For adults, this simply means not allowing thugs and trouble-makers to stay in your program. Any negative influence in your school should be removed, immediately, because students who get into fights, who break the law, and who abuse drugs and alcohol reflect poorly on your school.

I don't care how talented they are as competitors - if they can't keep their noses clean, get rid of them. They simply aren't worth the trouble. 

Just make sure you set those expectations for your adult students from the moment they walk in. Often, simply setting those expectations will be enough to encourage a person with borderline behavior to clean up their act, if they want the training badly enough.

REWARDS AND CONSEQUENCES

Years ago I took a few graduate courses in organizational leadership. In one particular class, I got into a heated discussion with the professor and several of the other students over taking personal responsibility in an organization.

As it so happened, I was the only student who was a business owner. The rest of the students were from government and the corporate sector, and the professor, or course, was an academic.

The professor was teaching that laying blame in an organization is a harmful practice. However, I argued that without team members who took personal responsibility for their actions, and without consequences for poor performance, an organization would never rise above a subsistence level of performance.

Of course, we all know that's the way it works in the real world*. Yet, my instructor and fellow students thought that encouraging personal responsibility through a reward and consequence system was a harmful practice (welcome to the creeping influence of socialism in higher education).

Folks, the bottom line is that people will aspire to achieve more when the stakes are higher. Reward without consequence for failure doesn't reflect real life at all. 

Now, I'm not saying that you should PUNISH your students for failure; not at all. But what I am saying is that NO ONE SHOULD GET A PARTICIPATION REWARD in your school. 

Now, conversely you must make sure that your belt system is achievable and navigable for the average person as well. That doesn't mean you have to give away black belts; all it means is that you want to make sure you don't make it impossible for a student to go all the way to black belt. Try to be fair and balanced when you set the standards, but set them to encourage hard work for the reward.

The same goes for all other rewards and marks of recognition in your school. If you have a special club, people should have to earn entry. If you have a competition team, people should have to earn a place on the team. And if you have a leadership team, people should have to earn the right to join.

In this manner, you create a true egalitarian system of work and reward, where everyone is able to achieve according to the merits of their performance and sacrifice. For many people, that's actually the true appeal of the culture of martial arts - that even someone who isn't talented can become a black belt with enough hard work.

BEING A GOOD COACH

A good coach is an encourager, plan and simple, and being a "good finder" is a huge part of being an encourager.

Being a good finder means finding the good in other people, and pointing it out before their mistakes. It doesn't mean that you don't correct mistakes; it simply means that you point out more of the things students are doing right than you do the things that need correction.

Studies have shown that people need to hear four positive remarks to overcome the memory of a single negative remark. That means you need to complement your students four times as much as you correct them.

Remember, your students look up to you and they crave your approval. So, if you want them to flourish, then they need to hear from you what they are doing right, much more often than they hear what they're doing incorrectly.

This is so important for retention! No one will continue attending a class or participating in a recreational activity that makes them feel like a loser. Like it or not, you have to be aware of your students' feelings if you want them to stick around. 

Being a good finder will ensure that your students will have a net positive experience at your school, and that means they'll be more likely to stick around for the long haul.

But don't just make stuff up just to complement them on; instead, tell them what they're doing well to reinforce those actions. What you'll find when you do this consistently is that it improves student performance much more rapidly than simply pointing out incorrect technique all the time.

THIS IS JUST THE BEGINNING...

I could write an entire book on how to be a good coach to your students, but we simply don't have the time or space for it in this email newsletter. Even so, I think what I've shared today will provide you with a good foundation from which you can start implementing the culture of excellence in your dojo.

If you want higher retention rates, I suggest that you continually look for ways to become a better and more effective instructor. Start with the suggestions I've provided in this email, and build on them weekly and you'll see your retention rates gradually trend upward over time.

Because when you encourage your students to excel, and when they are more successful in their training, they're much more likely to recommend your dojo to their friends. And, they'll tend to stick around longer as well.