"Are you fed up with your martial arts CLUB, and ready to UPGRADE to a martial arts SCHOOL?"

Are you fed up with your martial arts club?
You don’t have to admit it out loud,
But some part of you is, isn’t it?
Why else would you be looking on the internet at Water Mountain?
Why else would you be on this page?
It’s Okay.  I won’t tell anyone.

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Dear Friend,

Hello, I’m Master Mikel Steenrod.  I have both run club operations and trained in club operations.  Some of the clubs I trained in were great.  Most of them were horrible.

Here are some of the frustrations I experienced, and that my students that are former clubbies have reported to me.

1. Crappy facilities.  Old everything.  Sharp objects everywhere.  Basic gear in a state of disrepair or just not existing.  It’s a dream training there, isn’t it?
2. Not Keeping Posted Hours.  You go to the training area, and it’s locked.  No one is there.  You didn’t get a call.  How are you supposed to progress?
3. Magically shortened hours.  You’re supposed to be there for an hour, and magically the class ends up being 30 minutes long.
4. Unmotivated Fellow Students.  People that don’t show up to actually train.  Students that show up maybe once a month.  You don’t know them.  They don’t know you.  You might feel like training, but by the time you’re around these jokers, all you want to do is leave or take an hour long water break.
5. Any hobo walking off the street can train.  Some chuckle head walks in and is let on the floor to train with you.  Who is this guy?  Is he a felon?  Why does he smell so bad?  Why do you have to show him the ropes?  Is he armed?
6. No security.  Training in public facilities is great, until you start getting harassed by drunks or crack heads.  Ohh, maybe that’s part of the training.
7. Macho men.  They pop in to class now and then to show how tough they are, and then go home to beat family members.  Great people to be around.
8. High injury rate.  It’s the land of the walking wounded.  Everything is injured, taped, or recovering from surgery.  How many pro-athletes or military can train like that?  None.  They need to be sharp for the real thing.
9. Religious and political agenda force feeding.  Open up your gullet, because now it’s time for momma bird to regurgitate.  I’m a priest, and I don’t do that!
10. Classes that magically change content.  Didn’t you sign up for a class in Puppy Magic Thumb Striking?  Why did it suddenly become a class in Bolivian Goat Wrestling?
11. Another Holiday?  Are you taking off holidays in made-up countries?  Happy Wajibnasta Day.  We’ll be closed.
12. A lot of newcomers are too lazy or suck too badly to stick with it.   Do a lot of people come in that club door and go right back out?  Do they get blamed for leaving?  This is called having a high fail ratio.  Guess what, in any business or educational system that would be called poor design.  If the instructor was being held accountable for performance of the system, the instructor would be fired.  On the student-side, a lot of times those failed students blame their failure on the martial art, and all those failed people think that “Ohhh, martial arts suck, or I can’t do them.”  It’s not the martial art, it’s the low end club experience.  How much better could you do with a well designed system?
13. My instructor disappeared or my club shut down. One day, he just doesn’t show, and you don’t hear from him or the doors are locked.  This is vastly more common than it might seem, and is caused by poor design and the welfare mentality that plagues clubs.

Do these complaints sound familiar to you?  Are you fed up with them?  If not, you should leave this page, because it doesn’t apply to you.

Notice, I haven’t said a thing about the art in the club.  I haven’t said gummi-do is better than eastern vine wrestling.  I haven’t said XYZ organization is better than PQR organization.  I have talked about the facilities, the people you train with, and the manner in which instruction is delivered.  No matter what art you train in, you are directly affected by these factors.

Let Rocky Show the Way.

We all know from the Rocky movies that if you want to be a world class athlete, you get a beat up old coach, a broke down training facility, and start lifting sacks of grain.  We know that it’s true, because that’s how pro-athletes train.  As soon as you go pro in anything, you’re shipped off to the slums to train in old-burnt buildings, by broken down has-beens.  Hold it, that’s not right.  Aren’t pro-athletes given the best, state-of-the art facilities with expert coaches?  Don’t they experience a large gain in skill when going from college level to a pro-level because of it?  Geez, how can people ever succeed in such a good environment?  Simple, Rockie is a movie.

I personally have trained Rocky style.  I have trained in junk yards.  I’ve trained in the snow up to my waist.  I’ve gone without food so that I could pay my trainers.  It makes you tough, and it makes you used to adversity.  Your growth rate is slower though.

Your club is not better, because it is Rocky-like.  You will not find your personal best potential, because you spend half your time injured, and the other half punching an old milk jug.

Why does my Club act the way it does?

