Episode 997 - Teaching “Non” Martial Arts Skills

In this episode, join Andrew, Craig Wharem and Victor Guarino as they discuss how teaching “Non” martial arts skills can be beneficial to your students.

Teaching “Non” Martial Arts Skills - Episode 997

SUMMARY

In this episode of Whistlekick Martial Arts Radio, Andrew, Craig, and Victor discuss the importance of teaching non-martial arts activities in martial arts schools. They explore how creative events, games, and community-building activities can enhance the martial arts experience for students, helping them develop essential life skills, confidence, and a sense of belonging. The conversation highlights the value of integrating fun and engaging activities into martial arts training, emphasizing that these experiences contribute to a well-rounded education beyond just physical techniques. In this conversation, the speakers discuss the importance of teaching social self-defense skills alongside traditional martial arts training. They explore how performance anxiety can affect both children and adults, and how creating a supportive environment can help students build confidence. The conversation also touches on engaging non-traditional students through themed events and the benefits of using technology to streamline student sign-ups. Finally, they emphasize the importance of empowering others within the martial arts community to share their passions and skills.

TAKEAWAYS

• Teaching non-martial arts activities can enhance martial arts training.

• Creative events can build community and engagement among students.

• Life skills such as balance and coordination are essential for all ages.

• Fun activities help students develop confidence and social skills.

• Martial arts schools can offer more than just traditional training.

• Community events can connect students with shared interests.

• Games can teach valuable lessons about resilience and teamwork.

• Performance activities can help students overcome fear of public speaking.

• Engaging students in fun ways can foster a love for martial arts.

• Students may face physical altercations, but everyday stressors are more common.

• Learning social self-defense is crucial for students' overall development.

• Performance anxiety is a significant challenge for both children and adults.

• Creating a supportive environment helps students build confidence.

• Themed events can attract new students and foster community building.

• Streamlining the sign-up process can enhance student engagement.

• Empowering others in the school can lead to a more vibrant community.

• It's never too late to start martial arts training.

CHAPTERS

00:00 Introduction to Non-Martial Arts Teaching
05:08 Creative Events in Martial Arts Schools
09:54 Building Community Through Fun Activities
15:11 Life Skills Beyond Martial Arts
20:10 Integrating Performance and Confidence Building
21:39 The Importance of Social Self-Defense
24:45 Building Confidence Through Performance
27:50 Connecting Martial Arts to Real Life
28:58 Engaging Non-Traditional Students
32:51 Streamlining Student Sign-Up Processes
36:47 Empowering Others in Martial Arts Instruction

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After listening to the episode, it would be exciting for us to know your thoughts about it. Don’t forget to drop them in the comment section down below!

SHOW TRANSCRIPT

Andrew (00:14.582)

Welcome, you're listening or watching to the next episode of Whistlekick martial arts radio. And today I'm joined by two great friends of the show, but I'm gonna tease you don't even know who they are. Whoa, because you might not be watching, you could be listening. And if you're only listening, then you have no idea who's here with me. You're just gonna have to wait. But today I'm joined by two great friends and we're gonna talk about teaching non and I'm putting non in air quotes, non martial arts.

But before we get into the discussion, I want to make sure that if you're a new listener, you understand all of the things that we hear at whistlekick do because we obviously produce this podcast that you're listening to, which by the way, you got to listen to for nothing. It's completely free. and we are hell bent. That's right. I said, said, hell, maybe I should, maybe I'll, maybe I'll bleep that out and you won't know what I said, but you'll know what I said. on providing.

Craig Wharem (01:04.549)

Hmm.

Andrew (01:12.283)

so much value to our people that are involved in the show with listening so that you can get all of our content for free. But if you would like to help us out, you certainly can do so by purchasing something at our store, whistlekick.com, where you can purchase sparring gear or apparel or training programs or information on all of the events that we do. And if you use the code podcast15, you can save yourself 15 % on

Almost everything there. We also Have a website whistlekickmarksnorrachradio.com where you can find all of the show notes on this episode and all of the Other ones and transcripts. In fact, if you're just listening in your car You couldn't read who the two guests are joining me today But if you're watching, you know, you can wave guys wave to all the audience You can't talk now they know who you are Craig

Craig Wharem (02:04.997)

I did little finger points earlier.

Craig Wharem (02:10.193)

Jokes on them, this is episode, what number? Yeah, and I've been on 994, so.

Andrew (02:13.431)

997.

Ha!

