MA as a luxury item?
ByThis post from the Cheng Hsin blog asks some interesting questions in hard economic times. Is the study of MA considered a luxury? Will people abandon it when times are tough? What about teaching more obscure arts?
As martial artists (I should say martial arts freaks because that’s what we are), we see this stuff from a very different angle than the general public.
They can’t tell judo from sumo or karate from krav maga. Having a black belt means a lot to them even if MA guys see it in more realistic terms. You having trained with the best teacher your style has to offer means nothing to them if they haven’t heard of the teacher, and they likely haven’t if your style is small. If that teacher doesn’t have a grand title to his/her name, like grand pooba or something, then they will just shrug. What does it mean to them?
The situation is much, much worse if you practice an obscure style like Cheng Hsin, Systema, Yiquan, etc. The general public has never even heard of your art. Why should they care about it? They won’t. If you can’t mention the name of the style and have John Q. Public get an immediate mental picture of the art, then it simply won’t resonate with them. No explanation of all the benefits will make any difference. They won’t be able to picture it. And if they can’t picture it, they sure as heck ain’t gonna pay money for it, let alone in difficult economic times.
If you teach an obscure art, you will have to make do with the business results that such a practice brings. If you want to be on the fringe, then expect to pay for that. People “in the know” might seek you out, but that’s about it. And there aren’t many of them.
I cringe every time I see some guy looking to learn a bizarrely obscure art over a more well-known one. They tend to be fetishists and they will pay for that if they decide to teach one day. They may be the only practitioner of ditangmen (ground boxing, for example) in their whole country, but then that and US$5 will get them some coffee at Starbucks. Being an expert at something no one knows (or cares) anything about will never be financially rewarding.
And let me say something about fighting while I’m at it since this comes up a lot. Us martial arts freaks make a HUGE deal over this. “I keep it REAL” and all that BS. “I ain’t watering down nothin’.” Good for you. John Q. Public isn’t interested. You go keep it real in obscurity. Perhaps in momma and daddy’s basement.
I see lots of this on MMA boards where the fighting fanatics can’t understand why a huge MMA gym will have only 10-15 guys on the fight team. They don’t understand why soccer moms who sign up at the gym to get in shape aren’t intersted in getting their faces pounded in in the Octagon. Give me a freaking break.
The general public has a few reasons, and a few reasons only, for wanting to learn a martial art: to get in shape, learn to relax, or participate in the mystique of the art. That’s about it. A very few will come to learn some form of self-defense. Almost none will come to learn a complete art. And fewer still will come to learn how to be the next Chuck Liddell (A UFC champ, for those of you who don’t know). But they might want to FEEL like they’re working towards that stuff.
Look, most people have it hard. They work crappy jobs and barely support their families. They are out of shape and bored. They want something to alleviate all that. They want to relax and mildly get in shape. They want to hear about people out there doing great things like winning world championships, etc. They want to feel like they’re a part of something like that. They want to hear about mountains in China and inspiring deeds done on the competition floor. Things that they will never experience. They certainly DON’T want to hear “go stand in that corner in horse stance for an hour.” Or “you should go to (Brazil, China, etc.) and train with teacher X for years.” But they DO want to hear that the teacher did that stuff.
And as for deep, mystical insights into the nature of things, people don’t have time for that. Sure, they might want to hear about it, but they can’t spend four hours in meditation a day to achieve it. People may walk in off the street and tell you they want to study Taoist meditation, but sure enough they’ll want it taught during their lunch break.
MA for anything other than what John Q. Public wants out of it IS a luxury. And one that most people can’t afford. Tailor your teaching around this truth and perhaps you’ll be successful.
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14 Comments
August 7th, 2008 at 3:43 pm
I would say that Cheng Hsin, I-liq-quan, and so forth are the most fringe of all, being “new” or “unique” methods taught by one group only; Krav Maga, Systema, Yiquan, and Xingyiquan are probably semi-fringe, in that “most maniacs” know about them.
