Reopening in Seattle

[ShortBridge]

It's been over a year since we shared our responses to the initial news of the pandemic. I have a small group of adult students and don't do a lot of outreach and promotion. I have been blessed with a steady trickle of interest over the years which has been all that we need to keep going. But, how and where we train was not conclusive to safety during a global pandemic of an airborne virus, so I stopped holding regular classes in our kwoon once we understood what Covid was about.

Most of my students have stayed together despite that fact and we've found opportunities to train outside and on our own. My senior students recently informed me that they collectively refuse to let it go, so we're planning a reopening, which means going back to our kwoon and being open to the possibility of welcoming new students. By design we keep our club small and have some expectations of new students, so we're not planning on adding a lot of people, but I have a small handful who have been inquiring lately, so we've got a start. I'll meet with the most serious of them this month to see how things feel to them and us. We'll resume a bit of training with our legacy group indoors (all vaccinated) and the plan is to soft reopen after New Years and call a bit of attention to ourselves in coordination with the Lunar New Year celebration in our neighborhood at the beginning of February.

The idea is to get back up to full strength early in 2022 and put ourselves and some new friends back on the path. I wasn't sure this would be the outcome, but it looks like it will be. Humbled by the dedication of my students and excited to reclaim some of those calluses and bruises.

 

[Instructor]

That is great news, I wish you every success.

 

[Flying Crane]

Glad you are making vaccination a mandate for participation. Might you consider holding class outdoors in a park? That is what I have been doing for a few months.

 

[geezer]

So I get up there a couple of times a year. The idea is to get back up to full strength early in 2022 and put ourselves and some new friends back on the path. I wasn't sure this would be the outcome, but it looks like it will be. Humbled by the dedication of my students and excited to reclaim some of those calluses and bruises.

Sounds great! I just got back from a week in Seattle over Thanksgiving. My two kids live up there as well a my nephew and his family. So I get up there a couple of times a year. If I make it up your way this summer I would be honored if I could visit a class.

 

[ShortBridge]

Glad you are making vaccination a mandate for participation. Might you consider holding class outdoors in a park? That is what I have been doing for a few months.

We've done a bit of that, but I really don't like the attention that usually attracts. It is an option.

Sounds great! I just got back from a week in Seattle over Thanksgiving. My two kids live up there as well a my nephew and his family. So I get up there a couple of times a year. If I make it up your way this summer I would be honored if I could visit a class.

I wish you had let me know! Would welcome you with open arms or least meet you for a pint. Lots of outdoor places for local beer here.

 

[Flying Crane]

We've done a bit of that, but I really don't like the attention that usually attracts. It is an option.

We’ve been training early mornings so the attention we get is more limited, but so far has been positive. But I do understand your point.

 

[ShortBridge]

We've done very early as well, but still.

 

[Flying Crane]

We've done very early as well, but still.

Understood. It it what it is.

 

[ShortBridge]

Yep. It's all good, we're coming home.

 

[Eric_H]

Glad you are still at it

 

[_Simon_104]

Such wonderful news! Really great to hear @ShortBridge

Definitely been a very trying 2 years for martial artists... great resilience shown by many though.

 

[ShortBridge]

Waking this old thread up, just for dialogue. We're still going, but the market seems to have changed dramatically post-vs-pre pandemic.

When I came to Seattle in 2000 there were 2 long-established Wing Chun schools. Both "successful" (whatever that may mean). I respected both and spent some time in both, but neither was for me. There was also quite a bit of ... JKD or pre-JKD Bruce Lee lived here before Oakland and left some legacy clubs. Also, lot's of Aikido, Karate, TKD, Choy Li Fut, other traditional martial arts. Plus, the oldest Kung Fu kwoon on at least the west coast of USA (Hung Gar) and the oldest Judo club in the US and of course lots of boxing, BJJ, MMA, etc.

My SiFu started his Duncan Leung lineage club in around...2004? From then until the pandemic it grow and thrived along side the two previously established clubs. He asked another of his early students and I to start our own clubs (we both came to him with a modest amount of Wing Chun from other lineages, plus other training) and we both ran smaller, but at capacity affiliates spread out across Seattle.

