Post by R. Devane on May 17, 2015 21:03:14 GMT
Yep, it's true, I don't want anymore customers.
I never did want any customers. Let me explain. What I have always wanted and what I do still want are students, and lots of them. I'm a martial arts instructor so I'm interested in training people who have an interest in martial arts. That's totally fine if the main reason is fitness but fitness through martial arts is what I specialise in. Besides my martial arts qualifications, I am a qualified personal trainer too but that's not the career I chose or wanted. Customers can be a transient lot and move from club to club or from new training method to new training method. A student (of martial arts) trains with me because they value my experience and my advice. 'Customers' like to tell me what they want me to teach them! The problem with that is that the customer will always choose the aspects they like and not necessarily what is good for them. It's the same as giving a child total control over their diet, they'll choose sweets every time and not the healthy balanced diet that they need. Martial Arts is all about pushing your boundaries and improving your weaknesses, not simply relying on your strengths (although we do want to make them stronger too
.
There's not much responsibility in offering a service to a customer. Each time is like a single, standalone transaction. I do believe there is a lot more responsibility in being an instructor/coach to a student. A student must trust their instructor to properly guide them in this sport/defence/fitness activity and the instructor must gain that trust. I love teaching private classes more than group classes because I love knowing the people I teach. I love the interaction. I love the banter. I love learning from my students. I love the extremely personal chats we have. I'm honoured to be told the things that I hear and I always keep those confidential chats a secret. I am very proud of the fact that the majority of the members of our club have been training with us for a long time - Years and in some cases over a decade! It wouldn't be the same if these members were customers and not students.
In the 15 years I've been teaching professionally and the further years I've taught as a hobby, I've seen a lot of changes in attitudes. Years ago, despite the commercial transaction, new members were very much students and would hang onto every word the instructor said. Since then, many martial arts clubs, gyms, sports centres, speciality training facilities and boot camps have opened up. Now, the ‘customer’ does most of the talking. It's very hard to teach someone who won't listen or doesn't trust your advice or even worse, they reckon they are already an expert. I hate teaching ‘experts’ and I've met quite a few of them in my time unfortunately. For the record, they were all experts at being ignorant as to how carp they actually were (yes, I know I wrote carp! ha). I’ll give you a recent example; I was holding the focus mitts for one such ‘expert’ who was clearly hitting them wrong. He wouldn’t listen to my advice and he insisted I was holding the mitts wrong. He wanted me to adjust the way I was holding them to facilitate his improper technique. I can already hear your opinion but either way it’s a losing battle. If you reckon I should have insisted he do it ‘my way’ then a battle of wills ensues and ultimately he’s not impressed with my level of service – the ego is very strong in some customers. If I simply let him carry on doing it his way, the wrong way, he will never improve. The relationship is doomed right from the start. I would much rather start with a student.
Many times I’ve experienced a brand new ‘customer’ advise me as to what I should be teaching them and how I should be doing it. When I’m with an expert in their subject matter, I listen. They’re the expert. I’ll certainly interact and ask questions but it’s their opinion I’m paying for and I value. Sure, maybe I should be making all these new customers value me more. Maybe I should be listing off my martial arts resume before I teach them. Maybe I should have a tougher joining policy. Maybe I should do this, that and the other but that’s not me. I’m at this too long. 1000’s of people have trained at M.A.I. I’ve said many times before that M.A.I. is certainly not an extension of my ego. If it was I probably would run it completely differently – now there’s a thought… I can smell the rose petals now, that I insist are dropped at my feet as I enter the dojo…sorry, I’m getting a bit off track!
I’ve absolutely no interest in attempting to sell myself to each and every person that phones, emails and walks through the doors. Maybe that’s my downfall. I want to be the best instructor I can be to my students. I’m not at all looking for elite only students or fighters only. I really enjoy working with all my students. I love witnessing them advancing and succeeding. It’s not at all like work when I can say that my students are my friends. Yes, I have the responsibility of training them and advising them as best I can and we do have some craic but only if they let me do my job. If your instructor has never challenged your beliefs or pushed you outside your comfort zone or lectured you or corrected you or even encouraged you to do something you didn’t want to do then I’m afraid to tell you that he/she is only after your cash. The instructor/student relationship is a complex yet rewarding one and I would much rather the student mentality to the customer mentality any day. If you have gotten to the conclusion that I’m looking for a subservient student to massage my ego by hero worshipping me, then you’ve read this all wrong! However, I’ll take on this type of student too
Thanks for reading and I’m impressed if you have gotten this far
See you at training
- Robert
STUDENTS!!!!
