International Master -
Business Manager
Exclusive Interview!
6th degree black belt Daniel Pope talks about his history in the business, his tips on being a successful instructor,and street defense.
Interview by David L. Buckler
Martial artists would agree that operating a self-defense studio is challenging. Just being a good martial artist is not
enough to succeed in the business world. Dreaming of running your own
studio comes across many martial artist minds during their physical,
mental, and spiritual pursuits. Master Pope believes to operate your own
studio you must be a people person, an instructor, a business person,
and a motivator.
Provide me with a brief history of Daniel Pope Karate and how this all started?
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| http://www.danielpopekarate.com/ The Trademark for Daniel Pope Karate |
Your son and you have won competitions. Which one was your favorite?
Dan Jr. competed throughout the United States he was ranked number 1
in 1993-95 in the tri-state area (Greater Philadelphia Area). He was
also ranked #3 in NASKA (North American Sport Karate Association) and he
traveled all over the middle Atlantic Region, and I competed 15 times. My biggest thrill and
honor was when we competed in 1991 World Tang Soo Do championship in the
Civic Center and the greatest honor and thrill, thrills actually the
word is that we were fighting side by side in my division and his
division and we were both going for the number one spot.
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| Mr. Pope Sr. left with grand daughter and Mr. Pope Jr. right. http://www.danielpopekarate.com/ |
What are the titles of you and your instructors?
I am an
international master now, 6th degree black belt. I’m general manager
of this studio. Four years ago I sold out to my son, I am semi-retired, and I
teach three days a week so I still run the studio. We have other masters that
run classes. There are only masters teaching here which combined is about 70
years worth of experience. Master Kunis is a 5th degree black belt,
Master Walters is a 5th degree, I’m a 6th degree, and my
son is a 6th degree. Do you have any future plans for Daniel Pope’s Institute to expand out?
No
the worst thing you can do in business is keep opening up other
businesses without really establishing yourself, even though we are very
established here we are not going to expand. If you are going to expand
you have to have very good instructors. Not only do you have to have
very good instructors you have to have very good business men because
when you sit here I am an instructor, martial arts instructor, but I am a
business man and also you have to have a skill set of motivating
children, and adult students, you got to counsel, you have to know how to
market, you have to know customer service, you have to wear a lot of
hats. Just because someone can jump six feet and do full splits doesn’t
make him open up a school. Many schools have done that and many schools
have closed but we are still here because first of all you have to be a
people person plus know your product and our product is martial arts. So
you just can’t open up a school and put someone in there because he is a
very good martial artist. If he is not a good business person, good
people person you’re not going to succeed. I raised children, I have a
granddaughter, I know how to motivate, and I know how to teach. The only
way you get that way is through experience. Through years no matter
what you do in life.
What you would say makes your school stick out from other schools, you are a good business person, and you have the karate skill to teach self defense.
Absolutely and we have a solid foundation. Right now it’s our reputation, we don’t even have to advertize. People say oh we trained with so and so our neighbor or you taught our children so its reputation.
So you’re relying heavily on word of mouth?
Yup
by being here all these years proves it. Before here 4 businesses here
have failed. Before I took over in 1991 so I’m still here. My son uses
Facebook primarily to keep in touch with his students and if he wants to
Market it. And also as you know he is an author and he has written two
books, it helps. The only advertizing we do is called reach local that
when you key in karate or martial arts our name will pop up so that is
the extent of the marketing, and the Facebook has some value. No
twitter.Testimonials
What do you teach here?
Character, self-defense, we teach good health, and we
teach violence is not the answer. Violence is never the answer, violence
creates more violence and that we only use our martial arts if we have
to. If we have to is a last resort and especially today with bullies. We
teach them how to deal with bullies, because bullies right now are an
epidemic, major epidemic. Also you have these flash mobs where they are
beating up on people 5-6 kids beating up on elderly seniors.
Or the veteran who has one eye…
Isn’t
that horrible? I just hope that never happens to me. First off you have
to be aware, and that poor guy wasn’t aware, you always have to be
aware of your surroundings. We always talk about that no
matter where you are in life you just have be aware even when I walk out
this door I look you just never know.
They can be waiting for you by yourself at night time.
Yup absolutely you never know
That must be scary when you’re running a business sometimes
Sure
always, and you just have to be aware and that’s what I teach people to
be aware of your environment. And unfortunately today its changed so
much from when I was younger you know you never heard too much of
teenagers beating up on senior citizen.
