Are you an Owner or Custodian of a Club/Dojo? Does the Club belong sorely to a particular Sensei or are we as instructors whilst being in charge and run the dojo just custodians? An interesting question perhaps?
Over the last two years, I have pretty much gone from being someone who just turned up, assisted a little with new starters and trained just for me to an assistant instructor with heavy involvement in running and teaching at the Club. It has been a steep learning curve, one which whilst being hard at times has ultimately been very rewarding. I never thought that one day, 11 years down the line be the person stood on the mat saying to a terrified new beginner 'Right, shoes off, socks off let's get you started'.
But does the Club actually belong to the instructors who teach there? Yes this is my club, I belong here, I help run it, I've helped build it into a good place not only to train but to be part of a community. I feel this to be true because there are always people asking me in the changing room, corridors etc (people who I do not know who they are, not really) asking me how the club is, how training is going. And the answers I give are always positive ones. Especially about our Juniors class.
I was reading an article about the different generations a club has or goes through. It talked about the first generation teacher(s) the person or people who set it up and establish what the club principles and purposes are and the second generation who then takes up the baton when the first generation is no longer there and builds on this work. It also talked about what changes each generation may make as well.
But as an instructor is this club ours? Do we own it? Perhaps because we're the first to have had the baton passed onto, it still feels a little new. But more recently it feels that whilst we're making the club ours, in some ways maybe we're really only looking after it until the next people come along to pass the baton onto. But isn't that the point of being a club? We work together to make the club work as a whole, we train together, we work towards the future. We as instructors, along with our students, in way are like a stepping stone towards that future for the club and the art as a whole. Each one of us has our own contribution to make our club and the martial art we practise great.
