instructor to student ratio

[Runs With Fire]

Just a few quick questions,

What is your current instructor to student ratio?

What is your preferred instructor to student ratio?

What percentage of your students That become black belts?

Approximately what percentage of your black belts are or will be instructors in your school?

And finally, how many students does your school tend to maintain?

 

[tshadowchaser]

great questions

1. well this one is hard because I require all student past yellow belt to start instructing and I or a black belt will monitor them and help them progress both as a student and as an instructor

2. no more then 1 to 6 unless I'm having one teach to the whole class

3. darn few maybe one in 50 -100 Most student to not want to put in 5 to 10 years before being
considered for testing I also have a personal requirement: I must be able to trust that student with my life so it is not just them doing "X " number of forms or SD moves.

4. All will become instructors and hopefully at least half will someday open their own schools someday.

5. At this time about 10 it used to be about 30 but changes in the economy and other factors have lowered the number of students for the moment

 

[geezer]

Just a few quick questions,

What is your current instructor to student ratio?

What is your preferred instructor to student ratio?

What percentage of your students That become black belts?

Approximately what percentage of your black belts are or will be instructors in your school?

And finally, how many students does your school tend to maintain?

My situation is entirely different from that of a full-time instructor. I'm a life-long hobbyist who teaches in a non-commercial club. I used to do YMCA, community college classes, etc. In recent years I teach WC and Escrima to adults only, and I just rent time at a near-by boxing gym that has bags, mats and a ring.

My ratio at the moment has dropped to a barely sustainable 5-6 dependable students with about four attending on any given night. Sometimes as few as two.

I want to stay small, but ideally, I would like to have a max of about 10-12 students with 6-8 attending any given class. That would sure make covering my costs easier, including my own training which involves travelling out of state for private instruction.

At the moment I have no black-belt equivalent students (there are no belts in WC), but I have two advanced students, and one is working on the equivalent to black belt rank. I expect him to travel to Austin for testing this coming summer.

Realistically, I need a minimum of four reliable students to pay my rent, association dues and membership fees and break even without making anything for my time, gas, or costs of my own training. Lately I've been down to 5-6 students with nobody new coming through the door in a long time.

People that come in and take a free trial class more often than not like what they see and sign up. I'm told that's good. But if nobody comes in to give it a try, I've got a problem. Time to start promoting more, I guess. I just really hate being a salesman.

 

[Tony Dismukes]

What is your current instructor to student ratio?

Do you mean per class or for the school in general? We tend to have 10-12 active instructors at a time and I suspect somewhere between 100-200 students signed up, but I'm not involved in the business end of things so I don't know for sure about that. We have anywhere from 2-5 classes per day (depending on which day of the week) and typically have 3-10 students show up for a given class. I have maybe about a dozen students who regularly attend the classes I teach, but usually only 6-8 of them attend on a given night.

What is your preferred instructor to student ratio?

I don't like having more than about 10 students in my class at a time, because it's hard to go around and give individual feedback. On the other hand, if we have a really small turnout for a given class, that means the other students are missing the material I'm teaching that night and I'll have to repeat the lesson soon. Right now I'm finding that 6-8 students in a class works well for me.

What percentage of your students That become black belts?

Given that this is BJJ, very few. Definitely less than 1%

Approximately what percentage of your black belts are or will be instructors in your school?

Most of the black belts will teach at least occasionally. I can think of one black belt who has never taught and another who has mostly avoided it.

And finally, how many students does your school tend to maintain?

As noted above, I'm guessing around 100-200, but I don't really know. We have 24+ classes per week, which makes it hard to keep track of even the regular students, let alone the guys who are paying dues but only show up occasionally.

 

[Danny T]

Just a few quick questions,

What is your current instructor to student ratio?

In the classes or total students to all instructors?
In youth classes: 1 instructor on the floor and then 1 assistant per 8 students.
Teen classes: 1 instructor and 1 assistant up to 12 students then another assistant every 10 students.
Adult classes: 1 instructor up to 10 students and 1 assistant after 10.

What percentage of your students That become black belts?

Less than 10%

Approximately what percentage of your black belts are or will be instructors in your school?

All Black Belt levels are trained as instructors.

And finally, how many students does your school tend to maintain?

130-150

 

[Brian R. VanCise]

I prefer one on one or one instructor to two students. Most of my classes are private lessons so you get to work
with me in a one on one basis. However, I do have group classes as well a couple of times a week where I may have anywhere from four to ten students.

As a student the ideal situation would be to get one on one training as well as a small group setting where you would also have different people and body types to work with.

 

[Tony Dismukes]

I prefer one on one or one instructor to two students. Most of my classes are private lessons so you get to work
with me in a one on one basis. However, I do have group classes as well a couple of times a week where I may have anywhere from four to ten students.

As a student the ideal situation would be to get one on one training as well as a small group setting where you would also have different people and body types to work with.

Yeah, I really love teaching one-on-one, but you need larger classes to build up a body of students having different body types and movement styles with the skillsets to challenge each other and learn from each other.

 

[Runs With Fire]

In my school (now these are approximates because I don't have numbers right now)

1. current instructor two student ratio -- 1 to five.

Preferred ratio-- 1 to 15, maybe 10.

Percentage of students to become black belts--- 20 percent

Percentage of black belts to maintain active instructorship -- eighty percent

Number of students-- We maintain about 260 students

 

[WaterGal]

Just a few quick questions,

What is your current instructor to student ratio?

What is your preferred instructor to student ratio?

What percentage of your students That become black belts?

