"Knocked down 7 times, stand up 8"

Every martial arts school owner has thought about the big “what if” during the pandemic… what if I lose all my members… what if I can’t pay my rent?  What if I can’t provide for my family? 

In some ways we got lucky that the pandemic happened at a time when we could teach online.  Remember your first zoom class?  Noisy and disorganized and unsure what to expect…

Think about it.  2 years later we are still online and it’s a world of difference.  Why?  Expectations… 

We thought we could expect to teach martial arts the way we teach at the studio (dojang or dojo).  We thought our students would behave the same way they do at the studio.  We forget that our students are kings/queens of their own castles.  There are lots of distractions at home.  They do not have access to equipment that are easily found at the studio…

We changed our expectations and realized that perhaps we can focus on different aspects of martial arts rather than purely on the self defence and sparring.

We focused on fitness, flexibility, technique, patterns and the many tenets of martial arts.

Once we changed our expectations, we also reduced our stress and overall anxiety.  We also focused on the things we could do, rather than the things we cannot control.

Most school owners I know, love what they do.  They continue to teach with passion and enthusiasm despite the repetitive lockdowns and reopenings.

Their desire to succeed outweighs the hurdles of this pandemic and many martial artist set the example for their students to persevere.  In our case as former competitors and champions, we practiced what we preach now.  “Roll with the punches”, “Fall down 7 times, get up 8”.  Most of us are not here for the money, sure, we need it to pay our bills. The reason we continue to work hard is because we know first hand the difference Martial arts can make in a person’s life. We are here to pass on the torch to the next generation of champions and incredible citizens of our community. 

We are not closing down.  We have been knocked down too many times to count but we keep getting back up... because of you.