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Strategies for Successful Staff Development
By Dave Kovar

After years of attending seminars and experimental trial and error, Sacramento, California’s Dave and Tim Kovar have formulated a masterful blueprint for running a successful martial arts facility. Their Staff Development Program -- consisting of teaching skills, drills, techniques, concepts, and creating a positive attitude and a good work ethic -- is perhaps the finest in the industry. Further, it can be used in any martial arts school, anywhere, regardless of style.

I began my martial arts teaching career back in 1974 as a 14-year-old purple belt. I’ll never forget my first teaching experience. My original instructor, Hanshi Bruce Juchnick, was double-booked on private lessons and needed some help. It was a Wednesday afternoon and I was there early, punching the heavy bag before class, when he approached me and asked, “Do you mind helping Don with his orange-belt material and maybe teaching him a couple of new self-defense techniques?” I was excited and scared at the same time.

You see, Don was a big burly construction worker in his mid-20s, and he intimidated the heck out of me. This is because I was a small, 14-year-old kid whose voice hadn’t yet changed and whose face hadn’t yet been shaved. In fact, I don’t think I even had my first pimple yet! Somehow I managed to get through that first lesson. As a matter of fact, Don became one of my regular students. Over time, I was given more private lessons to teach and eventually was given my own group class.

To this day, I still don’t know if my teacher saw something in me that I didn’t know I had, or if he just needed a “hot body” to fill a position. I suspect it was a little of both. I also suspect that my first teaching experience is probably similar to many of you reading this magazine, especially the “old timers”. I don’t mean this as an insult to our instructors, because it was just the way everyone used to operate.

Systematized staff development in our industry just didn’t exist back then, since it was all “on-the-job training.” When our instructors needed help teaching, they just looked out on the floor and selected whomever they felt was the most qualified to help them at the time. My instructor’s decision, of course, was based almost purely on physical ability -- and on whom he felt was the most respected by the other students. Things like rapport and communication skills weren’t even on the list, let alone criminal records and background checks. It’s a wonder that our industry is still alive! I think that this is the biggest reason that we have, over the years, heard horror stories about instructor misconduct.

In general, I believe that staff-training methods have dramatically changed for the better. Of course, there are a small percentage of school operators that will never change, but all in all, staff development, school appearance and quality of students are a high priority for the 21^st-century martial arts professional.

The Development of “Staff Development”

Although my big brother Tim started in the martial arts before me, and was responsible for me getting my start in training, his life took another path. He worked his way through college, getting his degree in Applied Economics, then entered the corporate world and gained valuable job experience. Little did either one of us know that life would take our individual strengths and combine them in such a way that it eventually led us to becoming partners in 1987.

While Tim worked his way through college to get his degree in Economics and experience in the corporate world, I earned my black belt and began running my first school. I got my black belt in 1977 from Hanshi Juchnick (who, incidentally, is a great martial artist, teacher, role model, and to whom I owe a huge debt of gratitude.) In 1978, as a 19-year-old 2^nd-degree black belt, I opened my first school. It was in the worst part of Sacramento, California, upstairs, next to a beauty salon, which, based upon the kind of people who frequented it (mostly scruffy looking men), I suspect they were doing more than hair.

Many nights, I would have to go down to the stairwell and kick out a drunk or an addict so they wouldn’t scare off any potential new students. I was proud of my school. It had posters of Bruce Lee on the walls. The mirrors, carpet and heavy bags were all held together with silver duct tape. Old work boots smelled better, because old boots don’t have the smell of harsh chemicals used for hair permanents. The floor was so badly warped and broken in places that it added a whole new concept to sparring.

In 1982, my parents and big brother Tim didn’t see a good future for me in the martial arts and convinced me to sell my school. I, however, did continue to teach out of my garage and in health clubs and other martial arts schools around Sacramento.

Finally, in 1986, at the urging of one of my garage students and boss (I was painting during the day to make ends meet), I opened another professional school in the Carmichael area, a bedroom community in the suburbs of Sacramento. I immediately went back to doing things the way I had always done them. . .the way my instructor and probably his instructor had done things. This meant doing everything myself: teaching, enrolling and renewing students, as well as cleaning and all the minimally necessary bookwork. While I enjoyed the teaching aspect of the martial arts, I loathed everything else and knew that I needed help with the rest of the business.

