So we had our open house.
One person came. This one person was a lady that used to train at the school way back when. John does not want her there as a student due to some past issues.
I was hoping we'd be able to get the interest of at least a few people, optimally half a dozen.
No one else came. Disappointing to say the least. That one lady hung out for a while, during which John and I practiced some self defense strategies. A decent training at least.
We're going to start regular classes next Monday and Wednesday. If we don't get any regular students by the end of the month, then we're pretty much done. John has told me he'd like to continue training with me if this program doesn't work out, so I think we'll still do that at least. Another possibility to start up again might be checking with the local community college to do a program in the fall if our program doesn't do well; but that's just a random thought.
Once again, I'd be happy with 3 students, optimally 6. I'm skeptical now whether this will work. Unfortunately I think we've more or less just angered a lot of people with the age limit of 14 and up for the class. I've had some friends particularly that have expressed their disappointment in that decision. If we were opening up an actual dojo again, there's would definitely be a kids program, but that would be down the road if all worked out.
In some ways I should have expected the poor turnout. The Aikido program in Conway only has a few of us for students. Only so much you can expect in small communities for these types of programs I guess.
Sad to hear there's a little interest right now. I used to go to the old school myself. Decided to google ninpo chan fa, which brought me to your blog. I'm hoping I can make it over to a few classes, but it's about an hour and a half drive for me now. Let John know I said hi and hope he's doing well. - Mike Bilodeau
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