NEST would like to welcome and introduce you to the latest additions to NEST’s expanding? customer services team, Emily Hanson and Vanessa Moles, who joined us in May 2011.
Vanessa has worked in customer services/administration for 4 years (since leaving college) and during this time she has developed excellent customer service skills as well as learning ways to be fair to all.
She says, “I am keen on fitness and have always found martial arts an interesting area. Although I have only been here since the start of May, I have met some great people (both colleagues and clients!) in the short time I have been here and it is a pleasure to work for such a great company.
At NEST I intend to maintain the high levels of customer service that already exist and build excellent customer relations through effective and professional communication. I look forward to being part of an expanding company. ”
Emily joined the NEST team at the end of May having graduated with a 2:1 degree in Zoology from Sheffield University.
With previous experience of the services industry, where she has worked in both the catering and hotel industries, Emily has learnt many valuable skills for helping customers both face to face and over the phone.
Emily says “I am very excited to have joined the NEST customer services team and want to play a significant role in the future success of the company. I hope to help increase the business levels and provide a high quality service to both the instructors and the students.”
Best wishes,
NEST, martial arts club marketing
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Sunday, 24 July 2011
Thursday, 14 July 2011
Introducing Terry & The Wing Chun Academy
I have been involved in the Martial arts for over 32 years from way back when I first started training in Karate.
I have been training in Wing Chun Kung Fu now for almost 30 years since the day I walked in to an old dusty church hall in Barking in Essex and began training and have never looked back since then. Like most people of my generation I was hooked by the Bruce Lee films and the Kung Fu series that was on TV when I was a kid and couldn’t wait to have a go myself.
During my years of training I have also trained in other martial arts and I hold a Black Belt in Japanese Ju Jitsu which I learned from a fantastic Instructor. I have also trained in Thai Boxing and in Kali.
However my first and real passion remains Wing Chun Kung Fu which I teach throughout the Essex area in various schools.
Having trained for many years and encouraged by my own Sifu I began teaching to pass on what I have learned to my own students. I did this as I believe that the benefits of the martial arts are so far reaching and we can positively impact on people’s lives with martial arts.
I have been fortunate enough to have been taught by and trained with some great Wing Chun instructors and have travelled the world meeting and training with some great Masters to improve my knowledge.
I now try to pass this knowledge onto my students to help them.
In my schools we teach all ages, we have a very successful Little Dragons class for the youngest children and our very popular Kids Kung Fu classes for older children along with these we have our great adult classes that have been running since before I joined NEST.
I am very pleased with the progress that all my students have made over the years with numerous Black Belts being a credit to the school. We have confident, focused and persistent children with a great attitude in our schools and many of these have progressed through out children’s classes into our adult classes. Also a number of these children have developed further and are now on our Instructor Training Programme and act as great role models and mentors to all the other students.
I also have an excellent team of Instructors who are a real credit to the school in the way they teach and inspire the students and in the way they conduct themselves. They are great ambassadors for the school and give all the students something to aspire to. In particular I should mention Che McDermott, Daren Alger and Ian Gleed as part of my great team.
In our schools we really believe that if you can inspire students to have confidence in themselves that they can achieve extraordinary things and we actively encourage this in all our students and in all our classes.
If you believe you can you can!
This has never been more clearly demonstrated than by Ryan Trott, one of my students who joined me many years ago when he was only 14 years of age. Ryan was diagnosed with leukaemia almost 4 years ago now and was so ill he almost died. He has openly said that his training in the martial arts and learning over all these years of training to focus on his goals and to never give up was a major factor in him overcoming his dreadful illness. He says he put to the test these great lessons learnt from training in the martial arts and proved that they work and he firmly believes everyone should be given the opportunity to learn and benefit from these lessons that the martial arts have to offer.
I believe that there is a great deal to learn and benefit from training in the martial arts because it’s not just about kicking and punching, it’s so much more!
Why NEST?
I had been teaching for many years before I decided that I should take it more seriously and run my school in a more professional manner rather than just as a hobby. I was hesitant at first to do this because I really wanted to focus on teaching my students the very best that I could and wanted to teach people the complete Wing Chun system. I suppose I didn’t want to water down what I taught.
I began to research a number of martial arts consulting businesses to see what they had to offer in terms of advice but wasn’t really impressed with them. Their values appeared to be more about business than martial arts so I wasn’t to keen to progress with them.
Then one day I contacted NEST and spoke to Gerard Turvey and I immediately felt that this was different to my previous experiences. We spoke the same language and had the same values its all about teaching great martial arts classes and the rest will follow. I followed up this initial conversation with Gerard and he came down and met me and we discussed my schools, how I operated and my concerns that I wanted to teach the best martial arts classes that I could.
He understood where I was coming from immediately and I joined NEST from that day way back in 2001. I have never looked back and since then I have grown my schools from a part time hobby to one where I quit my job as Human Resources Director for the UK and Ireland arm of a large American Company to running a fulltime martial arts organisation which has grown and grown with the help and advice of all those at NEST.
