MAIA Independent Consultant Evaluation
Mr. and Mrs. Keane,
I wanted to thank you for your hospitality when I visited The Academy the first week of January. As you know, I travel around the country conducting school evaluations, talks to children at Elementary schools and seminars. I felt compelled to write and tell you about some of the things that were so impressive about The Academy. First, the school looks magnificent! It was as if I had stepped off of the plane and into Japan when I walked into the doors. Wow! This is what a karate school should look like. The atmosphere helps get students in the correct frame of mind to train and adds to the overall experience.
I began training in Martial Arts at the age of 5. I’ve been training for over 30 years now. When I was a kid, this is the karate school I dreamed of taking classes at but we didn’t have one like this in Georgia. The next thing that struck me was the Team. All of the members of your Team were extremely professional. Everyone knew what to do and when to do it. I saw true systems in place that instructors and students were using for communication.
Most martial arts schools say that they teach life skills such as confidence, focus and self-discipline. What ends up happening is the students that stick around had these traits to begin with. Instead, your instructors used class plans, notebooks for students, matt chats and instructor training to actually make sure that each student is truly being taught the current life skills.
I personally met at least fifteen members of your instructor’s team. Classes were broken down into groups so that a great student teacher ratio was maintained. In our industry, the average student teacher ratio is 20 students to 1 instructor. At The Academy, the ratio is 10 to 1. This is unbelievable! I hope the students and parents appreciate the extra instructors you have on the floor. I’ve seen big schools before but the quality of martial arts being displayed by your students is far superior. Holding true to your quality of martial arts and great student teacher ratio will allow The Academy to continue growing in the future.
Every bit of success at the school has filtered from the top down. I’ve met a lot of martial artists in my 30 years of training. Some are true martial artists, others are fake and then there are the ones just trying to make money. I saw people at the Academy that truly walk the talk. Yes, that is you, Mr. & Mrs. Keane, Shihan and Shidoshi. Both of you still train as martial artists and teach classes. In the South, we’d say “you are good people.” The saying goes, “People don’t care what you know until they know that you care.” Well, I can sum up your success in four short words: You really do care. Have a great day!
Again, thanks for your hospitality. Talk to you next week. I look forward to seeing you the Team at the Instructor College in March.
Dedicated to your success,