In my experience I see three times where dropouts peak during a child’s martial art training.

1. In the first 2-4 weeks
2. Around midway to Black Belt
3. Straight after achieving their Black Belt

Today I’ll give you some tips on how to get over that first hurdle of keeping your students through the first month of training.

The following advice works for all students young and old but I will focus on how to apply this to your younger students and you can take these ideas and adapt them for your new adult students as well.

When teaching kids martial arts you need to remember not to focus solely on the kids because the kids don’t pay the training fees and they don’t drive themselves to your Dojo for training. The parents are the ones that have to sacrifice their time to drive the kids to and from training and they have to pay you so that they can have the extra pressure of carting their kids around while also having a full time job and fitting in all the other things that take up their day.

Sometimes I feel like a broken record, or should I say a skipping CD, but here it is again… Parents are the unsung heroes that allow their kids to become great martial artists. Without their support, encouragement and sacrifice of time most kids would never learn a martial art. This is important because as busy as you get focusing on teaching kids martial arts you need to acknowledge their parents for bringing them to you.

Now that I have set the scene I want to encourage you to call your new students at home, or on their cell after working hours for some personal contact. But because I’m talking about your young students this means calling their parents. Try to call the one that drives them to training, whether it’s the Mum or the Dad. This phone call is made for two reasons:

1. To have personal contact with them and build a friendship
2. To find out if there are any problems emerging with the training

Reason one is obvious and I’ll assume you are a people person if you are brave enough to want to teach kids martial arts. If you got into it purely for the money you’d quit in the first month or two.

The second reason is the biggie, it is your chance to find out if there are any reasons that the student may want to quit or the parent may want to pull their child out of your class. Keep the conversation friendly and explain that you are calling to see how they are finding the training schedule. Listen to the response and if there is any negative feedback find out what the issues are. Common topics raised are training times conflicting with other responsibilities and the child complaining about muscle soreness or feeling awkward and embarrassed.

When you hear a problem you can discuss it and help solve the issue before it becomes an obstacle and they quit. If it is the class times you can offer alternative session times if you have them or maybe a pick up and drop off service if you are prepared to do this in your school. If the issue is sore muscles and bruises then explain that everybody feels exactly the same way when they first start training and that their body will quickly adapt and the aches and pains will disappear as they get used to training their martial arts. If it’s the sense of awkwardness and embarrassment, again reassure them that most kids feel awkward when they first start because they are learning so many new things but they will quickly master these new skills and it will put them ahead of their friends that aren’t learning a martial art.
If something is going to become a problem it will show up in the first couple of weeks so you are better off finding out the issues and dealing with them before its too late. Often the parents just need some reassurance that they have made the right decisions about enrolling their kids in a martial arts program and about selecting your school.

When you get them past the first month training becomes a habit which is exactly what we want for everyone’s benefit.

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Ps. Please leave a comment, I appreciate your opinion this topic.

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