And there’s no such thing as a fair fight anymore its knife or gun
This
just happen over here in Springfield, did you read it? At the Wawa last
month (January 2012) two boys made an arrangement to fight at the Wawa,
and the one was losing and the other one pulled a knife and stabbed
him. 15 years old, and that’s why I teach the knife to my black belts
how to defend against it. 15 years old, imagine you say fair one. Well
this guy he was losing and he just stabbed him. Where are the parents?
See everything. There’s no such thing as a bad child its parenting , if
the parents do their job at home, the schools do their job, and the
activities, these positive activates like the martial arts at the right
school we all do our job in a community we will be successful with our
children. But it all starts at home what is a kid carrying around a
knife for? A parent doesn’t know that. Doesn’t a parent know what they
put on Facebook? Stabbing in Sprinfield
So we know that you teach self defense, fitness, respect, and not to fight, violence is not the answer, and how to deal with bullies. So could you give me an example of how you would teach any particular one just one particular example like how would you go about teaching let’s say a normal self defense like a headlock?
My
philosophy, my system I created by studying different techniques of all
the disciplines out there. It’s sometimes very difficult to learn
self-defense, I made it easier. And I made it easier by coming up with
these principles. Diversion shot, break away, finish him off, or run.
And the diversion shot is critical in my system. Diversion is that you
loosen the opponent up with a diversion shot, you take his mind off the
hold so if somebody grabs you in a head lock the other one of my
philosophies is closest weapon, closest target. So if somebody grabs you in a headlock you visualize that now what’s
the closest you know, so he has you in a head lock, I want you to turn
your head toward his chest so you can breath and it doesn’t affect your
larynx and you put your hand there between your throat and the larynx
and you can hit him in the groin and then we can just take him down by
just pulling his leg out or pushing it down and at that time I teach the
students you either finish him off, or if their bigger
run way cause safety is first, safety’s first, and there’s nothing wrong
with running away if you see something, you know if they are too big,
if they are bigger than you, or if there are more than one do what you
can to avoid the problem by running away. Don’t be stupid, don’t stand there.
How do you decide what to teach?
I
don’t share anything unless I know it’s proven, I work it out first.
Any new technique I work it out first. I test it; I test it with other
masters. And then unfortunately you can only teach my really advance
stuff to the older students now a lot of them have left and gone off to
college and everything so I watch what I teach the students. Its
depending on the maturity level, depends on how long they have been with
me what’s their rank, and if they are psychology ok I always want to
make sure. The main thing is violence is never the answer I constantly
preach that no matter if it is a child or an adult cause it isn’t. I’ll
walk away and I’ve walked away many times. There are plenty of times in
the car you get the Italian salute you know, you know someone’s tooting a
horn and you just bite your tongue and you go ok.
When do you have classes throughout the week?
We
have classes Monday through Thursday and we have 12 classes Mon-Thurs
now down at Lansdowne we have more students and there are more classes
and more instructors. but here in Springfield it seems there involved in
a lot of different activities that AA association in Springfield they
are playing baseball, Soccer, on Saturdays we used to be up to about a
year ago we were open on Saturdays but it didn’t pay cause nobody was
coming on Saturdays because of all the other activities the students the
children are involved in so that’s just being good business you don’t pay somebody X dollars an hour to teach to sit here and nobody is coming in, our masters do very well.
Master Pope has a very welcoming personality, entering with a hug and a quick tour around the studio made me feel at home. His students are energetic and enthusiastic about what they are learning. It is apparent that he loves what he teaches by the sheer detail he was giving me. An interview that was scheduled to last 30 minutes lasted over an hour. It's apparent this man could talk about self-defense all night. If you would like more detail about Master Pope Karate his website is listed below.
Master Pope has a very welcoming personality, entering with a hug and a quick tour around the studio made me feel at home. His students are energetic and enthusiastic about what they are learning. It is apparent that he loves what he teaches by the sheer detail he was giving me. An interview that was scheduled to last 30 minutes lasted over an hour. It's apparent this man could talk about self-defense all night. If you would like more detail about Master Pope Karate his website is listed below.
Check out their website!
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Get It Right, Get It Tight- Karate At Daniel Pope Karate Institute!
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