Finding local students/instructors

[gatlancap]

Hi All, I saw there was a section for this, but no one has posted in it in years. I'm not sure if that's because people look elsewhere, but I've been having a hard time finding any listings for instructors or receiving any applications on any of the employment sites and CL. I'm wondering if it's mostly because "the student becomes the teacher" so to speak. And a lot of instructors are trained in house and stay. I'm in central New Hampshire, btw.

 

[Monkey Turned Wolf]

I think most people tend to hire from in-dojo, or through their organization (if I'm an instructor in X and moving near your dojo in X, i might join as an instructor). If you want to teach, but cant do so in your specific school, and dont have the ability ro start your own classes, the best bet would probably be to ask your instructor if there are any nearby schools in the area looking for an instructor. Or go to random schools of your style, introduce yourself and ask if they have a need-I doubt many would post online about it

 

[skribs]

Hi All, I saw there was a section for this, but no one has posted in it in years. I'm not sure if that's because people look elsewhere, but I've been having a hard time finding any listings for instructors or receiving any applications on any of the employment sites and CL. I'm wondering if it's mostly because "the student becomes the teacher" so to speak. And a lot of instructors are trained in house and stay. I'm in central New Hampshire, btw.

I think it depends on the art and the school. At my school, for example, I'd find it nearly impossible to be an instructor without having trained at our school from the beginner level. We're a kukkiwon Taekwondo school, and I'm sure that anyone with a decent amount of experience in a similar art (i.e. TKD, TSD, Karate) could learn any of our forms or techniques, but the sheer volume of memorization that would be required for someone to come in off the street and be an instructor here is insane.

 

[gatlancap]

You are both right, I hate to admit it! It's almost as though if you need someone, you need to invest years into that person and hope they stay on. And of course, that leads to the chicken and egg theory, where if you don't have any good students, you probably will be left out when your guys do decide to leave.

 

[Gerry Seymour]

Another option is to look for a school in an unrelated art with open time slots (ones you're willing to fill) and find out if they're open to offering another style. You'd have to figure out how to make that fair to both you and them, but it can be done. I'm currently teaching Nihon Goshin Aikido at a Shorin-ryu Karate school. I quite like it.

 

[MetalBoar]

Another option is to look for a school in an unrelated art with open time slots (ones you're willing to fill) and find out if they're open to offering another style. You'd have to figure out how to make that fair to both you and them, but it can be done. I'm currently teaching Nihon Goshin Aikido at a Shorin-ryu Karate school. I quite like it.

I think this or something similar is potentially a very workable idea. I know that here in Seattle where commercial rent is astronomical a lot of places that teach physical skills (dance, MA, Pilates, yoga, etc.) rent the space during off hours to all kinds of other teachers to try to make up some of that cost. I'm looking at places like this right now because I'm part of a small group of MA enthusiasts who have discovered that you can frequently pay large group class prices for classes with only 2-6 students if you have a place to train and organize the class yourself so that the instructor doesn't have to do anything but show up. I did this once before about a decade ago and it was great! The instructor was able to tailor the curriculum for a small group that all had the same starting point and interests and a similar level of fitness. It's a little trickier if you need good mats, when I did this before we were able to work on hardwoods or even concrete floors which gave us a lot more options.

If you don't have a problem with running your own business and you found the right space you could probably be at the break even point very quickly with just a very few students. You probably aren't going to get rich or even make a living with this model but you could probably make reasonable money for a side gig or use it as a springboard to go bigger.

 

[WaterGal]

I think it depends on the art and the school. At my school, for example, I'd find it nearly impossible to be an instructor without having trained at our school from the beginner level. We're a kukkiwon Taekwondo school, and I'm sure that anyone with a decent amount of experience in a similar art (i.e. TKD, TSD, Karate) could learn any of our forms or techniques, but the sheer volume of memorization that would be required for someone to come in off the street and be an instructor here is insane.

Are KKW black belts uncommon where you live? There are... off the top of my head, at least 10 other KKW TKD schools within 20 miles of us. Finding someone who knows the basic core KKW curriculum wouldn't really be the hard part - it's finding someone that's open to learning your instructional methodology, approach to discipline, overall school culture, etc. For example, as far as I know, we're the only KKW school in our area that uses a rotating curriculum, which is a concept that a lot of folks have a really hard time wrapping their heads around at first.

 

[Monkey Turned Wolf]

Are KKW black belts uncommon where you live? There are... off the top of my head, at least 10 other KKW TKD schools within 20 miles of us. Finding someone who knows the basic core KKW curriculum wouldn't really be the hard part - it's finding someone that's open to learning your instructional methodology, approach to discipline, overall school culture, etc. For example, as far as I know, we're the only KKW school in our area that uses a rotating curriculum, which is a concept that a lot of folks have a really hard time wrapping their heads around at first.

Skribs has stated before they do more/different forms than kukkiwon requires. So a new black belt would still have to memorize the new ones

 

[skribs]

Are KKW black belts uncommon where you live? There are... off the top of my head, at least 10 other KKW TKD schools within 20 miles of us. Finding someone who knows the basic core KKW curriculum wouldn't really be the hard part - it's finding someone that's open to learning your instructional methodology, approach to discipline, overall school culture, etc. For example, as far as I know, we're the only KKW school in our area that uses a rotating curriculum, which is a concept that a lot of folks have a really hard time wrapping their heads around at first.

We have a LOT of testing requirements that are not part of the core KKW curriculum. Some of the stuff we do is more hapkido-like and was a huge learning curve for me, even with prior experience in Taekwondo.