Perhaps Baguazhang will enter the “not-quite-fringe” category via various appearances in the popular media (cartoons, etc.), for better or for worse.
People have in the past tried to deal with their “fringe” status by using blanket names for their schools - i.e. taekwondo schools were often “Korean Karate” back in the day; a tanglangquan school might just put “Kung Fu” on their school sign.
August 7th, 2008 at 6:49 pm
These are very interesting questions that you raise here. I’m no teacher but I know that one is supposed to be able to bridge the gap between himself and the general public. When I taught meditation I had several courses for complete beginners that allowed them to taste a little bit of everything and other more specific groups for people that knew already what worked for them
August 7th, 2008 at 6:57 pm
FWIW, here in Tulsa, Taekwon-do is overwhelmingly the most popular system. There are a handful of commercial schools (some of them very good–I’m not knocking them) where you can go to learn something else, but for the most part, other systems’ teachers are pretty clearly not seeking to make a living out of it. The Goju Ryu guys teach one night a week; the aikido guys two, and so forth. Extra practice is an “on your own” type of thing. And cost is minimal.
August 7th, 2008 at 10:00 pm
This economics is why most teachers of tai chi, even ones who may actually know some of the stuff we MA freaks want, have to teach basic qigong health stuff. Not that there’s something wrong with that but it is what it is. If a teacher wants to teach more “real” stuff, that does seem like a marketing puzzle. I personally have a distaste for ad copy that talks about “it’s real”, whether from the UFC, Coca Cola, or from internal arts.
August 7th, 2008 at 10:13 pm
Dave,
Did you finally watch “Red Belt”?
In the 1990’s two friends of mine asked me to represent them in their incorporation of their newly formed “karate business”. These two guys had been quite famous on the national tournament circuit…so many that they graced the covers of “Black Belt Magazine and Inside Kung Fu Magazine” on a regular basis.
Neither of them were “karate guys”. In fact, they were known more for their modern wushu. They had suggested that instead of taking fees for legal services that I take stock in their business. I immediately declined! I had said to myself “You can’t make real money doing martial arts as a business”.
I was wrong!!!
In their first two weeks of operation they had made $40,000 in accounts receivable. After the first year they had grossed 1 million dollars.
They did not allow their karate students to fight (spar). They concentrated on a “demographic” that they marketed to. They used an outside “billing” business to enforce their “contracts” and their goal was to “make money” and to sell black belts. THEY WERE SUCCESSFUL and I was jealous thinking how stupid I was not to have taken their offer of stock.
Dave, you are telling the “truth”. Most people don’t want to hear the truth. Most people aren’t going to like you for what you have said. But, then, you must know where you “are” to get where you want to “go”.
I used to “talk crap” about how my friends could “not fight”and remained smug about my expertise in fighting. They taught me a lesson in the falsity of where I thought I “was”.
I was wrong! They could fight and at the time they were better fighters than I, in the business arena.
August 8th, 2008 at 12:05 am
I think there are levels of interest and the most common is as you commented below.
“Look, most people have it hard. They work crappy jobs and barely support their families. They are out of shape and bored. They want something to alleviate all that. They want to relax and mildly get in shape. They want to hear about people out there doing great things like winning world championships, etc. They want to feel like they’re a part of something like that. They want to hear about mountains in China and inspiring deeds done on the competition floor. Things that they will never experience. ”
My tai chi teacher is having a hard time of it. He basically doesn’t want to lead people through the form like robots and concentrates on structure and the principles of movement. I’ve seen more people drop out because of the complexity. It’s odd how some people will blindly follow someone for years just because they’re chinese and have some connection to a famous teacher. Someone who fits the stereotype. Pretty much a level of ‘most people mistakenly give up the near to seek the far.’ And some of these do “go stand in that corner in horse stance for an hour.” and after years still don’t have much info on why something works or doesn’t. If the method requires effort and a shift in understanding function that goes against the grain in the culture… it becomes too complex and then a luxury because ultimately they’re not going to make money from it. What I want to know is how to market the school so that it survives and I can continue to study.
