What percentage stay the course?

buck65

Just thinking about this in class last night, when I started Martial arts in Sep 05 there were 12 or 14 in my beginners class. We had a good standard and the instructor often remarked about this, we went thru 2 or 3 gradings with the same core group , then 2 guys left (at green tag level) because they felt the contact was too hard in sparring! After that we seemed to lose someone every few months for varying reasons, actually another girl left recently because she took a heavy shot in sparring.
18 months on there is 3 or at most 4 of us still training, I'm just wondering if this seems normal to instructors or students, the guys that started after us still in the main part seem to be together, but they haven't reached green belt yet - which seems to me a big fall off point.
On the sparring I think it is essential that sparring be realistic as possible and should be at 75% force to have any semblance of reality, I have to question people who complain about sparring and being hit, why did you join a Martial arts class in the first place???

BobbyOLeary

Same thing seems to happen in a lot of places. It happens quite a lot in my Kenpo club anyway. As people progress in their skill levels they start to hit harder and some people just don't like it. Different strokes for different folks I suppose.

To answer your question, yes it does seem normal to me. I'm only a student but from what I've seen its quite normal.

DITTKD

Good thread, I wonder about this myself.
In the college, all the martial arts clubs have had a big drop off in the last few years. 3 years ago we’d have 120 people sign up, 60 might show up for a class, and we’d still have maybe 10 or 12 still there by the end of the college year. 6 or 7 might come back in September. We reckon this is a pretty good retention rate, since students who go to college clubs have different priorities than in open-to-the-public clubs.
This year, all of the above figures have halved. Similarly, the Judo club has become almost defunct (it had about twice as many people training as our club last year). It’s tough going.

What makes it tough in college clubs is that they’re not open over xmas/easter/summer, and those who want to keep it on over the holidays might not be able to afford it (it’s free in DIT by the way ), or they go back down the country. I think the minimum waiting period between grades in TKD also frustrates people.

As for sparring, we go light enough. Again, it’s a college club, and people are supposed to enjoy themselves. But if someone wants to go hard, that can be arranged.
We lose more people through sparring being too light tbh. But I think that’s fine, usually when I see beginners going hard at sparring, they tend to be not very good.
The contact comes eventually, but we start light. We try to make it so that they have the skills first.

All in all, I think the main thing for keeping people coming back to a club are:
A good instructor: Consistent in what they teach, able to apply and explain what they teach. Demanding on their pupils, but no bullying or smartarsery or smugness.
A helpful environment: No cliques of “old school” pupils. More experienced people should give advice. Again, demanding without being bullies about it. A good social life outside of the club helps too!
A varied class structure: You can’t do patterns for weeks on end, or kick a pad for weeks on end, it should be varied, while still covering everything that MA’s have to offer.

After that, it’s up to the individual.

I’m sure this post is quite long enough now. Thanks for reading

columok

I think there's a two things that happen with people and their attitudes to sparring.

Case 1: Some people don't like being hit in the face. They'd rather do other things and contact just isn't for them

Case 2: Contact has been introduced badly. There hasn't been a good progression towards contact. People haven't had it gradually introduced through drills. People get frustrated when the stuff they spent 90% of the time training on (kata, one step sparring) doesn't actually lend itself to hitting/not getting hit in the face. They get annoyed and assume that it "isn't for them".

I think most people are case 2. Very few people like getting hit in the face but good training progressions and coaching can get most people to the stage where they are happy with contact. Crazy monkey is excellent for this. Start in a safe shell of not getting badly hurt then gradually come out of the shell when you get more confident...

Nothingcompares

DITTKD wrote:

This year, all of the above figures have halved. Similarly, the Judo club has become almost defunct (it had about twice as many people training as our club last year). It’s tough going.

The primary reason why the DIT judo club has changed so much since last year is the fact that the previous coach, alan martin has moved elsewhere.

DITTKD

The primary reason why the DIT judo club has changed so much since last year is the fact that the previous coach, alan martin has moved elsewhere.

Aye, but they didn't sign up as many people as they usually would. That was my point, and few if any of those beginners stuck at it while the classes were there. It's some sort of college trend that I don't really understand, or know what to do about it, so I mentioned it is all.

columok wrote:

I think there's a two things that happen with people and their attitudes to sparring.

Case 1: Some people don't like being hit in the face. They'd rather do other things and contact just isn't for them

Case 2: Contact has been introduced badly. There hasn't been a good progression towards contact. People haven't had it gradually introduced through drills. People get frustrated when the stuff they spent 90% of the time training on (kata, one step sparring) doesn't actually lend itself to hitting/not getting hit in the face. They get annoyed and assume that it "isn't for them".

I think most people are case 2. Very few people like getting hit in the face but good training progressions and coaching can get most people to the stage where they are happy with contact. Crazy monkey is excellent for this. Start in a safe shell of not getting badly hurt then gradually come out of the shell when you get more confident...

I think this is rather spot on. Getting the balance right is tough though.

connie00

Yes I think sparring can put people off when I used train with Wado club while in
the UK, tuesdays was normal training basics and light sparring there could be 40-50 training.

Friday nights was circuit training/Sparring rarely more than 10-15 people training and they were always the same people. So I think hard sparring while appealing for some is not for all. This approach worked though as I think as people not interested in sparring where happy to attend on a night they knew they wouldnt be much contact involved.

cheers,
PatC.