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Part-time instructor, club, full-time instructor, see what AIO can do for your dojo.

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Aikido Instructors Organization

Phone 732.674.9753

Dear AIO Members: I would like to personally thank all of you for your mem-bership in Aikido Instructors Organization. AIO was cre-ated out of necessity due to a growing need for business advice related specifically to the challenges associated with teaching a highly traditional martial art in a modern day world. Creating AIO was not an easy decision, but always a rewarding one. As you are all aware, we are passionate about keeping the art of Aikido pure. In addi-tion, we also recognize that the days of the “Build it and they will come” philosophy are long gone. As we cele-brate completing our first year of AIO, we not only ap-plaud ourselves for facing the challenge of Aikido busi-ness consulting head on, but give a standing ovation to those members who had vision, looked outside the box, and took a leap of faith to grow their dojos, spreading Aikido to a greater population using AIO techniques. So this BRAVO is for you and your courage to create a bet-ter dojo for your members and future aikidoka. As our second year roars on, we are excited to an-nounce many upcoming additions for our AIO members. For those of you in the tech world (and those of you who are not as well!), AIO is honored to team up with Kim Ruschel. Kim has created a new iPhone Application and website for Aikidoka called Aiki-world. Aiki-world will provide dojos and students from different parts of the country a place to share their information and events, find seminars, and meet friends from all over the coun-try. It is an innovative design that will be free to all AIO members for a limited time. Congratulations, Kim, on your new product and thank you for allowing AIO mem-bers to be the first to experience this valuable tool! We would like to welcome three new periodic consult-ants to our team of AIO professionals. Penny Bernath, 6th Dan, Shidoin, is a senior instructor at Florida Aikikai and also travels throughout the world conducting semi-nars. In addition to her extensive Aikido background, Penny specializes in teaching teachers what and how to teach children. She is also an Education Content Pro-ducer for Florida‟s PBS affiliate, creating training pro-grams for pre-kindergarten teachers through online in-struction called KidVision VPK. To check out KidVision, visit www.KidVisionVPK.org. John P. Murdoch II, Esq. is a practicing Aikidoka from Aikido of Red Bank. John comes to us as a valued legal advisor versed in various forms of law including small business formation and lease negotiations, as well as a published author in the journals American Health Lawyers

Association’s Physician Organiza-

tions and New Jersey Law Journal. We are very fortunate to have John on our team. As featured in this month‟s AIO, Sean Hannon, Aikidoka and owner of Castle Rock Aikido, comes with a unique per-spective of simultaneously being an Aikido student and owner of an Aikido dojo. Sean‟s background in sales and customer service brings to AIO the real life chal-lenges faced by today‟s dojo owners and the solutions that blend traditional practices with today‟s marketplace. As if that information wasn‟t exciting enough, AIO is proud to announce that the release of Studio Martial Arts Manager, a software management program for martial art dojos offered by Studio Gurus LLC, is just around the corner. Many of you know that we have personally used Studio for almost a decade and attribute many of our success stories to implementing this program in our dojo. We look forward to working with the new and improved version of Studio for many years to come. As an added benefit, all AIO members will receive a $10 monthly software discount on an already affordable Studio Martial Arts Manager just for being a member of AIO. This past year has been a time of growth, learning, and rewarding success. The testimonials we have received over this past year from our members have been tremendous. With a bit of dedication towards learning one new skill at a time to better the dojo, many members have had light bulb moments that have been astonish-ing. Is it easy to learn how to run a dojo? No. Is there one miracle thing a dojo can implement to make them successful? No. Learning to run a dojo is not a sprint; it is a marathon. But the first step in creating a successful dojo is educating yourself. So, at risk of repeating myself, I CONGRATULATE you on taking that first step, on accepting the challenge of doing something you have not done before, and on having the courage to create a thriving and healthy dojo that will withstand time. Sincerely,

