Belt’s 1991 Woman of the Year?

ANSWERS: 1) True 2) False 3) Sherlock Holmes 4) Kathy Long 14 MASUCCESS

IN THE KNOW

YOU ASKED DO YOU OFFER DISCOUNTS FOR FAMILIES WITH MORE THAN ONE STUDENT ENROLLED?

APPROXIMATELY

Yes. We offer a family discount. When you pay for the first two family members in full, the rest of the family is included.”

— K R I S T I N M I L L E R , C H A M P I O N S H I P M A RT I A L A RT S , G L E N V I E W, I L

Yes. We offer a single-member rate and a family rate.

After a second family member enrolls, anyone else in the family can train for free.”

— J A S O N F L A M E , TA N G S O O D O U N I V E R S I T Y & M O O R PA R K K R AV M A G A , M O O R PA R K , C A

n

se

STATS SPEAK

Absolutely. A family that kicks together, sticks together! The first two family members pay the regular price. Everyone else is free.”

58%

OF DADS SAY THEY USE FOUR OR MORE SOURCES OF INFORMATION TO HELP MAKE PURCHASE DECISIONS. THIS MEANS YOUR WEBSITE ALONE ISN’T ENOUGH; USE YOUR SOCIAL MEDIA SITES TO SHARE THE BENEFITS OF TRAINING AT YOUR SCHOOL.

— K U R T K L I N G E N M E Y E R , B L A C K B E LT K A R A T E S T U D I O , RACINE, WI & CHAMPIONSHIP MARTIAL ARTS, OAK CREEK, WI

hich

?

Yes. After the first family member enrolls, we offer 20-percent off for the second family member, 30-percent off for the third and so forth. I know many people no longer do so. But for me, I personally like to help families since the cost of living today is already a big burden on the average family.”

— M E L O D Y S H U M A N , S K I L L Z W O R L D W I D E , S T. P E T E R S B U R G , F L

JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2020 15

HEAR FROM YOUR

PEERS 16 MASUCCESS

1 2

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JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2020 17

PRODUCT SPOTLIGHT

USA KARATE GLOVES AND BOOTS Century®

www.CenturyMartialArts.com

1

We may be heading into the cold of winter, but martial artists around the world are looking ahead to the debut of karate in the 2020 Summer Olympics. Bring professional-level quality and training to your school with USA Karate Gloves and Boots from Century Martial Arts. Both items are USA Karate Federation– approved. Century also carries World Karate Federation– approved uniforms and gear.

Visit our website to learn more.

For more information on this and other great Century products, call a helpful Century Sales Representative at (800) 626-2789 or visit www.CenturyMartialArts.com.

CENTURY FITNESS COLLECTION Century®

www.CenturyMartialArts.com

2

Martial arts and fitness training go hand in hand. You can keep both skill sets up to speed without having to hop from store to store because Century Martial Arts now has an extensive fitness line that includes agility, strength and cardio-training equipment. Many items have multiple uses and make excellent additions to circuit-training or martial arts workouts.

For more information on this and other great Century products, call a helpful Century Sales Representative at (800) 626-2789 or visit www.CenturyMartialArts.com.

18 MASUCCESS

PRODUCT SPOTLIGHT

CENTURY HOLIDAY EVENT PLANNER Century®

3

www.CenturyHolidayPlanner.com

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COLOR

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JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2020 19

THE MAIA REPORT

PreSKILLZ Is Rolling Out a New Feature!

BY MELISSA TORRES

MAIA DIVISION MANAGER

“We are once again adding on to PreSKILLZ! As a member, you now have access to all the skills at once! You will be able to create your own plan with a library of warm-ups, skillbuilding drills, games and more.”

20 MASUCCESS

E

ighteen months ago, MAIA launched a done-for-you curriculum created by childdevelopment expert Melody Johnson. This program, called PreSKILLZ, was designed to give any instructor the know-how needed to teach children ages 3-6. PreSKILLZ leads you through the eight essential skills children should develop and provides warm-ups, mat chats, games and skillbuilding drills to be used in class.

PreSKILLZ was the first curriculum MAIA launched after I became the division manager, and I have tremendously enjoyed being a part of it.

(It’s also not a bad gig to get to visit Johnson in St. Petersburg, Florida, twice a year to film new content — right on the beach!)

Over the course of the past year and a half, we have heard dozens of success stories and seen the excitement from our schools that have implemented PreSKILLZ. When Johnson takes the stage at the Martial Arts SuperShow and speaks, it’s clear how knowledgeable and passionate she is about teaching children.

I’ve seen so many schools become inspired when they witness Johnson and her instructors, Clayton Maxcy and Hunter Johnson (no relation), teach the pre-conference event at the SuperShow and demonstrate a class. I’ve even had instructors tell me that, thanks to PreSKILLZ, their kids program has gone from the class they worried about most to the class that’s their favorite to teach.

Well, it wasn’t easy, but we managed to make a great program even better! I’m thrilled to announce that we are once again adding on to PreSKILLZ. When we launched the curriculum, you would get a month’s worth of content for the next skill every 28 days or so. You would start with the skill FOCUS, and then, in a few weeks, get the content to teach the skill TEAMWORK, and so on through all eight skills.

At month nine, you start back at FOCUS ­— however, the drills, games and content are brand

new. Without becoming repetitive, this rotation instills the foundation of the skills children need at their age.

We have officially switched from a month-tomonth content drip to a library format. This means that as a PreSKILLZ member, you now have access to all the skills at once. You’ll be able to create your own plan with a library of warm-ups, skill-building drills, games and more. If you like the done-for-you class planners, don’t worry — they are still available!

You just have more options now.

How can this new feature be applied? Suppose that one month, you have an influx of new students who are struggling to pick up a drill that you had planned for the week. You can immediately go into your digital library and find a different drill to substitute. You’ll never be short on ideas again.

We want to constantly improve on the experience of being part of PreSKILLZ, and we’re excited to change the format so you can have more flexibility to learn the material and prepare for your classes on your time when you’re ready.

You will have more freedom to make the program your own, while still following class planners put together by a child-development expert who’s studied how kids learn and who knows how to put the “fun” in fundamental skills.

If you’re currently a PreSKILLZ member and have additional suggestions on how we can continue to deliver the best children’s programs for martial art schools, let us know in the members-only PreSKILLZ Facebook group.

If you’re ready to try out this new library format, check it out at PreSKILLZ.com. We look forward to your feedback.

To contact Melissa Torres, send an email to mtorres@masuccess.com.

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22 MASUCCESS

Photos Courtesy of David Church

Photos Courtesy of David Church

MARKETING FOR THE ST 21 CENTURY DAVID CHURCH Discusses the Marketing Methods That Have Worked Best for His TaeKwonDo America School

by Richard Blaine

David Church

recalled the day when one of his students asked to buy a new backpack with his taekwondo school’s logo on it. The little girl had already purchased one, so he assumed she had simply lost her first pack.

“But she told me she gave her backpack away to another girl at school who didn’t have a backpack,” Church said. “I was so touched that I just gave her a new one for free.”

Always on the lookout for new marketing opportunities, Church began offering to sell new branded backpacks and school folders at half price to any students who decided to give their old gear to their classmates. It wound up being just one of many innovative ways he’s found to advertise his martial arts school in Maryville, Tennessee, in a more focused manner.

Family Affair

that he learned a great deal from him, he noted that his master was also very traditional. And tradition often prevents people from being open to innovations that can lead to better business.

He initially followed his instructor’s model in his own facility. It took Church a few years of trial and error to realize that he needed to make some changes in the way he did things if he wanted to have a truly lucrative 21st-century martial arts academy.

“I think I was a little too rigid in the way I had our curriculum set up,” he said. “It was far too traditional for the majority of our modern clients. We have adjusted that over the years to try to balance traditional martial arts with the attitudes and interests of the kind of students we’re getting in the 2000s.”

Church admitted to also being slow to change his ideas regarding promoting his business. He said he was spending money to advertise his Church’s TaeKwonDo America in coupon books and expensive direct-mail marketing campaigns because that was the way his peers were doing things. For the first four years of his school’s existence, he didn’t even have his own website to promote his business.

Eventually, however, Church learned that there are more effective ways to market a martial arts business and that he needed to be more selective in where he spent his advertising dollars.

Facebook

Having been raised in Tennessee, Church admitted that the martial arts were the furthest thing from his mind when he was a kid.

“My younger brother and sister started doing taekwondo when I was a teenager,” he said. “I spent a month or two making fun of them for it — until I finally went to a class and was immediately hooked.

“I really loved the fact it was an individual sport. In a martial arts school, you have the camaraderie of a team sport, but at the end of the day, it’s still an individual sport, and that was something I really appreciated.”

After training with his first instructor — Scott Evers in Johnson City, Tennessee — Church moved to Knoxville to attend college in 2000. There, he began training under Evers’ instructor James Rich. For the next several years, Church worked full time as an assistant instructor at Rich’s taekwondo studio, learning the ins and outs of running a school. Although he initially pursued a degree in sports management at the University of Tennessee, Church decided to quit college to follow his passion for teaching the martial arts.

“It just felt right,” he said. “It felt like something I was called on to do. And it also seemed like something that I could do as a profession and a career and not just as a hobby.”

advertising is the gold mine right

now. Soon it will

be something else, but one way or

The first step Church took was to set up a professional-looking website for his school. Then he began looking for other ways to attract attention online.

“I had to learn how to do all that myself,” he said. “It’s not easy because the internet and social media change so fast nowadays and there are people who make it their full-time job just to keep up with that and know how to market online. But my full-time job is to run a martial arts school, so I just wasn’t as knowledgeable as I could have been in that field.”

For that reason, Church opted to seek professional assistance, and he recommends other school owners do the same. That might mean hiring a pro to educate you in online advertising. At the very least, it should entail taking formal courses in internet advertising. He chose the latter route and signed up for several online programs. He quickly developed a savvy for marketing his martial arts school in the internet age.

“Facebook advertising is the gold mine right now,” Church said.

“Soon it will be something else, but one way or another, social media is the key. We buy Facebook ad space, and we’re also

another, social

media is the key.”

Martial Education Church continued to teach at Rich’s school until he and his wife decided to open their own studio in nearby Maryville in 2007.

Although Church said that Rich ran a successful enterprise and 26 MASUCCESS

Online Promotions

involved on Instagram. Then you have ads with Google, which are another great way of advertising to a specific audience.”

With online advertising deployed through entities like Facebook and Google, Church was able to take a more focused approach to his marketing campaign, running ads that targeted people in his area who might have an interest in the martial arts. That way, he knew he wasn’t wasting money sending his message to people who were unlikely to ever show up at a martial arts gym.

Not surprisingly, this is the method he recommends for any school that’s looking to expand. He said he likes to set aside 10 percent of his gross revenue for advertising his school.

Public Schools For Church, the other key to growing his business was attracting the youth market through partnerships with the local public-school system. “We wasted our first three or four years in business by not even attempting to get into the local schools,” he said. “And being a martial arts school that appeals predominantly to children, that was a big mistake for us.”

But he eventually caught on, and he and his school are now education partners with the local schools in Maryville, which affords them the benefits of advertising to their target audience without having to pay for it. Instead, Church donates his time to afterschool programs.

“We’ll do a four-week program going into the school one day a week and teaching a 30-minute class on that day,” he said. “The school will sign up interested students and charge whatever they want to charge — we recommend $25 a head — but we let them keep 100 percent of money. So it’s a win-win for them.

“At end of the four weeks, we’ll have a graduation ceremony at our martial arts school for all the students who participated in the program. Then we’ll try to do a mass enrollment. Our goal is to get 25 percent of them to sign up for lessons. But in the end, everyone wins. We get face time with potential students and get to sign up some of them for our martial arts school, and the public school makes some money from it. The schools love it, and we love it.”

part of that process has been building a sense of brand loyalty through the customized equipment he uses. He recognized that with the ease of online shopping, it would have been tough to compete against internet vendors who sell generic equipment at low prices. But by placing his school logo on things, he figured he was adding value to the items while encouraging his students to shop with him rather than online.

“We customize everything we can possibly customize,” Church said. “Our uniforms are customized, we have custom labels sewn on all our belts and we put school logos on our sparring gear.

And all our equipment is customized as well: [striking] targets, Wavemaster heavy bags, weapons — all of it.

“It’s very important from a retention standpoint to build your brand like that. So our students are not just falling in love with the martial arts; they’re also falling in love with us. And of course, when our students are wearing our stuff to school or carrying our backpacks or folders, it’s great advertising.”

None of these innovations came to Church overnight. Instead, it took him some time to hit on the right strategies to grow his school to its current enrollment of 200.

“I think a lot of that is because, for a long time, we were stuck in an old, traditional mindset in terms of advertising and marketing,” he said. “But it was also because I was still working another job delivering fitness equipment for the first few years I was open. Having my attention pulled in two different directions definitely slowed us down.”

We customize

everything we can

possibly customize.

Our uniforms are

customized, we have custom labels sewn

on all our belts and we put school logos on our sparring gear.”

Branded Gear Of course, once he has the students enrolled at his taekwondo school, Church embarks on a mission to retain them. A big

On-the-Job Training Church admitted that the decision to work a second job while getting your martial arts school up and running is a difficult one to make, but it’s a choice that comes down to what type of school you want to have. If you want to operate the school primarily as a hobby, holding down a second job to help pay the bills is certainly a viable — or even necessary — option.

