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Thread: Average Life of a Kung Fu Student

  1. #16
    Join Date
    Jan 1970
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    Europe
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    My experience since opening my school in september 2004 (so two years in one week time) has been roughly as follows:

    30% quit within 6 months
    20% quit within 1 year
    10% quit within 1.5 years
    40% remain past 1.5 years

    I do however think we have unusually high retention rates; also our classes are currently attended by students ranging in age from 16 to 46, so it's a relatively "stable" demographic compared perhaps to younger kids who try many things and have less dedication to a single long-term activity.

    On a side note mentioned above ... we have 4 female fashion models doing the class (one joined because she thought it was a great workout and then brought along her friends, to whom we have given amply discounted fees - they usually get free gym memberships through their modelling agency): they certainly make a huge impression on people coming for trial classes Also the male students certainly put in extra efforts when the girls are around ...

    Wall
    Last edited by wall; 08-19-2006 at 03:38 AM.
    > it is your mind, that creates this world >

  2. #17
    Join Date
    Aug 2002
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    Xi'an, P.R.C.
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    Quote Originally Posted by Judge Pen View Post
    Every strip club I go to, I wrap a business card in a dollar bill.
    No wonder the girls at your place are so skanky. You should start using 20's and see what happens. . .

  3. #18
    Join Date
    Nov 2005
    Location
    Long Island
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    Are you guys sure the students who left your schools really quit... or just moved on to another school and continued training in Martial Arts?
    If the brain were so simple we could understand it, we would be so simple we couldn't.

    Lucky Numbers 11, 8, 39, 46, 5, 17

  4. #19
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    Canada!
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    Quote Originally Posted by ZhuiQuan View Post
    Are you guys sure the students who left your schools really quit... or just moved on to another school and continued training in Martial Arts?
    No doubt some do. Some people are in and out for years and get nowhere because they hop around and take too long of a break in their training.
    Inconsistency = it's not worth bothering at all really.

    I would say that the vast majority who quit, stay quit, while some others will do the inconsistency cycle and get nowhere and others still, the smallest portion will continue on.

    this is just my own experience though. Let's face it, there is an innate tendency in modern humans that live in developed nations to be lazy ass. If this wasn't true, why is obesity a problem in our developed nations? Why do people from 25 on not adopt exercise regimens. Why do we even have such a thing as middle age spread? lol.

    It boils down to the easier life gets, the less yoru average person will feel compelled to do whether it's worthwhile or not. People will do what they want and for the most part, people want to chill and hang. Which is cool, but when taken in large doses are really just dead time in your life that you can't get back and haven't accomplished anything with.
    Kung Fu is good for you.

  5. #20
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    Nov 2005
    Location
    Long Island
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    Middle Age Spread? hahahaha

    I've never heard of it. What is that exactly? Do I even want to know?
    If the brain were so simple we could understand it, we would be so simple we couldn't.

    Lucky Numbers 11, 8, 39, 46, 5, 17

  6. #21
    to follow a little more on what ZhuiQuan asked:

    there are definitely those people who see a "kung fu" movie then sign up the next day only to see a surfing movie the next week and take that instead; I wonder, however, how many of these students simply decided that the school/art/shifu was not right for them or what they expected . . . just noting a possibility . . .
    whether or not they continued training elsewhere is another story

  7. #22
    Quote Originally Posted by wall View Post
    I do however think we have unusually high retention rates; also our classes are currently attended by students ranging in age from 16 to 46, so it's a relatively "stable" demographic compared perhaps to younger kids who try many things and have less dedication to a single long-term activity.
    I'm a little surprised that your oldest student is only 46. We have about a half dozen students in their 50s maybe even 60s.

    One thing that I think helps retention is to come in around the same time as 4-5 other students. I did that and we formed a bond. We kinda formed our own little support group and we are all still in the program.

  8. #23
    Join Date
    May 2005
    Location
    South Jersey.
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    256
    Quote Originally Posted by BoulderDawg View Post
    One thing that I think helps retention is to come in around the same time as 4-5 other students. I did that and we formed a bond. We kinda formed our own little support group and we are all still in the program.
    Definetly. That's the reason why the two guys I train with and me are still there. I was already friends with one before the school, and started within 6 months of the other, and now the 3 of us spend most of our time hanging out and training together. Consequently, we're all working on year 3 or 4.
    Many roads. One path.

    Many styles. One art.

    Many lineages. One practioner.