Andrew (02:20.439)

So lastly, if you do want to help support the show, I would encourage you to do that in a few ways. Like and subscribe to our YouTube channel, which you can do. If you're watching on YouTube, just hit the like button, subscribe, get the notifications so that you find out when all of our episodes come out. If you are just listening, tell a friend about the episode. Tell a friend about any episode. This is episode 997, so there are 996 other ones that you could share with a friend.

And then if you are really so inclined, would appreciate if you could join our Patreon. Patreon.com slash whistle kick and for as little as $5 a month, which is less than the price of a cup of coffee these days at Starbucks or Duncan's or wherever. You can help support the show and make the show happen and get some cool stuff in return. All right, I think I'm done. So Craig, obviously you're one of our.

Two mystery guests. Whoa, how are you today? I Am great. I woke up handsome. It's hard to believe but it happened again

Craig Wharem (03:20.763)

I'm great, how are you?

Craig Wharem (03:27.261)

You're on quite a run of waking up handsome. I feel like it's every day.

Andrew (03:30.251)

I know it's It's hard to believe, but sad but true. And then we're also joined today by Victor Garino. Victor, how are you today?

Vic (03:38.67)

Good morning. Well, I woke up covered in dog hair from from the German Shepherd and the other mutt that sleeps with us, but I'm doing great I dug through my closet to pull out my Irish pub hoodie just so that you and I wouldn't run the risk of matching this morning, Andrew

Andrew (03:55.96)

Frequent viewers of the show will know that when Victor and I get together we often both have a very similar style hoodie on so Sometimes the exact same hoodie. That's true the Kathy long dragon the Kathy long version of the whistle kick dragon hoodie today I have a custom three color dragon hoodie. This was actually the first three color dragon hoodie Anyway

Vic (04:07.862)

or sometimes the exact same hoodie on.

Craig Wharem (04:24.325)

and I'm wearing my Whistlekick Spar Wars hoodie, check out whistlekick.com for all the apparel.

Andrew (04:29.941)

Hahaha!

Vic (04:30.4)

except for the Irish pub hoodie. You would have to travel to Florida to do that.

Craig Wharem (04:37.053)

That's not a deal breaker for me.

Andrew (04:37.964)

So, that's fair, that's fair. So we're here today to talk about non, in quotes, teaching non martial arts. And this topic has come up in the past where we've talked about specifically games that we teach in our, the end of class for kids and how often, even though they're games, they are still martial related. There are a lot of skills that come out of that.

But I know that all of us use other things in our school rather than just teaching punching and kicking and blocking and things like that. And so this idea for an episode came about because Victor, have in the past, fairly recently, I've seen a number of them run separate actual, not just I'm teaching a class and I'm gonna, you we're gonna work on dodge ball because we can work on our stances or whatever. Like you ran separate events.

that one could absolutely make the argument, well, you're not teaching martial arts. And I thought, you know what, this would be a fun thing to talk about. So let's dive in there. Can you talk a little bit about those events that you ran?

Vic (05:50.52)

Well, so this past weekend, we ran two, we, have an ongoing dojos and dragons event, which is a five week seminar. We teach every Saturday. Yeah. and we've got two weeks left of that, but then on Friday night, this past weekend, we taught our, or not taught, we had our kids night out.

And we do kids nights out and we generally try to do a theme and a lot of our students specifically also Karen and my children asked us to play the floor is hot lava. So we ran red rope lights all over the dojo. We got some, we pulled the green out of some red and green Christmas spotlights that we had. he just had this red aura around and we used

the mats and stuff honestly was it was the least the most cost effective kids night out we've ever done because we didn't have to buy anything except for the rope lights but we got there at the end of Christmas when they were stupid cheap on the clearance section and and we just played different obstacle courses if you've ever watched Wipeout or Ninja Warrior or there is a show on Netflix called

the floor is lava. That's just what we did. And we have the kids, we have kids up to 12, only eight people signed up for it. Thank God. Cause man, when 12 people get in on that mat, that's only a little over 800 square feet. It's a lot. and I always get like halfway through the night, which is five to eight.

And we just look at each other and like, why are we doing this? Why are we doing this again? Why did we agree? But the kids love it. They absolutely adored everything. You made it through another one with no injuries, knock on wood. The only close one was my own son and that's fine. He's okay. If one of my kids gets hurt, that's okay because I know that the parents aren't gonna be upset at me.

Andrew (07:42.711)

Okay.