All of my original concerns about using an outside Company to run my student billing evaporated as NEST are so professional in the way they deal with me and my students and they are far more than just a martial arts billing company. I have never looked back since I joined NEST.
I prefer to think of NEST as part of my team, I can talk to them about all aspects of my business and get excellent advice whenever I need it. All the people who work at NEST are a real credit to both Gerard and Joy, it’s easy to say but when you work with nice people who you like and can trust you get things done and achieve so much more.
NEST have an amazing skill set and resources that you can take advantage of to improve your business. They invest in themselves and therefore me. For example, the technology that they offer helps me easily track my student numbers and payments without my ever having to worry about buying expensive software packages or the time consuming data entry that this would bring were I to do this myself.
Also the advice on marketing has been invaluable in helping me grow my schools along with Gerard’s business advice on all sorts of issues that surround running any type of business.
I would recommend anyone who is teaching martial arts regardless of style to talk to NEST, from a new school owner to large already established schools because they really have so much to offer.
I have never regretted the day I joined NEST they are an important part of my business and the success of my schools.
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Like us on Facebook!
I have been training in Wing Chun Kung Fu now for almost 30 years since the day I walked in to an old dusty church hall in Barking in Essex and began training and have never looked back since then. Like most people of my generation I was hooked by the Bruce Lee films and the Kung Fu series that was on TV when I was a kid and couldn’t wait to have a go myself.
During my years of training I have also trained in other martial arts and I hold a Black Belt in Japanese Ju Jitsu which I learned from a fantastic Instructor. I have also trained in Thai Boxing and in Kali.
However my first and real passion remains Wing Chun Kung Fu which I teach throughout the Essex area in various schools.
Having trained for many years and encouraged by my own Sifu I began teaching to pass on what I have learned to my own students. I did this as I believe that the benefits of the martial arts are so far reaching and we can positively impact on people’s lives with martial arts.
I have been fortunate enough to have been taught by and trained with some great Wing Chun instructors and have travelled the world meeting and training with some great Masters to improve my knowledge.
I now try to pass this knowledge onto my students to help them.
In my schools we teach all ages, we have a very successful Little Dragons class for the youngest children and our very popular Kids Kung Fu classes for older children along with these we have our great adult classes that have been running since before I joined NEST.
I am very pleased with the progress that all my students have made over the years with numerous Black Belts being a credit to the school. We have confident, focused and persistent children with a great attitude in our schools and many of these have progressed through out children’s classes into our adult classes. Also a number of these children have developed further and are now on our Instructor Training Programme and act as great role models and mentors to all the other students.
I also have an excellent team of Instructors who are a real credit to the school in the way they teach and inspire the students and in the way they conduct themselves. They are great ambassadors for the school and give all the students something to aspire to. In particular I should mention Che McDermott, Daren Alger and Ian Gleed as part of my great team.
In our schools we really believe that if you can inspire students to have confidence in themselves that they can achieve extraordinary things and we actively encourage this in all our students and in all our classes.
If you believe you can you can!
This has never been more clearly demonstrated than by Ryan Trott, one of my students who joined me many years ago when he was only 14 years of age. Ryan was diagnosed with leukaemia almost 4 years ago now and was so ill he almost died. He has openly said that his training in the martial arts and learning over all these years of training to focus on his goals and to never give up was a major factor in him overcoming his dreadful illness. He says he put to the test these great lessons learnt from training in the martial arts and proved that they work and he firmly believes everyone should be given the opportunity to learn and benefit from these lessons that the martial arts have to offer.
I believe that there is a great deal to learn and benefit from training in the martial arts because it’s not just about kicking and punching, it’s so much more!
Why NEST?
I had been teaching for many years before I decided that I should take it more seriously and run my school in a more professional manner rather than just as a hobby. I was hesitant at first to do this because I really wanted to focus on teaching my students the very best that I could and wanted to teach people the complete Wing Chun system. I suppose I didn’t want to water down what I taught.
I began to research a number of martial arts consulting businesses to see what they had to offer in terms of advice but wasn’t really impressed with them. Their values appeared to be more about business than martial arts so I wasn’t to keen to progress with them.
Then one day I contacted NEST and spoke to Gerard Turvey and I immediately felt that this was different to my previous experiences. We spoke the same language and had the same values its all about teaching great martial arts classes and the rest will follow. I followed up this initial conversation with Gerard and he came down and met me and we discussed my schools, how I operated and my concerns that I wanted to teach the best martial arts classes that I could.
He understood where I was coming from immediately and I joined NEST from that day way back in 2001. I have never looked back and since then I have grown my schools from a part time hobby to one where I quit my job as Human Resources Director for the UK and Ireland arm of a large American Company to running a fulltime martial arts organisation which has grown and grown with the help and advice of all those at NEST.