Approximately what percentage of your black belts are or will be instructors in your school?

And finally, how many students does your school tend to maintain?

1. As others have alluded to, that's a complicated question. For our school overall, it's ~1:17, including some instructors that usually only teach one class. But classes are generally more like 4-12 students for kids/family classes or 2-5 students for the little kids and adults classes.

2. It depends on the age group. But ideally, we'd have an assistant instructor for the busier kids classes, so maybe 1:8.

3. We've only been open 3 years, so we haven't had time for many students to get from white belt to 1st degree, even by KKW TKD standards. At least half of the black belts we do have had prior experience. So I'll have to get back to you in a few years.

4. Well, see #3. That being said, most of our adult black belts choose to become instructors.

5. Also, see #3. We generally experience some growth, plateau for a while, and then grow again. We were stuck at 90-95 for a long time, which was really worrying, but are now at 104, and have some more prospects/intros.

 

[Buka]

I train in a couple of places (although I haven't been to a one of them in months now)

In a school run by one of my long time students class usually has 10 - 15 people. The kids class has a bootload, but I stay away from that at all costs.
I'd say ten percent of the adults eventually make Black Belt, maybe less. My guess is there's a hundred students in all.

I train in another gym that doesn't have any belts, it's just fighting and fitness - but it's a kind of crowded place. I'll count next time I go.

I train in another place, a hall, it's more like a club that exists under the first place I mentioned. They usually have 5-10 people in class. They have one guy who made Black Belt last year. I don't think any others are close.

I train in a basement in one of my old student's house. Handfull of guys with some mats a bag and some gloves. There's usually just three of us, but others stroll in now and then. My old student is a second or third black, I forget. (we've been training on and off for thirty something years.) He's basically a kickboxer, but I taught him some basic grappling last year, now he competes in NAGA tournaments and gets absolutely smoked. (gotta love a guy like that) He teaches one on one well, but not so much in a class setting.

 

[Dirty Dog]

Just a few quick questions,

What is your current instructor to student ratio?

Variable, and not easy to define. The YMCA lists Master Valdez and myself as the instructors for the program. We expect that we should be able to turn a class over to any of the Dan ranked students and they can teach it. We expect Chodanbo students to be able to do the same, so long as one of us is there to supervise. We also expect all students to teach newer students. So a 9th geup is an instructor.

Typically, Master Valdez will be running the class, while I float around working with individuals as I spot things to correct. If there are a lot of people being taught new material, we will tag more senior students to help.

Periodically, we will turn part of a class over to Dan or high-colored belt students as part of teaching them to teach.

What is your preferred instructor to student ratio?

One to one is always the best.

What percentage of your students That become black belts?

Maybe 1-2% of everybody who signs up. Maybe 50% of those who make it to red belt (3rd geup, in our system). Probably 90% of those who make it to Chodanbo.

Approximately what percentage of your black belts are or will be instructors in your school?

See above. 100%, by definition.

And finally, how many students does your school tend to maintain?

There are probably 40-50 on the books at any given time.
The beginner classes have 15-20 average, but I've seen as few as 5 and as many as 30 (the room is pretty packed at that point).
The intermediate and advanced classes have 10-15 on average.

 

[Brian R. VanCise]

Yeah, I really love teaching one-on-one, but you need larger classes to build up a body of students having different body types and movement styles with the skillsets to challenge each other and learn from each other.

Absolute and why I mentioned that the ideal situation is to have private lessons and group lessons. That is ideal for the practitioner!

 

[RTKDCMB]

Just a few quick questions,

What is your current instructor to student ratio?

What is your preferred instructor to student ratio?

What percentage of your students That become black belts?

Approximately what percentage of your black belts are or will be instructors in your school?

And finally, how many students does your school tend to maintain?

I once did a statistical analysis of one of our classes (and a nice graph) which may answer some of your questions

 

[Blindside]

Just a few quick questions,

What is your current instructor to student ratio?

What is your preferred instructor to student ratio?

What percentage of your students That become black belts?

Approximately what percentage of your black belts are or will be instructors in your school?

And finally, how many students does your school tend to maintain?

I run a small group, so the number skew a bit due to small sample size.
Instructor to student ratio: 1:5
Preferred ratio: 1:8 is a good ratio.
Percentage that become blackbelts, (don't have a BB, but this estimate is for instructor rank):low maybe 2%
% of BB that will be instructors: all of them, again we don't do "black belt" but our advanced ranks are literally "instructor ranks." If you don't want to teach, I will not promote you.
Average school size: 20

 

[Balrog]

Just a few quick questions,

What is your current instructor to student ratio?

What is your preferred instructor to student ratio?

What percentage of your students That become black belts?

Approximately what percentage of your black belts are or will be instructors in your school?

And finally, how many students does your school tend to maintain?

- Current is about 8-10 to one.
- Preferred is about the same.
- The industry standard is that about 10% of White Belts will make First Degree Black Belt. And all that means is that they have learned the basics and are ready to start really learning the art.
- All of my Black Belts will already be in leadership training. I will hand-pick the ones I think will be good instructors and invite them to join the instructor training program. That will be a high percentage of my Black Belts, because I'm anal about requiring good technique, etc.

 

[GiYu - Todd]

I once did a statistical analysis of one of our classes (and a nice graph) which may answer some of your questions

What a geek! (I'm an engineer, so I mean that as a term of respect)

 

[RTKDCMB]

What a geek! (I'm an engineer, so I mean that as a term of respect)

The Geek shall inherit the Earth.