The Dojo of Karate

I couldn’t be happier right now!  Well, I could, but for only officially being open for less than two months The Dojo of Karate will be at 28 students by the end of the week.  My goal was 30 students, in 30 days - which is a lofty goal, so I’m extremely proud of my accomplishment.  As always, I would like more, but I also need to be patient about the situation.  Most of my students have simply come from walk-ins, a few from my marketing, and a couple from my website.  It’s the old saying - location, location, location.

Otherwise, classes have been awesome!  I typically go into my quasi-job from 7am to 3:30pm Monday - Thursday, than go to the Karate school from 4pm to about 10ish… Granted those are LONG days, and by the end of the night, I’m tuckered out - it’s getting me one step closer to running a full time martial arts school.

I teach two classes per day, and on Saturday mornings I have a 10am class.  But, since things have been picking up, and I am getting a different age group of prospects interested in lessons, I have decided to expand my programs.  The Dojo of Karate will be adding a Lil’ Ninjas class for kids between the ages of 4 and 6.  The goal is to develop the students focus, concentration, motor skills, and martial art techniques to eventually graduate them to our regular program.

Also, last week we had our first Stripe Test Week.  Basically that’s when I get to review all of my students to see how they are doing with their curriculum.  From First Basic Kata to Kiso Katas, to basic techniques - such as kicks, punches, blocks, and stances.  Everything I teach is evaluated to make sure they are on track.  When they pass, they will receive a stripe on their belt, getting them closer to their next belt rank - which is gold.  So all of my students received a gold (it’s really yellow) strip on their belt.  Next month we will have Stripe Test Week again on the 3rd week, than our First Offical Belt Test on October 30th!  Really exciting stuff!!

My students seem to be having a great time!  Typically if the kids classes have a really good performance - meaning they ALL work very hard and show me great discipline - they get to play a game.  So far the favorite game is Jump The Shields.  Essentially, its a game of how high you can jump.  So we start with one shield and increase the height every round until the last person is kept standing.  A few weeks ago, I opened my big mouth and bet a kid that if he cleared the next set of shields I would do 20 push-ups.  Obviously that gave him even more motivation… Andrew, cleared it with ease… :-(  I had to stick to my word and do the push-ups… in front of the entire class and their parents!  That was the last time I gambled with him.

As for the adults, its a fun group of men and women, with one teen, that are having a great time and working very hard.  It’s exciting to see them progress these past few weeks, from the very first day they started.  It’s like an artist seeing his sculpture evolve into a masterpiece.  I’m just hoping to be able to get to the masterpiece, since this is simply the beginning.