MA Business Success 101: Curriculum

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Graham: Welcome, everybody to the Martial Arts Business Success podcast. We're at episode number 101. I hope you guys tuned into our last really crazy 100th episode. It was a real milestone for us. We had an absolute blast. So if you haven't already checked it, check the video. The audio just doesn't do us any favors.

Phil: Yeah, absolutely. Today we're talking about creating an engaging rotating curriculum. So I guess, you know, we're gonna make sure...I can't say that everyone may know what a rotating curriculum is, and they should, but there are two types of curriculum, Graham, rotating or a linear. Do you wanna just quickly give us a bit of an explanation on those?

Graham: I guess I grew up in my martial journey on a linear curriculum. Basically, what that meant was that as a smaller school at the time, there was requirements based around that particular belt level. So what that meant was, I needed to learn a set skill set to be able to then progress to my next tier, or my next belt or whatever it might be.

Now, rotating curriculum still has that...I guess that structure, but it's not as detailed. And I guess the devil is in the detail. And I know that with a linear curriculum, if an instructor is scheduled to teach that particular part and they're away, it can create absolute chaos for the class, for the instructors. Now, we used to have, you know, four or five different sections going on in the class, which meant that you know, I begin a class, if I wanted to progress to my very next step, I'd have to go on one corner where they're covering that specific skill set. Again, if there was a high-level, then I'd have to go into the opposite corner, and so on and so forth. So linear is a very easy system to follow. In other words, you need to do A before you get to B before you get to C.

Rotating curriculum takes some of those principles into that progression and absorbing or learning the martial arts, but done in a way where everybody in the classroom is wearing that same skill set. And this is where we need to make sure that, and we'll touch on a little bit later about standards, but as a beginner program for us, we have two belt levels in the same class, white and yellow. It means that even the yellow belts getting ready to move on to the next intermediate rank are still learning those same skill sets. It's a whole class learning the same stuff, but you guess that there's a higher standard required from the guys who have been there for that, I guess a little bit longer.

Phil: Yeah, that's right. So, you know, am I right in saying that even though you've got a linear, you can't go from point A to point B, point B to point C. And even the same goes with the rotating curriculum, although there's, let's say for argument's sake eight pieces of the pie, you're still going through methodically pace one of the pie, pace two, pace three, pace four before you go to the other side.

Graham: Definitely.

Phil: But the institute is a mixed group, so white and yellow are in together. And that white belt, let's say I am the person, I've just come in on the pie, I'm a white belt, by the time I've come around to yellow belt and about to leave, I should have pretty much done all of the curriculum. Is that right?

Graham: You most definitely should do. There's always those, you know, anomalies that occur. Someone was away, something happened, somebody might fast track. You know, they may have taken a little bit longer so they have to repeat a few things. But at the end of the day, when you look at the grand scheme of things as a 5-year student, 10-year, 15, 20-year, you may find in the first month I may have missed one or two little bits, but at the end of the day, they can't really progress towards those higher-levels without them ticking all the boxes anyway. So you will cover that.

I guess something I've used a lot when I talk to people about this is jiu-jitsu is a prime example of a linear curriculum. They tend to have very detailed...you know, for you to get your first strap or your blue belt, for example, you need to be able to perform all these sort of skill sets. Now, the challenge with that is, again, the progression and the [inaudible 00:03:49] in the way that the class is gonna be disguised with the repetition of skill sets. So rotating curriculum, and for those guys listening, we are biased because we've done both. We've done a linear and we've done a rotating curriculum, and rotating supports, I guess, quite a high-level of growth and a high school operation without having a heavy staff requirements as well, so.

So there's definitely benefits to both. One thing that we do to make sure... This is, I guess, a question I always have when we speak at these events about rotating curriculum. Where is the standards? Where is the checkpoints that students don't get, you know, two years into it and they've sort of done rotation and they've actually never really had any I guess solid feedback or some stopping points that if they don't show the skill sets, they can't pass score. So, Phil, how do we get around that?

Phil: I guess when we look...you know, you're right in saying that, you know, a student will possibly go in through a rotating curriculum, the pie charts for example, if you can put that image in your brain. And if they don't pass that particular piece of the pie, then they're gonna obviously do some catch-ups, but they wanna get that tip. So it has happened in the past where someone might have to go through one and a half cycles of the pie. Now, even though that piece of the pie that they may have missed, they might not do again exactly, but the skills that they've been learning within the curriculum are sort of blended throughout. So we are able to set the standard, I guess, or the checkpoint at that grading requirement, so white going to yellow. There have to be a certain standard there. We're not so super focused on meeting...or they're all gonna really meet the standard, but they're still gonna get tips in their belts etc, but it's sort of like when you get to that point where you're getting a new belt, that's when you're not gonna pass that part there until, you know, your instructor knows that you've got that level of capability.

