Tips on Annoying the Caretaker at Training

[garage]

1 There is nothing better than staying in the carpark after training and talking about Karate every week so the it can't be locked up.

This is enhanced when asked to leave by looking as if you have just stood in something and you might attack them.

2 Pay for the hall fees in change, people always enjoy putting them in piles and being late leaving as a result of counting the change.

3 Frighten small female receptionists by wearing training pajamas and banging kick sheild on the table. Explain you behave like this because you had a bad day and then offer lesson when most people can frighten small women receptionist without lessons.

4 when you've been breaking stuff leave the broken bits all over the floor so someone else can clean it up.

5 Be really supprised when you behave like this and you do not have anywhere to train anymore.

[Allan Shepherd]

Hi Bert

Why?

Best Regards
Allan

[garage]

Tongue in cheek, If you spend a long day at work then have to wait while they chin wag every week, all of the above has happened.

If you are nice to the caretaker they can be most helpful. When some instructors behave like this it makes it hard for other instructors to find training venues.

[kensei]

Not just care takers...got some more for you.

How to make a bad impression as an instructor....

1. Take fees under the table whent hey are supposed to be paid to the facility directly..then get mad when they up the amount they take out of the fees! Act really idignant even though you are basically ripping them off!

2. Take national dues because they are cash and dont report them to the board that has to pay national dues and expect them to cover the cost.

3. Teach saying things like "20 years ago I was a national champion and you all suck" and dont even try to teach them correctly. in fact once they scrape their way to a higher belt and self learn most of the time have them teach for you while you give out "life lessons" you have no business giving out.

4. Insult everyone, take money that you should not take and when it comes time for you to teach at seminars...dont...keep the money however and still send your students...cuz well you need the money!

5. dont pull your weight in any way shape or form, leave it to others, but when a important instructor comes out...tell him all the good stuff that has hapened was all you! You are the important one and you did all this...even though your Karate input comes down to ripping off your students and the organization and doing nothign.

6. Tick off as many different facilities and move around as much as you can burning as many bridges as you can..then expect your students to find a new one once you are given the boot from your current facility..

We HAD an instructor like this who left us...thank God and not soon enough. The truth is some times having a very tallented instructor with natural ability...is not as important as having instructors and students who are all happy!

[malk103]

I've had some Caretaker problems even though we didn't do anything nasty to annoy them, apart from maybe answering a few questions on the way to cars and delaying him by 1 minute - he did respond with a loud wolf whistle though to completely embaress us.

Before that we had "hurding" out of the gym with lots of keys rattling at a minute past the hour, constant references to dinners going cold, finishing earlier, having to wait around. The fact they lived next to the school and not miles away.
In the end we had students leaving due to the atmosphere so we had to seek another venue.
It works both ways I suppose.

[garage]

Agreed that there are 2 sides to every story. I have a number of caretakers that work with me and one or two are rather keen on the key rattling as a form of non-verbal communication. They can be encouraged to stop.

The instructor above obviously had issues for him to pay in change but I never found what they where as he didn't bother to tell anyone. If he made a complaint it may have been dealt with instead of him behaving like a spoilt chid and expecting someone to ask what was wrong.

We normally lock the building down first which takes about 30 minutes and often they are still sat there after that. I have done it myself when visiting other venues and felt guilty.

You are right, key rattling is really annoying too.

[nathanso]

If someone was a "caretaker" of a facility and people were hanging around and keeping him from going home at the end of his work shift, I don't blame him for being pissed. It sounds like you are making him work overtime without pay.

[malk103]

The norm is to hire for an hour or 1.5 hours and have a total of 30 minutes setting up and clearing away time - 15 minutes before/after your hire time, so 6:45-8:15pm.
In my case we were ushered/pressured to clear off so fast that I was often in my car driving away at 8:07pm with several questions and keys still ringing in my ears.
One of the last things the caretaker said was to start/finish the class earlier - after I had just delivered several hundred of leaflets with the times on.... and knowing that I came straight from work.
Then a very loud and long moan about taking too long to finish/change/exit in front of the remaining students, that was pretty much the last straw.
You normally expect some students to stop after a few weeks but we were losing loads, our other clubs had no problem in retaining students.
My latest lesson around the corner had 14 attend with more beginners! The hall custodians have given us our own key and hinted that we can use it either side of the times so long nothing else is going on. I normally open up at 10am on a Sunday, practice Kata, teach for 1.5 hours, chat for 20 mins and then practice Kata again. ;D
Anyone near Bath (Odd Down) on a Sunday is welcome...

Our other clubs are normally open anyway and the new one in Westbury on a Wednesday night has a really nice caretaker!