Vic (08:10.202)

And he ended up fine, he just needed to, he almost rolled his ankle. But yeah, mean, that was what it was. They were just jumping from barriers and pads and things, trying not to touch the ground. And it absolutely translates into martial arts skills.

Andrew (08:14.803)

Mm, gotcha.

Andrew (08:28.575)

Yeah, and that's what I was gonna say. Like some people would say, I mean, and I have heard this of other schools as well. I knew other schools that do like a parents night out, like kids night in sort of type of event. And the argument that I always see is, well, you're just doing a daycare. Like you're a martial arts school, why are you running daycare? And I think people miss that, that there are skills you can still teach that can correlate.

Vic (08:45.358)

Mm.

Vic (08:59.596)

And not just skills, I I think I mentioned this in the past, I don't know, I think it was an episode that I was on where we were talking about, you know, teaching different age groups and stuff, eventually, know, inevitably when you do something like an obstacle course, like a Ninja Warriors type thing, a kid is gonna fall. And even though mats are squishy, it still doesn't feel the best to fall. And...

But since there's competition there, they learn to fall, hit hard, get back up and keep going because they want to continue to compete. And with adults, I can tell, you know, adult teenagers and adults to stand across from each other, throw blocks against each other's forearms and basically beat on each other's limbs for conditioning. I can't really do that with six to 10 year olds.

Andrew (09:48.321)

Yeah.

Vic (09:48.524)

I might get in trouble. But you know what else is conditioning? Having them slam their body into a soft mat, right? They're still building all of that, know, conditioning all of their nerve endings, toughening their skin. They are building up their martial arts body. And I'm putting that in quotes because my, my Sifu always says, you know, this exercise isn't really technique. It's just building your Kung Fu body, which is necessary to do your technique. And so that's what I view all

Andrew (09:54.891)

Mm-hmm.

Vic (10:18.846)

anything where kids are jumping and falling and trying to get back up immediately from falling.

Andrew (10:27.745)

Yeah, Craig, do you have any thoughts? you do stuff like that in your school as well?

Craig Wharem (10:31.633)

Yeah, we do stuff all the time. I think, Andrew, I've heard the same thing, right? Well, you're just a daycare that is flavored karate or whatever, right? You're not really teaching martial arts. And I guess my thought on that is my retort is always that it's to build a community. People learn better in a community where they can have fun and feel engaged and connected. And so when you do something like the floor is lava or...

You know, one of the events that we've done that stands out with, for me is we used to do, we did it pre COVID and we just haven't brought it back yet. But we used to do a Valentine's party for the four year olds. And it was, it was a human sized candy land game, pretty much. They had stations, we had people dressed up as characters and things like that. And you could argue, well, that has nothing to do with martial arts. But if you add the martial arts components in.

Andrew (11:20.919)

Hmm.

Craig Wharem (11:29.627)

then they're doing their thing. They're having fun decorating cookies maybe with one of the characters, but with the candy cane lumberjack, they're breaking boards that I just so happened to put peppermint oil on. So when they smelled the boards, it smelled like candy canes, right? Like you can still make it fun and exciting and engaging. And I don't think...

Andrew (11:38.551)

Mm-hmm.

Craig Wharem (11:52.121)

I don't think that if you just stand in a uniform and punch and kick all the time, that makes you a more legitimate martial arts school than anybody else.

Andrew (12:00.808)

Yeah, yeah, I would agree. And I think the other thing to keep in mind is depending on the age we're talking about, like Craig, you just mentioned four year olds, right? I know six year olds that don't know how to skip as an example. Like they just not learned how to skip. They don't understand how their bodies work. And so just working with them on some of those skills of jumping and moving and getting their bodies to

go in ways that they're not used to, will help them in the future, regardless of whether they're going to continue in martial arts for the rest of their life, or whether they're gonna go on to go play sports, or whether they go on to go play even a musical instrument. Like all of that stuff translates to life skills, right?

Vic (12:50.21)

think it's interesting because it's kind of... We run a toddler and me class too. And yeah, mean, a traditional martial artist would walk in and see what my wife is teaching there because I just move bags around. I've taught toddler and me once. There was a lot of prayer and hope, hopefulness.

because she was sick and I didn't know what to do and of course everybody showed up and I never want to teach toddler and me by myself again. So I just show up and help her move the bags. It's her gifting, not mine. But they walk in and see this isn't martial arts. And I even had one of the grandmothers, because sometimes it's on a Saturday, so sometimes other family members come and watch and we encourage that, because like you said, Craig, community, right? God forbid.

