Why Should Martial Arts Instructors Be Poor?

Why Should Martial Arts Instructors Be Poor?

Every now and then, someone from another martial art asks me sarcastically

“President Kang, do you want to make money from martial arts?”

Others ask

“Do you think martial arts is a business?”

I do not really consider these to be questions. I suspect that most of the people asking them simply want to take a sarcastic jab at me. Most of them are people who leave comments on my columns.

Perhaps they think I am some kind of wealthy tycoon making a fortune from martial arts.

I usually do not answer these questions because I simply do not feel the need to.

But if someone insisted that I give an answer, I would say

“Yes! Of course. Why even ask?”

Why do some people think martial artists should teach students for free, or charge only very low tuition?

Why do they think dojo owners and martial arts instructors should always be poor?

Martial arts is certainly not a profession in which it is easy to make a lot of money. Even so, I have always sincerely hoped that my students and the instructors who run my schools can drive good cars and live in good homes.

I want that because I believe the people who trust and follow me should be able to practice the martial art they love and teach it to their students without constantly worrying about food, clothing, and a place to live.

I do not believe that living in a good home or driving a good car will make them teach bad martial arts.

On the contrary, I believe they will be able to provide excellent training in better facilities and a more comfortable environment.

No matter how much we speak of martial arts as a path of peace and humanity, if instructors and their students have to worry every day about putting food on the table, there is little reason to choose martial arts as a profession.

Why can a college student in their twenties charge three or four times more for private tutoring than a martial arts school charges for training?

Especially when that tutoring may take place only once a week.

Is martial arts training worth less than private tutoring from a college student?

Why is golf considered a sport for the wealthy and privileged, while martial arts is treated as an activity for ordinary people?

If we want to understand why, perhaps part of the answer lies within the martial arts community itself.

As long as there are martial arts instructors who take pride in saying that they taught students under difficult circumstances in the past and that they still live in poverty while teaching today, it may be connected to why people continue to ask such unreasonable questions.

“Do you want to make money from martial arts?”

“Do you think martial arts is a business?”

A professional baseball or soccer player can earn millions of dollars a year and be celebrated as a great athlete.

Yet a martial artist who spends decades teaching and finally manages to buy a single home is called a businessman.

I believe this is a result that leaders in the Korean martial arts community have, in part, created themselves.

Martial Arts Instructors Need a Professional Mindset

One reason martial arts schools today are failing is that martial arts organizations have lacked a serious business mindset.

A martial arts instructor needs a professional mindset.

And instructors need to have greater respect for themselves and the value of what they do.

We do not open a dojo to run a charity.

If someone wants to devote themselves to charity, there are many other good things they can do.

“If you open a dojo, don’t expect to make a living from it!”

If even martial arts leaders look at martial arts with this kind of mindset, the instructors who follow their organizations will have no room to breathe and nowhere to escape.

Martial arts instructors do not teach students simply to sell fighting techniques.

Most martial artists teach because they want their students to experience the same joy and fulfillment that they themselves discovered through martial arts training.

I sincerely hope that martial arts instructors who have chosen martial arts as their profession will no longer have to struggle just to make a living.

— Kang Jun
Founder of Gongkwon Yusul