May 13, 2025 • 27 mins
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
In our fourth episode , we'll discuss how to keep your
Marshara students fired up andfocused in your classes.
Welcome to Black Belt Banterthe best podcast to help your
Marshara school increase inprofits and generate substantial
revenue.
I'm Jimmy Hong and my co-hostis Master Chan Lee.
(00:22):
Master Chan has over 2,100active students with multiple
locations.
He is well-renowned and highlyrespected by his fellow peers
for his business acumen inoperating martial arts schools.
Master Chan, how do you keepyour students fired up and
focused so they are with youmost of their life, if not all?
Speaker 2 (00:47):
Before we get into the actual class part, I want to
talk about something calledparadigm, and what I mean by
that is this If we all had kids,if you had a kid and you and I
both have children graduatinghigh school is one of those
non-negotiables.
If your son came up to you andsaid, dad, I'm gonna quit school
(01:08):
and I'm 16 and I wanna tourwith Taylor Swift for a year,
you're gonna be like, no, that'sa non-negotiable, it's never
gonna happen.
So high school is one of theseparadigms we have in our head
that our kid has to do College.
College is also one of thosethings where we go.
Eh, maybe 50% of the country islike I want my kid to go to
(01:28):
college and the other 50% is, eh, it's not a big deal.
So making sure that there's aphilosophical paradigm, that
martial arts is part of theeducation that helps this child
become a better person, andthere is many things like that.
I think you and I, being AsianAmerican, did you play a musical
instrument, jimmy Hong?
Speaker 1 (01:50):
I did, but very poorly.
Okay, what'd you play?
French horn and percussion.
Speaker 2 (01:58):
I did the violin and piano.
If you ask every Asian kid inthe country and you go, what
musical instrument have you done, more than 95% of the kids will
be like, yeah, my mom made Icould have done it or not done
it.
Speaker 1 (02:26):
I prefer not to have done it, but it had no bearing
and made nothing in my career.
Speaker 2 (02:33):
I just want to say, unlike you, I appreciate music
like classical.
I can listen to country.
Beyonce is the number onecountry artist in the country.
So anyway, I'm just sayingthese are paradigms that are out
there.
Certain families, it's anon-negotiable for college.
If you talk to some of myIndian friends and their kids,
(02:54):
they're like no undergrad, yeah,that's just, it's high school,
they gotta go get their master'sor they gotta get a PhD.
It's just whatever paradigm youbelieve in.
And so a lot of parents thatbring their kids to martial art
classes they think it's justanother activity.
So they bring their kids toclass and it's just, oh, it's
just another activity, likesoccer or baseball or whatever.
(03:16):
So we're on the same plane asthese other activities.
And I'll give you anothernon-negotiable that I did with
all my kids and then my dad didto me when I was growing up,
middle school and high school.
It was a non-negotiable.
I was part of the forensics anddebate team and he said hey,
listen, you could be thesmartest guy in the room.
If you don't know how tocommunicate, how smart and
(03:40):
brilliant you are, it doesn'tmatter.
And so that was the beginningparts of my foundational
knowledge of being able to talkin public and so forth, even
though I hated it.
I absolutely hated it.
But as an adult, oh yeah, thatwas a really cool idea.
I'm glad my dad made me do it.
As I say, all these paradigms,we need to make sure that we let
(04:01):
the kid and the parent knowthat getting a martial art black
belt is a paradigm that's amust for this kid and that by
getting a black belt, magicalthings happen.
And martial art you have tounderstand that martial arts is
an experiential system.
In other words, you have toexperience some of those trials
(04:24):
and tribulations of life.
How do you learn aboutperseverance until you do
something really hard and youdon't think you can do it?
How do you know that if youhave grit and determination
until you get knocked down in asparring match and you need to
pack up to free spar again?
These are all life lessons thathappen on our floor, and so I
(04:44):
tell every parent that enrollstheir kids in my academy listen.
Getting a black belt will do twomagical things in your child's
life.
One you're going to develop acertain level of confidence that
you won't get anywhere else,being able to stand and deliver
your martial art technique infront of your peers or
demonstrate at a testing or goto a tournament and be able to
(05:06):
compete in front of others anddeal with your nervousness.
This is something you can'texplain.
You got to experience it andthat's one of the things that
martial arts will do.
The other thing that it does isthat it develops discipline.
If you want to kick high, yougot to stretch every day.
If you want to punch hard orjump high, you got to do your
squats and your pushups Martialarts.
(05:28):
Or if you want to learn theseintricate moves in a kata or
form, you got to practice it.
And this really sets the barfor kids to understand that
practice and discipline,practice and perfect practice
makes me better, and we do thisat an early age.
You enroll a kid at five.
By eight or nine, 10, they canget a junior black belt and
(05:50):
really cements that lesson.
So I tell parents, is that wehave a finite window.
We have a really small windowand that window is until the
kids turn 12.
And I say that is because bythe time they turn 13, 14, 15,
they have a mind of their own.
So we have a window that we canreally help the children
understand these really positivehabits and so forth.
(06:11):
So I tell parents is that takeadvantage of this window.
Take advantage of this windowthat you want your child to grow
in this.
So that's the construct, that'sthe construct that I build in
my organization and that's theconstruct that I build in every
one of my students is that thisexperience of getting a black
belt and training in martialarts is going to change your
(06:32):
child forever.
So please do not quit right Now.
That's the overview.
You have to make sure as ateacher, what does this kid need
?
And there are only two types ofkids that come on your martial
art floor.