We build community and not just learn how to fight. She like made this revelation. She goes, so you're just really like instilling life skills that are applicable, like balance and coordination. I'm like, yeah, I'm not gonna teach an 18 month old how to do an arm bar. Like, what did you think you were coming to? And I think it frustrates me to hear.

Andrew (13:59.64)

You

Craig Wharem (14:05.373)

That would be cool though.

Vic (14:07.82)

when people, because it's normally just other martial artists who accuse people like myself, people like Craig who run these programs of just being a daycare. But they don't think like, okay, I don't know a single high school that has a good football program that doesn't have a homecoming dance. Nobody's walking into a homecoming dance and be like, what does dancing have to do with football? This is stupid, right?

But what is it? It's a community event to celebrate football and

Like to celebrate the team, but for some reason in the martial arts community, there seems to be this thing where it has to be in uniform, which were really just the plain clothes of where a lot of these people come from. It wasn't even a uniform. And we attack each other because we somehow feel like if there's a martial arts school that is having more fun than us, it somehow makes us

less legitimate, or them more legitimate.

Andrew (15:12.887)

Yeah, yeah. That's, you know, that the point of the football and homecoming dance is interesting and so appropriate, I think, because you're right, you know, often that homecoming dance or homecoming weekend or whatever is to celebrate the football team or some game. Maybe it's a rivalry between one school or another, right? But the dance has nothing to do with football. So that's an interesting analogy. I like that.

Craig Wharem (15:42.013)

Sorry, to carry that analogy further, there are kids at the high school who have no interest in playing football, but they're still connected to the event because they're in marching bands maybe. Right? Like there's ways to connect kids with other passion or other things into that event too, where it becomes a unifying event. And I think that that's important.

Andrew (15:43.563)

Go ahead. No, no, go ahead.

Andrew (15:54.817)

Mm, yep, yep.

Craig Wharem (16:06.597)

Because one of the things that I always try to keep in the forefront of my mind when I'm teaching is martial arts is my passion. That doesn't mean it's the kids passion, right? The kids are still learning and developing their passion. They're growing or even the teenagers, even adults, right? And martial arts may be something they do that they enjoy, but it might not be the thing they're thinking about 24 seven. They get up on a Sunday morning to talk about with their best friends. Like that's not, see, that was a specific example, boys. but they,

Andrew (16:13.451)

Hmm. Hmm.

Craig Wharem (16:36.413)

it's not their passion per se, but if you can do something and bring in an event where you tie that passion in, Victor, I'm going to guess your dojos and dragons, you've got some people in your school who like dungeons and dragons. And so you've given them the opportunity to express a passion and a joy and share it with other people they may train with that they may not have had the opportunity to do otherwise.

Vic (17:00.93)

Yeah, and I'm glad that you said that, Craig, because I was gonna also kind of make this point as well with that. Because Dojos and Dragons, and we've also done a space katana thing, those are our kids' night out events for teenagers and adults. We don't take anybody. I take issue, personal issue. This is just a preference, so if you do this differently than me, that's fine. Whoever's listening to this.

I don't really want to teach anyone under the age of 14 how to knife fight. It's just kind of like, I feel passionate about it, right? So there's an age limit on that. But teenagers are taught by all these other sources that they're not allowed to have fun, they have to be cool. And if you're having too much fun doing silly things,

Andrew (17:37.484)

Yep. Yep.

Andrew (17:55.883)

You're a kid.

Vic (17:57.518)

Yeah, you're a kid. And so I've got some teenagers who have come to this, this dojos and dragons and the past one who are literally who, who are showing up to my dojos and dragons with grown adults who come in costume every single week. And they're awesome people. we have four professional stunt women who are currently taking our dojos and dragons class and, and

Andrew (18:19.073)

Mm-hmm.

Vic (18:26.338)

This is the cool thing about the community building of these special events is that these four women aren't students. They are in orbit around myself and Karen and our school. They're very busy. They don't necessarily have the time to commit to continuously coming to that or, you know, we teach combat for combat purposes.

not necessarily stuff that would look good on screen. So our skill set in our traditional classes doesn't really build into their career like some other things would do, but they show up for these specific one-off events or week-long events. And without joining the school, they have become familiar faces to our students.

Andrew (19:19.063)

Mm-hmm.

Vic (19:20.52)

and our students light up when they get to interact. hey, you know, it's like seeing a cousin that you only get to see every so often, like at a family reunion or a family gathering because they live far away.