Skip Chapman

3

B Y A I O P R E S I D E N T , S K I P C H A P M A N

A Look Ahead

F E B / M A R 2 0 1 0 - a i k i d o i n t r u c t o r s . c o m

AI Journal EDITORIAL

AI Journal COVER STORY

As an avid reader of AIO Journal, I know that each issue

has featured a powerful interview with an experienced

and successful Aikido Sensei and those dojos featured

usually have hundreds of students. So, I was just a little

bit surprised when Skip and Paige Chapman asked our

young, small dojo in Castle Rock, Colorado to be this

issue's feature! Castle Rock AIKIDO is unique in that I,

the owner of the dojo, am not an Aikido Sensei, nor do I

hold a black belt in Aikido. In fact, I just tested for 4th kyu

last November. On top of that, we've had a turbulent

start. In just under two years we built a school consist-

ing of almost 40 adult students. Then, we lost it all, reor-

ganized, and rebuilt the school to over 40 new, adult stu-

dents in less than six months.

So, although complimentary, the idea of being featured

in AIO Journal was initially confounding. Still, Skip and

Paige believed my story was worth telling. Later, I real-

ized that maybe they were right. Many Aikido schools

are much smaller than the one I have built and so maybe

telling my story might benefit many AIO readers. Per-

haps my story could inspire some schools to help them

bridge the gap from where they are now to where in-

structors like Veltri Sensei, Stickles Sensei, and

Salvatore Sensei are today. Perhaps growing a school

to 40+ adult students might seem like an infinitely more

attainable stepping stone to other dojos that are still

struggling with just a handful of students. I was willing to

give it a shot. This is a real privilege for me.

"There is more than one way to skin a cat," one of Mark

Twain's fictional characters once said. Well, similarly,

(and contrary to popular belief) there is more than one

way to run and grow an Aikido dojo. For almost 15

years, I have wanted to open an Aikido dojo. There was

only one problem: I was neither an instructor, nor a black

belt in Aikido. Would that stop me? Apparently, not.

I began my martial arts training in 1989 at the age of six-

teen with a kind, older gentleman named Emil Santoro

Sensei. It was a small, fun karate program in a local

New Jersey YMCA. After about six months, I switched

to a more formal dojo and four years later earned a sho-

dan in Isshin-Ryu Okinawan Karate. At that dojo, I even-

tually became partially responsible for running the school.

I taught classes for both children and adults, oriented and

processed new students, helped organize and execute

testing events and other special events like charity fund-

raising, answered phone calls from prospective students,

and assisted other instructors from the dojo in getting

their own dojos up and running in surrounding areas. I

had always hoped to follow suit at some point in the fu-

ture.

Wanting to add more diversity and fluidity to my martial

arts repertoire, I began Aikido training with Greg O'Con-

nor Sensei in Morristown, New Jersey in the mid 1990s.

Training with O'Connor Sensei had a profound effect on

me. Not only was it a lot of fun, but O'Connor Sensei had

built an impressive dojo. It was a large and beautiful

work out space and classes were always well attended.

Unfortunately, my time with O'Connor Sensei was short

lived as a career change took me to Iowa to train to be-

come a chiropractic physician. There I continued Aikido

training with "Joe" Masayuki Kaneshi Mesa Sensei

across the Mississippi River in Rock Island, Illinois. I

trained with Mesa Sensei for the better part of a year and

even was invited to be an uchi-deshi. I had to decline that

honor because I was moving once again, this time to

South Carolina, to complete my graduate studies. I con-

tinued my Aikido training briefly at another school there,

but again had to stop due to intense career commitments.

In early 2002, I moved to northern Colorado to open my

chiropractic practice. Once again, I joined a local Aikido

dojo, but had to stop training almost immediately due to,

of all things, a spinal injury I sustained while moving

some heavy equipment for my clinic. Matters got worse

in 2006 when I experienced a complete collapse of my

lumbar spine. Three herniated discs in my lower back

took away my ability to walk for over a year. According to

an MRI, one of the herniations was occluding 80% of my

spinal canal. Some worried that I might never walk or be

5

AI Journal Sean Hannon, 4th kyu (not 4th dan)

“„There is more than one way to skin a cat,‟ one of Mark Twain's fictional

characters once said. Well, similarly, (and contrary to popular belief) there

is more than one way to run and grow an Aikido dojo. For almost 15 years,

I have wanted to open an Aikido dojo. There was only one problem: I was

neither an instructor, nor a black belt in Aikido. Would that stop me?