The first kid that comes onyour floor is a kid that's
(06:53):
probably shy, quiet, doesn'traise his hand, not very
energetic and so forth.
You guys get the kid.
We all know that kid that's inthe class.
The second kid that comes onyour floor twirls around in a
circle, can't sit, standstraight or sit straight, has
trouble focusing.
I think 20 years ago there wasa in a medical journal that
(07:14):
basically wrote that ADHD if youhave it, martial arts is one of
the best things you can do.
That is why we have a flood ofkids with ADHD.
It was recommended by theirpediatrician or their
psychologist that this is one ofthe things that's going to help
ground your kids.
So, making sure that youunderstand who those players are
in your floor.
Don't just teach a general class.
You can teach whatevercurriculum you want kicks,
(07:36):
punches and whatever but you arereally sprinkling what I call
the two dusts.
The first dust is what I callconfidence dust, where you look
at the kid and you go okay, showme that move, that was awesome,
holy cow, all right, can you doa little bit later or louder,
great.
That is the confidence dustthat you are always jazzing up
(07:58):
that kid Every time that they dosomething good.
You're catching them whenthey're doing really well and
you really want to propagatethis positive momentum of being
confident.
That is number one.
You should be a cheerleader andall your staff should be doing
that as well.
They shouldn't be saying no, no, other foot, okay, all right,
they should be doing what wecall PC, pc, praise, correct
(08:21):
praise.
And then you challenge them.
You go hey, that was a greatattempt.
You praise the effort, youcorrect them and say, okay,
switch feet, do with the otherleg.
Great, praise, correct praise.
And the challenge would be canyou do that 10 more times.
Great, and you challenge themto do it that way.
So just making sure that youhave a floor that is a little
(08:43):
bit more positive, that isreally encouraging these kids
and getting them out of theirshell, and you're just
high-fiving them and so forth.
That is one, okay, number two.
Number two is a very importantthing is catch the kid.
That screws up and I caughtthis with my staff is that every
(09:06):
time there's a kid named Johnny, johnny obviously has issues.
He has probably taken somemedication and he can't and the
medication is wearing off.
When he comes in my class andhe can't stand straight, he's
bouncing up the walls andwhatever, and his chemistry and
his brain makeup is off a littlebit.
So how do we get him to reallyget him to comply and do that?
(09:26):
So one of the things is thatone I'm going to catch Johnny
when he does good.
Johnny, I like how straight youare.
That just tells me how strongyour brain is, and strong brain
kids are able to stand straight.
Oh yeah, you are a super smart,strong brain kid.
Okay, I can tell.
All right, keep going.
And I want to keep catching himwhen he's doing good.
I don't want to catch.
I don't want to catch him Ifhe's messing up or whatever.
(09:53):
I, strategically will pick outa kid that's doing best.
Everybody see how this Elenahere, who's not moving, and
she's a man, look at how focusedshe is.
That's black belt level focus.
And as I do that I noticed thekid will take notice and say you
know what I want to impressmasterly in the instructors here
, and then we've got to praisehim.
So I really work on positivemotivation, catching kids when
(10:13):
they're doing well, making surethat they are extremely keen on
doing those things.
So that is number one.
Yes, sir, what do you say to?
Speaker 1 (10:23):
people who criticize as hey, you're just over
praising them and they're notlearning, because they're just
always constantly saying gettingreinforcement.
So let me just say this this isthe way your beginner classes
should feel like oh so, this isjust for beginners, Master John.
Oh so when you get this is notyour black belt club, this is
(10:44):
not your intermediate.
This is just beginners.
This is beginners.
We're just talking aboutbeginners.
Makes a lot of sense.
Yeah, beginners, this isbeginners.
Speaker 2 (10:49):
We're just talking about beginners Makes a lot of
sense, yeah, so you want to makesure and remember everybody.
That's the first three belts inyour system white belt, yellow
belt if you're orange or purpleor whatever belt is the third
belt, those first three peoplein the three ranks that I just
talked.
They're not students yet.
They're not your students.
You know what they are.
(11:10):
They're customers, yourstudents.
You know what they are.
They're customers.
Okay, and what I mean by that isthat if you have a white belt
student, break their toe in thefirst class, I'm telling you
they may not come back on secondor third class.
Your red belts break a toe,they tape it up and they finish
up the class.
So they've not beenindoctrinated into the world of
martial arts.
(11:30):
They are not martial artistsyet.
They are not in that type oftoughness and grittiness and so
forth.
So it's incredibly importantthat you are making sure that
they feel they're good enough,okay, and that's very important
because in everybody's mind andin everybody's narrative, if
they think about what they'redoing, they are thinking that
(11:54):
they're doing the best they canand you need to praise them for
their effort.
That's the best they can doright now.
Praise the effort that they'retrying.
Speaker 1 (12:03):
But you don't teach this way to your black belt club
.
Black belt your advanced level.
Are you kidding me?
Speaker 2 (12:09):
Are you kidding me?
Yes, I just won.
I'll get into that at adifferent podcast, but a
different part of our show.
I will totally talk about howto build your black belts and so
forth, and I'm very proud.
If you look at my organization,30% of the people that train
with this are black belts.
So I have a high number ofblack belts and that's a whole
(12:30):
nother topic that we can talkabout later.
Speaker 1 (12:33):
But just so that they know, just so that they how
many on your last black beltexam, how many black belts were
testing sir.
Speaker 2 (12:40):
It was a little bit light.
We had 162 candidates test forblack belt.
Speaker 1 (12:46):
We're usually.