All of my original concerns about using an outside Company to run my student billing evaporated as NEST are so professional in the way they deal with me and my students and they are far more than just a martial arts billing company. I have never looked back since I joined NEST.
I prefer to think of NEST as part of my team, I can talk to them about all aspects of my business and get excellent advice whenever I need it. All the people who work at NEST are a real credit to both Gerard and Joy, it’s easy to say but when you work with nice people who you like and can trust you get things done and achieve so much more.
NEST have an amazing skill set and resources that you can take advantage of to improve your business. They invest in themselves and therefore me. For example, the technology that they offer helps me easily track my student numbers and payments without my ever having to worry about buying expensive software packages or the time consuming data entry that this would bring were I to do this myself.
Also the advice on marketing has been invaluable in helping me grow my schools along with Gerard’s business advice on all sorts of issues that surround running any type of business.
I would recommend anyone who is teaching martial arts regardless of style to talk to NEST, from a new school owner to large already established schools because they really have so much to offer.
I have never regretted the day I joined NEST they are an important part of my business and the success of my schools.
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Like us on Facebook!
Friday, 1 July 2011
July 2011 Newsletter
We are now well into the summer period for sales and many schools are underway with promotional activity to ensure that they get the most out of the opportunities available. As everyone in this industry knows, potential students move their focus elsewhere at this time to holidays and other summer activities. The danger for our industry has always been that Martial Arts school owners take the view that if consumer interest is low we can do little to attract new students – this is simply not true - what we need to do is put our imagination into gear to ensure that the promotional activity implemented in the summer is as exciting and fresh as possible in order to get a good share of the new student opportunities available. One thing you can be sure of is that if you do not undertake a well planned summer campaign there will be other sporting activities that will.
By now you should have your summer campaign actions in place and if not you need to act now. You will have noted from the weekly Pulse messages that there are many activities including the NEST sponsored promotions that you can implement. Whether you are going to do a summer camp, community events, summer safety awareness or any other student acquisition activity please also remember your existing students and plan for retention events as well.
The key to a successful summer will be: have goals for your activities, put well designed plans in place for all the work you need to do, measure your results and then quickly make small changes if you see that you need to and, above all, be consistent and stay on track.
This year we are seeing all manner of sports activity companies putting substantial effort into get a share of the summer activity market for children. But, we all know that Martial Arts programmes can provide more benefits and more fun than many other activities. So, let’s remain positive and attack the summer market opportunity with a “Black Belt Attitude” and show just what this industry is capable of.
Finally, it is important to mention now that the start the new school year is vital for your business, and this will be upon us in mid August in Scotland and in early September in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. You will need your plans in place early in order to “hit the boards running” with your promotions via school book bags in the first week of term as this is the week when many parents make their decisions for the kids activities – it is crucial not to be late.
I wish everyone all the very best for success and a great summer packed with new students. If you need any help or guidance please do not hesitate to call us.
Very best wishes,
NEST, martial arts club software
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Like us on Facebook!
By now you should have your summer campaign actions in place and if not you need to act now. You will have noted from the weekly Pulse messages that there are many activities including the NEST sponsored promotions that you can implement. Whether you are going to do a summer camp, community events, summer safety awareness or any other student acquisition activity please also remember your existing students and plan for retention events as well.
The key to a successful summer will be: have goals for your activities, put well designed plans in place for all the work you need to do, measure your results and then quickly make small changes if you see that you need to and, above all, be consistent and stay on track.
This year we are seeing all manner of sports activity companies putting substantial effort into get a share of the summer activity market for children. But, we all know that Martial Arts programmes can provide more benefits and more fun than many other activities. So, let’s remain positive and attack the summer market opportunity with a “Black Belt Attitude” and show just what this industry is capable of.
Finally, it is important to mention now that the start the new school year is vital for your business, and this will be upon us in mid August in Scotland and in early September in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. You will need your plans in place early in order to “hit the boards running” with your promotions via school book bags in the first week of term as this is the week when many parents make their decisions for the kids activities – it is crucial not to be late.
I wish everyone all the very best for success and a great summer packed with new students. If you need any help or guidance please do not hesitate to call us.
Very best wishes,
NEST, martial arts club software
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Like us on Facebook!
Thursday, 16 June 2011
Introducing Kwoklyn Wan
Kwoklyn Wan grew up in Leicester in a family steeped in Martial Arts tradition. He was inspired by the films of Bruce Lee, like many youngsters from the 1970’s. Kwoklyn started his martial arts journey at the age of 4 in 1977 studying Shotokan Karate and then went on to study Wing Chun and Chinese Boxing with his uncles in the early 80’s.
During the late 80’s and early 90’s Kwoklyn tried many other martial arts and it wasn’t until he discovered Jeet Kune Do in 1998 that he began to focus on becoming an Instructor in the martial arts.