Apparently, not.”

AIKIDOINSTRUCTORS.COM FEBRUARY/MARCH 2010

Aikido school?"

"Well, first of all," I said, "unless you haven't noticed, I can

barely stand or walk. Secondly, I'm not qualified to teach.

I'm not a black belt."

"So? You're great at sales and marketing. Can't you find

some teachers to do the instructing for you?"

"That's not really the way it works in Aikido," I retorted.

"So what?" she pressed on. "Who says you have to do it

the way it's always been done? Can't it be done another

way?"

"I don't know. I've never really given it any thought."

Thus began…

The Big Experiment.

Today, I live in a south Denver, Colorado suburb called

Castle Rock located approximately halfway between Den-

ver and Colorado Springs. The closest Aikido school I

could find was located deep in downtown Denver. Actu-

ally, it turns out, there were others that were closer, but

physically active again.

For the better part of a year, I spent my days laying face

down on a sturdy coffee table in my living room while,

Allison, my patient wife, essentially waited on me hand

and foot while I slowly learned to stand again. Initially, I

relied on the heavy use of a walker and a cumbersome

back brace, then I progressed to use of a cane and back

brace, and eventually to just a back brace. It was a

stressful time in many respects.

While recovering from my injury through some intense

non-surgical therapies, I had to completely reevaluate my

life and career. Now, four years later, I require no me-

chanical assistance at all, have returned to Aikido train-

ing, and have also taken up Iaido. I'm about 80-90%

back to normal. I still over do it from time to time and

have to stop training for a week or two, but essentially I

can train fairly consistently.

During my long and difficult recovery, it was important

that I have something to look forward to in order to facili-

tate my healing. A friend asked me, "What is one activity

in your life that has given you the most pleasure?" My

answer was simple: Aikido. "Then why don't you start an

FEBRUARY/MARCH 2010 AIKIDOINSTRUCTORS.COM 6

AI Journal Thinking Outside the Bento Box

they had such poor web presence and marketing that I

didn't know they existed. Did you hear that? I was trying

to find Aikido schools in the area on the Internet, but

couldn't! That would be marketing mistake numero uno.

I visited the downtown dojo to watch a class, but it took

over an hour to get to in heavy afternoon traffic. Class

started at 5:30pm, which was not convenient, and the

staff only allowed me to watch 15 minutes of class before

asking me to join or leave. I asked if I could speak with

an instructor or some of the students. I was denied.

What horrible customer service, I thought. It took me

another 40 minutes to drive home. For me, this just didn't

work. So I said to myself, "I wonder if we could get a

dojo going right here in Castle Rock?"

I put advertisements on the Internet and sent e-mails to

all of the Colorado Aikido schools I could find saying that

I was interested in opening a dojo in Castle Rock. The

ad said that I would finance, market, and run the dojo if

people were willing to teach the classes. I received sev-

eral responses from people in Colorado and a few people

out of state who were willing to relocate to Colorado.

That was a surprise considering that I was not advertising

a salary of any kind.

I interviewed several great people in person and by

phone, selected one as chief instructor, and three months

later we held our first adult-only Aikido class inside a

gymnastics studio on their floor exercise spring floor. It

wasn't pretty, but we were off and running. We signed up

four new students on our first day. To us, that felt like a

big success. Our first month in business, we profited two

-hundred dollars.

The plan was that since I was not yet physically capable

of training, I would focus on building the school. I ran

99% of the business operations. I attended and watched

nearly every class, but it was primarily my job to bring

people in the door and convert them from prospects to

students.

The experience was (and still is) so much fun. I love it

when new people come in to try class. I love greeting

them, orienting them to the class, introducing them to

instructors and students, finding out what their motiva-

tions for considering Aikido are, and signing them up after

their trial class. Sales has always been something I have

loved to do, as long as I was selling something that was

of high integrity, treated people fairly, and didn't hurt any-

one. In fact, Sales is a kind of "budo" in and of itself, in

part, because of its capacity to serve others. It's a shame

that few Aikido instructors recognize this. Aikido is such

a clean product/service. It helps people. It's fun. It has

no adverse side effects. It has never been recalled or

pulled off the market. It changes peoples' lives for the

better and it tends to attract very nice people. I can't

think of a better product/service to promote and sell. The

whole experience was very exciting.