Many of the schools don't evenhave 160 students, much less 160
students testing for blackbelts or black belt testing.
Speaker 2 (12:57):
You know what it is.
It goes back to the firstphrase I was talking about is
paradigm and construct.
So you have to know why they'rethere and then they have to buy
in.
You know what I mean.
And you have to.
Also you have to produce.
You can't be doing fluff and ifyou're producing and it's like
this I'm a weight loss coach andI go, yeah, I'll help you lose
(13:17):
weight, and six months in you'renot losing weight, I'm not
producing the result.
You keep at it, you can do it.
You know it's not working.
After six months to a yearthere's been no progress.
I guarantee that person isgoing to be dip out.
So it's the same thing If youpromise that kid's going to be
more confident, he better bemore confident.
(13:38):
If you promise that kid's goingto be a little bit more
disciplined, you better makesure that kid is disciplined.
And that's my point is thatpromise, do what you promised.
And it's incredibly importantthat that is what we.
That's what we do for a living.
Yes, I teach Taekwondo.
I teach the forms and thebreaking and all that stuff, but
(14:00):
it's just a delivery method toproduce what?
An enlightened human being, ahuman being that becomes better
than they would without doingmartial arts.
That's what you have to look atyour martial arts school at.
You know what I mean and I justdon't want to.
We just sent some kids to AAUStates.
I think out of the 20 kids, 15of them meddled.
(14:21):
They did well.
I can produce high levelathletes too.
It's not for all.
Back in the day I'm flexing.
Back in the day I used to bethe state coach and I produced a
couple national champions andwhatever.
I can do that.
But really I believe my focusand goal in life is to make sure
that the kids that I teach turninto better human beings,
(14:44):
better than they would have beenwithout working with me, and
that's really what I want towork on as I'm teaching classes
Master.
Speaker 1 (14:51):
Hong.
Great point, master Chan, isbecause when you have, let's say
, 100 students and I mean makingto state or national, or even a
state champion, highperformance, competitive student
what is that one, one to 3% ofyour school is going to make it.
So do you want to focus yourenergy, majority of your energy,
(15:14):
to one to three students, orthe 99 to 97 students that are
not going to make it to statesor national competition team,
but you're going to produce themto be a better human being when
they are finished or ongoing atyour school?
So what kind of school do youwant to be?
You can do both.
Speaker 2 (15:36):
But once again, we talked in a previous show that
where you spend your attentionis where you're going to get the
result.
I said that 40% of your timeshould be spent on marketing and
that you should devote time togrow your schools and so forth
should be spent on marketing andthat you should devote time to
grow your schools and so forth.
But if you're also providinghigh-level athletes, you know
(15:57):
how much time that takes.
So you've got to either farmthat out to someone else or
someone can help you with it,and so forth, but someone's got
to do it.
If you want to do ahigh-performance school and you
want to also provide ahigh-level, profitable school,
both can be done.
I know people that have done it.
But it's hard to divide thatattention unless you start
farming some of that stuff outto a staff member or someone
(16:18):
like that.
But let's go back to theoriginal topic, which is how to
run a great school.
And I live in Milwaukee, so I ama huge Milwaukee Bucks fan.
And if you ever go to anyprofessional NBA game holy cow,
or even a football game there'sthe introduction oh, from the
University of Texas, from Greece, giannis Antetokounmpo,
(16:40):
whatever.
I butchered his name, butanyway, you see, the fireballs
are coming out.
They're all hyping each other,giving them a high five, getting
them ready for the game, and soforth.
And, as a fan, you're sittingthere going, yeah, I can't wait
till the game starts, and soforth.
Everybody's cheering, goingnuts.
I want a little bit of thatwhen I start class, okay.
(17:00):
And so one of the things that Ido is I have everybody sit down
and before class starts, I do apreview.
I go hey, listen, today's dayis forms day.
We're gonna learn your new form.
Today we're gonna learnelements of the form.
It's gonna be super excitingand it's really important that I
have your 100% of yourattention.
(17:20):
So I give them a preview of theclass and then, before we line
up, okay, I call out theindividual belt groups.
All the orange belts stand up.
Yes, sir, all right.
You guys set the tone for theclass.
Everybody line up.
Yes, sir, all right.
And everybody gives them acheering thing and they go to
their spots and so forth.
So I want to make sure they'rehyped up for class, okay.
(17:41):
And then I call another group.
I said can you guys be louderthan the belts that just came
out?
Ready, light up.
Yes, sir, they'll all run totheir spots.
And then the white belts samething.
Can you be the louder?
And then the white beltsinevitably beat everybody.
Oh my gosh, the white beltswere amazing and they're
standard attention.
So then we bow in and I'm anold school, martial arts school.
(18:04):
I meditate All right, I don't,we don't pray to anything, we
meditate and it's a minutemeditation.
So having these kids kneel, sitdown, and then I do a little
talk and I just basically saylisten, part of becoming a
student of martial arts iscalming your brain and emptying
your cup, your brain and all thethings that happen so you can
(18:26):
accept new knowledge.
So empty your cup, empty yourmind, and then, once again, I
say this phrase being still is avery difficult thing at your
age and one of the things thatyou need to do is develop a
strong brain.
So all the kids that aresitting still, I know who you
are.
So all the kids that aresitting still, I know who you
are.
You guys are developing a verystrong brain.
So be still.
(18:47):
And I'll tell you, having 30,40 kids meditate, sitting down,
quiet, I still get chills.
I think it's a really cool partof what we do.
So just making sure that youbring this pomp and circumstance
and energy to the classes andso forth.
