American Zen Judo - The Future

Posted: Mon May 02, 2005 15:44

It was with sadness that I read the e-mail from Sensei Cavalcanti regarding the situation which The American Zen Judo Family finds its self in. I believe that unlike American the UK seems to have a large number of small village and church halls and schools available for running clubs in and from that point of view we are able to keep minority martial arts clubs viable for the most part.

But from past experience I know that many clubs have a hard time finding and keeping members when they have to contend with large commercial leisure centres who have the money for large advertising campaigns and the ability to put on a martial art each day of the week, no matter that it might be on the same day as a local club which has been operating for years.

The situation which is present in the US is very likely to be the situation we will have here in another 10 years time. This will mean that all small martial arts clubs will be squeezed out of the running and only the large commercial concerns will survive. I hope I'm wrong but as hall hire costs climb the ability of clubs to be run on a non profit making basis will become more and more difficult to achieve.

John Crying or Very sad