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Old 02-06-2006, 04:18 AM   #15
ian
 
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Dojo: University of Ulster, Coleriane
Location: Northern Ireland
Join Date: Oct 2000
Posts: 1,654
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Re: Attracting new students.

We do promotion at the uni' where we hold the classes. I find advertising, even if it brings people in, they are often the type of people who don't stay.

I've given up trying to have a larger class, but instead think more about transferring aikido to the students that are there. In fact I think an ideal class size is between 4 and 8. I think it's better to teach one person well (and all you know), than 30 people just the superficial techniques; maybe cynical, but I get more pleasure from people understanding the real essence of aikido, than just learning how to twist someones arm alot.

Student retention is probably more important, and I think the biggest problem we have is holidays; people forget just how much they enjoy it - making the initial effort is the difficult thing for most people.

---understanding aikido is understanding the training method---
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