However, if you wish to make a career out of teaching the martial arts, he said it’s necessary to commit 100 percent to running your school full time, and that means marketing it the right way.

The one positive that Church did have from holding that second job in his early teaching days was the startup capital he was able to accrue. “Being in a small town where it took us three or four years to get going, I’m glad I didn’t have a lot of initial debt on top of that,” he said.

He also was aided in his first years of teaching by belonging JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2020 29

When I started in martial arts, it seemed like instructors were reluctant to reach out and network with other schools, but those times have changed”

to a large organization of successful schools: TaeKwonDo America. He said being part of a strong group like that is an invaluable resource to draw on for advice.

“When I started in martial arts, it seemed like instructors were reluctant to reach out and network with other schools, but those times have changed,” Church said. “Plenty of successful schools are more than happy to help you with some guidance when you’re struggling. We wouldn’t be where we’re at if we hadn’t asked for help along the way.”

To illustrate, he cited an example: “Years ago, I had a conflict with my landlord, and I reached out to our organization

30 MASUCCESS

and found there were people who’d had similar problems in the past. They were able to give me some good advice, and because of that, I was able to fight it.”

Church recommends that anyone just getting started in the martial arts business consider joining such a group for situations when advice is needed.

For more information about David Church and Church’s TaeKwonDo America, visit kickwiththebest.com.

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7

BLACK BELT LEADERSHIP

Honesty Does Not Equal Brutality!

BY NGUYEN “TOM” GRIGGS

“Consider how ‘You were rude’ and ‘You had a poor interaction’ can bring about different emotions.”

32 MASUCCESS

W

ith the new year about to begin, it's a good time to share a unique and potentially difficult discussion on the differences between honesty and brutality.

Numerous friends and peers have mentioned honesty as something they struggle with in varying capacities. That struggle might emanate from people not being honest enough with themselves, with others or with members of their business.

Ironically, honesty tends to be one of the traits that many martial arts schools teach as part of their value system. But what makes honesty such an important topic for leaders is that we need to remember the distinction between being honest and being brutal.

One of my pet peeves concerns people who say they like to “keep it real” or “tell it like it is.” They see no problem with being abrasive or insulting, all in the name of honesty. However, they lack a true understanding of the concept. Now, I agree that honesty need not be sugarcoated, but I have good reason for my dislike of “brutal honesty.”

In my old neighborhood, people were tough, blunt and at times thuggish. Many of the “good” ones I knew while growing up would be giving me a life lesson about listening to my elders one minute, curse someone out the next minute and then brutally assault a person a moment later. Afterward, they would turn back to me and carry on in the same caring tone of voice despite what they’d just done.

My point is that these were people who could take offense at the slightest thing, be it a nuance in a spoken phrase or a fleeting facial expression.

The result often was emotional and physical violence directed at the offender.

Consequently, I struggled with honesty. When I wanted to tell friends or peers something that I wasn’t sure they would like or agree with, I’d dance around the topic.

One day, I was at a Chinese restaurant. I opened a fortune cookie that said, “Honesty without compassion is brutality.” For some reason, that simple message became sunlight on a dreary day.

I realized that my problem stemmed from worrying too much about how my words might hurt someone’s feelings — even if my intention was to

help them in the long run. I also realized that no one was going to assault me as a result.

That day when I read the fortune cookie, I finally understood that my fear of other people’s hurt feelings and the experiences of my past were holding me back from growth.

Honesty vs. Brutality The following guidelines will help you have those difficult conversations with people — without dipping into brutality. Let’s use the example of a team member who’s been demonstrating some attitude issues with clients.

1) Ask yourself, “Does this issue truly need to be said? And does it need to be said by me?” Perhaps your staff member has an attitude related to you.

If you’re the source of the person’s poor attitude, addressing it might turn into something ugly.

Check around and ask others to see what you can discover. Someone else may be better suited to help the afflicted person.

2) Focus on actions and the consequences — but not the person. Suppose that your staff member was rude with a parent and that resulted in an email outlining the dissatisfaction. Cite the team member’s actions and the results, but avoid making it personal.

Consider how “You were rude” and “You had a poor interaction” can bring about different emotions. Likewise, “You offended that parent” and “That parent felt offended” can carry different emotional weights.

3) Think before you communicate. Whether it’s a verbal message, a text or an email, consider what you’re saying before you say it. Remember that reprimanding someone for acting like you is hypocrisy. There are times when you have to be blunt to be effective, but your words are like your techniques: You have to commit to a technique before changing to something else. Try to never let your emotions defeat your judgment.

Nguyen “Tom” Griggs is a professional consultant/speaker on subjects that include teams, leadership and conflict. To contact him, send an email to tom@ntgriggs.com.

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THE PROBLEM

THE SOLUTION

For a long time, Paul Brown ran his business the way a lot of trainers do: using the industry giant, MindBody. “It was probably the biggest one out there at the time, trading on the stock exchange, the whole nine yards.”

After looking at multiple options on the market, WellnessLiving stood out from the crowd. Paul even took a call with Sasha Davids, the COO of WellnessLiving to discuss his goals and his expectations. “I like their management style, and they have a great attitude. That’s what really sold me.”

But it didn’t take long for third-party platforms and exorbitant costs to affect his bottom line. “If you wanted to get this feature, you had to pay a little bit extra.” And soon those little bits started to add up, but even that wasn’t enough for MindBody. “They sent me a notice that they were going to raise our rates by 25% for no apparent reason. That was it.”

After that, Paul was ready to take his business elsewhere; somewhere closer to home that respected and valued him.

“I’m not the type of person that likes to be under someone else’s control, and I like to know that you appreciate my business. I want to be a valued customer.”

And so, he made the switch.

After WellnessLiving migrated all of Paul’s data from MindBody, the team at Paul Brown Boxfit delved excitedly into their new software. “We were very happy with it.

WellnessLiving’s system makes sense and is very logical.

Everything we need is there.”

It didn’t take long for Paul’s decision to pay off. “WellnessLiving showed me they were willing to try to keep my business, and that was a big plus for me. They are continuously growing, getting better and looking for new ways to serve their clients. You can’t go wrong with them.”

IN THE CLASSROOM

12 Rules for Training, Part 2

BY DAVE KOVAR

“As much as embracing fatigue is important, it can lead to injury if you’re not careful.

That’s why it’s essential to pick your techniques and your partners wisely. Make sure that what you’re doing is age- and skillappropriate.”

I

n the November/December 2019 issue of MASuccess, I presented the first six of my 12 rules for training. Here, I’ll discuss the remaining six rules.

7. Embrace Fatigue As legendary pro-football coach Vince Lombardi once said, “Fatigue makes cowards of us all.” Rarely do we perform as well when we become fatigued.

From a fitness standpoint, however, fatigue is valuable. Training to the point of fatigue helps us become better-conditioned martial artists.

Learning how to handle fatigue is also important from a self-defense standpoint. If you’re targeted by a mugger, it won’t be because you look alert and energized. Criminals are more likely to strike when you seem vulnerable, when you’re worn out from a long day at work or after a long run. The stress and the “adrenaline dump” that happens during a self-defense encounter will cause you to become exhausted more quickly than usual.

Fighting an attacker is hard enough without having to fight fatigue at the same time. The more we train while fatigued, the easier it becomes to deal with it.

8. Be Consistent and Think Long-Term It’s understandable that you won’t always have time to do all the training you want to. The danger here is that one day away from training can turn into two days, then three days, then a week.

When you return, eager to make up for time missed, you discover that your body is no longer in the state it was.

As my dad always said, “A little of something is better than a lot of nothing.” It’s important to remember that a short workout is better than no workout at all. This will help keep your skills sharp, as well as reduce the risk of injury. This is one of the most important pieces of advice to follow if you plan on making martial arts a lifelong pursuit. It has been my experience that there are few active martial artists over the age of 50 who are not consistent.

9. Train Safe It’s important to always listen to your body. Learn to distinguish between simple muscle soreness,

34 MASUCCESS

which usually can be worked through, and aches or pains that are abnormal and indicate potentially serious injury.

Also, as much as embracing fatigue is important, it can lead to injury if you’re not careful. That’s why it’s essential to pick your techniques and your partners wisely. Make sure that what you’re doing is age- and skill-appropriate.

10. To Be Fast, Go Slow Many times over the years, in my hurry to do a movement quickly, I’ve glossed over some important details only to have to go back and relearn them later. It’s been my experience that relearning something is a lot harder than learning it right the first time.

That’s why I try to focus on going slow and being smooth until I get a movement down perfectly.

Then I allow myself to pick up speed gradually.

The result is I’ve developed fewer bad habits. And my movement has become more efficient, which translates to greater speed and power.

11. Stay Playful Everyone started training for a different reason, but what keeps us coming back decade after decade is not self-defense or fitness; it’s enjoyment. It’s incredibly valuable to create an environment that makes it easier to have fun.

12. Constantly Review and Evaluate Have you ever had to acquire the same technique several times because you didn’t practice between training sessions? I thought so. Me, too.

When I take time at the end of a session to think about what I’ve learned — and perhaps even to review it again — I retain it much better in the long run. This might seem obvious to you, but it took me decades to figure out!

If you put these 12 rules to work, I’m confident that you’ll find them as valuable as I have through the years.

To contact Dave Kovar, send an email to dave. kovar@kovars.com.

WHO ELSE WANTS TO BUILD AUTHORITY, LEVERAGE LEGIT CREDENTIALS AND DOMINATE YOUR COMPETITION AS THE #1 MARTIAL ARTS AND PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT CENTER IN YOUR AREA? “I have to say that the Powerful Words Character Development Program is a godsend. As a martial arts school owner and entrepreneur, I am constantly looking for ways to add value to my program.

What Jason & Dr. Robyn Silverman add to my academy is priceless! As a Powerful Words Personal Development Center, I’m a solution provider to parents who want to provide their child with an unfair advantage in life and give them confidence, laser sharp focus, and unwavering courage to take a stand and live a powerful life through the martial arts. Thanks to Powerful Words Character Development, I have separated myself from my competition and stand out above the rest.”

—Patrick Consing ~ Kapatid Martial Arts ~ Pleasantville, NY

WHAT ARE TOP SCHOOL OWNERS SAYING ABOUT THE POWERFUL WORDS SYSTEM? I, like many of you, promise to teach character development as part of our martial arts program. After all, that’s why many parents bring their children to our programs. However, teaching things like respect, confidence, self-esteem, optimism, kindness, etc. are too important to leave to chance that the student will get it in a few 45 minute classes each week. It has to be systematic, it has to methodical, and most importantly, it has to be effective. That’s why we teamed up with Master Jason and Dr. Robyn Silverman in 2007 to provide our members with the Powerful Words Character Development System. This donefor-you program outlines a systematic curriculum for teaching character to our students. They’re stepby-step so that my instructors are all on the same page and can be implemented quickly and the same way each month. We all know that consistency is the key to success so having Powerful Words done for us each month means that I’m arming my instructors with the tools to be successful. It is the ONE product I believe is a must have for serious school owners. In addition to its step-by-step nature, we are able to leverage Dr. Robyn’s credibility as a well known expert in child and adolescent development ensures that what we’re teaching our students goes beyond mere opinion and has credentialed expertise to back it up. Our parents go nuts for the power chats and lessons that we’re teaching their children, constantly reinforcing their buying decision. It is one of the ways we get them to stay, pay, and refer!

Powerful Words is Systematic. Consistent. And it works!

—Manny Cabrera ~ SideKicks Family Martial Arts Center ~ Lithia, FL

DR. ROBYN J.A. SILVERMAN Martial Arts Industry’s #1 Child Development Expert

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36 MASUCCESS

Standing on the Shoulders of Giants Use the Accumulated Wisdom of Other Instructors to Lay Your Foundation for Success!

by Cris Rodriguez

JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2020 37

A

s martial arts school owners, we come in all shapes and sizes — as do our schools. And while there’s so much we have in common, we’re all on our own unique journeys.

The Martial Arts Industry Association, one of the oldest consulting companies in our business, has a long track record of helping school owners achieve their own personal definition of success. In the past, however, success always came after an investment was made.

And that was fine. It’s natural that working with the top consul-

tants in the industry and having a personal mentor should entail an investment.

However, it’s perfectly understandable if a school owner who’s just getting started lacks the budget to sign up with a program such as MAIA Elite or MAIA Wealth. That’s why MAIA leaders asked themselves, What can we do to offer a program that’s affordable to school owners who are in the early stages of their business plan while still providing the top-notch consulting that MAIA is known for?

Thus was born MAIA Foundations.

Our two-step Foundations approach teaches school owners how to drive leads into their schools with digital marketing and gives them the systems they need to convert those leads into enrollments.

38 MASUCCESS

motivation Those leaders wanted to make sure that MAIA Foundations wasn’t just another coaching program in the martial arts industry. They wanted to make sure it was the coaching program for helping small school owners get the traction needed to accomplish their goals.

As one of those consultants, I’ve noticed that the No. 1 most-asked question is, “How do I get more students?”

That’s actually not the best question to ask — but it is an important one. If you dig deep, you’ll find that the reason

school owners ask this is they’re trying to generate more revenue.