August 8th, 2008 at 1:21 am
I think you hit upon a very good point about buying into a stereotype. A sort of escapism. It’s an aspirational emotional benefit that this kind of marketing (perhaps not always conscious) caters to - the same kind of benefit where someone may feel I drive this wonderful luxury car so I am somehow more handsome, sexy, more successful, etc., which is of course total bullshit, but just look at all the consumer product commercials. Many of them make this kind of appeal. These shoes will make me jump higher. Study of this mystical shit will make me healthy, never get colds, AND give me some badass skillz. Yeah right. A “consumer” is not likely to get all that anymore than jumping higher or being more successful by wasting money on a car with sexy commercials.
It is said that Bruce Lee only believed in teaching a few students at a time to tailor some training to them. I suppose that revenue model can work if your students are all celebrities willing to pay thousands of dollars per hour. Otherwise, a teacher as businessperson needs some kind of high volume economics that will work. DVD’s, books about ninjas vs. pirates, taijiquan for seniors, yoga for your dog, etc.
August 8th, 2008 at 1:30 am
p.s. we hardcore enthusiasts looking for “good” stuff may like to scoff at tae kwon do for high kicks or “mcdojo”-ness, but a school that my son attended briefly hit upon some important benefits we parents look for - they included incentives for doing homework and encouraging more disciplined, polite kids with long term (multi year, multi phase) written goals (such as get a black belt, even if we scoff at that). had my son liked this art and school i would have encouraged him to go for those non-martial art related benefits and tried to say nothing negative about non-whole-body motion, etc. I think this school makes money and creates value for good reasons, just not necessarily providing the exact benefits we as a different “market segment” seek.
August 8th, 2008 at 1:36 am
Interesting.
My understanding of how the ups and downs of the economy work are the opposite of yours. When the economy is up, people focus their efforts on making money and accumulating bigger and better assets. When the economy is down, people improve their assets. They redesign their interiors instead of buying new stuff or a bigger place. They go back to school. They get more creative. When the economy is down people turn to body arts in droves because individual motivation pays dividends in self-improvement in a way it doesn’t in the larger economy.
As to John Q. Public, I’ve never met him. If you want to market something you need to be a purple cow…something people can remember for its unique and special qualities so that the people who want that thing can find it.
Most soccer moms probably don’t want coffee enemas. But dudes, coffee enemas are selling like hotcakes in Marin County, CA.
August 8th, 2008 at 6:18 am
It is not John Q. Public’s job to intuit the varied and holistic benefits of martial arts, it is the instructor’s job to communicate those benefits clearly and to demonstrate their relevance.
August 8th, 2008 at 9:17 am
right on chris
August 8th, 2008 at 11:33 am
You could make the same argument for exercise, healthy and delivious food, a satisfying sex life, etc. Most people are happy with crappy-to-average.
August 8th, 2008 at 2:09 pm
chris, i agree to a point, you dont want to breastfeed everyone, the public are cowlike enough as it is
August 10th, 2008 at 4:08 pm
Joseph,
I haven’t seen it yet, but I’m ordering it from Amazon.
I’m sure I’ll find the main characters struggles with running a dojo against the common grain to be interesting. And I’ll likely agree with many of the points the movie brings up.
But it seems to me that if someone runs a traditional, strict dojo intentionally then that type of practice MUST be its own reward. And yet I see people all the time who refuse to make an commercial concessions whatsoever who then wonder why they never achieve any commercial success. It boggles my mind.
If someone wants to be a suffering artist, then I think that’s fine. But then they shouldn’t complain that they aren’t raking in the money.
Thanks for sharing the story about those two guys. I’ll beat they could use all that money to fund a small fight team or continue to train traditionally forever in private if they wanted too. Success opens many doors to other things I would guess. But having a small, dojo run the way a person wants it is also it’s own reward I would guess.