Andrew (19:34.743)

So you are building that community that Craig talked about. Yeah.

Vic (19:37.292)

Right, and we're building it beyond the walls of our dojo.

Andrew (19:42.444)

That's great. Now, Craig, I know that you teach other things as well. it's not just like Parents Night Out, like other quote, non martial art things that translate to other people's lives. And so let's chat. Let's move away from a little bit of like a themed event, which, you know, Victor, we've talked about, and I think held a lot of benefits, but let's talk about some other skills and things that we might teach.

that are not considered martial arts, but really are.

Craig Wharem (20:15.397)

Yeah, I mean one of the things that I do that's probably, think a fair enough, a fair amount of people who know me know I do this, but and if you've ever taken a MADEC course, you know that I do this. I make you, I make my students stand up and read poetry or recite poetry to their classmates. Everybody is sitting and watching them. They stand up, they read whatever poem I hand them and I ask them to perform the poem.

I don't ask them to sit there and read it. And the biggest reason for that is because if I took a poll in my class and I said, what is the thing at school that freaks you out the most? It's speaking in front of the class. Or the other one I do that's pretty popular, I do it a couple of times a year, is we do a lip sync battle, right? And we'll just do it in class. Like I'll just say, pick a song, and they'll go back and forth.

Andrew (21:00.642)

Mm-hmm.

Craig Wharem (21:13.103)

And the idea again is you've got a room of people watching you and your job is to have fun. Your job is to break out of that. I'm nervous to look like a fool. Right? Uncle Tommy, one time we were talking, Tommy Gibbons been on the show a bunch and he said to me, one of the most dangerous people in the world is the person who can't be embarrassed because they're powerful.

Andrew (21:24.64)

Yep. Yep.

Craig Wharem (21:39.649)

And that lesson is, that's why I do that. Because we expect our students as martial artists to face a conflict or a physical altercation and be fearless and go and do what they need to do. But in their everyday life, we don't. My opinion has been, and I've said that on the show numerous times, majority, statistically a majority of our students are never gonna get into a physical altercation.

Andrew (21:55.009)

Mm-hmm.

Craig Wharem (22:09.469)

But 100 % of our students are going to face a stressor like maybe a job interview or college applications or a conflict with a friend or a family member. And so learning the social side of self-defense is important. And I think that you don't get that if all you're doing is standing up and performing a kata in front of a group. Yes, that's a valuable thing. That's a valuable skill. And it's doing the same thing.

But there's a safety net because everybody's learning that kata or has learned it. So you're still in the culture of your school, which every time I'm in an episode, feel like culture of your school pops up at some point, right? But in the culture of your school, performing a kata is normal. It's not against the norm, right? You're just a bunch of fish swimming the same way. When you stand up and recite poetry, you start swimming the other way.

Andrew (22:45.259)

Mm-hmm.

Andrew (23:00.65)

Mm-hmm. Yep. Yep.

Andrew (23:08.789)

Yeah, and I think, let's face it.

Speaking in front of people is probably the biggest thing that brings nerves to adults. Like you mentioned, like, you you asked your kids, what's the thing you struggle with the most at school? It's, you know, getting up in front of your class. That's the same for adults. It's no different, you know?

Victor, do you have any thoughts on that? I saw you nodding along, you're like, hmm.

Vic (23:38.328)

Yeah, it's a really interesting idea.

I do some similar things, but I like the fact that it's a seemingly completely disconnected from martial arts in the sense of... You don't read poetry as a technique, but I'll do things where I'll ask students who aren't necessarily quote unquote of teaching rank, hey, can you go show the class this thing?

And then I'll just walk away and pretend to do something important on my computer so if any of my students that I've done this before happen to listen to this episode, yes, I am not completely turning my back on you. I am listening to what you're doing. I'm just making you feel like I'm not hovering over you, because I want to see what you do. even, it's funny that, Craig, you mentioned the safety net of Kata, because a lot of times,

Craig Wharem (24:24.615)

Surprise.

Vic (24:45.25)

guess we don't think I don't think of it as that because yeah I mean it is a set moves that you have given them that this is supposed to be but yesterday yesterday because we're recording this on a Sunday so we just taught dojos and dragons last night we had everybody paired up

And I went through, like, here's how you choreograph a fight. Moving slow, one move at a time. I'm gonna do this attack, you're gonna counter, okay, rewind. Now I do this attack, you do your counter, what's my response? And she's teaching me how to build a fight and I let them go for 15 minutes. You know, and they didn't know that they were gonna build a fight that I was going to then make them present to the rest of the class at the end of 15 minutes. And.