Kwoklyn subsequently became the European representative and Vice Chairman of the famous JKD Wednesday Night Group headed by Tim Tackett, which has the aim of preserving and promoting Bruce Lee’s original form of the Martial Arts.
He opened his own Martial Arts Academy ‘URBAN MARTIAL ARTS’ in 2004. Starting with just a handful of students Urban Martial Arts has grown, and now teaches martial arts to over 1200 students.
Kwoklyn also works alongside his brother Gok, the famous TV fashion presenter, to promote Kidscape, the UK’s first anti-bullying charity.
About Urban Martial Arts
Based on St. Johns Street in Leicester, the academy is a stone’s throw away from the Karate club where Kwoklyn began his own Martial Arts journey in 1977.
Urban Martial Arts is very much Kwoklyn’s boyhood dream realised. He wanted somewhere people could go without a hierarchy, a place where people could come down, meet up with friends and train on a very informal basis.
Kwoklyn remains keen to nurture talent and promote the enjoyment of Martial Arts in an unceremonious, relaxed environment, offering students another way to exercise whether their motivation is to lose weight, get fit or increase confidence.
Jeet Kune Do is a comparatively modern Martial Art (founded in the US as recently as the mid-1960’s) and Kwoklyn and his team are modern in their approach to teaching it.
Despite its American roots, Kwoklyn wants to promote what the UK has to offer across the growing Martial Arts arena and this desire led to him launching ‘The Martial Arts Festival UK (MAF-UK)’, in 2009.
The Martial Arts Festival & The Martial Arts Show
April 2009 saw the launch of The Martial Arts Festival UK (MAF-UK) in Leicester. From an idea he had in 2007, Kwoklyn was determined to create a martial arts event where like minded individuals could meet, train and experience all styles of the arts without politics and prejudice.
He originally thought of the idea about 4 years ago whilst I at a boating festival where he saw a friend perform a Capoeira demonstration. This gave him the idea to have a festival incorporating all martial arts but having them demonstrating outside as well as in. He had a vision of people walking around in the open air with the green grass and the trees, watching martial art demonstrations and trying different styles.
Kwoklyn’s gym in Leicester city centre is only a few minutes away from one of the big city parks and sometimes they train there if the weather is nice and they experience a totally different feeling – one he wanted to encourage with the festival.
MAF-UK attracted 10,000 people over the course of the weekend and was given a huge ‘thumbs up’ from all who attended.
In May 2010 Kwoklyn staged his second show The Martial Arts Show at the NEC in Birmingham, on a much larger scale, but still with his initial vision of creating a martial arts event for ALL styles at the forefront of his mind.
Now in it’s second year, The Martial Arts Show LIVE is set to be the largest UK industry show for martial arts in 2011 and takes place at the NEC Birmingham over the weekend of the 7th & 8th May.
Why NEST?
In 2003 I started my first club “Urban Martial Arts’. My Instructor at the time was already using NEST and I had seen the support that they offered to small clubs and the industry. So after a year of running my club like an amateur I decided that the club needed a push. This is when I first met Gerard, who took the time to come to Leicester and see what we were doing. Gerard talked about the industry in such depth (trends, marketing, retentions, atrophy, billing, designs) that I knew NEST was exactly what my business needed.
NEST has offered me the confidence to run my club and concentrate on the delivery of classes, marketing etc whilst they maintain the business element. I never have to worry if students have paid for a session or if their licence or insurance has expired. NEST provides you with a complete system of support so you can analyze trends such as which are your busiest classes, who’s training regularly etc…and all this info is available at the click of a button.
In 2009 we started to get some students up to an Instructor level, all of whom wanted to potentially turn their hobby into a business. NEST helped me create a franchise package where my students (now Instructors) could teach for Urban Martial Arts but in their own locations. This has proved to be very successful and we now have schools throughout Leicestershire (Aylestone, Blaby, Whetstone, Melton Mowbray) as well as in London and Wolverhampton. There are several new franchises opening later this year too.
NEST's martial arts club software has been an integral part of Urban Martial Arts over the past 5 years helping with our marketing, billing and providing a support system like no other. Gerard and Joy have shown true friendship and an unquestionable loyalty and always have time to discuss business and more importantly personal matters. The staff are all very friendly and approachable and many have become friends. Since starting MAF-UK and now TMAS Live they have advised and supported the shows and play a very important role in it’s design and feel.
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Like us on Facebook!
During the late 80’s and early 90’s Kwoklyn tried many other martial arts and it wasn’t until he discovered Jeet Kune Do in 1998 that he began to focus on becoming an Instructor in the martial arts.
Kwoklyn subsequently became the European representative and Vice Chairman of the famous JKD Wednesday Night Group headed by Tim Tackett, which has the aim of preserving and promoting Bruce Lee’s original form of the Martial Arts.
He opened his own Martial Arts Academy ‘URBAN MARTIAL ARTS’ in 2004. Starting with just a handful of students Urban Martial Arts has grown, and now teaches martial arts to over 1200 students.