One way to increase revenue is to increase student count. To increase student count, we knew we had to teach school owners how to drive more traffic into their academies. And there’s no better way to do so than to use one of the most powerful marketing tools of the 21st century: social media.

But what good is increasing your student count if you don’t have the business systems in place to keep those students? This is where MAIA Foundations’ two-step approach enters the picture.

MAIA Foundations is an affordable group-coaching program that connects you with top consultants and provides an actionable game plan so can you build the business of your dreams.

Foundations is the only program in the martial arts industry that gives you access to two of the top business consultants in the industry, people who are prepared to share methods that are simple, effective and sure to generate growth in your business. You also receive digital-marketing guidance from me that includes surefire ways to capitalize on the popularity of social media in a manner that generates a ton of leads.

But don’t take my word for it. Listen to these school owners who have seen results from MAIA Foundations firsthand: “Holy cash flow, Batman! Just brought in $9,715 in three hours last night using the new pricing structure!”

— Dan McDougal “There is simply no question about whether this will be a good investment for your business. If you want to get ahead of the competition, take this course!”

— Bridgette Crocker “We were black belts in martial arts but white belts in business.

MAIA helped us become professionals in running our school like a business but also kept the integrity of true martial artists!”

— Krista Sky So how do you get started? First, let’s make sure you’re ready for MAIA Foundations with a free 20-minute call with one of our consultants. Schedule that call through the Connect with a Coach feature of our website. maiahub.com/connect

Cris Rodriguez owns a black belt in Brazilian jiu-jitsu and a third degree in taekwondo. The co-owner of Gracie PAC MMA, she has 25 years of experience in the martial arts and 18 years of experience as a teacher. Based in Tampa, Florida, Rodriguez has studied internet marketing for eight years and is the founder of Grow Pro Agency, a digital-marketing firm that runs Facebook and Instagram ads for martial arts school owners.

JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2020 39

classes that count 40 MASUCCESS

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I’ve always believed that there are two ways to fast-track success in any area of life. No. 1 is find a mentor with whom you can meet consistently and do what he or she says. No. 2 is find an accountability buddy to help you implement plans.

While nothing is more powerful than one-on-one coaching, group coaching allows the power of a mastermind to shine. You will get mentors who truly care about getting you results and accountability partners who will help you do what needs to be done.

MAIA Foundations is a six-month group-coaching program. Classes last 60 to 90 minutes and take place via video conferencing. Each month, you will receive two training sessions from Mike Metzger and Shane Tassoul on how to implement business systems that will help you convert new students and from me on how to drive traffic using social media.

Check out these lesson plans:

pricing structure / 4-step enrollment system Learn how to present your pricing and sell it to customers. You’ll learn the four pricing structures that are crucial to generating revenue for your business and why it’s so important to describe them in a specific way. Then you’ll learn the four steps of selling so you’ll know how to present value to your prospects while generating revenue for your business.

creating your online marketing calendar Learn how to create a plan and stick to it. You’ll find out why keeping a marketing calendar is so important and what to fill it up with so there’s a constant buzz surrounding your school. You’ll see sample content so you can emulate it on your own channels.

mass enrollments and how to pack them Learn how to enroll dozens of new students into your program in just one hour. You’ll discover the “mass enrollment” system your peers use. By the end of the lesson, you’ll know the best way to make this strategy work even if you’re a one-person team.

optimizing your facebook business page Learn a complete framework for optimizing your Facebook presence. We’ll take you line by line and tab by tab through the process so your business profile is head and shoulders above the competition. By the end of the lesson, you’ll know all the critical details of making a Facebook Business Page that grows your school.

maximizing your revenue with the five profit centers Learn why getting new students isn’t the be-all and end-all of building your business. You’ll discover methods for generating revenue for your martial arts school. You’ll hear about the five profit centers that are foundational for every school, as well as ways to implement this knowledge in everything you do.

building your tribe through facebook groups Learn how to use Facebook Groups to drive engagement with your members. We’ll show you ways to connect with those members more outside of class, as well as proven methods for building a tribe online. You’ll also discover how to build an active and engaged Facebook Group so that people feel like they’re part of something bigger than kicks and punches.

You’ll learn the four pricing structures that are crucial to generating revenue for your business and why it’s so important to describe them in a specific way.

JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2020 41

Learn why just being online in your community isn’t enough.

You also need to be on the ground, building relationships.

maximizing off-site booths by getting appointments, not leads

advertising to your target audience through facebook ads manager

Learn why just being online in your community isn’t enough.

You also need to be on the ground, building relationships. And there’s no better way to do that than with off-site booths. We’ll show you how to obtain an off-site booth at an event, how to book appointments at the event and how to follow up with meetings at your school that result in enrollments.

Learn how to determine your ad set in Facebook Ads Manager. We’ll take you through the who, the what and the how: Who do you send your ad to? What do you say?

How much should you spend? Then you’ll learn about the four custom audiences your peers use to generate sales in their schools.

recruiting new students through facebook ads manager

generating tens of thousands of dollars with your appointment book

Learn why so many people advertise on Facebook, why it can dramatically improve your business and how the three levels of a Facebook ad — campaign, ad set and creatives — work. Then we’ll dive into campaign objectives so you know how they function, which ones to use and which ones to avoid.

Learn a proven formula for booking appointments with prospects. Find out why gathering leads and building your email list are so valuable in your business. Of course, nothing is more valuable than having people walk through the door. Only then will you be able to book appointments that bring in thousands of dollars for your school.

the one thing you must do to maximize profitability Learn how to get off the new-student “hamster wheel” and generate revenue without adding a single new student. What does that mean? Well, if you’re like a lot of school owners, the majority of your revenue comes from membership billing. The only way to grow revenue is to add new students. In this lesson, we’ll teach you a tweak that will maximize profitability and increase retention in your school.

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creatives and copywriting that convert Learn how to produce creatives for your Facebook ads. We’ll show you how to write compelling copy and take dynamic photos of your school that get noticed. By the end of the lesson, you’ll be fully equipped to send out your first Facebook ad and get more people in your door.

4 BONUSES for MAIA Foundations Clients BONUS 1: Access to the Foundations Facebook Group You and one member of your team will get access to the MAIA Foundations Facebook Group, where you can ask questions about the content and get help from MAIA coaches on each topic covered in the training.

BONUS 2: Recorded Training Sessions

BONUS 3: Six-Month Subscription to MAIA Edge

BONUS 4: Two Free Tickets to a MAIA Conference

You’ll be able to watch the training so you can focus on each session. If you can’t make the call when it’s live, no problem. You’ll have access to the recording. And if you want to rewatch a call, you have that option so you can better master the subject matter.

You’ll get access to MAIA Edge, a one-stop shop for growing your martial arts school that’s packed full of videos, tools and tutorials.

This marketing information is guaranteed to help you improve the operation of your business.

You’ll get to hear what’s new and what’s working in the leading martial arts schools in the country. You will also get to meet other school owners just like you and join this elite community at one of our quarterly events held around the United States.

JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2020 43

What You Need to Know About Hand Strikes as Taught

by JOHN HACKLEMAN, Trainer of One of the UFC’s Best Punchers STORY BY ROBERT W. YOUNG w PHOTOGRAPHY BY CORY SORENSEN

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ARC STRIKE: This is designed to stop an opponent who’s too close to hit with most punches and not close enough to hit with an elbow, says John Hackleman (left), who recommends people use this open-hand technique only as a first strike. He starts in a nonaggressive stance and attempts to de-escalate (1). When that fails, he initiates the arc strike by turning his hips and raising his hand (2). The martial artist says he makes contact with the heel of his hand, where the ulnar and radial heads are located (3), because it makes for a very hard striking surface. Here, he hits the jaw, but the temple is also a valid target. If the opponent isn’t knocked out (4), Hackleman can disengage (5) and follow up with a right cross (6).

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“If there’s one technique that’s more effective than anything else in a real fight, it’s punching.”

That sentence, uttered by John Hackleman — master of Hawaiian kempo, coach of MMA star Chuck Liddell and the man who appeared on the cover of Black Belt's December 2017/January 2018 issue — was not inherently surprising.

However, before I could wrap my head around it and formulate a follow-up, he doubled down: “And by real fights, I mean two guys going at it in the street, the ring, the cage or wherever. Punching causes more knockouts. Punching is instinctive — for most guys, anyway. Punching is easier than kicking, and it’s easier than taking someone down. Punching is the most important skill to learn.”

46 MASUCCESS

The Punching Public My radar locked onto Hackleman’s clarification regarding his use of the word “instinctive.” I wondered why, if punching is so easy and effective, it isn’t something everyone does well.

“Sometimes when I see an untrained guy punch, it amazes me,” he said. “It amazes me that some grown-ass men just cannot throw a punch. I’ve never played basketball, but I can dribble a ball all day long. So what if a person has never fought! He should still be able to throw a punch. It’s fight or flight, not basketball or flight. You’re a grown man and you can’t throw a punch? It should be genetically coded into everyone’s DNA.”

For that reason, he recommends that most people, even those with some innate skill, spend time learning how to punch properly. “And they should teach their children how to punch because punching will save your life,” he said.

“When you can’t outrun an attacker, you have to be able to punch.”

Naturally, I was curious about the mistakes he sees. “People who can’t punch end up pawing like a bear,” Hackleman said. I did my best impersonation of an angry grizzly — I might have looked like a kitten swatting at a ball of yarn, though — just to be sure I knew what he was talking about, and he nodded in agreement.

1 OVERHAND RIGHT: John Hackleman (left) describes this as a “Hail Mary strike that’s good for any combat sport.” He begins in a fighting stance (1).

Because his goal is to get his opponent to think low, Hackleman drops his stance (2) and throws a fake body punch (3). When the man reacts by lowering his hands, Hackleman initiates the hip rotation and shifts his weight to his front leg, then uncorks the overhand right (46). If the threat hasn’t been eliminated (7), he can effect a roundhouse kick to the head (8). “This strike is better for sport, but you can definitely use it in the street,” Hackleman says. “Think of the trajectory of the fist like the trajectory of a baseball when you throw an overhand pitch.”

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“That’s exactly what they do,” he said.

“Punching is such a natural thing [to do in a fight] that all guys should know how to do it.”

Playing the devil’s advocate, I asked if the public’s inability to fight with their fists wasn’t a good thing. Might not people’s lack of skill motivate them to sign up for lessons and thus get exposed to all the good things martial arts training bestows? And doesn’t the near absence of true punching prowess on the street mean that if a trained martial artist is forced to fight, he’ll have no competition?

“Yes, but I honestly would rather have competition than have a country full of victims,” Hackleman replied. “I would rather have everybody know how to throw a punch than have them walking around like targets. When they come into this gym, I’m happy to teach them how to fight, how to punch. And if they don’t,

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may the power of God be with them and watch over them because they will be in trouble if they ever get jumped.”

First Lesson The biggest shortcoming Hackle-man sees when noobs take up the challenge of learning how to punch right involves not the arms or the hands but the hips. “People have to be taught how to engage their hips,” he said. “Watch a baseball player. He doesn’t throw just with his arm; he throws with his power side back and engages his hips. That’s what you need to do with your punches.

Whether it’s a straight punch or a hook, you need to move your hips.”

Another common correction that needs to be made pertains to the fist, which Hackleman said is the most important part of the punch. “You can

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use your hips all day long, but if your fist isn’t tight, it’s like hitting someone really hard with a piece of paper. You want your fist to be a rock, not a piece of paper. If your fist is only half closed, it’s going to be a piece of paper. If it’s closed all the way, it will be a rock.

“Your hands should be closed, but you also have to learn how to tighten your fist while relaxing your arm, and that’s a skill in and of itself. Tight fist, loose arm.”

Lots of martial artists recoil at the notion of a closed fist making contact with something as hard as a head, but Hackleman’s fine with it. “Many people talk about using the palms instead of the fists, but they don’t work as well,” he said. “People will say Bas Rutten fought in Pancrase and was really good with his palm strikes, but he did that because the rules forced him to. That’s all they could use in Pancrase! And he was the excepJANUARY/FEBRUARY 2020 47

tion, not the rule. Just because he could do it doesn’t mean you can.

“The best thing you can do when a fight starts is close your hands and get ready to swing. In a street fight, it’s better to break your hands while saving your life than try some kind of weird palm strike that gives the other guy an opportunity to punch you. He might break his hand on your head, but then you’re the one in the coma for the next six months with the tracheostomy and a G-tube.

The rule in a fight: It’s better to break your hand than your head.”

Besides, he was quick to add, a fracture doesn’t necessarily take your weapon out of the fight — thanks to our friend adrenaline. “You’ll feel it; it will hurt like hell,” Hackleman said. “But it hurts even worse to be dead. When your adrenaline is that high and you’re fighting for your life, your instincts will come out. Even if you’re not a sport fighter and you don’t have the

HOOK: John Hackleman (left) identifies the hook as his favorite hand strike for competition and self-defense because the full recruitment of the hips gives the technique maximum power while the fact that he doesn’t need to dive forward so he can make contact with his rear hand means there’s minimal commitment. “You get the best of both worlds,” he says. The Hawaiian-kempo master faces his foe (1). As soon as the man starts his punch, Hackleman starts his hook (2). Because he’s using his closest weapon to attack the closest target, his fist arrives at its destination before his opponent’s fist can (3).

Assuming the distance is spot on, it can be a knockout blow, Hackleman says (4).