Early Challenges & Beginners' Mistakes

We grew fairly steadily. But, of course, we had our ups

and downs. We went through learning experiences that

all dojos go through such as tuition collection, but we

quickly fixed that with an easy auto-pay program. That

decision was a no-brainer and paid for itself in its first

month. We saw significant attrition especially around the

holidays when some students would tell us they were

"taking some time off during the busy holiday season."

We came up with ways to deal with that, too. We also

experienced attrition every time our schedule changed.

We had to be super-flexible since the gymnastics studio

would move our class schedule around regularly. It

made things very tough for us. Weeknight classes didn't

start until 8:15pm and that was way too late for many pro-

spective students who contacted us.

For these and other reasons, we had a lot of difficulty

breaking above 20 students or so. We believed that it

largely related to the quality of the experience we were

offering. While the spring floor and carpet bonded foam

flooring was acceptable (but definitely not ideal) and we

were very fortunate that the gymnastics studio let us rent

on a basis of a flat percentage of monthly collected tui-

AIKIDOINSTRUCTORS.COM

AI Journal Sean Hannon, 4th kyu (not 4th dan)

7

“I put advertisements on the Internet and sent e-mails to all of the Colorado

Aikido schools I could find saying that I was interested in opening a dojo in

Castle Rock. The ad said that I would finance, market, and run the dojo if

people were willing to teach the classes.”

FEBRUARY/MARCH 2010

8

tion, there were still tremendous challenges with the facil-

ity.

First of all, our website (www.CRaikido.com) created the

impression that we offered a very Zen-like, tranquil envi-

ronment in which to train. However, when prospective

students would show up to try a class looking for their

tranquil experience, they were greeted by 50-100

screaming children and the facilities smelled like little girls

feet (the flooring we trained on was not very clean). In

fact, I would often bring in carpet cleaning powder, vac-

uum the carpet, pick up trash and wipe down the bath-

rooms because they were not well maintain. The bath-

rooms were the only facilities for students to change into

their uniforms, so privacy for students, especially female

students, was limited because children were constantly

entering and exiting the bathrooms and being children,

they were not very cognizant of people's modesty.

In short, there was a

tremendous lack of

congruency between

the impression our

web site gave (which

generated more than

90% of our prospec-

tive students) and the

visual and tactile ex-

perience prospective

students had when

they visited us. It cre-

ated disappointment

and let down among

prospective students

and that hurt our con-

version rate. Like

most Aikido dojos, the

teaching itself was

excellent, but to grow

a large, successful

dojo, a whole lot more

than just great teach-

ing is necessary.

Many instructors either

don't recognize this or

deny this reality and

that is partly why they

struggle for so many

years with just a hand-

ful of students.

Yes, Aikido is ultimately about the training. But it is also

so much more than that. To many people, the Aikido

dojo is an oasis from people's daily lives, responsibilities,

struggles, and challenges. Some students don't even

train for the martial application at all! It is a total experi-

ence for them, not just martial training. Think about it.

When you go to a spa for a massage, is it just about the

massage? Or is it about the total experience. Would you

enjoy the massage if it took place in a cold, stinky,

brightly-light room, and had noisy construction going on

next door? Of course, not. How would you then feel if

the massage therapist said to you, "Try to ignore every-

thing else. Remember, this is about the massage." I bet

you probably wouldn't go back, would you?

This is often how some Aikido instructors treat their dojos

and then they wonder why they can't build their student

base. I know it can be hard and expensive to have a nice

place to train and sometimes this can't be avoided, but

AIKIDOINSTRUCTORS.COM FEBRUARY/MARCH 2010

AI Journal Thinking Outside the Bento Box

9

you've got to do whatever you can to improve the experi-

ence people have when they visit your dojo. Offering

great customer service will considerably compensate for

less than ideal training facilities.

Many dojo owners get frustrated at the idea of having to

address the business side of a dojo, but guess what?

