Today we’d like to introduce you to John Bryant.
Hi John, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
I started my career because of the same inspiration most of us had as kids… The ninja turtles… I have always appreciated physical challenge, from doing tree work, landscaping, and other physical jobs.
When I was 20 my instructor knew how much I liked to push myself and offered me a position working for him at his martial arts school. I was the first person in the organization to be hired based on my attributes and work ethic with no actual martial arts training (aside from ninja turtles and G.I. Joe episodes).
What inspired me the most to continue down this path was seeing the level of impact a martial arts instructor can have on a student. Both children and adults having a constant champion in their corner encouraging them and keeping their focus on improving and growing is nothing short of a miracle for what it can do for someones mindset and their future.
I originally started because of my interest in how amazing martial arts is but I quickly learned that it is so much deeper than just the physical aspect. Going into the psychology of setting goals, building confidence and improving motivation is incredible to me.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
Everyone has challenges. Shortly after earning my black belt my instructor wanted me to open and run a location for him. In the process of opening his business coach gave him multiple suggestions that were very unfortunate from starting in a location that was WAY too large for our needs, extremely poor negotiations for the location, a poor choice of starting location and not having any staff lined up leaving me to try to run everything solo.
As a 23 year old I was absolutely not equipped to run a location solo but I was thrown into the deep end.
Within a short period of time it became apparent that my instructor was not going to be able to find the staff he needed to get the location to where he needed it to be and it put me in the crosshairs for either having to close or take it over and figure it out myself. It was one of the scariest decisions I’ve had to make, going from a paycheck to starting out owing rent at the begging of each month on a location that was 3 sizes larger than I needed.
Pulling the trigger to purchase the school, although scary, turned out to be an amazing adventure for my personal life and has created so many opportunities to learn, grow, and share what I have learned with my many wonderful students.
We’ve been impressed with Super Kicks Karate, but for folks who might not be as familiar, what can you share with them about what you do and what sets you apart from others?
Teaching at Super Kicks Karate we started as a stand up martial arts school and have blended multiple styles of martial arts over the years into what we teach. Going from striking with things like Karate and Krav, to balance disruption and joint lock concepts from Aikido, all the way to when you hit the ground and are able to use jiujitsu for grappling.
Just as important as our blend of martial arts styles what I think really sets Super Kicks apart are the thousands of hours that I have spent studying and investing in learning about psychology, character development, and leadership. So many children’s programs boast about teaching character but there is no real substance aside from the hope that the activity itself will create what they say. Putting everything I am able to into our students curriculum we talk about so many valuable aspects to improving our lives and the lives of those around us. There have been years of me sitting at my computer at 1am making sure to take notes from books, audios, seminars etc and add key concepts into our leadership manual that we teach from. Every class I have stories, analogies, strategies and practical applications for how to apply the things we talk about into day to day lives.
If I were able to only express one core value of what we do it is teaching the value of dedication to improvement by overcoming the fear of failure. In class I consistently talk about the value of failure and using it to grow.
The classes we offer are very family friendly. We have classes for ages 4 through adult able to take a family class together and we also offer adult classes for self-defense tactics and Jiujitsu as well.
How do you define success?
My key definition of success in my martial arts school revolves around improving people’s mentalities. I had a student who trained when she was 12 come to me as a 24 year old and say that she still made decisions today based on what she thought I would want her to do. I consistently have parents come to me saying how much of a positive impact I have made on their child’s life.
I have created an amazing martial arts family. One of the moments that really stuck out to me in my mind as an indication of success was when I had employees who are instructors ask me if they can come in on their days off just to help teach regardless of if they are clocked in being paid. How many jobs are there that people come in because they love helping others?
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.SuperKicksKarate.net
