15 August 2013

Judo as Business

The title’s combination of words were anathema to my dad and many of the students that learned under him. For a long time I felt the two were irreconcilable. One of the last things my dad told me about judo was, in essence, “it is good to teach judo, but don’t pay for the privilege.”

That’s a very odd sentence construction for an English teacher, as far as I’m concerned. Parsing it, prima facie, implies that teaching judo is good and it shouldn’t cost you to teach, but nor should you make money off it. Originally, I took this to mean that running a judo school should be a zero sum game where everything pays for itself and I end up doing this great charitable work and feeling good while holding down another job to pay for all my other expenses. Unfortunately, even this plan is expensive and doing it right involves dedicating a lot of time to developing a lot of background and doing a lot of work; it is running a “business” even if it is a non-profit.

A few years ago, I pursued a Master of Business Administration degree to help me understand how to run a business. During the course of that program, I learned a lot about business administration and a little about what I would need to do to build a business. I also learned that if I was to do a judo business, my best bet was to run it like a for-profit business and follow the lead of other martial arts and even the fast-food industry if I wanted to enjoy doing judo. By the end of my MBA program, the idea of running a non-profit judo school had almost completely faded away. Today that idea is gone.

 Everyone in the martial arts community has heard the term “McDojo.” If you haven’t yet, a McDojo is a “school” that offers a martial art and “teaches” to generate income rather than develop solid martial arts skills. Frequently McDojos are called “belt factories” because their students are over-ranked or earn their promotions because they’ve been at the school a long time and their payment checks keep clearing. I think McDojos are one of the worst things to happen to martial arts ever because they convince their customers that they are learning martial arts when they are just a source of cash flow.

My personal belief is that franchising, if you want to make money and build a good reputation, is the best way to do it. To lead on from the fast-food industry, let me talk about a few things that they have going for them. The first and most important thing to think about with fast food is consistency. I don’t care if you live in the United States or the United Kingdom or China or anywhere in the world where beef is available; if you order a Big Mac, it’s going to be the same. That’s consistency. In the world of martial arts, consistency is king.

 Judo has been extremely lucky that the names for the major techniques are consistent around the world, i.e. a seoi nage in Japan is basically the same as one in the U.S., Russia, the U.K., France, etc. Unfortunately, the teaching of these techniques is not consistent. I’m not suggesting that biomechanical differences are unimportant. I am saying that every technique should be taught the same way when introducing it. For example, the first time a class is presented with seoi nage the general form and shape of the technique should be the same, in every class! As students learn more and become more comfortable, adjustments need making, but in the beginning, they should be taught the same.

2 comments:

Unknown said...

Good post but please don't tar all professional judo schools the same. I teach in schools and colleges within the South West of England and whilst I do charge (as this is my business). I only grade the children once a school term and it is strictly in-line with the British Judo Association curriculum and therefore grade and hold a license as such.

Nige

Loren said...

Nige,

I'm not painting all schools as McDojo. Just pointing out that some are. I actively encourage profitable dojo to continue to make their profits so long as they are legitimate facilities in line with the guiding principles of martial arts.