Kwoklyn also works alongside his brother Gok, the famous TV fashion presenter, to promote Kidscape, the UK’s first anti-bullying charity.
About Urban Martial Arts
Based on St. Johns Street in Leicester, the academy is a stone’s throw away from the Karate club where Kwoklyn began his own Martial Arts journey in 1977.
Urban Martial Arts is very much Kwoklyn’s boyhood dream realised. He wanted somewhere people could go without a hierarchy, a place where people could come down, meet up with friends and train on a very informal basis.
Kwoklyn remains keen to nurture talent and promote the enjoyment of Martial Arts in an unceremonious, relaxed environment, offering students another way to exercise whether their motivation is to lose weight, get fit or increase confidence.
Jeet Kune Do is a comparatively modern Martial Art (founded in the US as recently as the mid-1960’s) and Kwoklyn and his team are modern in their approach to teaching it.
Despite its American roots, Kwoklyn wants to promote what the UK has to offer across the growing Martial Arts arena and this desire led to him launching ‘The Martial Arts Festival UK (MAF-UK)’, in 2009.
The Martial Arts Festival & The Martial Arts Show
April 2009 saw the launch of The Martial Arts Festival UK (MAF-UK) in Leicester. From an idea he had in 2007, Kwoklyn was determined to create a martial arts event where like minded individuals could meet, train and experience all styles of the arts without politics and prejudice.
He originally thought of the idea about 4 years ago whilst I at a boating festival where he saw a friend perform a Capoeira demonstration. This gave him the idea to have a festival incorporating all martial arts but having them demonstrating outside as well as in. He had a vision of people walking around in the open air with the green grass and the trees, watching martial art demonstrations and trying different styles.
Kwoklyn’s gym in Leicester city centre is only a few minutes away from one of the big city parks and sometimes they train there if the weather is nice and they experience a totally different feeling – one he wanted to encourage with the festival.
MAF-UK attracted 10,000 people over the course of the weekend and was given a huge ‘thumbs up’ from all who attended.
In May 2010 Kwoklyn staged his second show The Martial Arts Show at the NEC in Birmingham, on a much larger scale, but still with his initial vision of creating a martial arts event for ALL styles at the forefront of his mind.
Now in it’s second year, The Martial Arts Show LIVE is set to be the largest UK industry show for martial arts in 2011 and takes place at the NEC Birmingham over the weekend of the 7th & 8th May.
Why NEST?
In 2003 I started my first club “Urban Martial Arts’. My Instructor at the time was already using NEST and I had seen the support that they offered to small clubs and the industry. So after a year of running my club like an amateur I decided that the club needed a push. This is when I first met Gerard, who took the time to come to Leicester and see what we were doing. Gerard talked about the industry in such depth (trends, marketing, retentions, atrophy, billing, designs) that I knew NEST was exactly what my business needed.
NEST has offered me the confidence to run my club and concentrate on the delivery of classes, marketing etc whilst they maintain the business element. I never have to worry if students have paid for a session or if their licence or insurance has expired. NEST provides you with a complete system of support so you can analyze trends such as which are your busiest classes, who’s training regularly etc…and all this info is available at the click of a button.
In 2009 we started to get some students up to an Instructor level, all of whom wanted to potentially turn their hobby into a business. NEST helped me create a franchise package where my students (now Instructors) could teach for Urban Martial Arts but in their own locations. This has proved to be very successful and we now have schools throughout Leicestershire (Aylestone, Blaby, Whetstone, Melton Mowbray) as well as in London and Wolverhampton. There are several new franchises opening later this year too.
NEST's martial arts club software has been an integral part of Urban Martial Arts over the past 5 years helping with our marketing, billing and providing a support system like no other. Gerard and Joy have shown true friendship and an unquestionable loyalty and always have time to discuss business and more importantly personal matters. The staff are all very friendly and approachable and many have become friends. Since starting MAF-UK and now TMAS Live they have advised and supported the shows and play a very important role in it’s design and feel.
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Tuesday, 10 May 2011
Introducing Nick Maison
Nick spent 14 years in the Army, with the last few years as an Unarmed Combat Instructor amongst other instructor roles in the Army Physical Training Corps. On leaving in 2003 he set up his own personal training business but after qualifying as a Krav Maga instructor, he quickly found that Krav was taking up most of his time and left the Personal Training behind to pursue Krav Maga as a full time business. Nick nurtured and grew the two largest clubs in London and the country, before focusing on the national growth of Krav Maga around the UK. As the Director and highest qualified instructor in the UK, Nick has now turned his focus back to his own club while continuing to maintain a steady growth around the UK, by organising workshops and instructor courses for KMG on a regular basis.