These are realities and ignoring them may be part of the

reason so many talented Aikido instructors struggle. For

example, I will admit that my least favorite chore of the

week is cleaning the bathrooms at the dojo. But it has to

be done. I choose to think of it as a free marketing chore

that makes me money instead of a degrading task that is

beneath me. Cleaning the bathrooms generates revenue

each month because I know that it helps keep students

around longer by positively contributing to their experi-

ence. Sure, students frequently help after class with

cleaning tasks, but the bathrooms often must be cleaned

before students arrive.

I try to remember that the word samurai comes from the

word 'saburau,' which means to serve. I remember that it

is my privilege and honor to be able to offer the service of

Aikido to our students. It is important for instructors to

remember that it is a privilege to serve their students.

This service, in turn, creates the reciprocating, respectful

behavior from the students, and not the other way

around.

To be fair, many Sensei don't care how many students

they have, but I'm quite certain that AIO members feel

differently. After all, that's why we're members of AIO!

We're trying to build our dojos and professionalize the

Aikido industry. Many of us want to share Aikido and

O Sensei's powerful message and gift with the world and

we want to do that on a scale that is greater than just one

or two students at a time, right?

Breaking through Resistance

So, we were having tremendous difficulty breaking be-

yond 20 students in our present facilities. Allison and I

then spent the next six months looking for a new place to

train. We looked at over 30 locations. Some were rec-

reation centers, churches, municipal buildings, day care

centers, and commercial properties for lease or sale.

Castle Rock is a small town (45,000) and there was not a

lot to choose from. Since we was very committed to

growing a dojo (and perhaps a little crazy), we purchased

a 2,500 square foot commercial warehouse.

After including property taxes and building maintenance,

the building was about the same monthly cost to pur-

chase as it was to rent. So, we also decided that it was a

more prudent choice for us to buy. That way, if the dojo

failed, we could still rent out the building to another busi-

ness. If we were renting and the dojo failed, we would

still be required to fulfill the terms of the lease. By owning

the building, we were, theoretically, building equity in-

stead of giving away rent to a landlord every month.

Furthermore, there is a good chance that in 10 or 20

years the building would be worth significantly more than

the business itself, so for us, buying made sense. I don't

necessarily recommend this approach for others. We

were in a position to do this, but, of course, not every-

body is. In retrospect, I do wish we had been able to find

a slightly smaller building and structured our debt servic-

ing a bit differently. However, at the time there was abso-

lutely nothing else available that met our needs and the

restrictive zoning regulations of the town, and yet we be-

lieved we had completely maxed out our ability to grow at

the gymnastics studio. This seemed to be our only

choice other than to stay stagnant or close.

The warehouse we purchased was one of eight units in

an office/warehouse condominium complex located in a

quasi-industrial section of town. On the downside, our

location did not have high traffic or high visibility. That

was a big downside – something I probably wouldn't do

again. I very much agree with Veltri Sensei in his Sept/

Oct 2009 AIO interview that a location with high traffic

and visibility is absolutely critical. However, on the up

side, the building was easy for prospective students to

find and had convenient interstate access. It needed al-

most no build out and was otherwise ready to go, after a

good scrubbing and fresh coat of fresh paint. We pur-

chased 80 tatami from Zebra Mats, built a 14' tall kamiza,

hung up some kanji scrolls, and began holding classes in

the new building in mid summer 2008.

AIKIDOINSTRUCTORS.COM

AI Journal Sean Hannon, 4th kyu (not 4th dan)

FEBRUARY/MARCH 2010

“Many dojo owners get frustrated at the idea of having to address the busi-

ness side of a dojo, but guess what? These are realities and ignoring them

may be part of the reason so many talented Aikido instructors struggle.”

It was fantastic! Things improved quickly in our new loca-

tion. Existing students were excited, lots more people

were signing up, and fewer people were quitting. Why?