“Timing is important, too, but if you happen to miss, you can keep throwing it until you’re successful. Remember to pivot on the ball of your front foot. Your weight shifts from your front foot to your back foot, so your back foot has to stay put.”

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instinct to spar, when somebody’s trying to kill you or one of your kids, I don’t care if you break both hands, you’re going to keep fighting until it’s over. Then you can go to an orthopedic surgeon, and he’ll fix your hands.”

In competition, Hackleman said this plays out frequently. “I’ve seen guys break their hand in the first round of a fight, and they’ll use it for the rest of the fight because of the adrenaline — and that’s a sport fight,” he said. “In the street, your adrenaline is so much higher because the stakes are higher. You’re not just fighting for a win; you’re fighting for your life.”

Traditional Training One of the many fascinating facts I learned about John Hackleman during our time together at The Pit concerned his use of the makiwara. “Julius Wolff was a physician who lived in the 19th cen-

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tury, and he came up with Wolff’s law, which says that the more stress you put on a bone, the stronger and denser the bone gets,” Hackleman said. “The tendons and ligaments also get stronger.

It’s why people lift weights: They lift and all of a sudden, the body goes, ‘OK, I’m a cave man again, and I need to be stronger to stay alive.’”

He went on to explain that there are dozens of bones in the human hand.

“Now, if you start punching the makiwara really hard, you’re going to break some of those bones and it’s not going to help you,” he said. “But if you start slowly, it will eventually build up the bones in your hand so they’re denser and stronger.

“People do push-ups to make their shoulders stronger, and they do curls to make their biceps stronger. What they should be doing is hitting the makiwara to make the bones in their hands stronger! I use the makiwara two or three

times a week, usually for seven to 10 minutes each time. I hit it with straight punches and hooks. It’s kind of boring and repetitive. Some people say you should disguise repetition, but I say you should embrace repetition because repetition is key to getting better.”

Assuming he was referring to muscle memory, I blurted out the term. “It’s that, too, but it’s more about density-ing up your bones,” Hackleman said. “I don’t think ‘density-ing’ is a word, but I just said it. The makiwara is great for repetition, for putting techniques and combos into your muscle memory, and for building up the density of your bones.”

I was surprised to hear a streetfighter-turned-MMA-coach advocate such an old-school training method.

“I’m the only one who does that,” Hackleman said with pride. “I have my fighters routinely take off their gloves and wraps and hit the makiwara. I’ve never 1

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had a broken hand with any of them.

Strengthening the bones, muscles, tendons and ligaments of your hands is probably one of the most important things you can do as a martial artist.”

the pecs or anything. That’s been proved over and over. Watch some of the hardest punchers in MMA or boxing — Thomas Hearns, at 6 foot 1 and 147 pounds, was like a string bean, and he knocked out almost everyone.”

So far, he’d expressed lots of respect for the hips and very little for the muscles of the upper body. I asked about the role of the feet, thinking they might be important in punching. “The rule in fighting is to move your feet a lot and create lateral movement and distance,” Hackleman explained. “Whether in the ring or in the street, you want to create distance if you can because that allows you to dictate the fight. Distance is king in any fight. If you control the distance, 99 percent of the time you’re going to win the fight.

“While you’re moving and jabbing, trying to pepper the guy [with strikes] so you can set up a power shot, it’s OK to be

Support System While on the subject of bolstering the body for better bashing, I asked Hackleman about the need to strengthen its other components like the pecs and delts. “They mean nothing when it comes to punching,” he said. “The only things they might help with are picking up chicks at the beach — which they do help with, I’ve heard. (smiles and glances at his wife) And they do help your overall strength and power as a fighter.

“But the true power of a punch comes from the movement of the hips. It has nothing to do with the musculature of the shoulders, the arms, the triceps, 3

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LIVER PUNCH: “The liver is the most painful place to be struck — it hurts more than a groin shot, a face shot and a solar plexus shot,” John Hackleman (right) says. “The liver punch is debilitating because it stops you in your tracks.” To demonstrate it, he faces his opponent (1). As a distraction, Hackleman throws a left jab (2). He immediately retracts his arm (3) and begins the liver punch (4). He says his fist flies in at a 45-degree angle so it can make contact under the rib cage on the right side of the torso (5), causing the man to drop to the ground (6). Hackleman concludes with a short anatomy lesson designed to link the correct side fist with the correct target: “Remember: left to the liver, right to the spleen.”

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MODERN MAKIWARA: John Hackleman is a big believer in makiwara training to increase the density of the bones for injury-free punching.

on your toes. But when you’re going for the knockout, you have to set your feet into the ground, dig deep and swing.”

I asked Hackleman if a person who’s not the most mobile and not the quickest on his feet — channeling a little bit of my insecurity, maybe — could become a good striker. Could such a person learn how to defend against a couple of the most common punches and then be able to unload a shot or two — all without moving around much?

“Some people — like Roberto Durán — just have a knack for getting out of the way of punches while barely moving,” Hackleman said. “But that takes skill, and not all people have it. So when I teach people, I have to assume they know nothing. Basically, I have all of them move their feet and use lateral movement. But once they get really good, some people find they can win even though they don’t use a lot of footwork. But to build their base, you have to teach them lateral movement.”

against punches. To get even more specific, looping punches are what we defend against the most because in the street, people will throw looping punches much more frequently than straight punches.”

The looping punch is a more basic and more natural power movement, Hackleman said. “If you take 100 people who never trained before and put them in front of a pad and say, ‘Hit it as hard as you can,’ 98 of them will throw a looping punch with their back hand. So that’s what we defend against the most in my school.”

I learned that he considers minimalism of vital importance in offense as well as defense. If you’re a martial artist, he noted, by all means spend your time perfecting all the moves in your art. But if you’re in need of a crash course in selfdefense, he said, find that one punch that works for you and focus on it.

“One of my rules is there’s no best strike,” Hackleman said. “There’s your favorite strike, but there’s no best strike.

If you don’t have a lot of time to train, I recommend finding your go-to strike, your favorite strike in the world. For pure self-defense, one strike is enough. I train all the time, so I have three — the right hook, the left hook and the overhand right, and I’ve knocked out people with all of them. But if you’re just going to train now and then, it’s better to know one strike and practice it 10,000 times than to know 10,000 techniques and practice them all once.”

So practice that one punch every time you train, Hackleman said. “Get it in your muscle memory. Get really good at it.

On top of that, learn to defend against a takedown and to get up off the bottom if a takedown happens.”

Is even one kick a part of his downand-dirty formula for self-defense? “Not unless you want it to be,” he said. “Kicks are great for creating distance, but for life or death, if I had to pick three things, those three things would be it. If I could pick four, I would add a front kick.”

Sensing that the interview was over, I asked, “Can I call this John Hackleman’s minimalist toolbox for self-defense?”

“For street survival,” he corrected me.

About the expert: John Hackleman operates The Pit Martial Arts and Fitness in Arroyo Grande, California. His website is ThePitMMA.com.

Virtues of Minimalism One skill set that goes hand in hand with punching is punch defense, Hackleman said. “Chances are, a punch is what you’re going to face in the street. At my school, we don’t defend against jump spinning back kicks much because that’s not what’s going to happen. We practice defense 50 MASUCCESS

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SHARPEN YOUR PROGRAM WITH A KAMA CURRICULUM Mackensi Emory started training with the kama when she was 9 years old. Now, the 59-time World Champion wants to show you all her secrets with the blade in this wide-ranging masterclass. Learn the weapon yourself or have an instructor train with Mackensi so you can implement the kama in your school.

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Behind the Scenes at Enter the Dojo

In case you missed the December 2014/January 2015 issue of Black Belt magazine, which featured the fictional Master Ken on the cover, here’s a recap. The character is brought to life by a real martial artist named Matt Page. On screen and off, he’s supported by Todd, who’s played by another real martial artist named Joe Conway. Together, they’ve built Enter the Dojo into a runaway hit on the web, as well as a series of live shows that have taken place in Germany, the United Kingdom and Australia so far. We recently sat down with Page and Conway to find out what’s happening in their world.

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s I pull into a parking spot in front of the worldwide ameri-do-te headquarters, a smile spreads across my face. The dojo door is locked, but that’s OK because a banner sporting a familiar tiger tells me I’m in the right place.

I snap a few pix for social media, then drive off to kill time until my appointment with Master Ken. I return a little early and run into him and his sidekick Todd, who just drove up and are still stuffing burgers and fries into their faces. As I follow them inside, I’m accosted by the aroma of onions, which for some reason does not seem out of place.

A kids class is going on — yes, the tiger’s lair is a functioning martial arts school. We walk by a few Master Ken posters and some custom-made ameri-do-te gear, then take a load off in the office. I get right to the point: “What’s been happening in the world of Enter the Dojo lately?”

“Well, we’ve released four seasons of the show,” begins Master Ken — I mean, Matt Page.

I interrupt him for clarification: “What exactly does a ‘season’ mean on YouTube?”

“That’s a good question,” Page replies. “We consider a season to be a set of storylines that include the same characters, which usually means Master Ken’s students. But what has become a lot more visible and more popular are the trending topics, the videos where we comment on things that are happening now. These don’t require context, and they tend to be shorter. We’re able to pick up on waves of discussion — if something happens in the news, we say, ‘Let’s go to the dojo and see what we can come up with.’ Some of those videos we turn around in less than 24 hours.”

I ask how the creative process unfolds, especially when dead56 MASUCCESS

lines are in place. Joe Conway, aka Todd, helps me understand the workflow: “The hardest part is getting started. Once the camera’s rolling, then it’s all business.”

“We do have some bad takes,” Page adds. “We may do four or five takes where it’s like, that’s not it. Then we start thinking, OK, what are we missing? Maybe we don’t have enough oneliners. Maybe we don’t have enough references to the story.”

Those stories, it turns out, come from real life. Page says he collects inspirations from real martial artists. “With me, it’s like the Clark Kent/Superman thing,” he says. “Clark takes off the glasses, and no one recognizes him. I take off the Master Ken mustache, and I’m invisible. That’s nice when I go to events because sometimes I need to do reconnaissance. I can sit in a seminar and gather material for jokes. I’ll be taking notes and thinking, We’re going to make fun of that … and that … and that.”

Laughing Making fun is what Master Ken does. And fans get to watch him do that more often than ever, it seems.

“To stay current on social media, you have to put out content every week, almost every day,” Page says. “What’s interesting is that when we started, we were doing what the platforms we’re looking for: bite-size content. But now people want longer videos.

At one point, I felt like maybe we’d done enough regular seasons of Enter the Dojo, but now I’m thinking maybe we’ll do a new season or maybe a spinoff series. You have to play to what people are watching, and right now, they’re watching longer content.”

Page notes that “longer content” means videos that are at least 10 minutes. I ask how many such shows he and Conway

can manage in a week. “We shoot a season like a TV show,” Page says. “There are three cameras and a crew — the whole deal. It takes about a day and a half to two days to shoot a 10-minute episode, but then it can take a week to edit.”

“It’s a little different if a sponsor is involved,” Conway says.

“It really helps when we can get a video sponsored,” Page continues. “It allows us to take a little more time, to hire a couple of people to help. We’ve done a variety of sponsored videos.

We’ve done product reviews for Century Martial Arts. We had a great collaboration with a software company, where they gave us very wide parameters along with notes on where they would like to put their product in the storyline. And we just worked with a local firing range and firearms dealer, and they actually had scripts already written. We just plugged our characters into what they were doing.”

“It can be tricky, though,” Conway adds, “because sometimes the people writing the lines don’t understand Master Ken’s character.”

Page concurs. “This is the trickiest thing in sponsorship,” he says. “Master Ken evolved by being irreverent, by being offensive, and to take him away from that is risky because that’s what made him popular. When we have to take the edge off to deliver a commercial, we notice it. In one shoot, we got all the way to postproduction and then finally somebody in charge watched the video and they were like, ‘Whoa, wait a minute!

There are a couple of words in there we cannot say.’ We had to go back in and rerecord the dialogue. But that’s OK. It’s about learning that balance.”

Interacting Master Ken has risen to such a status that Page and Conway have no problem recruiting famous martial artists to guest-star.

“We’ve had Cynthia Rothrock, Michael Jai White, ‘Karate Hottie’

Michelle Waterson, Chris Casamassa and others,” Page says.

One admirer jetted halfway around the world for his close-up.

“He flew in from Israel,” Page says. “He said he was a fan who just wanted to be on the show.

“Master Ken has been in some feature films, too: Sicario, Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials and Whiskey Tango Foxtrot. Recently, I was on a show called The Night Shift and another one called Midnight, Texas — things they shoot here in Albuquerque.”

Master Ken, it seems, isn’t the only one getting some notoriety. “We did a collab in Las Vegas with Funker Tactical,” Conway says. “We did videos with all those guys, then got to the locale where a seminar was going on with probably 50 to 100 people.

We walked in and heard some rumbling, and they were looking at us. Then one guy went up to Matt and said, ‘Can you take a picture of me and Todd?’”

“Then they turned to Joe and said, ‘Where’s Master Ken?’” Page adds, laughing.

Conway says getting recognized as Todd is fun — for the most part: “One time, I was in line at Starbucks when a guy was driving by. He screeched to a stop, put his phone out the window and started taking pictures. That one was odd. It’s a little uncomfortable when they make it obvious.”

