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[Milldog1776]

What are some of the best (lamest) excuses you have heard from a potential student?

Here's my favorite...."I didn't know you were 45 minutes away from my house. Do you know of anyone closer?" That cracks me up. The last guy who said that, I just laughed. I've traveled 6 hours one-way before to train with people! I also traveled over an hour one-way 2 times a week prior to receiving my instructorship. It just cracks me up that most people won't go further than the closest 7-11 or Taco Bell to train.

[Trembula]

Lamest excuses...

"I won't ever need this stuff, I'm going to be a _____ (fill in the blank with your choice of Surface Warfare Officer, Submarine Officer, Navy Pilot, Naval Flight Officer, etc)"... it appears they have never heard of Shore Patrol or OOD.

"I don't need this stuff, I'll just shoot/pull a gun on them..." (well, where's your gun right now?)

"Let me know if you are doing anything..." - I gave up on this one upon the realization that a student to lazy to schedule individual lessons wasn't worth having.

Oddly enough, with only one significant exception, the most dilligent students I have had during the time I taught my "Friday Night CQC Class" at USNA were the civilians who drove 45 minutes or an hour out of their way to come train. And the least dilligent and most lacaidaisical were the Midshipmen destined to become officers in our Navy and Marine Corps (sometimes in spite of themselves...). Due to red tape and just the joy of teaching and training, I never charged anything for the classes and ironically the ones with the greatest ability to pay (civilians) took it a lot more seriously than the ones with the least ability to pay (the Mids).

It's not related to CQC training, except in a tangential way, but the irony of the following never ceases to amaze me...

"Why do you carry a knife?" they ask... "To cut things, since we don't have claws or the most useful teeth"... "Whatever...I don't need one" they respond, then a few (insert any amount of time) later, they ask "Hey, anybody got something to cut this with?"

[Milldog1776]

Great Stuff Trembula,

Just a caveat (spelling?), I bet you would of had an even greater retention rate if you had been able to charge for your class (I hate red tape btw). It has been my experience (I'm sure I'm not the first) that a free thing has no "value" attached to it. I know tht sounds pretty Zen , but if something is discounted...then a person tends to feel like they are really getting something good. Free runs out of novelty after a while...but when you pay for something you remember it longer...and you remember that someone is doing you a favor. I do nothing for free. I discount a lot.

Just my little Zig Ziglar / Tom Peters bit for the evening. 

[Trembula]

Well Milldog1776, I sure could of used the extra bucks...

You are right, some people don't associate value with anything that is free. Peter Brusso addresses this very well in his audio CD entitled "Sensei-hood". On the other hand, when I first started training, my folks had to scrape by to pay for my tuition at the school I was training at and to be honest, they should of spent the money on something else, not because it wasn't good training, but because we didn't make that much. Coming from that end of the economic spectrum, I have always had sympathy for the folks who want to train but honestly can't afford the going rate, if even a fraction of that. Of course, barter arrangements are great and often worth more in the long run than a few bucks of cold hard cash, and are a viable solution for folks who don't have the money.

From a military perspective, those who teach Combatives as a collateral or voluntary duty to their fellow troops don't do it for any extra pay - they either do it because they were assigned to on top of their regular MOS or out of the sheer goodness of their heart.

Dan

[ExJKD]

I, (and don't take this the wrong way) get this one from a lot of women..
..who perhaps see it as "macho" stuff..; "Oh, I'LL be fine!"

Nevermind the fact that a good percentage of the crimes I hear about on the news such as rape and muggings star women as the victims......

[ExJKD]

Of course...

..I get it from many men as well, for sure..."Oh thats an over-reaction,
I live in a good neighborhood".


I see, do you suppose criminals ONLY hang out in poor areas?
I mean sure they do..thats where all the money is..riiiight?

[mleone]

I travel over 45 mins every thursday. If you want to train. You actually just do it!
Like Nike 

[Deadeye Dave]

I used to drive over an hour each way to train 5 times a week! On 2 days a week I would drive from where I lived to training, back to work, and back to training again in the evening. I was NOT exceptional in this regard. We had students who drove from as far away as New Orleans and Baton Rouge and my dojo is in Atlanta! One student moved here from OREGON to train full time.

People who won't make the effort deserve to be trained in a McDojo.

[Meredith]

Years ago I was trying to fill a women's RBSD workshop that I was holding at a local gym, so I set up a table in the lobby and had some video running so people could get an idea of what the course involved. This woman walked up, took a look at the footage of another woman fighting with this giant "Mr. Potatohead on steroids" looking guy and said, "I want to learn to defend myself like that, but I'm concerned about getting injured." (Considering the full-force padded-assailant aspect of what we do, it's a very common reaction among women). I told her that I understood, but in fact, the most common injury we see in class is broken finger nails. (True) She smiled and held up 10 perfectly manicured nails and wiggled them for me to admire as she said, "Hmmm, I'm VERY fond of my nails" and then turned and walked away! Amazing...I guess she has her priorities straight...

As much as it: 1) saddens me 2) frustrates me 3) pisses me off to hear stupid excuses like that, I have to remind myself that, due to my prior assault history, it took me almost 6 months to gather the courage to sign up for my first class. Self defense training is always going to be a hard sell for many women, as there is a HUGE component of resistance, fear and denial to overcome. Even in this day and age where the need for it is obvious, the "ostrich with her head in the sand" syndrome is all too common...you know, "If I don't acknowledge the danger, it won't find me...".

People do things when they are ready or when they perceive a need, so when I encounter a woman who is just full of great excuses, "Oh, it's THIS weekend? I already made plans, but DEFINITELY let me know when the next class is, O.K.?" or "Actually, I've been thinking about it and I walk and talk really tough, so I don't think I need this training after all.", instead of giving in to my desire to scream "ARE YOU KIDDING ME WITH THESE EXCUSES?" or try to make her see the error of her thinking or convince her with statistics, I just tell her how learning these skills changed my life and then I make sure she has my number...then I keep my fingers crossed that she'll decide to get some training BEFORE anything bad happens (or happens again...).

[jpmbujutsu]

Excuses,
Well I just got a big promotion at work.
So I told my boss i purchased a book on time management.
When my boss asked me if I had read the book.
I replied. I haven't had the time.

[Hock]

"I don't need this stuff, I'll just shoot/pull a gun on them..." (well, where's your gun right now?)

Dan Trembula just posted this one excuse...
and it happened again.
Thanksgiving weekend I worked the Dallas Gun Show-which is a whole thread all unto itself. I was running an assortment of  DVDs playing on the laptop and two guys walked by and looked at one and said, "I'd just pull my gun." The other guy laughed.

I looked up from my book and and said, "You got it now?"
He said,"Always got it!"
I said, really freindly and enquiringly.."Oh, what kind ya got." and stood up. 
"Ahhhh...its in the car." was the answer.

Gun shows are really taking a nose dive. there are just too many of them. Week after week.

Hock

[ExJKD]

WElp, off the subject, I got turned off to gun shows when the last one I went to in Nevada is where I ran into one pimple-faced loser who posrted camo pants and a t shirt that said "The Only Thing I feel When I Kill Is The Recoil Of My Weapon".

Most obnoxious thing I have ever heard.

[Kevbo]

One of the best I have heard so far,"I don't plan on ever being raped or anything like that"