And then I have one of myleaders and junior leaders run
(19:09):
the stretching.
We have just a cannedstretching quick 10 minutes of
stretching their bodies to getready for class.
And when they do it I wannamake sure that they're louder
than the students and they'remore enthusiastic than the
students.
They have to be super loudyelling the numbers and so forth
.
And I'll tell you, it's myleadership team.
It's these kids that arelearning how to project their
(19:30):
voice and be loud and commandand have a commanding presence.
That's a very important keypoint in my classes.
So I have a lot of helpers inthe class and after warmups or
after stretching, then we dowarmups and you can do any types
of things.
You can do the horse ridingstance I call it lecture style,
that's one way of doing it.
(19:51):
You can do line drills, makingsure that each of your leaders
are in charge of the little kidsline drills and they can do
that.
Okay, and so that's how I runmy classes and that's the first
25 minutes or so, and after theydo the line drills and
plyometric type stuff and soforth, in the beginning part of
class.
Then we get into what I callcurriculum, and that's when most
(20:15):
classes fall apart because theydon't have a lot of instructors
or leaders.
One of my leaders will work onthe form with one of the kids.
Let's just use it's a form day,we're working on forms, or
poomsae or kata or whatever youwant to call it and that
instructor will work with thatgroup Another group, what I call
.
We work on skills and drills.
(20:36):
I can just work on generalstuff like kicking a wave master
and doing a lecture style onhow to do a proper kick or a
proper block, and this is whereI can single-handedly just run
the class and then, as thatinstructor, 10 minutes in, we
rotate another belt group thatthey can work with.
(20:57):
Oh, by the way, after they doforms, they do striping.
So they'll stripe the kids witheither a full stripe for
learning the form or a halfstripe for just attempting the
form, and so I'm really centricon making sure the kids get
striped up.
In our system you have to getfour different stripes in order
to qualify to test, and so theclasses are really focused on.
(21:20):
What is the goal?
Why are you here today?
And every eight weeks, we offera test, and our goal is to try
to get them ready for testing.
If they're not ready to test,guess what?
They just wait another eightweeks.
Okay, so that's how we run ourschools in the nutshell.
And then, at the end of theclass, there's two things that
are super important that youneed to do.
One you need to do a fun endingdrill, whether that's the high
(21:45):
block game where you circle themup and touch the kid in the
head and so forth.
That's one thing you can do.
Another thing you can dobesides the high block game is
that you can also do a flyinghigh five.
You run and do a flying highfive to the target.
You can have them jump overshields, you can do a little
obstacle course, whatever, justsomething fun for the kids to do
(22:08):
.
And then, right after the endof that, the most critical thing
you do is I always do a fiveminute lecture, and that lecture
has to do with something that'simportant.
It could be your tenants.
Hey, being a martial artistmeans you're courteous, so
that's why we bow and we sayhello to our instructors and so
forth, and we bow to the flags,but also do you say hi to your
(22:28):
parents' friends when they comeinto the house.
Do you say hi to your friends'parents Right when you hi?
Mrs Jones, nice to see youtoday.
How many seven-year-old kidssay hi to the parents of their
friends without the parentssaying it first?
So, and saying it first, so Ijust make sure that they do a
proper greeting and knowing howto look someone in the eye and
so forth, so you can work onwhatever you feel is a very
(22:50):
important life skill that youwant your black belts to look
like, and that's kind of ourcourteous one.
So that is a very importantpart.
And then at the end of theclass, let them know that we're
going to be working on this allweek and if you didn't get a
stripe, that's okay, you canalso gain it the next time you
come in, and so forth, andthey're just really focused on
that.
Speaker 1 (23:11):
That you mentioned your beginning of the class and
then the end of the class.
In the middle.
Do you have high energy drillsor are they more of the same
tone?
Speaker 2 (23:22):
What do you recommend on that in the core, middle,
super high energy, we crank themusic.
Oh, you have music going inyour class as well.
I'm a big proponent of music.
I never used to be, but I'mtelling you it makes a huge
difference and just having goodmusic for the kids to work and
train and jump over stuff and soforth just a really cool aspect
of what we do so, I'm assuming,with music.
Speaker 1 (23:42):
you have high energy drills then with either bags or
targets.
Speaker 2 (23:52):
Correct, correct.
The other thing which iscritically important, I make all
my students.
So we're talking about how doyou get a kid to be loud, and so
forth.
We do our oath and tenets overold school.
Did you do that?
Courtesy, integrity,perseverance, yes, sir, yeah.
So I have one of the kids lead,so usually a small five-year-old
and the five-year-old goes yes,sir, they turn around.
I said even deeper bow, bow toyour parents.
(24:13):
So they bowed to their parentsat the end of our classes and
then we dismissed them and Isaid give your parents a big hug
at the end of class and thankthem for bringing you to
Taekwondo class.
So that's kind of how I keep arockstar class.
(24:35):
And the thing is that ifstudents do not know why they're
training, what's the goal, whyam I here, then you're going to
lose them.
I have a six-month testingcycle for red to high red and I
always remind them hey, you'retesting in June or you're going
to be testing in September.
So this is what we're workingon this week.
Your job as a teacher is toalways remind them why they're
(24:59):
there that day and what you'reworking on to get them closer to
their goal.
Speaker 1 (25:06):
Thank you, Master Chan.
As always, let's wrap it uphere.
If you enjoyed today's show orany of our previous shows, go
ahead and subscribe to ourpodcast or YouTube channel.
You'll get notified when a newepisode drops.
Thanks for listening and seeyou guys on the next episode.