I ask if it’s ever a bad thing. “I don’t think so,” Page says.

“It’s a reminder that people like our work, and that’s a big motivator. It’s especially cool when they reference a recent video we’ve done. …”

“As opposed to the people who say, ‘I’m such a huge fan — and I really got to catch up on Season 1,” Conway says with a howl.

Both Page and Conway say they’re amazed at the famous martial artists who are fans of Enter the Dojo. “We were on a trip once when a guy came up to us and said, ‘Somebody wants to take a picture with you,’” Conway says. “It was Carlos Machado!

JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2020 57

The same thing happened with one of the Gracies.”

“And Cynthia Rothrock,” Page says. “She said she really liked our videos and then agreed to do a collab with us. I’ve been aware of her since I was a kid watching her movies, so when somebody whose work you grew up watching says they like your work, it’s a special kind of validation.

“It was similar with Michael Jai White. Originally, we met him briefly at the Martial Arts SuperShow, then he watched more of our videos. Later, the makeup artist who works on Enter the Dojo was working on a movie he was making, and she mentioned us.

He was like, ‘Oh, yeah, those guys are funny.’ She reminded him that we’re in Albuquerque, so he came in and did a video.”

about what we can do on our own with these new platforms.

We have almost 300,000 YouTube subscribers, we have half a million Facebook followers and we have 46 million channel views on our YouTube channel.”

Despite taking a beating in the majority of those YouTube views, Conway never gets tired of it. “He hungers for it!” Page says with an evil smirk.

“Todd actually gets insulted if Master Ken chooses somebody else to demonstrate on,” Conway says. “Sometimes I’m like, ‘You’ve got to make more contact because it’s easier for me to sell it.’ There are times when people think, Oh, Master Ken really hurt him. I’m like, ‘No, I’m just a good actor.’” (laughs)

Distributing

Training

Recalling the discussion we’d had when Page visited our office for the aforementioned Black Belt cover, I wondered if he still harbored hopes of landing a Master Ken TV series.

“When we started the show, the point was to get on TV, but it feels like in the six years we’ve been doing this, the flow of content has shifted,” Page says. “It seems like legacy media — feature films and traditional television — are trying to adapt to more current platforms. Out of necessity, we have been doing the thing that’s coming into popularity now because we didn’t know how to get a TV show going. That’s why we decided to just make our own show and put it online.

“The further we progress, the more I believe that creating your own content and putting it out on various platforms, building your following and having your own brand is where things are going.”

Page says he’d be excited if he was offered a TV series, but he’s not holding his breath. “We’ve had those meetings, and nobody seems to know what to do with us,” he says. “It’s not that I don’t want to collaborate with people, but I’m not going to sign away control of the show with the promise that maybe someday this will work out financially. I’m a lot more excited

That ability — and willingness — to take a shot prompts me to ask about Conway’s background. “It all started when a friend took me to The Perfect Weapon,” he says. “That movie got me into kenpo. I started training in Santa Fe and went up through the ranks. Then my teacher moved. I went around to other schools but wasn’t impressed. I don’t want to be snooty, but what I was getting from American kenpo was something I wanted to continue.

“I moved to Albuquerque years later and learned that Jeff Speakman was doing a seminar here. I met him and found out he had a kenpo school in Albuquerque. So I started training.

One day, I was told Jeff Speakman wanted to take me to lunch.

He said he wanted to move to Albuquerque and develop the school, then asked me to be the instructor.”

Conway admits that was nice to hear, coming from the kenpo icon — but he says he didn’t feel worthy. Nevertheless, he accepted. “I took over the Jeff Speakman school about seven years before we started doing Enter the Dojo. That was back when they were doing kenpo 4.0.”

Kenpo 4.0 eventually gave way to the MMA-influenced kenpo 5.0. “I was there in the embryonic stages of that,” Conway says.

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“In fact, I was able to go to Australia to share some of that knowledge with his schools before it had even been presented.”

The next step on the martial path for the man who gives life to Todd was Brazilian jiu-jitsu. “The grappling in kenpo 5.0 seemed like just the tip of the iceberg,” Conway says. “It left me hungrier for more jiu-jitsu. So a couple of years ago, I started training at the New Mexico Jiu-Jitsu Academy. I dabbled in other things, too — like stick fighting in Bobby Taboada’s system. I tested for level four in that. Kenpo 5.0 is still my passion, though.”

Passion, indeed. Conway just received his fourth-degree black belt in the system.

Teaching “ABQ Karate is the name of our school here,” Conway says. “As most martial artists will tell you, there’s not a lot of money in teaching. The great thing is, Enter the Dojo has given us the opportunity to meet with successful martial artists. All of a sudden, it’s like, you mean you can make a living doing this? You don’t have to keep your day job?”

Conway is clearly pleased with his new lot in life as a full-time instructor, but I feel compelled to ask the dynamic duo if visiting martial artists — people like me — ever interfere with the routine. Page says they used to deliberately keep their school and the fictional headquarters of ameri-do-te separate to reduce the chance of that happening, but then they relented.

“We thought it was silly because even without us putting it out there, people who are on road trips across the country find out where we are and stop by,” Page says. “They’ll take a picture outside the door. They’ll message us. Sometimes they’ll even knock on the door. Once Joe called me and said, ‘There’s a kid here

who’s a big fan.’ I was like, ‘All right, I can be there in 15 minutes.’

I drove down and we took a quick picture by the banner.”

Planning “We’re really excited about what next year has in store for Master Ken and Todd,” Page says. “We have a lot of plans — new material, new people we want to have on the show, new hero videos we want to make and new trending topics we want to address. We’re going to put out content as often as we can, but we want to make sure it’s good content.”

Conway jumps in: “Now I’m going to put Matt up on a pedestal. He comes up with the ideas, directs us, acts, edits — it’s a lot of work.”

“I wouldn’t mind some help!” Page bellows, then grins. “It is a lot of work, and I couldn’t do it without Joe. He’s a school owner and a martial artist, which makes the brainstorming so valuable.

I’ll come in and say, ‘OK, so here’s a concept for a video. Here’s what I think is funny about it, but I don’t know what the video is.’

“And Joe says, ‘Well, today some students said this or that,’ and we end up taking this abstract concept and grounding it in what he can relate to as an instructor.”

Conway summarizes: “Matt comes up with the idea and then …” — a smile spreads across his face — “he forges the goblet and I polish it.”

“And as long as people keep watching, we’ll keep doing it,” Page says.

See more of Master Ken and Todd at youtube.com/user/EnterTheDojoShow.

JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2020 59

WHAT’S WRONG WITH KARATE TOURNAMENTS? Chuck Norris, Fumio Demura and Ed Parker Sound Off on Problems and Solutions

This classic article from the May 1968 issue of our sister publication Black Belt is intriguing because it relies on input from three martial artists who at the time were fairly ordinary people. Chuck Norris was not a movie star, Ed Parker was not the man who founded a hugely popular art and then died way too young, and Fumio Demura was not the icon of the martial arts world that he’s known as now. The second reason it’s of interest is the roundtable discussion shines a spotlight on the problems with competition, some of which are still extant half a century later.

— Editor, 2019 Black Belt invited three active karateka who are also producers of tournaments to discuss some of the problems of competition. Participating are Ed Parker, one of the foremost tournament operators and a sensei of several dojo; Chuck Norris, the national champion and a dojo and tournament operator; and Fumio Demura, a sensei at the University of California, Irvine, who held his first tournament in 1967.

— Editor, 1968

control is more difficult to develop than lack of control.

BLACK BELT: With the growth of interest in competition, there has been a lot of criticism about how tournaments are set up. What are the basic problems?

Parker: Uppermost is the fact that there are no uniform rules from one tourney to another. This is really a problem — a man could win in one tournament through one way and lose out in another.

Norris: It’s getting better, but it needs improvement.

Parker: What I mean is that in one tournament, the karateka making contact by accident will be disqualified, while in another tournament, he will just get a warning.

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BLACK BELT: You mean the participant must know how to control his punches in order to score with the judges?

Parker: If the man is a good, skilled participant, he will have control of his weapon. Let’s say in the green- and white-belt [divisions], there’s accidental contact. That’s understandable. But in the black- and brown-belt divisions, there shouldn’t be contact, but they often have it.

Norris: The fighters ought to be disqualified because the lack of control resulting in contact means that the participant isn’t qualified. It takes plenty of training before a man is ready to participate in a tournament, and this

BLACK BELT: This lack of contact must make for difficult training methods.

After all, karate is supposed to teach you how to arm yourself against an opponent, and if you learn to check yourself, to pull your punches, isn’t it defeating your ability to strike?

Norris: First, let me say that when a fellow gets a broken nose in a tournament, or even in practice, he’s liable to have a sour taste in his mouth. He might quit participating because of it.

When I go to a tourney, I like to believe that I’m going to come out of it at least somewhat unscathed.

Parker: Well, there are accidents. …

Norris: Sure, but he’s talking about intentional strikes. Look, when a man is pulling his punches, he’s not just pulling his punch. He’s got an explosive thrust there, and you know just by looking at it that he could follow through. It’s that mark of control — not following through, though you could — which distinguishes the better man.

Demura: We must remember that karate as it is practiced in a tournament is a sport. Control is basic to the practice. I remember one tournament in Japan. I was hit accidentally and got two black eyes. Accidents happen there, and I’ve seen many men get bloody mouths and broken teeth. But this is an accident, an example of the lack of control.

BLACK BELT: But doesn’t this control factor make the tournament dull to the American viewer who wants to see bloodshed?

Parker: Well, of course — if he’s that guy who goes to boxing matches and yells, “Kill him!” But to the person who knows karate and understands the lack of contact and the full control, it’s part of the rules.

Demura: Whenever I am a referee in a tournament, I do not hesitate to score against a man who makes contact because that is simply poor technique.

BLACK BELT: How do you train for control? When you’re working with a bag, you’ve got to hit it.

Norris: There are practice sessions with an opponent, too. A partner can help you practice your control.

Demura: I believe that most of the injuries, at least half of them, are the judge’s fault. When he sees that the blows are getting too close, he should warn the man.

Parker: We have to be aware of the entertainment value to the spectator, for sure, but this comes in part with education of the spectator. We also have to talk about the length of the tournaments. They’re just too long.

Norris: All of this waiting also takes its

toll on the participants.

Demura: The players get tired, and by the time of the last match, they’re too tired to perform as they might have performed earlier.

Parker: I’ve seen battles where — well, Chuck here has gone on so late that in one match, he won, not taking anything away from his technique, but he won on stamina.

Norris: But stamina is part of a man’s technique. This is part of his conditioning and this waiting, the tension of planning on participating, is pretty difficult, though.

Parker: You can train a man to fight karate, but that waiting is terrible.

BLACK BELT: How many months does it take before a man is ready to take part in a tournament?

Norris: That depends. Some fellows really come up fast, learn the techniques and are advanced over their fellow students.

Parker: I would say about a year for most of them.

Norris: Some guys make it in nine months.

Parker: You start them in, but it’s about another three months before you teach them how to free fight.

Norris: Yes, I suppose.

Demura: I believe in [teaching] basic sparring techniques before their green-

“If the man is a good, skilled participant, he will have control of his weapon.”

— Ed Parker

JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2020 65

belt competition, then after they have earned their green belt, they go on with free sparring. If you advance them too fast, you find they’re pushing and shoving and it’s not right.

knows which students are ready. There are many schools, many dojos, where every student [is] thrown into competition. That’s ridiculous. I choose the best to represent my dojos.

BLACK BELT: Who makes the decisions about who should enter the tournaments?

Parker: Naturally, the sensei since he

BLACK BELT: What are some other things that need to improve?

Parker: You’ve got to consider the environment of the tournament. You’ve got

“And if karate tournaments are a sport, then you must have sportsmanship.”

— Fumio Demura

to know who is sponsoring the tournament and the rules of the sponsors. You want to know who the judges will be.

Norris: Especially if they’re from a certain school and they have certain training. Frankly, I enjoy going up against a person from another school with different training methods. This is where we are really pitted against each other, and I try things which my students may know but which my opponent may not.

Parker: Let’s face it — that’s where the fun is. Competition is wonderful, and every player wants to get in. The tournament is important because the first incentive is the belt classification, but that soon loses its appeal. The tournament is the thing.

Demura: This last year was my first year for my tournament under the sponsorship of the University of California at Irvine, and it was really well-supported.

The students loved it, and so did the spectators.

Parker: Going on the mat and facing your opponent — really trying to figure him out, outguess him — that’s the beauty of it.

Norris: And there’s sportsmanship there.

Parker: We used to have the players come out and meet each other cold, but now we have them meet each other before the match, when we’re selecting the competitors, and it’s really quite nice. When a point is scored against them, they’ll say, “Oh, you lucky dog!” or “Good shot!” and that’s really what it’s all about.

BLACK BELT: But are tournaments really helping the participant since he may not get a chance to know his opponent, may not get a chance to get in a lucky punch? Isn’t it better not to know your opponent and then, when you get on the mat, you go all-out?

Norris: The meetings and the friendliness have nothing to do with their effort on the mat. When they get to work, it’s all business.

Demura: And if karate tournaments are a sport, then you must have sportsmanship.

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“One of the things necessary in a useful tournament would be a set of rules which are abided by at the beginning.”