More recently Nick has been involved with assistance and progression of the KMG system in the US, based on his experiences in growing the UK market. The UK shows promising prospects for the coming years and it has been very exciting to watch the system grow from only a handful of instructors and students to a fully grown self defence programme in its own right. Naturally, the more people who come across well trained Krav Maga instructors, the more popular the system will become and at TKM quality is paramount.
About Total Krav Maga
Whilst working for a London based company offering Military type ‘Boot camp’ classes I was approached to run a self defence course for the members, based on my Army ‘unarmed combat’ teaching experience. I was teamed with a fellow instructor to organise the course, who had ‘dabbled’ with a little known system called ‘Krav Maga’.
The course was run over 8 weeks, based on a 1 hour session, twice a week in Hyde Park. The course was a resounding success and we were asked numerous times “where do you run your classes?” That was the start of my switch from one on one, fitness based training to multiple clients and running a self defence school.
Being fresh from the Military I immediately enrolled on to an Israeli run, Military Krav Maga instructor course with the Polish Commando regiment close to Warsaw. The gruelling 24 day course was one of the toughest courses I had taken and involved disarming of weapons, extreme tactical fighting methods and intensive Krav Maga training. I then went on to qualify as a civilian instructor, SWAT instructor and eventually was appointed as an Expert Level 2 instructor and Director of Training of the UK.
Now 8 years on, I have assisted in setting up 2 of the largest schools in the UK and have finally settled with my own school ‘Total Krav Maga’.
Krav Maga has become very popular, very quickly and as a result there are organisations appearing all over the UK and indeed the world. Total Krav Maga (TKM) and 80% of the UK’s Krav Maga schools work under the umbrella of Krav Maga Global (KMG), a recently rebranded branch of the International Krav Maga Federation (IKMF). KMG are now seen as setting the standard and taking Krav Maga training to the next level around the globe.
What is Krav Maga and how has it impacted on the world of Martial Arts and Self Defence?
Krav Maga is a modern day, constantly developing form of self defence originatign from Israel. Pronounced ‘Krav –Mahga’ it is actually Hebrew for ‘Contact Combat’. We do not really put ourselves in the category of martial arts, due the fact we don’t run competitions and are not sport based. Also, the diversity of the subjects we cover, such as military, law enforcement, air marshal training & VIP protection, make it practically impossible to attribute any artistic elements, forms or katas to such a dynamic system. It’s very much about training for ‘real life’ situations in realistic environments.
At TKM we run regular weekly classes, work to a comprehensive syllabus and grade our students but we also take them out of the comfort of the gym and test their training in real life situations. For example we may hire a bus or use our cars to practice techniques in these everyday environments. We take our students into buildings and train in corridors, stairwells or outside in the snow, so that they experience techniques and problem solving in the real world.
TKM has grown from 1 location to 6 in two years and with our instructor sponsorship programme we aim to expand to a further 3 locations and 4 extra instructors in 2011 across Thames Valley and West London.
Why NEST?
From very early on in my Krav Maga career, NEST were introduced to me by a former instructor.
NEST’s professional yet friendly approach immediately captivated me and as a newcomer to running a school and a national organisation, NEST pointed me in the right direction, gave constant advice and were always at the end of the phone to give me guidance. I quickly found myself becoming close on a personal and professional level with Gerard and Joy who showed no end of patience and positive social experiences to nurture our relationship.
Although I have never been without NEST, I can’t imagine trying to do as much as I do with both KMG and my club TKM, without the professional help of NEST. All KMG UK instructor‘s monthly fees are collected through NEST, allowing me to focus on teaching and the organisational aspects of my role. NEST has also helped to create various media exposure for us and ensured we were part of the Martial Arts Shows, since 2004 when we started working together.
Total Krav Maga relies on NEST to manage the payments and membership intricacies, so a huge amount of time consuming activities are managed by a professional team who I can trust. I even have my own personal contact ‘Louisa Turchet’ in the office who I can almost guarantee will respond to email or phone calls within 5-10 minutes. In my opinion that is an amazing service.
NEST provides a top quality, first class and professional martial arts billing service, making the most of IT and communications but they haven’t forgotten how to be personal and deal with customers face to face. I am very grateful that I joined NEST so early in my journey to becoming one of the UK’s many Krav Maga success stories and their help and support is very much appreciated.
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More recently Nick has been involved with assistance and progression of the KMG system in the US, based on his experiences in growing the UK market. The UK shows promising prospects for the coming years and it has been very exciting to watch the system grow from only a handful of instructors and students to a fully grown self defence programme in its own right. Naturally, the more people who come across well trained Krav Maga instructors, the more popular the system will become and at TKM quality is paramount.
About Total Krav Maga
Whilst working for a London based company offering Military type ‘Boot camp’ classes I was approached to run a self defence course for the members, based on my Army ‘unarmed combat’ teaching experience. I was teamed with a fellow instructor to organise the course, who had ‘dabbled’ with a little known system called ‘Krav Maga’.