I never did want any customers. Let me explain. What I have always wanted and what I do still want are students, and lots of them. I'm a martial arts instructor so I'm interested in training people who have an interest in martial arts. That's totally fine if the main reason is fitness but fitness through martial arts is what I specialise in. Besides my martial arts qualifications, I am a qualified personal trainer too but that's not the career I chose or wanted. Customers can be a transient lot and move from club to club or from new training method to new training method. A student (of martial arts) trains with me because they value my experience and my advice. 'Customers' like to tell me what they want me to teach them! The problem with that is that the customer will always choose the aspects they like and not necessarily what is good for them. It's the same as giving a child total control over their diet, they'll choose sweets every time and not the healthy balanced diet that they need. Martial Arts is all about pushing your boundaries and improving your weaknesses, not simply relying on your strengths (although we do want to make them stronger too
. There's not much responsibility in offering a service to a customer. Each time is like a single, standalone transaction. I do believe there is a lot more responsibility in being an instructor/coach to a student. A student must trust their instructor to properly guide them in this sport/defence/fitness activity and the instructor must gain that trust. I love teaching private classes more than group classes because I love knowing the people I teach. I love the interaction. I love the banter. I love learning from my students. I love the extremely personal chats we have. I'm honoured to be told the things that I hear and I always keep those confidential chats a secret. I am very proud of the fact that the majority of the members of our club have been training with us for a long time - Years and in some cases over a decade! It wouldn't be the same if these members were customers and not students.
In the 15 years I've been teaching professionally and the further years I've taught as a hobby, I've seen a lot of changes in attitudes. Years ago, despite the commercial transaction, new members were very much students and would hang onto every word the instructor said. Since then, many martial arts clubs, gyms, sports centres, speciality training facilities and boot camps have opened up. Now, the ‘customer’ does most of the talking. It's very hard to teach someone who won't listen or doesn't trust your advice or even worse, they reckon they are already an expert. I hate teaching ‘experts’ and I've met quite a few of them in my time unfortunately. For the record, they were all experts at being ignorant as to how carp they actually were (yes, I know I wrote carp! ha). I’ll give you a recent example; I was holding the focus mitts for one such ‘expert’ who was clearly hitting them wrong. He wouldn’t listen to my advice and he insisted I was holding the mitts wrong. He wanted me to adjust the way I was holding them to facilitate his improper technique. I can already hear your opinion but either way it’s a losing battle. If you reckon I should have insisted he do it ‘my way’ then a battle of wills ensues and ultimately he’s not impressed with my level of service – the ego is very strong in some customers. If I simply let him carry on doing it his way, the wrong way, he will never improve. The relationship is doomed right from the start. I would much rather start with a student.
Many times I’ve experienced a brand new ‘customer’ advise me as to what I should be teaching them and how I should be doing it. When I’m with an expert in their subject matter, I listen. They’re the expert. I’ll certainly interact and ask questions but it’s their opinion I’m paying for and I value. Sure, maybe I should be making all these new customers value me more. Maybe I should be listing off my martial arts resume before I teach them. Maybe I should have a tougher joining policy. Maybe I should do this, that and the other but that’s not me. I’m at this too long. 1000’s of people have trained at M.A.I. I’ve said many times before that M.A.I. is certainly not an extension of my ego. If it was I probably would run it completely differently – now there’s a thought… I can smell the rose petals now, that I insist are dropped at my feet as I enter the dojo…sorry, I’m getting a bit off track!
I’ve absolutely no interest in attempting to sell myself to each and every person that phones, emails and walks through the doors. Maybe that’s my downfall. I want to be the best instructor I can be to my students. I’m not at all looking for elite only students or fighters only. I really enjoy working with all my students. I love witnessing them advancing and succeeding. It’s not at all like work when I can say that my students are my friends. Yes, I have the responsibility of training them and advising them as best I can and we do have some craic but only if they let me do my job. If your instructor has never challenged your beliefs or pushed you outside your comfort zone or lectured you or corrected you or even encouraged you to do something you didn’t want to do then I’m afraid to tell you that he/she is only after your cash. The instructor/student relationship is a complex yet rewarding one and I would much rather the student mentality to the customer mentality any day. If you have gotten to the conclusion that I’m looking for a subservient student to massage my ego by hero worshipping me, then you’ve read this all wrong! However, I’ll take on this type of student too
Thanks for reading and I’m impressed if you have gotten this far
See you at training
- Robert
STUDENTS!!!!
