Small tips to help with retention - new student orientation

What happens when a prospective new student decides to try out a few classes, joins and becomes an established member.

This can be a pretty scary time for a newcomer to martial arts, as they don’t know how things work, may not know anybody, and may also be conscious that they are at the bottom in terms of rank.

The trick is to make them feel welcome and are a valued member of your martial arts school.

This can be started early in the joining process by getting them to complete a ‘new member’ questionnaire when they turn up for their first trial class. This can be a very simple questionnaire that gathers pertinent details – why they want to do martial arts, their goals for doing a martial art, any health issues, etc.

Not only does this gather information that will better help you assimilate the new students into your school, but it also shows them that you care about them and that they are not just new students.

The next step is their trial classes. Some schools now call these ‘orientation classes’ and use a more proactive approach in introducing the students to martial arts training than chucking them into a standard class and letting them fend for themselves.

The orientation class approach combines letting them experience a typical class and having an instructor or senior-grade student spend a bit of one-on-one time with them to show them the basics and build on the information gained in the questionnaire. Taking this further, a new student can be assigned a senior student as a mentor as they settle in until they are ready to take their first grading.

The information gained from the questionnaire and the one-on-one time helps build a better picture of the individual student, allowing you to tailor their training to some extent. This helps with retention and helps the student enjoy their training more.

The final step is that over time, the student’s goals may change, so these can be captured on a grading form with a few simple questions, such as what the best experiences and achievements from their previous grades were and what their training goals are for their next grade.