In large part it was because we were offering a far better

experience. The service was exactly the same. We just

packaged it more attractively and offered a better class

schedule. In a relatively short period of time we had just

under 40 adult Aikido students (we do not offered chil-

dren's classes) and we were exploring the idea of intro-

ducing an Iaido program. We even ran television com-

mercials for a brief time. That, by the way, is something

else I wouldn't necessarily recommend. It was exciting,

but failed to generate a positive ROI (return on invest-

ment). In our new facility, we now had new challenges,

but things were looking very promising.

To help carry the additional costs of owning the building,

we began advertising our space for sub-leasing to other

physical arts like yoga, Pilates, fitness professionals, and

even specialty services like natural birthing and preg-

10

nancy classes since our mats were

conducive to the seminar-style of the

birthing classes. We generated a lot

of interest. However, a challenge we

ran into was that everyone wanted to

use the space at the same time, gen-

erally right after work. Nonetheless,

we were able to get Zen meditation

classes, a small children's afternoon

Karate program, and a women's

dance fitness program, called Nia

(run by Allison), to use our space

during non-Aikido hours. They gen-

erated a modest amount of revenue

to help carry the building. It was up

to the teachers of these additional

activities to promote and grow their

programs, but we helped wherever

we could.

The Price is Right!

As far as I could tell, we were the most expensive Aikido

school in Colorado. A $100 start up fee which included a

new uniform and a handbook got them started. The

monthly tuition structure was somewhat unique, as well.

We charged $125 per month for a student's first 30 hours

of training. After 30 hours of training, we would reward

the student for their commitment to Aikido by lowering

their tuition to just $100 per month. Then, we locked

them in at that rate with a promise to never raise their

tuition for as long as they remained an active student.

We called this the "Committed Student Rate." If they

wanted to stop training for a few months, they would be

required to pay the "regular rate" of $125 for 12 consecu-

tive months plus a reactivation fee if they returned. This

incentive-based fee structure encouraged new students

to attend class often so as to "earn down" their tuition

rate as quickly as possible. Simultaneously, this struc-

ture discouraged students from quitting for fear that they

AIKIDOINSTRUCTORS.COM FEBRUARY/MARCH 2010

AI Journal Thinking Outside the Bento Box

“Consider this: To an uneducated prospective student looking to practice a

martial art, a $200 per month Tae Kwon Do program may be perceived as

four times „better‟ than the Aikido program that is just $50 per month. After

all, why else would there be such a price discrepancy if Tae Kwon Do were

not superior to Aikido?”

not even realize their erroneous, subconscious assess-

ment of your dojo! It happens innately. The result is that

they decide not to join.

Some people within the Aikido profession raise an eye-

brow at our pricing. However, I can't tell you how many

times I've had prospective students call and ask why we

cost twice as much as other dojos. I tell them, "We're not

twice as expensive as others. Others are half our price. If

price is the most important factor to you, then you should

go to the cheapest school you can find. But you're still wel-

come to come try a class with us." Frequently, those peo-

ple signed up with us anyway. Our price subconsciously

says to a prospective student, "We value and respect the

service we offer enough not to give it away for next to

nothing." And, guess what? It works! More people sign

up with us because we are more expensive than other

dojos.

Since we are on the subject of tuition price, many have

asked me what, in my opinion, would be the best thing the

Aikido industry could do to improve their dojos and profes-

might lose their discounted rate. Our thought process

was that the more often students came to class the more

likely they were to stay. We were correct. For some stu-

dents, earning down their tuition rate only took 5-6 weeks

and for others it took 5-6 months depending upon how

often they came to class. Under this model we were gen-

erating 20% more revenue on the less committed stu-

dents. Less committed students were much more likely

to quit, so, from a revenue perspective, this had advan-

tages.

In my opinion, tuition pricing is an important, and often

overlooked marketing tool for an Aikido dojo. Many don't

realized that the price of your tuition says several subtle,

sometimes subconscious things about your service such

as, do you as an instructor value the teaching? Is the art

of Aikido valuable compared to other martial arts? Are

the students here serious about their training? Does the

instructor have high self-esteem about what they teach?