— Chuck Norris BLACK BELT: Is there a lack of showmanship at tournaments?

Norris: To some extent, you need showmanship, but you’ve got to admit that interest in tournaments is growing, and since I came into the field, interest has grown at least 10 times to what it was then. And this is without any special showmanship.

Parker: He means like in boxing or in football — things like that. The thing that it needs is something I plan to introduce: a sports announcer to tell the audience what is going on.

Norris: Sounds like a good idea.

Parker: If you have a man calling the shots — like a blow-by-blow announcer on the radio, tell the audience why the fellow got this point, somebody who can speak fast enough to describe it — I think that’s pretty good.

Demura: Much of the showmanship, as you call it, actually is in Japan where they have one major tournament which everybody looks forward to and where they have local eliminations. In this one tournament, there are as many as 56 different styles all being put into competition.

BLACK BELT: But they must have many different contests going on at the same time.

Norris: Sometimes they have as many as 12 contests going on at once.

Demura: But you see people are already interested in the martial arts, and they know about these tournaments.

Parker: That’s what I mean about education. We have to bring the martial arts down to the level of what the American spectator is used to seeing. Now, I took some film of the International Competition, and I’m going to have four videoJANUARY/FEBRUARY 2020 67

tape cameras running at my next tournaments and have — like in football — a video playback of key plays. This will tell everyone what’s happened, and the audience will be able to see the penalty and see the score.

BLACK BELT: Are there any things that could make contests more interesting?

Norris: One thing, certainly, would be to stop all of the running around the opponents do.

Parker: And penalize all of the actors in the contests. …

BLACK BELT: Actors?

Norris: That’s really something to watch.

They pretend that they’re hit in a match, but they’re not. They just want to disqualify you.

Parker: Sometimes … the guy will pretend that he’s been hit and will start crying and shouting that he’s hurt, but out of the side of his eyes, he’s watching the judges to see if they’ve noticed.

Norris: One time, I saw it … a fellow acted like that and disqualified another player, but as soon as the match ended, he was back, bouncing around as if nothing had happened.

BLACK BELT: I would imagine that the choice of referees is important, referees who wouldn’t fall for that.

Norris: The selection of qualified referees is important to the match. Too many referees and judges really don’t have individual opinions.

Parker: Look at them, and they say one thing, and then when another judge says another thing, they change their mind. I’ve seen them raise one flag, look at their fellow judge, and then raise the other flag and try to dismiss their first ruling. A lot of them are just “me, too’ers.”

Demura: The one who is a referee should be the highest-ranking black belt so that he knows what is going on. Unfortunately, there is too much dissension here, too many judges who don’t judge fairly and accurately.

68 MASUCCESS

BLACK BELT: Is a “hard” judge more respected than an “easy” judge?

Norris: I don’t think that’s the question here. Really, a happy medium is the only answer. Too many judges are set in their ways and won’t yield. For example, many judges won’t score you on a front kick and reverse punch, but others will and I think they should. One of the things necessary in a useful tournament would be a set of rules which are abided by at the beginning. I also think that the man who is thinking of setting up a tournament should meet with the dojo senseis in his area and work out the terms of judging.

When I set up my tournament, I received a lot of advice from Ed, here. His experience was invaluable.

Parker: You’ve got to ask [for] advice, and advice should be given freely. After all, even though Chuck and I may have different tournaments, I want him to succeed because when he succeeds, that increases the interest in karate and in tournaments. I know that when Chuck has a tournament, or Fumio, I want to be there and I encourage my students to go. We get together on the dates so that the tournaments don’t conflict.

Timing is very important in the success of a tournament. You don’t want them scheduled too closely because, frankly, the audience and the students couldn’t afford to go.

Demura: l agree. When I set up my first tournament at the university, I found many good answers to my questions, but I did introduce something of my own. I think you should find something which you can contribute. In the lower ranks, the green- and white-belt competitions, I set up the contests for team play. In football, baseball and other sports, it is the team, and certainly in the early stages of the participants’ competition, the team method is very good.

Parker: The tournament situation is constantly evolving. I plan to have my competitions set up in rounds like in boxing. Maybe two rounds per match, about three minutes each. Whatever system is used, basic rules should be set up so that

one man going to many tournaments can train and know what will bring him points and what won’t. Too often, the guy goes in and then it’s all over in a matter of seconds. He’s either won or lost, and the audience feels cheated.

BLACK BELT: Should a man setting up a tournament start off small?

Norris: He should decide based on the number of people he thinks will participate and come to watch. Frankly, if he rents the high-school gymnasium for one night, maybe at $100, that should be sufficient to start off.

Parker: Too many guys want to start at the top at a big arena. That depends, really, on where you’re going to have it.

What [region] are you in and how many dojos will be represented from that area?

Norris: No matter what size he starts off with, it’s a big undertaking. I would rather see an overcrowded gymnasium than one big auditorium with few people.

Parker: When I started my tournaments, there were no tournaments at that time. l needed a lot of publicity and I had a large market to draw from. I spent all of $12,000 my first year. Fortunately, I broke even.

Norris: You really don’t have to spend that much these days. If you’re in a large area where they’ve had tournaments or even a small area where they’ve never had tournaments, you must count the contestants and then the schools in your area.

Demura: Fortunately, when I set my tournament up at the university, the expenses were taken care of. The audience were the students, and the publicity was the student newspaper.

BLACK BELT: Is there sufficient interest for more tournaments to be set up?

Parker: Definitely. I would encourage anybody to have a tournament provided they set them up with uniform rules.

They should invest in valuable trophies and prizes. I know that Henry Cho presented individual trophies, and that created interest. He also presented a

color television set to the winner. His tournament was well-planned and wellpromoted.

Norris: I’ll tell you how important the setting up and organization is. Last year at a new tournament, l competed and won, but it was so poorly managed

that it left a bad taste in my mouth.

This year when it was staged, I didn’t even go back to defend my crown. I just passed it up, and believe me, I love tournaments. However, I understand from those who were there that the tournament was even worse this year. Now,

that helps kill a tournament both for the competitors and the spectators.

Parker: If they go to one tournament and they don’t like it, they just dismiss all competitions. We who are interested in the support of the people cannot afford to lose one spectator.

“If they go to one tournament and they don’t like it, they just dismiss all competitions.”

— Ed Parker

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TURNING POINT

Al Francis: First Big Tournament Win

BY HERB BORKLAND

“In this column, we examine the pivotal point in a prominent black belt’s career, the event that launched him or her toward success in martial arts business, sports or films.”

T

exas tournament legend Al Francis ranks among the top 10 fighters from the Lone Star State’s golden era of karate. A man of principles and character, Francis has put in decades as a recreation specialist in San Antonio, proving the social value of karate training for at-risk youth. His local educational TV program, which showcased the varieties of martial arts available in the city, ran for a decade. Today, he remains one of the best spokesmen for the power and discipline that the martial arts can bring to children.

MASuccess: Where did you grow up and what did your dad do?

Al Francis: I grew up in San Antonio, Texas. Dad was the master chef at the Galveston Hills Restaurant, but I took off in a totally different direction. In high school, I wanted to be an artist.

I was about 130 pounds and couldn’t play every sport there was. I got jumped when I was younger.

My mother taught me how to block. (laughs) I knew I needed to learn how to fight, but I also received a fine-arts scholarship to study lithography and silk screens at Xavier University of Louisiana.

On campus were two karate classes. I started with shotokan, but their kicks were not as awesome as those in taekwondo. Once I realized how good I was at martial arts, I kept working out more and more. I put in two hours at the gym, ate dinner and put in another two hours. I was religious — living, eating and breathing karate.

After college, I meant to get an art job, but in 1971, I won my black-belt division at a tournament.

That was my turning point. I started a 31-year career as a recreation specialist, teaching at-risk kids karate to get them off the streets.

MAS: One of the proudest chapters in the history of American martial arts occurred in the 20th century when the community activism of black instructors nationwide helped straighten out the lives of countless children, many of whom — like Pro Football Hall of Famer Andre Tippett — went on to greatness. Did you ever see race playing a role in your martial arts career?

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Francis: I won’t say “racism,” but being black and fighting in the ’70s, it was a little harder for me to win because the judges had their favorites.

In 1978 and 1980, I was twice the grand champion at the Texas Karate Olympics in Houston, [which was] among the largest tournaments in the U.S. at that time. In 1980 I beat five of the toughest fighters in Texas to win the Oleander Karate Classic. Guys told me I was good, and I said, “You all are the ones who made me good!” Fighting guys like Demetrius Havanas, Fernando Robles, James Stevenson, Billy Jackson and Ray McCallum made me who I was.

Ray McCallum and I fought like cats and dogs, but we were great friends. That’s the thing about Texas fighters. We get out and show the other person we’re good. With Ray, I had to take it to him and fight him personally — or else I’d offend him. I beat him in Dallas. Karate Illustrated magazine called me “the most underrated fighter in the United States.”

MAS: What does the future hold for you?

Francis: A municipal judge started my program. As a boy, his dad put him in karate, so he understands.

I can see more programs coming out of this, not just here in San Antonio but in other parts of the country, too. If you can save one child, then you’ve done your work. This is the most important thing because they will be making decisions for us when we’re older, and we want them to make good decisions.

To contact Herb Borkland, send an email to herbork@comcast.net.

HEALTH KICK

How Martial Arts Training Helps People With Down Syndrome

BY DWIGHT TROWER

“Students with Down Syndrome enjoy all the same benefits of training that other martial artists do. They see it, and so do their parents and caregivers.”

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I

n my years as a martial artist and school owner, I’ve had the fortune of being able to instruct many students with Down Syndrome, as well as students who are on the autism spectrum and who have various mental and physical disabilities. Given the inclusive nature of the martial arts — no one sits on the bench! — I know that many of my fellow school owners also have had this experience. However, in 2010, thanks to Deidre Pujols and the Pujols Family Foundation, I was given the opportunity to do even more.

With help from the Foundation, I was able to create a stand-alone program and curriculum designed specifically for teenagers and adults with Down Syndrome who have their own unique gifts and abilities. What began as a weekly summer class in 2010 had, by 2012, turned into a year-round program taught free of charge to more than 50 students. We now have classes for both beginners and advanced students.

In the past few years, more than 20 students have earned their black belts, and many more are well on their way to that accomplishment.

The students in this program do the same things that are taught in a typical martial arts program.

We just do things a little differently based on the individual needs of the person. The structure of the class is similar to that of our other classes.

I’m often asked about the benefits of martial arts training for students with Down Syndrome. As a martial artist and instructor, I see these students learning and growing through their training — just like every other student. Each one of them has his or her own story, goals and needs, and we try to teach them accordingly.

Last month, I asked the students what they believe the greatest benefit of learning martial arts from us has been for each of them. Keep in mind that some of these people have trained for more than eight years. Others, of course, have just started their journey. The most common answers were: • Listening skills • Focus • Discipline • Power • Confidence • Speed • Exercise • Self-control

I then polled their parents and caregivers and asked the same question. Their most common answers were: • Weight loss/healthy • Self-control eating habits • Focus • Respect • Balance • Fitness • Improved ability • Friendship and to process/follow camaraderie instructions In other words, students with Down Syndrome enjoy all the same benefits of training that other martial artists do. They see it, and so do their parents and caregivers.

As a martial arts instructor, I often tell people that I have the best job in the world. I get to spend my whole day teaching and working with people from a variety of backgrounds and circumstances.

Those I spend time with are trying to learn, grow and make themselves better every day. A student with Down Syndrome is like every other student in that regard.

One of the greatest benefits for me is getting to see how people in the Down Syndrome community treat those around them. Students with Down Syndrome and their families are some of the most supportive groups I’ve been around. They all cheer for and encourage everyone in everything they do.

This is one of the most important aspects of the martial arts community, as well. We all have to feel that we belong, that we are included. That’s a great lesson for all of us to remember.

Dwight Trower has trained in the martial arts since 1981. He is the owner and director of St. Louis Family Martial Arts Academy. In 2010, he began developing a standalone martial arts curriculum for teenagers and adults with Down Syndrome and similar disabilities, and he was recognized as the Pujols Family Foundation 2018 Partner of the Year. To contact him, call (636) 227-3098 or send an email to trower61@swbell.net.

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YOU MESSED UP! NOW WHAT?

Who Are You?

BY KATHY OLEVSKY

“It doesn’t matter how many martial arts schools are in your immediate area. What does matter is that you’re able to offer something the other places don’t — and that you can deliver a clear statement of those benefits to current and potential members.”

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I

’ve operated a martial arts school full time for 45 years. I may have made every mistake that can be made in this business. The reason I’m still in business, I believe, is I asked for help. I learned quickly that others before me had already found solutions.

In this column, I’ll point out key mistakes I made in my career, which are common errors among school owners, both large and small, throughout our industry.

And I’ll share the solutions I used to overcome them.

Your “separation point” is the feature that sets training at your dojo apart from other activities for children, teens and adults in your community: Why martial arts and not soccer, lacrosse, ballet, etc.? Within the arts, your separation point is what differentiates yours from other martial arts schools. Why would someone want to train in taekwondo with you, for example, rather than at the academy down the road?

You should be able to answer these questions for your school. The ability to do so can help you formulate a plan to expand your business, including the launch of a social media campaign and the creation of an “elevator speech” that any member of your staff can be trained to deliver to prospects.