The course was run over 8 weeks, based on a 1 hour session, twice a week in Hyde Park. The course was a resounding success and we were asked numerous times “where do you run your classes?” That was the start of my switch from one on one, fitness based training to multiple clients and running a self defence school.
Being fresh from the Military I immediately enrolled on to an Israeli run, Military Krav Maga instructor course with the Polish Commando regiment close to Warsaw. The gruelling 24 day course was one of the toughest courses I had taken and involved disarming of weapons, extreme tactical fighting methods and intensive Krav Maga training. I then went on to qualify as a civilian instructor, SWAT instructor and eventually was appointed as an Expert Level 2 instructor and Director of Training of the UK.
Now 8 years on, I have assisted in setting up 2 of the largest schools in the UK and have finally settled with my own school ‘Total Krav Maga’.
Krav Maga has become very popular, very quickly and as a result there are organisations appearing all over the UK and indeed the world. Total Krav Maga (TKM) and 80% of the UK’s Krav Maga schools work under the umbrella of Krav Maga Global (KMG), a recently rebranded branch of the International Krav Maga Federation (IKMF). KMG are now seen as setting the standard and taking Krav Maga training to the next level around the globe.
What is Krav Maga and how has it impacted on the world of Martial Arts and Self Defence?
Krav Maga is a modern day, constantly developing form of self defence originatign from Israel. Pronounced ‘Krav –Mahga’ it is actually Hebrew for ‘Contact Combat’. We do not really put ourselves in the category of martial arts, due the fact we don’t run competitions and are not sport based. Also, the diversity of the subjects we cover, such as military, law enforcement, air marshal training & VIP protection, make it practically impossible to attribute any artistic elements, forms or katas to such a dynamic system. It’s very much about training for ‘real life’ situations in realistic environments.
At TKM we run regular weekly classes, work to a comprehensive syllabus and grade our students but we also take them out of the comfort of the gym and test their training in real life situations. For example we may hire a bus or use our cars to practice techniques in these everyday environments. We take our students into buildings and train in corridors, stairwells or outside in the snow, so that they experience techniques and problem solving in the real world.
TKM has grown from 1 location to 6 in two years and with our instructor sponsorship programme we aim to expand to a further 3 locations and 4 extra instructors in 2011 across Thames Valley and West London.
Why NEST?
From very early on in my Krav Maga career, NEST were introduced to me by a former instructor.
NEST’s professional yet friendly approach immediately captivated me and as a newcomer to running a school and a national organisation, NEST pointed me in the right direction, gave constant advice and were always at the end of the phone to give me guidance. I quickly found myself becoming close on a personal and professional level with Gerard and Joy who showed no end of patience and positive social experiences to nurture our relationship.
Although I have never been without NEST, I can’t imagine trying to do as much as I do with both KMG and my club TKM, without the professional help of NEST. All KMG UK instructor‘s monthly fees are collected through NEST, allowing me to focus on teaching and the organisational aspects of my role. NEST has also helped to create various media exposure for us and ensured we were part of the Martial Arts Shows, since 2004 when we started working together.
Total Krav Maga relies on NEST to manage the payments and membership intricacies, so a huge amount of time consuming activities are managed by a professional team who I can trust. I even have my own personal contact ‘Louisa Turchet’ in the office who I can almost guarantee will respond to email or phone calls within 5-10 minutes. In my opinion that is an amazing service.
NEST provides a top quality, first class and professional martial arts billing service, making the most of IT and communications but they haven’t forgotten how to be personal and deal with customers face to face. I am very grateful that I joined NEST so early in my journey to becoming one of the UK’s many Krav Maga success stories and their help and support is very much appreciated.
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Thursday, 3 March 2011
March 2011 Newsletter
In the last news letter I commented on the economic climate and the fantastic ability of our industry to be resilient in the face of the difficulties other industries and professions are suffering. Having now seen the like for like agreement figures for schools for the first two months of 2011 I am even more convinced of this resilience as we have seen a 4.9% average increase in gross annualised values across all schools. And a number of fantastic increases of 10%, 20% and even 45% in some businesses.
It is too early to fully analyse the contribution made by the NEST Bakugan promotion which hit in January, but we have heard great success stories from many schools who took the decision to fully engage with this initiative.
Much is still to play for this year as opportunities will continue to be available; but it is crucial that all school owners do everything possible to achieve a great first half year without relying on the September upturn in the market. It is surprising what a boost to your confidence it can be when you reach, or exceed, your goals for the first quarter as many will. But even if unforeseen circumstances, including weather, have not helped in this early period don’t let it depress you as demand is still there and you can still achieve great results if you focus on your marketing promotion and continue to give great service to your existing students.
At NEST we are investing significantly in major promotions to help you throughout the summer. In designing the promotional activity we acted on feedback from you when we were told that we should put more effort to acquiring adult students as well as children this year. This has resulted in our link with Lucozade Sport in addition to the work on Kung Fu Panda and the ASDA connection and full details of these promotions are included later in this news letter. We will also provide a full customer briefing of the promotions at our next network meeting on the 13th April.
