Does every Martial Art Dojo have its rotten apples……….Instructor question?
I have and foster a close enough relationship with my students and their parents so that I would quickly become aware of such things. When I do I bring that student in and sit them down for a little counseling session one-on-one. Many will change or modify their behavior after that and it is not because that I say something so much different than what other adults might be already saying to them about this but because of that relationship I have already formed with them. This and the fact that here is someone that has no reason, no hidden objective, no agenda to say something about their behavior is saying something can go a long way towards influencing them I think. At the same time telling them that their parents are not going to continue to pay for their lessons or let them continue to study martial arts if they can’t control their behavior is a very big stick which I can also pull out of my pocket and have if they can not be reached by me and their behavior modified. Once they know
We have had several kids like that come through our school, and one good thing about the crappy MMA school that moved in 2 doors down is that it took 99% of those kids away. Good riddance. Remember that not only is your school a school but it’s also a business. And churning out bad apples gets around the neighborhood. Suddenly, it’s not “that brat child” it’s “that kid from your school.” There are rotten apples no matter what you do. And although we as instructors can not tell a parent how to parent their child, or tell someone how to run their personal life, we can dictate what kind of student we want to represent us. So we weed bad apples out. Bad apples, once they begin to stink, share many characteristics: shoddy attendance, power trips, back talking, and laziness. We crack down on those behaviors right away, especially if they are high ranking. These kids aren’t allowed to teach, or work by themselves. When they come to class, we run them into the ground. The kid then has two opti