If you know your separation point, it doesn’t matter how many martial arts schools are in your immediate area. It doesn’t matter if most of the children in your area love soccer or hockey. It doesn’t matter if there are dozens of barre studios or 24-hour gyms. What does matter is that you’re able to offer something the other places don’t — and that you can deliver a clear statement of those benefits to current and potential members.

When I was unsure of our separation points, I would spend two weeks doing surveys in person, on paper and by email. I asked all my students to tell me their story. I wanted to know why they chose us and why they stayed with us.

When I approached my members for the surveys, I told them I needed their help to develop a mission statement for our company. Most were honored to share their thoughts. Some of our parents were executives with vast experience in corporate strategy. They, in particular, were a great help when it

came to formulating phrases to describe our services.

When I compiled the survey results, our separation point stood out clearly: Our members, almost to a person, saw us as a family-oriented business. They described how we treated each person as an individual, how we worked together to achieve team and individual goals, how clean we kept the facility and how we “customer-serviced” them to death. At our school, they felt like they were part of one big family — not just individuals who shared a hobby.

We narrowed down those thoughts and put them into a speech that all our staff members could memorize and use when talking with future students. We modeled our Facebook ads and our social media posts on those descriptions.

I’ve learned that although our students know all this and will tell other people about us, the new people in our community have no way of knowing who we are or what we offer. Unless we tell them, they won’t know that we have the atmosphere and the instructors they’re searching for in their martial arts quest.

When someone calls or emails us with a question, we’ve learned to shape our answers based on what our students have told us are our best qualities. We scripted those answers and trained our staff so they could easily slip those qualities into conversations with potential clients. In fact, our members were grateful to have answers to the standard questions.

For us, and for most martial arts school owners, it’s easy to answer common questions like “How much do classes cost?” and “What are your hours?”

What we now know is how to answer these questions while telling potential students much more about what we offer. After all, knowing the hours we’re open and the location of our school doesn’t tell them who we are.

We all know what makes us passionate about the martial arts. It’s our job to convey that to each and every prospective student. Do you know who you are?

To contact Kathy Olevsky, send an email to kathy.olevsky@raleighkarate.com.

School Showcase January/February 2020 School Owner

Andrew Torok School Name

Kajukenbo Concepts, LLC Location

Style/Discipline

Kajukenbo 76 MASUCCESS

Photos Courtesy of Andrew Torok

Dover, Tennessee

Why did you begin teaching martial arts?

Learning and teaching go hand in hand. Teaching martial arts also gave me a tremendous physical outlet to complement my other, rather staid profession — namely, being a teacher at first in middle schools and then as a professor in colleges and universities.

What is your school name, and how did you choose it?

The home school name is Kajukenbo Concepts. Kajukenbo is the style we teach, and “concepts” embodies our goal to find the right path suitable for each student’s energy. My second school is called Cedar Ridge Karate and Kung Fu. The building I purchased already was known as Cedar Ridge, so we decided to keep the name.

What is your personal teaching philosophy?

I believe that each student is a unique individual with different energies. Their martial arts training needs to embody this energy in order to create a synergistic outcome. The instructor and the curriculum have to be flexible enough to accommodate not only physical ability but also inherent traits such as shyness.

How long have you been teaching?

I have been teaching as a certified black-belt instructor for 52 years.

How long have you owned your school?

I ran a regular store-front school in Illinois for over 35 years, and upon retiring to Tennessee, I opened other schools, so I have owned regular school buildings and facilities for about 45 years.

Photos Courtesy of Andrew Torok

Who or what inspires you?

I have had many excellent teachers in my journey through the martial arts. The ones who had the most personal effect on me shared two common traits: their unselfish devotion to the martial arts and their willingness to share their knowledge without reservation. Their inspiration has helped me to keep teaching and training.

What is something unique that your school or your student body does well?

A unique activity we have recently begun is to integrate martial arts into developing a culture of fitness in rural Tennessee as a member of a county committee of the Tennessee Governor’s Foundation for Health and Wellness. The goal is to raise awareness of health issues and to promote programs to increase fitness.

What do you find most rewarding about working in the martial arts?

Helping others and watching them grow stronger physically and mentality is extremely satisfying. Social interaction and recognition of my efforts does wonders for my ego and pride, but I think the most rewarding personal benefit is that continuing to train in the martial arts gives me the motivation to maintain the cognitive and physical skills sorely needed at my age of 75.

What is your favorite inspirational quote?

It is difficult to judge the human potential until one has exerted all possible physical and mental efforts in an attempt to reach it. — anonymous If you could give one bit of advice to fellow martial arts school owners, what would it be?

No matter how esoteric your style might be or the level of your knowledge and physical ability, martial arts demands continuous learning and training as well as constant reflection and assessment of what is known.

JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2020 77

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Simply email Sarah Lobban, slobban@centurymartialarts.com and let us know that you’d like to be considered for the School Showcase.

Sarah will send you an application to complete and return. All applications will be reviewed by the Editorial Board, and we’ll notify you if you are selected.

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Going M

Mobile!

The Technological Tool That Will Enable You to Market Your Studio to Smartphone Users

BY TU LE

I

n order to be relevant in today’s economy, a business needs to adopt a culture of innovation. It’s the only way to keep up with your customers and your competitors, all of whom are constantly evolving.

Ten years ago, the way consumers shopped for products and services was drastically different. Back then, the majority of people still purchased from brick-andmortar stores and lacked the tools that are available today for product research.

In the technological environment we now take for granted, modern consumers can quickly and easily get the information they need to analyze alternatives, weigh them against each other and then make a buying decision in a matter of minutes — using nothing more than their fingertips. What this means is customers are becoming more powerful in making their own purchasing decisions — without the need to talk to anybody at your business.

This shift in consumer behavior carries a crucial lesson: To succeed, you must deliver your marketing information in the shortest amount of time, to the most targeted customer segments, and in the way those potential customers want to be reached. Getting this right will allow your business to capture the right person’s attention and enable him or her to take immediate action.

Consider the following customer’s journey, which is representative of the process most people follow today.

classes near me.” In a matter of seconds, she’s presented with all the facilities that are nearby.

She scrolls down, then clicks on a couple of the options so she can read the relevant reviews. Then she clicks on a link to a studio that piques her interest. Unfortunately, the studio’s website is hard to read because it hasn’t been optimized for mobile devices. Linda cannot easily find the information she wants, so she clicks on “back” and scrolls down to the next school on the list.

The second studio has a simple, clean website, one that offers a special trial program for new students. Linda clicks on the button for the offer to learn more. She likes what she reads and sees. After noticing the prominent “Register Now” button, Linda decides immediately to sign up her son for the trial program.

Staying Relevant To make sure your business continues to be relevant, you must take an honest look at it as though you were Linda. Put yourself in her shoes as she searches for a martial arts school for her son.

Evaluate the experience she — or any other customer — would have while browsing and interacting with your website.

The key questions are: How does your online presence compare to that of your competitors? And if customers are ready to buy, are you offering them the tools they need to do so easily and quickly? Your answers will affect your business more and more as we move forward in the 21st century.

Shopping in the 21st Century Linda is looking for martial arts classes for her 6-year-old son.

She turns on her phone and directs Google to find “karate 84 MASUCCESS

Tu Le is the founder and CEO of InCourage Martial Arts, the company behind the MyStudio app for martial arts school owners.

Q&A With the Developer of the MyStudio App

MASuccess: What is your martial arts background?

Tu Le: I am a lifelong practitioner. I started taekwondo classes

when I was 13 and started teaching when I was 14. I trained and competed nationally with the members and coaches of the U.S. [taekwondo] team. I retired from competition when I was 22 to pursue full-time teaching and became a martial arts studio owner at 25.

MAS: How long have you been in business?

Le: Since 2007. [During that time], we opened seven studios in

the Northern Virginia market. We sold two and currently operate five.

MAS: When did you realize that you had to do business differently?

Le: When our organization grew to three locations, we found ourselves drowning in administrative work. At that time, we were still registering students with pen and paper. Then we had to manually put their information into our management platform. After that, we would send the agreement to a collection agency, which kept 7 percent of the total bill. On $2.5 million — which was our gross at that time — we were losing $175,000 annually.

With a manual process like that, there was all sorts of room for errors. One day, on a random audit, we found that over $50,000 in summer-camp payments were missed because the team member “forgot” to input the agreement. To make it worse, the payments were supposed to be collected three months ago. I knew at that time that we needed to change.

MAS: What did you do next?

Le: We started immediately with an organizational goal to go

paperless and mobile — meaning every agreement and every transaction needed to be easily available online somehow.

From our research, we [knew that we] needed to have four different software solutions to adequately meet our needs for managing our martial arts students, summer-camp registrations, afterschool programs, special events and retail sales.

Knowing that our customers’ buying behaviors are different now, we wanted them to have the ability to do all of the above from their phone, wherever they are and at whatever time is most convenient.

Unfortunately, there was nothing like that in the marketplace, so we decided to build it ourselves. That was the beginning of MyStudio, the app platform.

MAS: What exactly is MyStudio and how does it work?

Le: MyStudio is a membership management and payment plat-

form that is built with a customer-centric focus. That means everything that we designed and built is for the purpose of improving the experience of our customers.

The platform allows customers to easily register and pay for any services or products that we offer: martial arts memberships, afterschool-program memberships, summer camps, “Ninja Nights,” sparring pads, etc. — right from their phone or computer, from anywhere and at any time they like.

Since we have five studios and operators from all walks of life — some of whom are very tech-savvy while others do not appreciate technology at all — we needed to make the platform extremely simple to use.

MAS: Can customers register for a membership at one of your

schools from their smartphone?

Le: That’s correct. Our customers spend money daily like this now. They can buy groceries, book a vacation, call a taxi and buy a Tesla car all online — the majority of these transactions are from a mobile device. To them, [registering for a membership at one of our schools using their phone] is more comfortable, convenient and safe compared to taking 30 minutes of their day to meet with us to write their personal and financial information on a piece of paper that will be stored in a cabinet.

For us, it eliminates 90 percent of our administrative work.

Everything from registration to billing is automated, which allows us to do more of what we should be doing: getting new students and keeping current ones longer.

Additionally, MyStudio was built with the ability to pass on the payment-processing fees to our customers. We were previously paying our billing company 7 percent, which was $175,000 annually, to bill our customers. Now, our platform automatically does that, and we have an extra $175,000 to invest back into our business.

MAS: And customers are OK with paying the extra fee?

Le: Again, customers are doing this on a day-to-day basis. They

buy movie tickets, sporting-event tickets, food to be delivered, etc. and pay the extra fees without much thought.

MAS: Is MyStudio available only for your studios, or can anyone

purchase it?

Le: MyStudio was built for the InCourage studios. However,

when we showed our platform to some of our friends in the industry, they urged us to share it with others, so we did. And we wanted to do it in a way that would really help move the industry forward. The best way for us to do that was to make it affordable for everyone.

JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2020 85

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CONSULTANT'S CORNER

4 Magic Questions to Convert Your Trials Into Students

BY SHANE TASSOUL

MAIA CONSULTANT

“Having a system is the key to conversions.”

W

ith all the talk about paid trials, it’s easy to lose focus on what you’re actually trying to accomplish.

Remember that you’re not in the business of selling paid trials. Paid trials do not pay your rent, your utilities or your payroll. In fact, most paid trials that I see owners promoting end as either break-evens or loss-leaders.

I’m all in favor of paid trials. However, I see schools working hard to generate paid trials month after month, only to enroll very few of them as new students. The purpose of a paid trial is to get qualified prospects into your school and convert them into paying students. If they’re not converting, the trial was wasted.

It’s important that you have a system in place to convert your paid trials into enrolled students.

It doesn’t matter what kind of trial you sell — two weeks for $19.95, four weeks for $49 or any other trial you can dream up. Having a system is the key to conversions.

When your trial comes in for the first lesson, you must understand what the parent wants the child to learn from your program and why. It’s crucial to find out the why. This is where we get the parents’ emotions involved and discover the “real” reason they want their child to train. Once we understand the why, we can deliver exactly what the parents are looking for.

Next, schedule their first three classes before they leave that day. Schedule a “progress check” during the child’s third lesson. Explain to the parent that you’ll be meeting after the third class to check in and see how they’re enjoying the program and answer any questions they may have.

You may also want to hold their (metaphorical) hand during the first three lessons by conducting confirmation calls or sending texts to keep them on track with their class schedule.

The following are the four magic questions you must ask before converting a trial to a student: How Are You Enjoying the Program?

This is an important question for finding out if the parent is seeing the value and benefits of your program. The answer to this question should obviously

88 MASUCCESS

be positive. If not, you need to evaluate and revise your approach to teaching that student to help create that value.

How Is Your Child Enjoying Class?

If you aren’t getting a positive response, you need to make your classes more fun and exciting.

Can You See How Our Program Teaches This Benefit and Will Help Your Child Over Time?

This goes back to the very first class and having a clear understanding of what, specifically, the parent wants the child to achieve with your program.

You must be delivering and demonstrating this benefit on the floor.

Notice that I did not ask, “Can you see a difference in Johnny’s discipline?” Johnny has only had three lessons with you, after all. You need to make it clear to the parents that the changes they hope for will happen over time. However, based on the structure of the class, the parents should be able to clearly see how your program delivers the benefits they’re looking for.