Graham: I guess that's a really important part to bring up. That when creating rotating curriculums, I know that we do this a lot, we reverse engineer and go, "To perform on a black belt, or a brown belt, or a green belt, or a blue belt, whatever the sequence in your school runs like, what do we want to make sure that they can perform at a level so that we're happy to successfully pass it?" And then I guess go, "Well, that's the level we want, where does those skills get put in so that they're being taught in that sort of way?" And that's a really important part. We just reference that beginner program. Again, a white and yellows, they can't progress past that point, as you mentioned, until they can show their foundation, their basic skill set has been done really at a high-level. But that might not necessarily be in a, I guess a linear order. It can be something that they learn are probably what is considered a more difficult skill earlier and then the easy ones later. But at the end of the day, it all comes out awash when they've got it great, they've gotta be able to perform those skill sets to the desired level.

Phil: I was just having a little internal giggle because I'm thinking back of a moment where we had a colleague of ours go and create a curriculum, and, you know, he said, "Oh, I'm gonna do all this, do this." We're like, "Yeah, cool, go for it." And he was doing it from sort of white belt level all the way up to black, and he goes to the halfway and he's like, "I'm pulling my hair out. I don't know where to go from here or how to get to the next level." We were like, "Did you reverse engineer?" Like, "What's the standard of black?" And if you start there and go backwards, it becomes so much easier. He came back and said, "Oh, that was one of those...you know, what's the sound of a tree falling in the woods type moment?" You know.

Graham: He was like, "My goodness." Sort of mate, when we start and we talked about reverse engineering, but what are some of the key important parts when you are looking to make sure that it's a balanced rotating curriculum? I know we're talking from white belt to say black belt, as an example, what should be in there? How should it flow, more the case?

Phil: You know, I sort of envision this like there's like a sequence pattern of movements. For example, and I can explain this in a couple of different ways. Let's just say that a white belt would learn your left-right punch, left jab right across, and then sort of a yellow belt, I might learn a left-right, right across, and a switch push kick. And then orange belt, I might learn...they've got the left and the right down past the switch push kick, but now they've got a leg switch [inaudible 00:07:59]. And then, you know, at white belt they've got full-on grounded pound moves there. And then in the next level, they've got how to defend against that. So it's like a sequence of events. So like learning a karate as well. You learn the first part of a certain level, you know, you progress to the second part and the third part and the fourth part. So if you sort of can sequence it like that, you're gonna get a whole piece of the pie.

Now, it's not as easy as that as always, like, you do learn just karate on its own and in a certain section, but sequencing meaning that you want it to flow, you want it to make sense. And I know we create things like...called super drills. And in a particular class, we were doing, you know, maybe say 5 to 10 techniques, put it all together in a sequence and it just looks awesome. And can you imagine if you could do that with your curriculum, you're charting curriculum and you can have that sort of level of sequence where by the time they've got the black belt, they've just learned everything and they're ready to go? They can do it individually, they can do it grouped in patterns. And, you know, that's just how we like to do it.

Graham: But, mate, again, while you were talking, I'm sort of envisioning that there's a certain format when it comes to public speaking with the stories that you create. If you're talking about a script in a movie, you know, if you're talking about, I guess a music pace there's always that crescendo, there's always that peak, there's always that build up to that sequence. And really that's what you are thinking about too is a lot of guys, and by talking about what not to, they try and put too much in at the earlier stages. So what actually happens is you end up, you know, not having the good stuff for later on. You've gotta make sure that you build them up to that level so that when they do get to the advanced stuff, there is that peak, that...you know, I guess it's the epic fight scene or the epic [inaudible 00:09:37].

Phil: You're not going to the CrossFit Games at white belt, you know what I mean? Like, you've gotta go to class first a few times, you know.

Graham: Yeah, for sure. So, guys, look, I think it's simplified. You know, you as a school owner know what you want to add in. Black belt is...we say it's the tip of the iceberg. That's where the fun stuff starts. But you can continue to create a rotating curriculum past that point. Most people will not ever create a syllabus detailed enough to get it from white to black. There are some that do, but most of them struggle. So keep it simple, make it start. Starting the process is better than never starting at all.