In the process, my best friend Eddie Solis, a great kajukenbo guy out of the San Francisco bay area, and I went to our first business seminar, presented by Jhoon Rhee, the Father of American Taekwondo and a pioneer of professionally-operated martial arts schools. We had been reading about him in the magazines for years and knew that he ran successful schools in the Washington, D.C. area. Not only were we were excited to meet him, we were hoping to learn something about running our schools better.

Wow, were our eyes opened! I didn’t know it at the time, but this is when my quest for staff development really started. During this seminar, it quickly became obvious to me that I needed a Program Director because I hate doing sales, bookwork, and anything that’s not related to teaching or working out. I knew my big brother Tim was unhappy with his job in the corporate world, so I started scheming.

Eventually, I convinced my brother to join me as a partner. One of the things Tim brought to the partnership was experience in the business environment. The first thing Tim came up with was a written business plan. (I guess that’s what economists do -- make projections and calculations and then deduce a plan.) Then things really started taking off. We now own five schools in the Sacramento area as well as the buildings where two of our schools are located, including our main school of over 13,000 square feet.

Part of the reason Tim was so big on staff development is that his experience in the corporate world included staff training. He kept explaining that all the big corporations spent a tremendous amount of energy and money on staff training and continuing education. Corporations like IBM, Hewlett-Packard, Chevrolet, and especially the corporations where serving the public is important -- like McDonalds, and Disney.

Why did I share this brief story of my life with you? Because, for the first nine years of my martial arts career, I never once thought about staff development. I simply did things the same as my instructor did things -- you know, “the way things have always been done.” It wasn’t until a couple of months after my newfound partnership that Tim said, “You know, we really ought to have some kind of staff training so that we can develop more assistants and grow.” I remember thinking, “What a waste! We don’t need to do that. You [Tim] just enroll and renew them, and I’ll teach them -- and you do all the office work while you’re at it.”

As our classes became larger and more with more students coming to class, Tim’s words started to really hit home. Thus began the start of our staff development.

The Quest for Knowledge

After our first year as partners, I knew that we were on to something. I knew that we had the work ethic, the drive and the enthusiasm to become successful. Only we both felt that we were lacking some of the tools necessary to become very successful. So we began our quest for knowledge. In the next decade, we hit every seminar on the map, martial arts-related or not. Seminars led by Jhoon Rhee, Tony Robbins, Zig Ziglar, Brian Tracy, Steven Covey, Ernie Reyes Sr., Steve LaVallee, Keith Hafner, and especially Nick Cokinos and the EFC [Educational Funding Company] team.

Additionally, we visited dozens of schools every year. All the while, we took scrupulous notes. (Well, Tim took the notes. I mostly worked out and occasionally scratched something on a pad that looked more like hieroglyphics than English and pretended that they were notes.) Seriously, though, in every case, without exception, we came back from our travels and tried to put our newfound knowledge to work in our schools.

Some of the things we learned were extremely valuable and other stuff was pretty useless to us. Slowly, however, we started formulating a wonderfully effective system for running a successful martial arts facility. Eventually, we developed clearly defined systems and procedures, specifically in business, communication and staff development. We then vowed to imbed these procedures into our daily routines.

Since a “picture is worth a thousand words,” I started putting the best teaching concepts I have learned, discovered or developed on to videotape, to be used for our own internal staff training. We originally started videotaping these teaching skills, drills, techniques and concepts back in the early 1990s. Well, one thing led to another, and in 1994 we released our first How to Teach Martial Arts to Children video, the first of what is now 42 videos for the martial arts industry.

While I’m proud of these videotapes and we still use them for our continued staff training, we have discovered that it takes more than physical skills and fun drills to make an effective martial arts teacher. The key is all of the above and a positive attitude along with a good work ethic. So the next quest we went on was discovering how to improve our staff’s and potential staff’s positive attitude and a good work ethic. Please don’t get me wrong; our staff already had a good attitude and work ethic. We just wanted to add and apply one of Tony Robbins concepts: CANI (Constant And Never-ending Improvement).

Out of a deep desire to positively make a difference, and through years of trial and error -- using our own students and staff as guinea pigs -- we slowly developed an effective method of developing and training staff. One that includes effective teaching skills, fun classroom drills and equally (maybe even most) importantly, the attitudinal qualities that are requisite for continued success. We then honed our system to where it is a highly effective, turnkey, staff training and development program that could be used in any martial arts school, anywhere, regardless of style. Thus the martial arts Career Training manual was launched.