Would You Like Me to Show You How You Can Save Some Money on Our Program?

Ask this question only after determining that the parent and child both love the trial. Make sure they clearly see the program’s worth and how it will help the child with whichever benefit the parents value most.

At this point, you simply review your program and pricing options and give them an incentive to get started today. An example might be $100 off the down payment and the first payment isn’t due until after the trial expires.

You’ll find most parents will take advantage of the savings and get started immediately. However, others will need to think about it — and that’s OK. Simply schedule a follow-up appointment with them during their next class and extend the special until that class.

To contact Shane Tassoul, send an email to stassoul@masuccess.com or call (920) 450-5425.

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Students Will Enjoy Sparring If You Change the Way You Teach It!

BY CHRISTOPHER RAPPOLD

“The first idea to understand is perhaps the most important: It’s not that students don’t like to spar; it’s that they don’t like the way it’s being taught.”

90 MASUCCESS

O

ne of the biggest debates between professional martial artists these days is whether or not schools should teach sparring and how much sparring should be emphasized.

In one corner are the martial artists who look at sparring as a detriment to their growth and school success and, therefore, have eliminated it or are thinking of doing so. In the other corner are the martial artists who can’t imagine taking away from their school the functionality that sparring provides. We can bring them together using methodologies referred to as Retention-Based Sparring.

The first idea to understand is perhaps the most important: It’s not that students don’t like to spar; it’s that they don’t like the way it’s being taught. If you address that real challenge, you can effectively create a solution to the discouragement and dropouts that sparring can cause.

I have found that schools that want to eliminate sparring lack two things: a fundamental context (the way it’s presented) and content (a strategically designed set of drills and skills that will allow students to make progress).

In an effort to improve their program, many school owners watch videos and have sparring champions come in to teach techniques. The challenge is that to be “world class,” one has to focus on his or her own skills and abilities as an instructor, not the abilities of the student. You end up with techniques that a very limited population can use appropriately and no context for improvement. This strategy falls short when it comes to retaining students and growing your active student count. That means money out with no profit coming back in!

Instead, invest the time it takes to create a cohesive program to correct the situation — one that makes sense and logically flows from one drill to the next, one week to the next week and one month to the next month. After this is instituted, it makes sense to bring in outside talent. Bringing in a high-level martial arts practitioner or fighting champion to refine specific skills in the new curriculum is then a worthy strategic investment.

There are martial arts programs that fully embrace sparring practiced in some schools around the country. But even though they produce a few skilled fighters, those schools have an overall low active student count. So they need a different prescription. The instructors in this camp need to explore the culture of their school and focus on context improvement.

If your focus is largely on your top student athletes, you may want to step back and evaluate how a beginner would feel starting your program.

Questions to consider include: Does the way you teach allow the student to feel safe? Are the skills and drills chunked down enough so they can be easily understood and applied by the beginner? Do the drills and skills you teach allow for varied skills and abilities within the same class? Is it part of the culture that advanced students mentor, encourage and protect the learning environment of the beginners and intermediate students?

A well-designed sparring program can create a bond between students that’s very special. It provides a level of variety and a platform that offers a higher level of challenge to your students.

Feedback regarding effectiveness becomes virtually self-correcting.

Taught correctly, sparring should be as mentally stimulating as the focus required of a chess player who loses himself in the strategic moves of a chess match. Formatted correctly, sparring doesn’t induce the stress that some students feel from having to memorize hundreds of moves.

Most important, sparring provides an opportunity for a student to face his or her fears, doubts and worries in a way that’s safe and productive and that builds confidence that’s useful off the mat. So go to work on improving your content and context, then enjoy the pride and rewards that come with having more students enjoy your classes — and then refer new members.

To contact Christopher Rappold, send an email to founder@personalbestkarate.com.

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THE KICK YOU NEVER SAW COMING

Student Down!

BY BETH A. BLOCK

“These are the questions that a plaintiff’s attorney will ask if, in fact, such an emergency occurs in your school.”

92 MASUCCESS

O

nce at a rank test, I saw an adult student pass out. She was out cold before she hit the mat. And because she had collapsed from a standing position and was unable to catch herself, she hit hard. The good news: The mat cushioned the impact. The bad news: She still suffered a mild concussion.

This student had diabetes. Although she had eaten about three hours before the test, her anxiety and stress resulted in an adrenalin rush. This caused her blood sugar to drop. Consequently, she lost consciousness.

I watched the instructor team at the studio swing into a coordinated effort. One immediately approached the fallen student, rousing her back to consciousness. Two other instructors shepherded the remaining students to the edges of the mat so the area around the fallen student was clear. Those two then kept the students engaged in the test.

The instructor attending to the student who had fainted assisted her off the floor and into the studio’s office, where she was immediately given food and water to level her blood sugar as quickly as possible.

The result of this coordinated effort was a positive experience for all the students. The student who had passed out benefited from one-on-one attention, which provided the care necessary to assess and stabilize her condition. The remaining students benefited from being able to focus on their test, which prevented panic.

As I watched the scene unfold, I wondered how many school owners in this country have prepared themselves and their teams for such an event.

Have you thought about how your team would handle an emergency involving a student, such as fainting, breaking a limb or having a sudden medical incident? Do you and your staff know how to spot the warning signs of a stroke? Are you familiar with the different symptoms of a heart attack in women versus men? Do you drill and train on these potential emergencies on a regular basis?

These are the questions that a plaintiff’s attorney will ask if, in fact, such an emergency occurs in your school.

There are several primary factors I encourage you to consider as you’re thinking about this type of

emergency happening in your studio. First, how will you move the other students if the injured or incapacitated person cannot be safely moved? In some circumstances, such as a potential back or neck injury, you do not want to move the student. You need to let paramedics to do that.

In the meantime, it’s vital to move the other students away from the injured person and keep them busy and focused on the class instead of the injured person. What space is there for this in your studio? Is your best alternative to end the class and send the students home?

The age of the injured party is also relevant. You may need to create separate plans for your adult classes and children’s classes. Imagine that you’re teaching a beginner’s class with kids ages 6-12. Imagine that a child is a diabetic, his blood sugar has just bottomed out and he passed out, hitting his head.

Now, you have 20 kids on the mat completely distracted, swarming the passed-out kid. Suppose five parents are watching the class, but none of them is the downed student’s parent.

How would you manage the situation? Do you have knowledge of the child’s diabetes? Did you prepare an individual plan of training for this child? Do you have the child’s doctor’s written instructions on how to respond if this type of situation occurs?

To protect yourself, your instructors and your studio, it’s vital to have those documents in the child’s file. It’s also important for you and your team to train on how you’ll address the issue of keeping the remaining students calm, engaged and out of the fray. Your team will be best able to serve the child without the distractions of anxious children. The rest of the children will also have a much more positive experience and be less apt to feel anxiety over the incident when they see that your team has the situation authoritatively handled.

As always, the key is to imagine the emergency scenarios that could occur inside your studio and decide on proper courses of action. Then train your team and drill on the scenarios. These steps will protect you, your team, your students and your school.

To contact Beth A. Block, send an email to beth@blockins.net or call (800) 225-0863.

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THE LEGAL LANDSCAPE

Employer Liability for Employee Accidents While Texting — The Problem Won’t Go Away!

BY PHILIP E. GOSS JR., ESQ.

“Treat texting like Superman treats kryptonite. Stay away from it if you have any reason to believe the recipient is driving.”

Y

ears ago, I penned a column about the dangers of texting and driving. At the time, legislation had just started to hold employers accountable for the driving and texting habits of their employees in the event of a vehicle accident. This has only increased since then.

It’s now commonplace for employers to be found liable for accidents caused by employees who were distracted by a cellphone — if they were talking, texting or checking emails. Can we all agree that no one operates a motor vehicle as well when distracted by his or her phone, no matter the task undertaken?

Many states now hold that employers have the legal duty to not send texts to employees whom they know or believe are driving. It’s prudent to enact internal policies that specifically forbid employees from texting while driving during the time they’re performing employment-related tasks, no matter who the sender or recipient is.

In the event of any at-fault accidents, know this: Smart attorneys will absolutely check cellphone records to determine if the individuals involved were on their cellular devices at the time of, or in close proximity to, the time of the accident.

The problem is that if you send a text to an employee, he or she will likely read it, no matter the circumstances. This can happen despite your admonitions to the contrary and despite the time of day, be it during working hours or in the middle of the night. If the person is driving and has an accident, you and your business have potential civil liability.

Suggestions/Solutions Enact a strict policy and procedure, subject to severe immediate penalties, that texts are not to be read or responded to while driving. Treat texting like Superman treats kryptonite: Stay away from it if you have any reason to believe the recipient is driving. Your safest option is initiating a policy that hold that an individual’s phone must be turned off while he or

94 MASUCCESS

she is driving on company-related business.

Determine if immediate contact with your employee is necessary or merely convenient. Convenience can wait. A decade ago, immediate connection was not the norm, and as far as I remember, we still made it through the day.

Always follow your state’s laws regarding personal communication devices. It’s likely far better and safer to call the employee rather than text the person in an emergency (and only in an emergency).

Train your employees to know that checking emails or a social media site is no different from responding to a text. All are serious distractions.

I suggest that you take the additional step and enact a blanket prohibition against checking any information on a portable communication device while driving.

Keep in mind that if you supply phones to your employees or pay their phone bills, they will be much more likely to improperly answer any business-related texts. Therefore, I suggest that you not provide a phone for your employees’ use. In the event of an accident, providing a phone opens you to being named as a defendant.

To clarify, chances are you will be named as a defendant if your employee is involved in any serious accident, no matter the cause. The stakes increase exponentially when distracted-driver issues are involved, especially if the instrumentality (cellphone) is provided by the employer.

In my earlier column, I opined that soon there would be a nationwide push to punish texting/ distracted drivers consistent with the penalties enacted on drunken and other impaired drivers.

This has not been embraced universally yet. But I still hold that the day is coming. As before, I suggest that you get ahead of the curve in this regard before it happens.

To contact attorney Philip E. Goss Jr., send an email PhilGosslaw@gmail.com.

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JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2020 97

INSPIRATION OVATION

BY KAREN EDEN

“This school had been a threatening presence in the back of my mind, year after year. I always imagined it as it had looked to young Karen: a pristine jail. I thought it would last forever. Evidently, it didn’t.”

98 MASUCCESS

I

recently returned to my hometown for a visit. In between chats with old friends, I allowed myself time to wander and explore the “memory lanes” of my childhood. Many of the places and experiences there were pleasant — others, not so much. After some internal debate, I decided to visit a place that’s been the source of nightmares since sixth grade: my old middle school.

You see, before I was a black belt six times over, before I knew how to hold my head up, before I realized that, belt or not, we all have so much inherent worth as humans, I was a victim of bullying. I was an easy target: poor, ethnic and undeniably geeky. Nowhere in my life would I ever face such horrific experiences as I did in middle school!

I realize that I’m not alone in that regard. No one, I’ve come to learn, escapes middle school unscathed.

But combined with the brokenness of my home life, the ostracism and bullying I suffered during middle school set me up for a long-term struggle for a sense of self-acceptance and completeness.

So when I found myself stepping onto that familiar playground, I decided it was time to have a little talk with that school. It was time to lay the ghosts of the past to rest, along with the heartache and alienation that the school represented.

I could remember, as clearly as I can the halls of my current home, the walk up the long stairway that used to torture 13-year-old Karen. In the mornings, we students were given less than five minutes to get from the top of the main building all the way down the hill to the annex classrooms.

It was a hustle, almost a jog, with no time for bathroom breaks or locker malfunctions. I was scared to death of being late. This fear didn’t stem from any particular incident, just the general anxiety that permeated my time at the school.

Looking back, I wonder why I worried so much.

So what if I got a pink slip that said I was tardy?

Would it have affected my career or my life down the road? I should have just taken my time, used

the restroom and made sure I had all my books.

Those preparations might have made me 30 seconds late, but they would have spared me many long unpleasant classes.

My heart was pounding as I drove up to the building. But as I approached, my trepidation turned to disbelief. The entire stairwell was dilapidated and covered with weeds! The windows of the main building were broken, and the annex was boarded up.

The school had been a threatening presence in the back of my mind, year after year. I always imagined it as it had looked to young Karen: a pristine jail. I thought it would last forever. Evidently, it didn’t.

I pushed back some of the weeds and sat on the steps. There was no talk to be had. I’d won, and I needed to let this “dilapidated” issue go.

Knowing what I know now, I find it hard to fathom that there are still people out there who live their whole lives treating others as I was treated in middle school. I still encounter such individuals to this day. But I also realize now that I have the power to choose how I want to move forward with those experiences.

I don’t want any more dilapidated buildings lingering in my mind. Life has taught me that I will be more than OK regardless of what other people choose to do. Life has taught me that I’m destined to win, so I need to be willing to let go of the things that hold me back.

As I got up and walked around my old school, I noticed a sign. The building had been purchased and soon would be turned into studio apartments.

I couldn’t believe it! Who could look at something so broken and see the potential for life and home?

Then I realized that it was because someone had the ability to see past the brokenness of the property and know that they could still win.

To contact Karen Eden, send an email to renedenherdman@gmail.com or visit the Facebook group “The Eden Assignment.”

Photo Courtesy of Karen Eden

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