In our fourth episode , we'll discuss how to keep your
Marshara students fired up andfocused in your classes.
Welcome to Black Belt Banterthe best podcast to help your
Marshara school increase inprofits and generate substantial
revenue.
I'm Jimmy Hong and my co-hostis Master Chan Lee.
(00:22):
Master Chan has over 2,100active students with multiple
locations.
He is well-renowned and highlyrespected by his fellow peers
for his business acumen inoperating martial arts schools.
Master Chan, how do you keepyour students fired up and
focused so they are with youmost of their life, if not all?
Speaker 2 (00:47):
Before we get into the actual class part, I want to
talk about something calledparadigm, and what I mean by
that is this If we all had kids,if you had a kid and you and I
both have children graduatinghigh school is one of those
non-negotiables.
If your son came up to you andsaid, dad, I'm gonna quit school
(01:08):
and I'm 16 and I wanna tourwith Taylor Swift for a year,
you're gonna be like, no, that'sa non-negotiable, it's never
gonna happen.
So high school is one of theseparadigms we have in our head
that our kid has to do College.
College is also one of thosethings where we go.
Eh, maybe 50% of the country islike I want my kid to go to
(01:28):
college and the other 50% is, eh, it's not a big deal.
So making sure that there's aphilosophical paradigm, that
martial arts is part of theeducation that helps this child
become a better person, andthere is many things like that.
I think you and I, being AsianAmerican, did you play a musical
instrument, jimmy Hong?
Speaker 1 (01:50):
I did, but very poorly.
Okay, what'd you play?
French horn and percussion.
Speaker 2 (01:58):
I did the violin and piano.
If you ask every Asian kid inthe country and you go, what
musical instrument have you done, more than 95% of the kids will
be like, yeah, my mom made Icould have done it or not done
it.
Speaker 1 (02:26):
I prefer not to have done it, but it had no bearing
and made nothing in my career.
Speaker 2 (02:33):
I just want to say, unlike you, I appreciate music
like classical.
I can listen to country.
Beyonce is the number onecountry artist in the country.
So anyway, I'm just sayingthese are paradigms that are out
there.
Certain families, it's anon-negotiable for college.
If you talk to some of myIndian friends and their kids,
(02:54):
they're like no undergrad, yeah,that's just, it's high school,
they gotta go get their master'sor they gotta get a PhD.
It's just whatever paradigm youbelieve in.
And so a lot of parents thatbring their kids to martial art
classes they think it's justanother activity.
So they bring their kids toclass and it's just, oh, it's
just another activity, likesoccer or baseball or whatever.
(03:16):
So we're on the same plane asthese other activities.
And I'll give you anothernon-negotiable that I did with
all my kids and then my dad didto me when I was growing up,
middle school and high school.
It was a non-negotiable.
I was part of the forensics anddebate team and he said hey,
listen, you could be thesmartest guy in the room.
If you don't know how tocommunicate, how smart and
(03:40):
brilliant you are, it doesn'tmatter.
And so that was the beginningparts of my foundational
knowledge of being able to talkin public and so forth, even
though I hated it.
I absolutely hated it.
But as an adult, oh yeah, thatwas a really cool idea.
I'm glad my dad made me do it.
As I say, all these paradigms,we need to make sure that we let
(04:01):
the kid and the parent knowthat getting a martial art black
belt is a paradigm that's amust for this kid and that by
getting a black belt, magicalthings happen.
And martial art you have tounderstand that martial arts is
an experiential system.
In other words, you have toexperience some of those trials
(04:24):
and tribulations of life.
How do you learn aboutperseverance until you do
something really hard and youdon't think you can do it?
How do you know that if youhave grit and determination
until you get knocked down in asparring match and you need to
pack up to free spar again?
These are all life lessons thathappen on our floor, and so I
(04:44):
tell every parent that enrollstheir kids in my academy listen.
Getting a black belt will do twomagical things in your child's
life.
One you're going to develop acertain level of confidence that
you won't get anywhere else,being able to stand and deliver
your martial art technique infront of your peers or
demonstrate at a testing or goto a tournament and be able to
(05:06):
compete in front of others anddeal with your nervousness.
This is something you can'texplain.
You got to experience it andthat's one of the things that
martial arts will do.
The other thing that it does isthat it develops discipline.
If you want to kick high, yougot to stretch every day.
If you want to punch hard orjump high, you got to do your
squats and your pushups Martialarts.
(05:28):
Or if you want to learn theseintricate moves in a kata or
form, you got to practice it.
And this really sets the barfor kids to understand that
practice and discipline,practice and perfect practice
makes me better, and we do thisat an early age.
You enroll a kid at five.
By eight or nine, 10, they canget a junior black belt and
(05:50):
really cements that lesson.
So I tell parents, is that wehave a finite window.
We have a really small windowand that window is until the
kids turn 12.
And I say that is because bythe time they turn 13, 14, 15,
they have a mind of their own.
So we have a window that we canreally help the children
understand these really positivehabits and so forth.
(06:11):
So I tell parents is that takeadvantage of this window.
Take advantage of this windowthat you want your child to grow
in this.
So that's the construct, that'sthe construct that I build in
my organization and that's theconstruct that I build in every
one of my students is that thisexperience of getting a black
belt and training in martialarts is going to change your
(06:32):
child forever.
So please do not quit right Now.
That's the overview.
You have to make sure as ateacher, what does this kid need
?
And there are only two types ofkids that come on your martial
art floor.