Finally, we have a number of new computer aids to help you with both getting and keeping students. These include this month’s release of a new prospect system, and our mobile phone attendance system which will be showcased at the Martial Arts Show in May.
I wish everyone all the very best for success and I look forward to seeing you at the network meeting and the Martial Arts Show. In the meantime, if you need any help or guidance in any areas of your business please do not hesitate to call us.
Very best wishes,
NEST, martial arts membership software
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It is too early to fully analyse the contribution made by the NEST Bakugan promotion which hit in January, but we have heard great success stories from many schools who took the decision to fully engage with this initiative.
Much is still to play for this year as opportunities will continue to be available; but it is crucial that all school owners do everything possible to achieve a great first half year without relying on the September upturn in the market. It is surprising what a boost to your confidence it can be when you reach, or exceed, your goals for the first quarter as many will. But even if unforeseen circumstances, including weather, have not helped in this early period don’t let it depress you as demand is still there and you can still achieve great results if you focus on your marketing promotion and continue to give great service to your existing students.
At NEST we are investing significantly in major promotions to help you throughout the summer. In designing the promotional activity we acted on feedback from you when we were told that we should put more effort to acquiring adult students as well as children this year. This has resulted in our link with Lucozade Sport in addition to the work on Kung Fu Panda and the ASDA connection and full details of these promotions are included later in this news letter. We will also provide a full customer briefing of the promotions at our next network meeting on the 13th April.
Finally, we have a number of new computer aids to help you with both getting and keeping students. These include this month’s release of a new prospect system, and our mobile phone attendance system which will be showcased at the Martial Arts Show in May.
I wish everyone all the very best for success and I look forward to seeing you at the network meeting and the Martial Arts Show. In the meantime, if you need any help or guidance in any areas of your business please do not hesitate to call us.
Very best wishes,
NEST, martial arts membership software
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Wednesday, 5 January 2011
January 2011 Newsletter
Here we are again at the start of yet another year and while the economic climate was difficult last year our industry saw many positive increases in business. However, unprecedented weather conditions at the end of 2010 did make life hard for many schools just before Christmas but January has now started to take off and we are seeing new agreements continue to increase in numbers day by day.
So, it looks like those who used the time to prepare for the increase in demand in the first quarter of the year are beginning to see the results of their efforts.
We are confident that 2011 can be another great year for our industry but it will be crucial to use every bit of our imagination together with all the tools available to maximise the opportunities that this industry can give to all of us. To this end we have increased the support that we will be giving to our customers on both promotional activity and computer development/training.
You will already have seen the Bakugan promotion and the new graphics for fitness which form the backdrop of our marketing support for the first quarter of the year. We are committed to developing new adult focused promotions this year; please check the weekly Pulse for details. However, we have already prepared a fantastic summer promotion for you with Dreamworks for the release of Kung Fu Panda 2: The Kaboom of Doom.
Student retention remains high on the agenda and the end of year weather conditions highlighted the need for fast communications with students and more schools now feel that they want to use the extensive communication systems in the V3 school system for important messages and of course missed you in class notifications. To help you take advantage of the benefits offered by the computer systems we have taken on additional staff for computer system training and implementation, and you will shortly see more Webinars and personal training available for you.
We will keep you posted on all the new system and marketing developments we have planned for this year as they progress. In the meantime, I wish you all the very best for this first quarter of 2011. As always, if you need any help or guidance in any areas of your business please do not hesitate to call us.
Very best wishes,
NEST, martial arts club software
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So, it looks like those who used the time to prepare for the increase in demand in the first quarter of the year are beginning to see the results of their efforts.
We are confident that 2011 can be another great year for our industry but it will be crucial to use every bit of our imagination together with all the tools available to maximise the opportunities that this industry can give to all of us. To this end we have increased the support that we will be giving to our customers on both promotional activity and computer development/training.
You will already have seen the Bakugan promotion and the new graphics for fitness which form the backdrop of our marketing support for the first quarter of the year. We are committed to developing new adult focused promotions this year; please check the weekly Pulse for details. However, we have already prepared a fantastic summer promotion for you with Dreamworks for the release of Kung Fu Panda 2: The Kaboom of Doom.
Student retention remains high on the agenda and the end of year weather conditions highlighted the need for fast communications with students and more schools now feel that they want to use the extensive communication systems in the V3 school system for important messages and of course missed you in class notifications. To help you take advantage of the benefits offered by the computer systems we have taken on additional staff for computer system training and implementation, and you will shortly see more Webinars and personal training available for you.
We will keep you posted on all the new system and marketing developments we have planned for this year as they progress. In the meantime, I wish you all the very best for this first quarter of 2011. As always, if you need any help or guidance in any areas of your business please do not hesitate to call us.
Very best wishes,
NEST, martial arts club software
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