Andrew (25:25.079)

Mm.

Vic (25:28.834)

I had two of my students were working with each other and they're students who've been with me almost the longest, have worked with each other all the time in class. They're very comfortable with each other. And I was like, I'll make them go first. And so I was like, you know, all right, you guys show us what you got. there was one of them was a teenager, one of them was adult. The teenager just got like that look on her face. Like, I'm sorry, what?

You want me to present to all of these people this thing I created that's not something that you gave me and the adult was just like, no? And I was like, you can't say no to me. Do it, we're all gonna do it, but you you go first. And they did, but it was just funny to watch them.

Andrew (26:10.999)

Hmm.

Vic (26:19.572)

not feel the safety of like if I had asked them do the sequence that I just taught you at the beginning of the class that we've been running that you know what it's supposed to look like they would have done it without problem but because it was do this thing that none of us have seen before that may or may not be correct all of a sudden I felt the pout the pout but I felt

Andrew (26:30.551)

Yep.

Vic (26:44.972)

the realness of their anxiety. There it is. It palpable in the air. That was the word I was looking for.

Andrew (26:50.39)

Yeah. No, I think that's a great point. And, know, we often correlate the martial arts stuff that we do, how it relates to your, your life outside, you know, like I've heard people say, you know, teaching, you know, key eye or key up or whatever, like helps you can help you in your real life. If you're attacked being vocal, right? If you're a smaller, you know, person that's not used to yelling for help, like I've heard that analogy, or

you know, how to fall properly. Right? Obviously we use that in martial arts all the time, but you also can use that in your real life where you slip and fall and you can fall, quote, properly in a way that you are less likely to injure yourself. So I really enjoy looking at it from the other side where you're teaching things that aren't martial arts, in quotes, but it's actually is helping you in your martial arts.

And so this has been really fun. I did think of one other benefit to, so I want to go backwards. We're going to, we're going to backpedal a little bit to talk about these themed events that you run Victor. Cause I thought of another benefit to it that, that we didn't talk about, not martial arts related, but definitely school related is that you are not offering a quote martial arts class, right? You're offering a.

Vic (28:04.686)

Mm-hmm.

Andrew (28:18.987)

dojos and dragons class or an Assassin's Creed video game class, right? But it's not a martial art in air quotes class. So you have the ability to potentially bring in new students, students that are not already a part of your group. They're not already students of yours, right? You might have someone that just wants to register to be a part of this event.

that you might be able to convert them to a student, but how do you handle that type of a situation where you have someone coming in that's not normally part of this, of your school?

Vic (28:58.988)

Yeah, it's interesting because we... The Kids Night Out events are usually mostly dominated at our students. Our students get really excited about it and we bring in maybe like a couple friends will show up.

But we normally don't get any conversions from that. It's more of a community building thing. Whereas Karen and I have had a, not a hard time, but it's slower to get adults to fill out our teen adult class because adults feel like you can't.

I can't, it's too late for me. God, if I had, I would not need to run extra programs in my school if I got paid for every single time I've heard an adult say, I've always wanted to do martial arts when I was younger, but you know, it's too late for me now. And I'm like, it's really, it's really not. My mom started a couple years ago. She's got her yellow belt, like, you can start any time.

Andrew (29:45.793)

Yeah.

Craig Wharem (29:54.269)

The other one I like, I got a yellow belt when I was like eight.

Vic (29:58.862)

Right. So, you know, continue that. But anyway, so we're like, well, how do we get adults to do this thing? And we tried running specials, we tried things like that. And I was like, what do adults want to do? Well, adults want to have fun on a Friday night. They to have a fun on a Saturday night. So was like, let's give them something fun to do that's low commitment, they can show up for this thing, they can come, and then we generally offer them.

Like right now, all of the Dojos and Dragons folks who are at students, because our current students, got a discount for signing up for it. But all of the non-students, if they sign up as a student, they get a discounted first month plus other freebies that they can get if they sign up before the end of the five weeks. it's kind of like,

getting paid to market to a specific demographic of people, which is the best way to market. Because if nobody converts, which we've generally had one conversion or like these stunt people who they did the last themed event thing, they definitely did this themed event thing. They didn't sign up for classes, but they're like, keep us on the email list because we want to know the next one. You know, per event.