Originally, our program was only available to EFC’s clients in the United States, Canada and Australia. Laying my humility aside (assuming I have any), the success of our manual has been phenomenal. I’m proud to say that hundreds and hundreds of school owners around the world have told us that our martial arts Career Training manual has been the single most valuable tool in the growth of their schools.

This manual was only available to EFC clients. . .until now. The Martial Arts Industry Association (MAIA) is now making this manual available to its clients! You can get your copy by either calling (866) 626-6226 or by logging on to www.staff-development-training.com.

The Secret Formula

Is there any secret formula to developing staff? Yes there is! The secret is that there is no secret -- just the need to have a good plan, develop it into a system, and then work the system. This is exactly what the martial arts Career Training manual does.

However, you don’t have to purchase this manual; you can make your own. Let me give you some simple guidelines for developing your own staff-training program.

1. Start looking for and developing staff members before you need them (by a couple of years).

2. Start looking for staff members in your beginner classes. (Don’t wait until the advanced classes).

3. Enthusiastically talk about the benefits of being a professional martial arts instructor with anyone that will listen (don’t sound desperate, just excited about your profession). Talk to him or her more than once.

4. Have an organized staff training or “leadership” class, with a start date and a completion date, several times per year. (We like a 10-week program with a weekend intensive. We like to do this three to four times per year).

5. Make sure your training program includes teaching your future instructors to have:

A) Positive teaching techniques.

B) Fun drills and effective skills to keep the class exciting.

C) Clear-cut communication skills.

D) Tools to improve student service and enhance student retention.

E) Strategies to help develop the winning attitude necessary to become a successful and effective professional martial artist.

F) A positive “Can Do” attitude along with a good work ethic.

My Personal Secret Weapons

Please keep in mind that I was fortunate enough to have had a secret weapon when I developed the martial arts Career Training manual, as well as all of the videos. My personal secret weapon was, and still is, the fact that I’m surrounded by great people such as my brother, our incredible staff and wonderfully supportive friends. You see, I developed this manual under the luxury of not having to do it all (enrolling, teaching, renewing, bookwork, etc.). I have excellent school managers and instructors to run classes and I have my brother to deal with all the business stuff. Secondly, we have been profitable enough to allow me to travel and attend expensive seminars to my heart’s content. All of this gives me the tools, resources and freedom to concentrate on developing manuals, videos and systems.

Most of the professional martial arts people I know have all the ability and talent necessary to develop videos, manuals or systems necessary to take their school to the next level -- with one major exception. Their schedules are too demanding. They don’t have my secret weapons at their disposal and, therefore, are still trying to do it all themselves. Consequently, they just don’t have the huge amount of time or resources that are required.

I encourage you, especially if you have not been fortunate enough to have a partner like my brother and the staff necessary to free up enough of your time to develop effective systems, to take advantage of MAIA’s ability to make this manual available to you. The only negative comment that I’ve heard about the manual is that it’s expensive. I guess if you look at it like it was just any other book, it would be. But, if you look at it like it is the accumulation of years of study, research, travel and seminars -- all condensed and customized for the martial arts industry -- it becomes quite a bargain. Mark Twain once said, “If you think the cost of education is expensive, try the cost of ignorance.” That’s a fitting statement here.

The Future of the martial arts

The future of the martial arts looks very good to me. Over the last dozen years or so of traveling and visiting martial arts schools throughout the country, it’s become evident that our industry has made, and is making, huge gains. The level of professionalism has improved dramatically. The successful schools are all clean and organized. Their instructors are friendly, knowledgeable, communicate well, practice good personal hygiene, and live up to the high moral code emphasized in the principles of black belt.

Since we humans tend to mimic or repeat the way we were raised, there’s a high likelihood that our junior instructors and our students will continue this new level of professionalism. Because, to them, this new way of doing things is now “the way it has always been done.”

It stands to reason that the large successful schools will produce more black belts and instructors. Each of these will have been “born and bred” in this “new way” and will be the next generation of instructors and school managers. In comparison, the schools using the old-school methods of instruction and haphazard staff development will produce comparatively fewer and fewer black belts and or instructors, and will eventually go the way of the dinosaurs.

In conclusion, whether you buy our martial arts Career Training manual now or invent your own, your staff will develop in direct proportion to the time, energy and effort you put into them.

The Kovar brothers, Dave and Tim, own and operate four very successful martial arts schools in the Sacramento, California area. They have produced a series of books and videos on martial arts instruction and staff development, and can be reached at www.successful-life-skills.com.

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