  9. #24
    Join Date
    Jan 1970
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    Europe
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    Quote Originally Posted by BoulderDawg View Post
    I'm a little surprised that your oldest student is only 46. We have about a half dozen students in their 50s maybe even 60s.
    Hi Boulder, I think it's because our classes are athletically quite intensive and most older people feel it's too much for them when they come to see. We had a few people in their late 40s early 50s come and see a class but they didn't join afterwards.
    The one exception was a 62 y.o. man who not only joined but was with us for 1 year before retiring and moving to another city: however he came from a lifetime of fitness and at the time was competing in weekend running events and even did a half marathon ... so he wasn't the average 62 y.o.

    W
    > it is your mind, that creates this world >

  10. #25
    Quote Originally Posted by wall View Post
    Hi Boulder, I think it's because our classes are athletically quite intensive and most older people feel it's too much for them when they come to see. We had a few people in their late 40s early 50s come and see a class but they didn't join afterwards.
    I think there's a case to made for being too physically demanding. I take Kung Fu for fun and fellowship. If it ever got to be marine boot camp 2-3 nights a week I probably wouldn't be there.

  11. #26
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    Jan 1970
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    Canada!
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    fun and fellowship are fine, but they aren't my prime reasons for studying Kungfu.
    They're more of a side effect of a group that shares common ground and experience.

    you'll get more fellowship out of shared hard experience.

    some stuff is too demanding for people early on and any program should gradually build and improve the students to deal with more and more hardship in teh regimen as time passes.

    If the process is designed correctly and the student practices, then it's surprising to see what someone can become capable of that they couldn't do before in as short a time span as a year.

    flexibility, strength and endurance are the first things youll see in someone.
    skill and ability to apply it comes later and is dependent upon ability to teach and ability to understand. Former being the teachers role and latter being the students.
    Kung Fu is good for you.

  12. #27
    Join Date
    Jan 1970
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    Europe
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    Quote Originally Posted by BoulderDawg View Post
    I think there's a case to made for being too physically demanding. I take Kung Fu for fun and fellowship. If it ever got to be marine boot camp 2-3 nights a week I probably wouldn't be there.
    I agree completely

    However as it would be impossible to make a 'fits-all' program I decided to structure it on a format that best fits my strenghts as a teacher, that can appeal to a reasonably active and numerous age group, and that also is coherent with my martial arts past and how my Masters taught me.

    So the program presented and the class structure is quite phisically challenging, and consequently our core demographic (80% of students) is 18 to 35 and reasonably athletic.

    As my school is expanding (we have grown from 2 to 55 students in 2 years) I am however thinking in the future of adding a secondary class called Shaolin Fitness, aimed at older people and other students (we already have some in the normal Shaolin WuShu class) which are mostly doing it only as an alternate form of fitness regime and have little interest in combat applications, advanced forms, sanda, acrobatics, endless sets of kicks or squat-jumps ...

    So probably at the start of 2007 the courses will split in Shaolin WuShu (the full martial arts program, 3 nights a week x 2 hours per class as currently) and Shaolin Fitness (a greatly diluted Shaolin Ji Ben Gong program, 2 nights a week x 1 hour per class).

    Wall
    Last edited by wall; 08-22-2006 at 09:50 AM.
    > it is your mind, that creates this world >

  13. #28
    Join Date
    Dec 2002
    Location
    Tokyo
    Posts
    236
    variety may be to blame too. you cant really tell wether you like soemthing from watching 1 class. thus people sign up for 3 months then decide wether to continue. these days there are tons of choices other than karotty and karotty. doing some tire kicking before you commit a number of years is pretty natural.

  14. #29
    Join Date
    Dec 2002
    Location
    Tokyo
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    236
    some other reasons

    -some places are just crappy

    -its not enough excercise, which seems to me is more common in tma than being too demanding

    -being too picky. i left one of the best schools for some of the stupidest reasons. just minor things that you will run into anywhere. i was too hasty in quitting after less than a year. "R" who is affiliated with them even tried to talk to me after i voiced some of my problems on here. did i listen? nope. lost a great opportunity.

  15. #30
    Quote Originally Posted by neit View Post
    some other reasons

    -some places are just crappy

    -its not enough excercise, which seems to me is more common in tma than being too demanding

    -being too picky. i left one of the best schools for some of the stupidest reasons. just minor things that you will run into anywhere. i was too hasty in quitting after less than a year. "R" who is affiliated with them even tried to talk to me after i voiced some of my problems on here. did i listen? nope. lost a great opportunity.

    I mean unless you made some sort of hugh scene or got mad and tore the place apart then why couldn't you go back?

    Go back, get up in front of the entire school and apologize and ask it you come come back.

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