But even if we get no conversions, the event still profits us financially as a school and also as another kind of, as that community building thing. And so the difficult thing is everything that leads up to the night. Everything that leads up to us getting these non martial arts people who aren't connected to our dojo really.

Andrew (31:28.759)

Sure. Sure.

Vic (31:54.122)

into our system and not wasting the first class with getting everybody's information when they just show up. And so one of the ways that the honestly we use, martiallytics, which we've mentioned on the show before has this thing called a one touch signup and it's just a QR code or it can be an email link that is in everything that we do. All of the advertisements for everything when we have a slideshow.

Andrew (32:01.601)

Sure.

Vic (32:22.422)

on a screen in front of our dojo that faces the walkway. even when we're not there, people like, I want to do that. They can scan the QR code and it brings up a form. And I wake up to an email that says, and so signed up for this thing. And here's all their information. And here is their payment. They've already paid for the event. And all I have to do is try to recognize them from the picture if they upload one when they walk through the door.

Andrew (32:36.791)

Mmm.

Vic (32:51.987)

and greet them and introduce myself the first time. Obviously they get an email, which I have set up automations. Finally, that was on me. Marshallytics has this great thing where like, if someone uses a one touch sign up, it can automatically trigger a welcome email. I, because I like to do everything the hard way, just now set mine up. So before now everyone would sign up and I would wake up to the email and go, I got to sign in and I got to, I got to.

Andrew (33:07.099)

nice.

Vic (33:21.282)

craft a welcome email for them because...

Andrew (33:24.385)

but they've automated it for you.

Vic (33:26.274)

Right, and it was automated from the beginning. Always, it's just, I like to be difficult.

Andrew (33:28.757)

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Andrew (33:36.471)

Well, mean, and it's, you're fairly new at getting involved with Marshalllytics. You know, it's a few months.

Vic (33:43.03)

Yeah, I mean, probably this, we've probably crossed our six month mark at this point with them and they are amazing. Like there are things that I have time to do now that I didn't before because I was doing attendance on an Excel spreadsheet. I was doing my budget and my books on an Excel spreadsheet. And now I can look at things and I can see, I don't have to chase people for waivers because

Andrew (34:05.207)

Mm-hmm.

Vic (34:11.746)

that one touch sign up, lets them look on their phone and almost everybody's got a smartphone with a touch screen, they can sign their waiver right then and there. And it comes straight to me. If they somehow get past it without signing a waiver, I can shoot them a waiver through their email and they can just do it. So their one touch sign up has really made events like this more possible for us.

Because everything leading up to when I get to show up in costume and be, you know, Kale the Shadowstep Mereau and teach my knife fighting, that's the fun part. Everything leading up to it is the stressful part. you know, Karen and I always stress and Jeremy yells at us for this. We stress whenever we run these things because we're like, what if we get there and nobody signed up? Or it's just our two students.

Andrew (35:08.279)

Mm-hmm.

Vic (35:13.528)

But without fail, when we run these types of events like the Space Katana in the past and this, right before stuff goes up, all of a sudden, we'll fill up in a single day. Because someone inevitably, and this is the cool thing about that one touch signup thing that Marshallytics does, is that, and it happened with the stunt people, is our friend who already signed up was like, I went ahead and forwarded the signup link.

to all of the people in our stunt crew look out for them. And sure enough, by the end of that day, three people had signed up. And then a fourth person signed up later on that night that we had no idea who they were. Well, they were loosely connected to one of the stunt women. He's not a stunt performer himself, but he knows one of them. And she forwarded to his parents who signed him up as a Christmas gift. And so it makes...

Andrew (35:45.013)

Mmm.

Andrew (36:09.025)

So.

Vic (36:11.692)

The sign-up's prolific, and I don't really have to do anything, because it works like Facebook's organic reach used to work before the algorithms threw that up.

Andrew (36:18.805)

Yep. Yeah. So, so, so so Marshall, it is, is really making it a lot easier for your, for you to be able to, to get your event in the, in the eyes and hands of potential students, which is awesome. And Marshalllytics has a trial program that they're helped that they are gifting some extra stuff to a whistle kick listener. So tell us a little bit about that and then we'll, we'll wrap up here.

Vic (36:47.47)

And yeah, if you go to, whistlekickmarshallartsradio.com and you click on our partners page, you'll find the link for, for Marshalllyrics. And if you click sign up from that page instead of your 60 or your 30 day free trial, you'll get a 60 day free trial. And Alan and Brad are great in the sense of if you have any questions, every time I've had a question, I've emailed one of them and gotten a response back.