Clubs are poorly designed as systems for delivering services.  Clubs really emerged in the U.S. post WWII to spread Karate and Judo brought back by American servicemen.  The arts had a very small base of interest, and were lead by people of low skill (compared to the Asians they had learned from).  The club format was dominant up until the late 70s and early 80s.  If you wanted to train up through that period, you were likely training at a club.

The transition to schools was driven by martial artists of higher quality training that also had the know how to build the systems necessary for a self-sustaining businesses.  That's not an easy bill to fill.  To become a successful school owner, a person needed three skill sets: martial arts skill, instructional skill, and business knowledge.  This transition continued through the 80s, and was also marked by the rise of Mc martial art schools, recognized by low quality and high volume.  The existence of Mc martial art schools is used by clubbies to this day to pan all business driven schools, but the truth is any business category is always going to have low quality, high volume operators occupying the low end.  Look at fast food as opposed to restaraunts.  You don't mistake a Mc burger for an $10 restaraunt burger do you?  Creating high quality (really good martial arts training) and high volume (lots of students) is a difficult business challenge, and is beyond the abilities of most martial artists.  So what we're hearing from clubbies in this situation is something called,"sour grapes."

By the early 90s, clubs that had the ability and desire to transition had done so.  Many had closed.  The others that have remained are mostly casual hobby organizations.

If you are dissatisfied with your club, it is because you are expecting a casual hobby organization to be able to deliver consistent service to you.  It can’t do that.  It is unrealistic to ask that it behave like that, because it wasn’t designed to do it. Frankly, you are likely already receiving a hand out, and it’s rude to ask for more!

Are you a Martial Arts Beggar?

Or

Who’s your daddy, Baby?

If you’re in a club, you are likely receiving martial art’s welfare.  Clubs are not economically self-sustaining, and require the instructor or the state to support them.  Examples of the welfare system:

1. The instructor outright provides people with equipment.
2. The instructor makes up short falls for facility costs out of his or her own pocket, and must work to support the facility for the group.
3. The instructor is unpaid and must work another job, so that he or she can afford to teach the art.  Because of this, work demands will always take precedence over teaching.
4. The club is receiving free facilities from a local organization.
5. The club may be receiving funds from a funding agency.

If you don’t mind receiving a hand out from someone every single time you train, then there’s not much I can say to you.  Suck at your instructor’s generous breast as long as you can, but maybe you should ask yourself three things:

1. Why does American education rely on people being charitable enough to teach rather than paying them to teach?
2. Why are you in the state ranked 50^th in education (Arizona)?
3. What is your sense of entitlement doing for your overall success in life?  Is that really a success skill?

What will a School Upgrade Offer Me?

I can’t speak for all schools.  I can only speak for Water Mountain.

1. We’re here during all class hours.
2. Our instructors are trained to coach, and motivated to bring out your best.
3. We have great facilities.
4. The people around you are motivated.
5. It’s safe to train here.
6. Extremely low injury rate.
7. Open during most national holidays.
8. I don’t care what your political or religious beliefs are, and won’t cram mine down your throat.  In fact, instructors are trained to not talk about their personal political or religious belief.
9. We maintain strong security.
10. Strangers are not permitted in our classes.
11. We don’t tolerate abusive behavior.
12. You’ll be off the dole, and paying for everything your receive, and receiving everything you pay for.
13. Our students are highly likely to achieve success in their training.  We have a very low turnover rate.

 I’m fed up with my experience, and I want to move out of my parent’s basement.

Membership at Water Mountain costs most people between $100-$200 month.  Some pay less.  Some pay more.  It’s like moving out of your parent’s basement: things that you want will actually cost money.

Wait, you may not be cut out for it!

You may not want to leave your club just yet.  At Water Mountain, we expect people to actually attend classes, and work towards established performance goals.  If you don’t, you’ll be pestered until you are able to make those expectations into habits.  If, in your heart of hearts, you know that you can’t deal with that, don’t come here.  You’re a casual hobbyist.  Be Okay with it.

Congratulations for getting this far!  Frankly, it can be difficult to make the transition from a club environment to a school environment.  I have worked with many martial artists and qi gong stylists to help them with that transfer, and I know.  Part of what you must decide is how valuable martial arts and qi gong training is to you.  If you think it occupies a nickel worth of your life or twenty bucks worth, then obviously Water Mountain is not for you.  Financial commitment is often the single most powerful indicator of mental committment.  Frankly, to make it at Water Mountain, you have to want to train, so you have to want to pony up the cash.  If you're at the point where you are curious about what it's like, and to see whether we have the thing that you want, then purchase a private intro lesson for $29.  I guarantee your satisfaction with it or I'll give you a prompt and courteous refund. Buy a Lesson Now! 

Best Wishes on Your Continued Training,


Master Mikel Steenrod