We never felt like we really competed with the previously established clubs, when someone called me about visiting, I always suggested that they visit those clubs as well before they joined anyway. They were probably each best for different individual people, just based on how they were wired and why they were training. We were and still are, proud of who we are and what we do and the market seemed strong enough for everyone, plus all of the other types of training.

Pre-covid enrollment (generalized)
Other lineage school #1 - seemed small, like under 10 by design
Other lineage school #2 - larger, like high teens to mid-20s

Original DL Seattle club (Real Wing Chun) was consistently at 20-25 with an active wait list
My affiliate (Short Bridge Athletic Association) our sweet spot was 8. We went as low as 5 and as high as 10, usually with an active wait list
Other affiliate (Little Idea Wing Chun) about 5 by design with an active wait list.

Post pandemic, the 2 legacy Seattle schools didn't reopen, which in theory created about 35 fewer spots for people looking to train in Wing Chun.

All 3 Duncan Leung Seattle schools are still operating, but enrollment is down and new inquiries are basically nil. So, supply depleted, but it seems did by a larger margin.

We're not and have never been commercially ambitious. We believe in what we do and are traditional in how we do it (with Duncan Leung's bias toward application). Personally, I'm not interested in changing. Having a thriving club/community is not the goal. The goal is training. But, the demand shift is interesting.

If people were calling and not coming out, visiting and not joining, or joining and not staying, that would tell me one thing. The facts are though, that effectively none of us are getting any calls, maybe a couple a quarter at most. Especially considering the supply change, that tells me that, at least in Seattle, the interest in traditional Wing Chun and maybe traditional Martial Arts has changed dramatically.

We don't do Instagram reels and things like that and really don't want to. We aren't self promotional and have no taste for the nasty side of being out in public as a traditional martial artist (which is why I don't post here very often). But, we are visible and promote locally in the same ways that we did before the pandemic and are getting a completely different response.


Interested in your perspectives and thoughts and hoping this doesn't turn into "get in the octagon!". Have you experienced or observed similar things in your market?

 

[Flying Crane]

I started a little training group in the park in the Sacramento area for Tibetan Crane, but I opened after COVID so I don’t have a pre- and a post-pandemic to compare. My group has always been a bare handful at most, probably no more than five, and at the moment just one. My students have all been adults in their 40s and higher, not the youth. I like it small but would prefer a few more. My advertising is minimal, even barely there, I don’t put effort into that. But I keep my website up and every month I get a report that tells me it’s getting traffic.

For what it’s worth, a local BJJ school closed after being open for just a handful of years.

 

[Tony Dismukes104]

For what it’s worth, a local BJJ school closed after being open for just a handful of years.

BJJ schools may have a different problem, that of increased competition. When I moved to Lexington around 19-20 years ago, my coach had just been promoted to black belt and was the first BJJ black belt in Kentucky. Now there are probably 30+ black belts just in Lexington.

 

[Flying Crane]

BJJ schools may have a different problem, that of increased competition. When I moved to Lexington around 19-20 years ago, my coach had just been promoted to black belt and was the first BJJ black belt in Kentucky. Now there are probably 30+ black belts just in Lexington.

This is true, and as I think on it I don’t honestly know if they actually closed. They could have moved to a new location. I wasnt actually paying attention to what they were doing, I just noticed one day the commercial space was empty.

 

[hunschuld]

The issue in general is effective marketing in today's landscape. The landscape today is heavily influenced by MMA. However very few will ever want to actually enter a ring they just want to be able to defend themselves if confronted in a bar or the street. Duncan Leung's WC can be very effectively demonstrated in these situations.
Back in the day when I taught I had 3 former professional boxers as students. They became students because I could demonstrate WC could deal with boxing in a non ring situation. Not that WC was better just that it offered solutions that they found useful. I am sure you can do the same

 

[wckf9215]

Yeah I think in general that interest in WC is slowly disappearing. Nobody wants to train their horse the "old school ways" for 6 months. They want to attend a 6 week MMA bootcamp and get in the ring. The only thing near my area are WT schools...and they seem to have pivoted to more like a kids martial arts school experience in order to keep the doors open.