Within 24 hours, I will say that it is usually within the same day. If you have all of your students, again, I am hard-headed and I like to do everything myself. So when we first transferred over, I input all of my student information in myself, but we only had like 19 students at the time. If you have, say, already students in an Excel spreadsheet or if you're using something else and you export your student list,

you can send it to them and they do not charge you for the service, they will input the student data in for you. And then all you have to do is send the first invoices out so that they can collect the financial information via a secure method into their thing. They really make it easy, but again, whistlekickmartialartsradio.com slash partners, click on the trial link.

Andrew (37:50.551)

Mmm.

Andrew (38:03.275)

Perfect. Awesome.

Vic (38:14.84)

from there. a big old button. You can't really miss it. And it'll say 30 days, but really if you go through our button, you'll get flagged as us and you'll get 60 days free.

Andrew (38:25.705)

Awesome. Craig, anything we want to close out on, we want to finish up on anything we haven't talked about in regards to teaching non martial arts.

Craig Wharem (38:36.765)

Yeah, I just want to add one point and my stuff that I do most of the time is in class and then I do those extra events like Victor does, the parents sign-outs or whatever. But if you're a martial arts instructor and you're going, you know, I don't really want to add a Saturday night to my schedule. I taught all week. I'm exhausted. Like I just, or, or maybe, you know, you've got a family, like whatever that, that doesn't do martial arts, whatever.

then you can also always empower other people at your school. So for example, I didn't talk a lot about the parents that else we do. I don't do them. There's somebody else on my team who does them because he likes doing them. Right? Like he, I don't have as much fun doing them as he does. So, you know, don't be afraid if you're an instructor and you have adults in your school or, you know, senior members of your school.

Andrew (39:11.724)

Mmm.

Andrew (39:15.904)

Yep.

Craig Wharem (39:30.287)

ask if they, it seems like something they'd be interested in, ask them, because all that does is give them the opportunity to share something they like in a place they feel comfortable. You know, the analogy that I always keep, you know, going back to with my team is we often say martial arts is a family, that the karate school is a family, the taekwondo school is a family, whatever it is. Well, by extension, that means that your school is the house or the home.

And so providing a place where people can feel empowered to be themselves and share their passion and on top of that always have something going on that they want to be a part of, it increases that. So I would encourage people to try their best to find, I'm going to find it, I'm going to word it a little bit different, a non-traditional way to teach traditional martial arts.

Andrew (40:18.667)

Hmm. Yeah. Victor, anything else to add?

Vic (40:27.118)

No, I think Craig said it great and actually he just gave me an idea. I've got a I've got a teenager in the intermediate ranks right now who her dad made the mistake of telling me that she wants to work with kids when she gets older and now I'm just thinking of ways that I can start utilizing her for our kids nights out so that when she turns 18 I can just hand it to her.

Andrew (40:56.225)

Ha

Vic (40:56.686)

Craig Wharem (40:56.803)

Hey, that's a specialty of mine. We'll talk.

Vic (40:59.798)

Yeah, thank you, thank you. This is a good idea. I'm gonna be texting my wife as soon as we finish recording this.

Andrew (41:07.535)

Well, thanks so much for joining us guys. If you, audience listening have ideas on things you do, maybe you run an event at your school or teach a certain thing that is not considered martial arts, but absolutely is adjacent that will help your students. Let us know. You can comment on our YouTube video, which if you're watching on YouTube, hopefully you've already clicked the like button and the subscribe button and the notifications button.

Craig Wharem (41:33.83)

Mashed.

Andrew (41:36.568)

Hopefully you've already done that. When you've done that, comment, tell us about what you do in your school or what your school does. Maybe you don't do it, maybe you're a student. What skills have you learned that have translated to other aspects of your life? Or if you are on Facebook, you can join our Facebook page, which is called Just Martial Arts Radio. And you can let us know there.

You can always email me Andrew at whistlekick.com if you have any questions Check out martial arts whistle kick martial arts radio comm for everything that the podcast is about You can also check out the partners page and get an extra 30-day trial on martially tics, which is great We appreciate them giving that to all of our listeners And whistle kick comm is where you go to find everything else that we do using the code podcast 1 5 save yourself 15 %

And I think that's gonna close it out guys. Let's try this all together. Ready? Until next time, train hard, smile, and have a great day.

Vic (42:39.79)

Train hard, smile, and have a great day.

Craig Wharem (42:40.098)

hard, smile, and have a great day.