The first kid that comes onyour floor is a kid that's
(06:53):
probably shy, quiet, doesn'traise his hand, not very
energetic and so forth.
You guys get the kid.
We all know that kid that's inthe class.
The second kid that comes onyour floor twirls around in a
circle, can't sit, standstraight or sit straight, has
trouble focusing.
I think 20 years ago there wasa in a medical journal that
(07:14):
basically wrote that ADHD if youhave it, martial arts is one of
the best things you can do.
That is why we have a flood ofkids with ADHD.
It was recommended by theirpediatrician or their
psychologist that this is one ofthe things that's going to help
ground your kids.
So, making sure that youunderstand who those players are
in your floor.
Don't just teach a general class.
You can teach whatevercurriculum you want kicks,
(07:36):
punches and whatever but you arereally sprinkling what I call
the two dusts.
The first dust is what I callconfidence dust, where you look
at the kid and you go okay, showme that move, that was awesome,
holy cow, all right, can you doa little bit later or louder,
great.
That is the confidence dustthat you are always jazzing up
(07:58):
that kid Every time that they dosomething good.
You're catching them whenthey're doing really well and
you really want to propagatethis positive momentum of being
confident.
That is number one.
You should be a cheerleader andall your staff should be doing
that as well.
They shouldn't be saying no, no, other foot, okay, all right,
they should be doing what wecall PC, pc, praise, correct
(08:21):
praise.
And then you challenge them.
You go hey, that was a greatattempt.
You praise the effort, youcorrect them and say, okay,
switch feet, do with the otherleg.
Great, praise, correct praise.
And the challenge would be canyou do that 10 more times.
Great, and you challenge themto do it that way.
So just making sure that youhave a floor that is a little
(08:43):
bit more positive, that isreally encouraging these kids
and getting them out of theirshell, and you're just
high-fiving them and so forth.
That is one, okay, number two.
Number two is a very importantthing is catch the kid.
That screws up and I caughtthis with my staff is that every
(09:06):
time there's a kid named Johnny, johnny obviously has issues.
He has probably taken somemedication and he can't and the
medication is wearing off.
When he comes in my class andhe can't stand straight, he's
bouncing up the walls andwhatever, and his chemistry and
his brain makeup is off a littlebit.
So how do we get him to reallyget him to comply and do that?
(09:26):
So one of the things is thatone I'm going to catch Johnny
when he does good.
Johnny, I like how straight youare.
That just tells me how strongyour brain is, and strong brain
kids are able to stand straight.
Oh yeah, you are a super smart,strong brain kid.
Okay, I can tell.
All right, keep going.
And I want to keep catching himwhen he's doing good.
I don't want to catch.
I don't want to catch him Ifhe's messing up or whatever.
(09:53):
I, strategically will pick outa kid that's doing best.
Everybody see how this Elenahere, who's not moving, and
she's a man, look at how focusedshe is.
That's black belt level focus.
And as I do that I noticed thekid will take notice and say you
know what I want to impressmasterly in the instructors here
, and then we've got to praisehim.
So I really work on positivemotivation, catching kids when
(10:13):
they're doing well, making surethat they are extremely keen on
doing those things.
So that is number one.
Yes, sir, what do you say to?
Speaker 1 (10:23):
people who criticize as hey, you're just over
praising them and they're notlearning, because they're just
always constantly saying gettingreinforcement.
So let me just say this this isthe way your beginner classes
should feel like oh so, this isjust for beginners, Master John.
Oh so when you get this is notyour black belt club, this is
(10:44):
not your intermediate.
This is just beginners.
This is beginners.
We're just talking aboutbeginners.
Makes a lot of sense.
Yeah, beginners, this isbeginners.
Speaker 2 (10:49):
We're just talking about beginners Makes a lot of
sense, yeah, so you want to makesure and remember everybody.
That's the first three belts inyour system white belt, yellow
belt if you're orange or purpleor whatever belt is the third
belt, those first three peoplein the three ranks that I just
talked.
They're not students yet.
They're not your students.
You know what they are.
(11:10):
They're customers, yourstudents.
You know what they are.
They're customers.
Okay, and what I mean by that isthat if you have a white belt
student, break their toe in thefirst class, I'm telling you
they may not come back on secondor third class.
Your red belts break a toe,they tape it up and they finish
up the class.
So they've not beenindoctrinated into the world of
martial arts.
(11:30):
They are not martial artistsyet.
They are not in that type oftoughness and grittiness and so
forth.
So it's incredibly importantthat you are making sure that
they feel they're good enough,okay, and that's very important
because in everybody's mind andin everybody's narrative, if
they think about what they'redoing, they are thinking that
(11:54):
they're doing the best they canand you need to praise them for
their effort.
That's the best they can doright now.
Praise the effort that they'retrying.
Speaker 1 (12:03):
But you don't teach this way to your black belt club
.
Black belt your advanced level.
Are you kidding me?
Speaker 2 (12:09):
Are you kidding me?
Yes, I just won.
I'll get into that at adifferent podcast, but a
different part of our show.
I will totally talk about howto build your black belts and so
forth, and I'm very proud.
If you look at my organization,30% of the people that train
with this are black belts.
So I have a high number ofblack belts and that's a whole
(12:30):
nother topic that we can talkabout later.
Speaker 1 (12:33):
But just so that they know, just so that they how
many on your last black beltexam, how many black belts were
testing sir.
Speaker 2 (12:40):
It was a little bit light.
We had 162 candidates test forblack belt.
Speaker 1 (12:46):
We're usually.
Many of the schools don't evenhave 160 students, much less 160
students testing for blackbelts or black belt testing.
