In case you're just joining us, the theme of our current newsletter series is why dojo owners fail. 

Today I'm going to talk about one of the more common reasons, which is also something that tends to affect instructors who have been around for a while.

Remembering The Past

Ah, the glory days. Remember those days? You were a young stud or studette, tearing it up on the competition scene, in peak condition 24/7, and living like there was no tomorrow.

Life was simpler, too. Maybe not easier, but simpler. You had fewer responsibilities, less to worry about, and it felt like you had the world at your fingertips.

Don't you wish you could relive those days?

But Is That Really How It Was?

You know, it's funny--we all tend to remember years gone by in this way. But the truth is probably more along the lines of something like this...

When you were younger you were nervous all the time and filled with self-doubt. Your competition wins probably weren't all that impressive; heaven knows that they weren't to you back then. 

You'd win a medal or a trophy, and feel good about it for a few hours... then you had to go back to your crappy job on Monday morning. Nobody cares that the guy who's doing clean-up on aisle B is a tournament champion.

And while you had fewer responsibilities, you were broke all the time and lived in constant worry about how you were going to pay your bills each month.

In short, your life back then wasn't any better than it is now. Today, you just have different problems than you had back then... but you also have different things to be grateful for in your life now as well.

Memories Lie

If that's the case, then why do we tend to look back on the past with such nostalgia and fondness?

In short, it's because memories lie. Consider how often it happens that when someone dies, everyone forgets about all their faults and mistakes, and suddenly that person is made out to be a saint.

See, the mind remembers what it wants to remember. And, it does its damnedest to protect us from bad memories... even to the point of altering our perception of the past to make it seem more idyllic and pleasant than it actually was.

Why Being Stuck In The Past Hurts Your Dojo

Well guess what? We do the exact same thing when it comes to how we view the way we were taught and trained.

I remember training with this one particular instructor when I was in the military. We worked out in an enclosed racquetball court that had a mishmash of old wrestling mats on the floor. It was hotter than hell in there, and the workouts were brutal.

Some days, I could barely drag myself out of that room. Besides that, the instructor was one of those military types who yelled at you regardless of what you did.

And he was arbitrary, too--he'd make the whole class do push-ups or some other crazy exercise, just for the hell of it. It was a lot like basic training, because you were always wondering what you did to get in trouble.

In other words, the training was definitely not fun. Sure, it was hard training... but was it good training? Was it productive training?

Things Change, Things Improve

Not necessarily. I've learned a lot about coaching and teaching since then, and I can tell you that there are many more effective ways to motivate athletes and students. And, there are definitely better approaches to conditioning and training athletes to improve their physical skills.

So why is it that for years I looked back on those training sessions so fondly? And why is it that I emulated that style of training when I first started out as an instructor?

I can't use the excuse that it's all that I knew, because I'd trained with a lot of instructors who had different teaching styles. The real reason why I looked on those military-style training sessions with such nostalgia was because memory lies, and frankly it made me feel like some sort of hero or stud to have survived it.

But the fact is, things change and things improve over time. And, students and people change as well. You can't treat students today the way you might have treated them twenty or thirty or forty years ago. These are different times.

Besides, there are much better ways of doing things now. Sure, you can say that "the old ways are the best ways" and look all smug about it. But the truth is that we have exercise science studies, and scientific research, and an improved knowledge of anatomy and physiology today that says a lot of those old methods are madness.

And your students have Google. Heaven help us, but we are teaching the most informed clientele ever. And they will call you on your bullshit.

Or, they'll quit and find another school where the instructor isn't stuck in the past.

Grow, Adapt, Improve

So if you want to attract more students and keep them around longer, you have to adapt to changing times. Look, everybody hates change. I don't care if you're a zen Buddhist monk who believes that the only constant is change; everyone hates change.

But change can be a good thing, and it's a philosophy that's worth embracing. Especially when the evidence stands in favor of there being a better way of doing things today.

My advice to you is that you don't fear change, but embrace it while hanging on to the traditions of the past that matter. And that's something you're going to have to figure out on your own, what to keep and what to improve upon.

In doing so, you may very well find that you enjoy teaching more than you did in the past. And you may also find that your students enjoy their training much more as well.