Or even, is the teaching competent? An excessively low

fee may silently imply a "No" to all of these questions in a

prospective student's mind. The prospective student may

11 AIKIDOINSTRUCTORS.COM FEBRUARY/MARCH 2010

AI Journal Sean Hannon, 4th kyu (not 4th dan)

12 AIKIDOINSTRUCTORS.COM FEBRUARY/MARCH 2010

AI Journal Thinking Outside the Bento Box

sional image. My answer is always: Raise your tuition. I

am shocked at how many Aikido dojos either don't

charge or charge only $45 or $50 per month. Some Sen-

sei theorize that the lower their price the more students

they will attract. But I fear that this usually has the oppo-

site effect. In America, people often assess value based

on price. Consider this: To an uneducated prospective

student looking to practice a martial art, a $200 per

month Tae Kwon Do program may be perceived as four

times "better" than the Aikido program that is just $50 per

month. After all, why else would there be such a price

discrepancy if Tae Kwon Do were not superior to Aikido?

That is the irony about price in the United States: Often,

the more a company raises their price, the MORE busi-

ness they do. Obviously, though, there is a ceiling to this

effect. I, for example, wouldn't charge $200 per month

for our Aikido program. That would be beyond both the

affordability of most of our students and the perceived

value of the service we currently offer. Furthermore, I

would never charge a fee that I would not be willing to

pay myself. I wouldn't join a dojo that was $200 per

month. But, perhaps you feel differently. Perhaps you

would. Aikido tuition should be competitive, but not dras-

tically low for your dojo. We should price our beautiful

and valuable art of Aikido not on the same cultural and

economic factors that may have existed when Aikido was

created, but instead on the contemporary perceptions of

our American culture today.

Fall Back, Spring Forward

In February 2009, our dojo went through some very pain-

ful changes. Our chief instructor, dissatisfied with my

marketing efforts and our growth rate (I felt it was a

healthy, progressive growth rate), left the dojo. This was

a real challenge for us. Many students simply quit, many

followed the instructor who left (this was to be expected),

and only a handful stayed. Luckily, those who stayed

were fantastic people and, in many respects, ideal stu-

dents. At this point, we had some difficult decisions to

make. We could either close the school and sell or lease

the building, or we could try to save it and rebuild. We

crossed our fingers, trusted our instincts and skills, and

chose the latter.

As I began looking for replacement instructors, one thing

I began to notice was there were a lot of talented Aiki-

doists in the area capable of teaching, even wanting to

13 AIKIDOINSTRUCTORS.COM FEBRUARY/MARCH 2010

AI Journal Sean Hannon, 4th kyu (not 4th dan)

teach; however, most of them had full-time jobs, spouses,

and young children. They didn't have the time to operate

an Aikido dojo with a decent schedule and with decent

facilities. With all of their personal responsibilities, most

of them had no desire or ability to teach several times per

week. My thought was, "What if we didn't have a chief

instructor? What if we could get several instructors to

cooperate together and share the teaching?" If we pool

resources like teaching, students, time, and facilities we

could build a great dojo. Everyone could benefit IF we

could cooperate with one another.

With the generous support of the Colorado Aikido com-

munity, the supportive counsel of Skip and Paige at AIO,

and that other helpful Sensei from Los Angeles, Chicago,

and New Jersey, we were successful in quickly recruiting

several talented instructors. These new instructors un-

derstood that our new business model of no chief instruc-

tor was different than most Aikido schools. This was a

new concept for some of the new instructors, but not all,

and I think most of them saw the true potential of what we

were creating.

We designed a new dojo kamon (logo) containing two

waterfalls to signify the multiple sources of power of our

dojo. Our dojo's newfound strength comes from the ac-

knowledgement of the value of each of our instructors

and their unique backgrounds, experiences, and line-

ages. The waterfalls converge into a single pool where

we can all teach, learn, share and grow Aikido together in

a collaborative spirit. Within six months we were bigger

and better than before, now approaching 50 adult stu-

dents even in a "bad economy." Not only did we rebuild

the Aikido program, but we also added a formal, tradi-

tional Iaido program that became very popular. Our new

business structure of having no chief instructor was mod-

eled after several successful dojos in the US such as the

Midwest Aikido Center out of Chicago. A board member

from that dojo was kind enough to counsel me on how

their dojo functioned. She was very candid in sharing

with me the importance of cooperation among a diverse

staff of instructors as well as some of the potential chal-

lenges of their model and how they overcome them.