Speaker 2 (12:57):
You know what it is.
It goes back to the firstphrase I was talking about is
paradigm and construct.
So you have to know why they'rethere and then they have to buy
in.
You know what I mean.
And you have to.
Also you have to produce.
You can't be doing fluff and ifyou're producing and it's like
this I'm a weight loss coach andI go, yeah, I'll help you lose
(13:17):
weight, and six months in you'renot losing weight, I'm not
producing the result.
You keep at it, you can do it.
You know it's not working.
After six months to a yearthere's been no progress.
I guarantee that person isgoing to be dip out.
So it's the same thing If youpromise that kid's going to be
more confident, he better bemore confident.
(13:38):
If you promise that kid's goingto be a little bit more
disciplined, you better makesure that kid is disciplined.
And that's my point is thatpromise, do what you promised.
And it's incredibly importantthat that is what we.
That's what we do for a living.
Yes, I teach Taekwondo.
I teach the forms and thebreaking and all that stuff, but
(14:00):
it's just a delivery method toproduce what?
An enlightened human being, ahuman being that becomes better
than they would without doingmartial arts.
That's what you have to look atyour martial arts school at.
You know what I mean and I justdon't want to.
We just sent some kids to AAUStates.
I think out of the 20 kids, 15of them meddled.
(14:21):
They did well.
I can produce high levelathletes too.
It's not for all.
Back in the day I'm flexing.
Back in the day I used to bethe state coach and I produced a
couple national champions andwhatever.
I can do that.
But really I believe my focusand goal in life is to make sure
that the kids that I teach turninto better human beings,
(14:44):
better than they would have beenwithout working with me, and
that's really what I want towork on as I'm teaching classes
Master.
Speaker 1 (14:51):
Hong.
Great point, master Chan, isbecause when you have, let's say
, 100 students and I mean makingto state or national, or even a
state champion, highperformance, competitive student
what is that one, one to 3% ofyour school is going to make it.
So do you want to focus yourenergy, majority of your energy,
(15:14):
to one to three students, orthe 99 to 97 students that are
not going to make it to statesor national competition team,
but you're going to produce themto be a better human being when
they are finished or ongoing atyour school?
So what kind of school do youwant to be?
You can do both.
Speaker 2 (15:36):
But once again, we talked in a previous show that
where you spend your attentionis where you're going to get the
result.
I said that 40% of your timeshould be spent on marketing and
that you should devote time togrow your schools and so forth
should be spent on marketing andthat you should devote time to
grow your schools and so forth.
But if you're also providinghigh-level athletes, you know
(15:57):
how much time that takes.
So you've got to either farmthat out to someone else or
someone can help you with it,and so forth, but someone's got
to do it.
If you want to do ahigh-performance school and you
want to also provide ahigh-level, profitable school,
both can be done.
I know people that have done it.
But it's hard to divide thatattention unless you start
farming some of that stuff outto a staff member or someone
(16:18):
like that.
But let's go back to theoriginal topic, which is how to
run a great school.
And I live in Milwaukee, so I ama huge Milwaukee Bucks fan.
And if you ever go to anyprofessional NBA game holy cow,
or even a football game there'sthe introduction oh, from the
University of Texas, from Greece, giannis Antetokounmpo,
(16:40):
whatever.
I butchered his name, butanyway, you see, the fireballs
are coming out.
They're all hyping each other,giving them a high five, getting
them ready for the game, and soforth.
And, as a fan, you're sittingthere going, yeah, I can't wait
till the game starts, and soforth.
Everybody's cheering, goingnuts.
I want a little bit of thatwhen I start class, okay.
(17:00):
And so one of the things that Ido is I have everybody sit down
and before class starts, I do apreview.
I go hey, listen, today's dayis forms day.
We're gonna learn your new form.
Today we're gonna learnelements of the form.
It's gonna be super excitingand it's really important that I
have your 100% of yourattention.
(17:20):
So I give them a preview of theclass and then, before we line
up, okay, I call out theindividual belt groups.
All the orange belts stand up.
Yes, sir, all right.
You guys set the tone for theclass.
Everybody line up.
Yes, sir, all right.
And everybody gives them acheering thing and they go to
their spots and so forth.
So I want to make sure they'rehyped up for class, okay.
(17:41):
And then I call another group.
I said can you guys be louderthan the belts that just came
out?
Ready, light up.
Yes, sir, they'll all run totheir spots.
And then the white belts samething.
Can you be the louder?
And then the white beltsinevitably beat everybody.
Oh my gosh, the white beltswere amazing and they're
standard attention.
So then we bow in and I'm anold school, martial arts school.
(18:04):
I meditate All right, I don't,we don't pray to anything, we
meditate and it's a minutemeditation.
So having these kids kneel, sitdown, and then I do a little
talk and I just basically saylisten, part of becoming a
student of martial arts iscalming your brain and emptying
your cup, your brain and all thethings that happen so you can
(18:26):
accept new knowledge.
So empty your cup, empty yourmind, and then, once again, I
say this phrase being still is avery difficult thing at your
age and one of the things thatyou need to do is develop a
strong brain.
So all the kids that aresitting still, I know who you
are.
So all the kids that aresitting still, I know who you
are.
You guys are developing a verystrong brain.
So be still.
(18:47):
And I'll tell you, having 30,40 kids meditate, sitting down,
quiet, I still get chills.
I think it's a really cool partof what we do.
So just making sure that youbring this pomp and circumstance
and energy to the classes andso forth.