And, you know, I've got a coaching client I've been helping recently, and they're in the process of doing this. And to be honest with you, I have to tell him, "Perfect is the standard that is unrealistic. Don't even try to get it perfect. Just get it started, get it dome. When you've done the first lot, review it, and you'll improve as you continue to go forward. You know, 30 years ago martial arts, what was relevant then is almost ancient and out of date within reason, as in practical subjects now. So, you know, if you create skills and you hold onto them and that's all you'll ever do, guys, unfortunately, the system will, unfortunately, pass you by.

Phil: And even with us, you know, we're really...we're going through our lesson plans of curriculum again. Every year we curriculum-check, are we on path? Are we doing the right things? Does it make sense now? Because the way we taught it 10 years ago is different than now. So it's important that even though a school is successful as us, I'll get that out in a minute, that you still go back and you go redefine and recreate, and just check your curriculum. Like, there's no excuses whether you're successful or you're not, there's just the excuse that, you know, you don't have the time or patience, or, you know, the manpower. Well, that's just a limiting belief. You've just gotta make time.

Graham: Sure.

Phil: Graham, we've got a quick ask for you, right? What happens...I know in our classes, you know, we talk about having a white and yellow belt and the orange and blue in one class, what if there's a blue belt going through to green belt, but there's a fresh orange belt and we teach the same thing?

Graham: Mate, you've gotta understand, you know, systemize the process, personalize the exception. Understand standards and expectations. You know, it's a bit of a no-brainer, but some people will...don't always absorb and understand. Remember, brand-new students, they complex it because it's a brand-new skill being taught. They understand albeit very basic. For those who know it already or at a higher-level, their comprehension or the delivery of the skill will be at a far greater level. So you've gotta expect that. And also, this is where being able to have a few jelly beans up your sleeve is, here's the base skill, everyone is doing that. There's higher-level guys who're performing at a higher level. You can add in one or two extra little bits for them, and that'll help them to take it to the next level.

So, you know, it's knowing that you're able to adapt and your expectation of an instructor should be depending on the group that you have. Don't expect a brand-new student to be, you know, a 10 out of 10 when they're probably looking at only understanding the first time, whereas the guys who are at a higher-level, well, you can expect more from them.

Phil: Yeah, absolutely. Well, I think that's a wrap mate. I mean, there's so many things you can do in the curriculum. It's really almost like a 10-part podcast.

Graham: Oh yes.

Phil: And [inaudible 00:12:37] series. And we don't wanna weigh that down on you. But if you are interested in developing your curriculum, if you've got a linear and you want a rotating, if your rotating curriculum is there but it's not quite finished, reach out to us, guys. Let us know, [email protected]. We're happy to help you out. Better yet, you know, jump on board. We've got a TIMA Mastermind, which is an online Facebook group for $47 a month. You get access to us. If you like listening to what we've got to say, well, come and join us live on Facebook, where you get to ask questions and we get to interact with you personally right there right then and help you with your business as well. So if that interests you guys, you can head to the website at tima.com.au, and you can find that TIMA Mastermind. But Graham, I know we've got a massive event coming up, coming up with hyper. TIMA is gonna just blow the rest of 2017out and we're gonna get kickass in 2018. What's happening on the [inaudible 00:13:24]?

Graham: You guys who're listening to this or viewing this, you get an opportunity to join us live and have a really fantastic time on a...I guess a marketing event, a million-dollar marketing model where we're gonna show you...not only show you, but we're gonna hold your hand, we're gonna go step by step through this marketing machine that we've put in place and give you guys the tips for 2018 so you can plug it in and play straight away. So it's on Sunday the 19th of November. It's in Sydney. I won't give you guys all the details now. Just follow the link. It's got all the prizes, all the bits, and pieces. We've opened up registration now, so if you're interested, register your details. Find out some more of your very limited window of available tickets. So you better have your finger hot and ready to press that button when the door is open and away we go. So follow the link guys. It'll give you all the details.

Phil: So there'll be a link somewhere in there guys, but if not, you'll have to follow this one. It's www.tima.com.au/p/event. And that will get you to the registration page, guys. 25 tickets have already sold by the time you listen to this, and we may be sold out. But go register guys, and get yourself in that event.

Graham: See you soon.