At Castle Rock AIKIDO no one instructor is considered

superior to any other – regardless of rank! That means

the instructors have to cooperate with one another and

be willing to recognize the fact that there are many differ-

ent ways to execute Aikido techniques. This, I have

found, is very difficult for some instructors. In our dojo,

we don't have a "right way" and a "wrong way" of doing

techniques. A "my way or the highway" attitude won't

work here. I fully understand that this is the way that

many, perhaps most dojos operate, and I respect this

approach. However, since I am not qualified to teach and

am completely dependent on multiple instructors to pro-

vide the training, we have to think and operate differently.

Our instructors must respect the differences between

each other. These instructors come from a diverse back-

ground of training and, therefore, have to say things in

class such as "Here is one way to do Nikyo." Or, "I know

some instructors teach this technique differently, but to-

night I'd like you to try it like this." Saying, "Here is the

proper and only way to execute Iriminage" won't fly in our

dojo. It's disrespectful to the other instructors who may

have learned that technique differently. Without a doubt,

there can be challenges with this approach, especially

when it comes time for testing, but I believe there are

many ways these challenges can be worked out and that

the benefits of our model outweigh those challenges.

Furthermore, many students tell me how much they ap-

preciate the diversity of instructors. They say that it

makes the classes more fun, more challenging, and al-

most seminar-like. Secondly, by operating this way we

can avoid burn out of instructors. When a teacher is only

teaching one time a week, or even just 1 or 2 times per

month, that keeps spouses and children happy, keeps

the instructors fresh and excited about teaching, and al-

lows every teacher to share their love and experience of

Aikido with students without having to carrying the tre-

mendous burden of trying to run their own dojo all by

themselves. Also, should an instructor have a personal

crisis of any kind, the dojo doesn't come to a halt. There

is always someone available to step in and cover. How

many times have we heard about dojos having to close

“With our model, we can all win if we work together. We can have ideal

training facilities, lots of students, and the teachers can continue their own

training by attending other instructors' classes. Our model is different. It

isn't without consequence, but it does work if people want it to.”

because a Sensei became seriously ill, moved away due

to a career change, or was getting divorced? This does-

n‟t have to happen.

With our model, we can all win if we work together. We

can have ideal training facilities, lots of students, and the

teachers can continue their own training by attending

other instructors' classes. Our model is different. It isn‟t

without consequence, but it does work if people want it

to. With our model instructors have to be flexible and

adaptable. In other words, they have to be able to meta-

phorically apply the principles of Aikido to their own per-

sonal psychology, not just their physicality.

The Journey Continues

Castle Rock AIKIDO has been open now for almost three

years and in that time we quickly grew to one of the lar-

ger programs in the state offering only 6-8 hours of train-

ing per week. Currently, we are going through another

serious, dojo-threatening challenge. However, there's a

chance we'll meander our way through that one, too.

Based on what others tell me, this is par for the course

for many Aikido schools.

14 FEBRUARY/MARCH 2010

Thinking Outside the Bento Box

As you can see, there is definitely more than one way to

skin a cat – or, in this case, to build and run an Aikido

dojo. The point of telling my story for the AIO audience is

this: If a formerly crippled kyu rank, like me, can grow a

dojo to over 40 adult students, twice, in less than three

years, then you should be able to also with only a fraction

of the effort that I had to put forth. How? Learn to be

more flexible and creative. Let go of your preconceived

ideas of how a dojo must and can only function, and learn

from those who are producing results like many of those

associated with AIO. If you're willing to think a bit differ-

ently than you have in the past, you're much more likely

to get better results than you have in the past. To quote

a former martial arts instructor of mine, "To remain is to

regress; to improve is to progress."

We are always looking for new Aikido teachers to join our

team. If you live somewhere in the Front Range of Colo-

rado, and would like to be a part of what we are growing

here at Castle Rock AIKIDO, please feel free to contact

us. Thank you, Skip and Paige for allowing me the op-

portunity to share my very young Aikido story. I hope

some will find it of value.

AI Journal

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