And then I have one of myleaders and junior leaders run
(19:09):
the stretching.
We have just a cannedstretching quick 10 minutes of
stretching their bodies to getready for class.
And when they do it I wannamake sure that they're louder
than the students and they'remore enthusiastic than the
students.
They have to be super loudyelling the numbers and so forth
.
And I'll tell you, it's myleadership team.
It's these kids that arelearning how to project their
(19:30):
voice and be loud and commandand have a commanding presence.
That's a very important keypoint in my classes.
So I have a lot of helpers inthe class and after warmups or
after stretching, then we dowarmups and you can do any types
of things.
You can do the horse ridingstance I call it lecture style,
that's one way of doing it.
(19:51):
You can do line drills, makingsure that each of your leaders
are in charge of the little kidsline drills and they can do
that.
Okay, and so that's how I runmy classes and that's the first
25 minutes or so, and after theydo the line drills and
plyometric type stuff and soforth, in the beginning part of
class.
Then we get into what I callcurriculum, and that's when most
(20:15):
classes fall apart because theydon't have a lot of instructors
or leaders.
One of my leaders will work onthe form with one of the kids.
Let's just use it's a form day,we're working on forms, or
poomsae or kata or whatever youwant to call it and that
instructor will work with thatgroup Another group, what I call
.
We work on skills and drills.
(20:36):
I can just work on generalstuff like kicking a wave master
and doing a lecture style onhow to do a proper kick or a
proper block, and this is whereI can single-handedly just run
the class and then, as thatinstructor, 10 minutes in, we
rotate another belt group thatthey can work with.
(20:57):
Oh, by the way, after they doforms, they do striping.
So they'll stripe the kids witheither a full stripe for
learning the form or a halfstripe for just attempting the
form, and so I'm really centricon making sure the kids get
striped up.
In our system you have to getfour different stripes in order
to qualify to test, and so theclasses are really focused on.
(21:20):
What is the goal?
Why are you here today?
And every eight weeks, we offera test, and our goal is to try
to get them ready for testing.
If they're not ready to test,guess what?
They just wait another eightweeks.
Okay, so that's how we run ourschools in the nutshell.
And then, at the end of theclass, there's two things that
are super important that youneed to do.
One you need to do a fun endingdrill, whether that's the high
(21:45):
block game where you circle themup and touch the kid in the
head and so forth.
That's one thing you can do.
Another thing you can dobesides the high block game is
that you can also do a flyinghigh five.
You run and do a flying highfive to the target.
You can have them jump overshields, you can do a little
obstacle course, whatever, justsomething fun for the kids to do
(22:08):
.
And then, right after the endof that, the most critical thing
you do is I always do a fiveminute lecture, and that lecture
has to do with something that'simportant.
It could be your tenants.
Hey, being a martial artistmeans you're courteous, so
that's why we bow and we sayhello to our instructors and so
forth, and we bow to the flags,but also do you say hi to your
(22:28):
parents' friends when they comeinto the house.
Do you say hi to your friends'parents Right when you hi?
Mrs Jones, nice to see youtoday.
How many seven-year-old kidssay hi to the parents of their
friends without the parentssaying it first?
So, and saying it first, so Ijust make sure that they do a
proper greeting and knowing howto look someone in the eye and
so forth, so you can work onwhatever you feel is a very
(22:50):
important life skill that youwant your black belts to look
like, and that's kind of ourcourteous one.
So that is a very importantpart.
And then at the end of theclass, let them know that we're
going to be working on this allweek and if you didn't get a
stripe, that's okay, you canalso gain it the next time you
come in, and so forth, andthey're just really focused on
that.
Speaker 1 (23:11):
That you mentioned your beginning of the class and
then the end of the class.
In the middle.
Do you have high energy drillsor are they more of the same
tone?
Speaker 2 (23:22):
What do you recommend on that in the core, middle,
super high energy, we crank themusic.
Oh, you have music going inyour class as well.
I'm a big proponent of music.
I never used to be, but I'mtelling you it makes a huge
difference and just having goodmusic for the kids to work and
train and jump over stuff and soforth just a really cool aspect
of what we do so, I'm assuming,with music.
Speaker 1 (23:42):
you have high energy drills then with either bags or
targets.
Speaker 2 (23:52):
Correct, correct.
The other thing which iscritically important, I make all
my students.
So we're talking about how doyou get a kid to be loud, and so
forth.
We do our oath and tenets overold school.
Did you do that?
Courtesy, integrity,perseverance, yes, sir, yeah.
So I have one of the kids lead,so usually a small five-year-old
and the five-year-old goes yes,sir, they turn around.
I said even deeper bow, bow toyour parents.
(24:13):
So they bowed to their parentsat the end of our classes and
then we dismissed them and Isaid give your parents a big hug
at the end of class and thankthem for bringing you to
Taekwondo class.
So that's kind of how I keep arockstar class.
(24:35):
And the thing is that ifstudents do not know why they're
training, what's the goal, whyam I here, then you're going to
lose them.
I have a six-month testingcycle for red to high red and I
always remind them hey, you'retesting in June or you're going
to be testing in September.
So this is what we're workingon this week.
Your job as a teacher is toalways remind them why they're
(24:59):
there that day and what you'reworking on to get them closer to
their goal.
Speaker 1 (25:06):
Thank you, Master Chan.
As always, let's wrap it uphere.
If you enjoyed today's show orany of our previous shows, go
ahead and subscribe to ourpodcast or YouTube channel.
You'll get notified when a newepisode drops.
Thanks for listening and seeyou guys on the next episode.
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