If you’ve run or trained at a martial arts school for any amount of time you’ve probably had the misfortune of experiencing academy drama.

Unhappy students, disgruntled parents, coaches leaving to open their own school around the block, and rivalries with competitor schools–there seem to be an endless number of ways for drama to spark in martial arts schools.

What we see all too often is leaders and owners of schools get pulled into the drama in a public way.

Whether it’s responding to a bad google review or a disparaging comment on social media, engaging with disgruntled folks in a public forum is never a good idea.

The High Road Is Always Best

As much as it sucks, there is no way to avoid drama popping up in your school. How you deal with it is going to set the tone for how people perceive your gym.

There is no right answer, however there are certainly wrong answers.

Engaging in a public airing out of dirty laundry, or back and forth name-calling and threats is going to leave a lasting stain on your academy.

Even years after it happens, people who are looking at your school who would otherwise be completely unaware of the drama from years past will be able to find the comments you’ve left and make their own judgements based on what was said.

It’s not always easy, but the best option is to take the high road.

Stay Out of The Mud

Leaders don’t sling mud.

Take it from us, we know it’s hard not to respond publicly when a disgruntled former member starts talking trash about you, your staff, and your school online and in public.

We’ve been operating for over 25 years and dealt with these situations 100s of times.

When you take the high road and refuse to engage, you lose the ability to shape the narrative.

People are going to formulate their own opinions based on the stories that the disgruntled community member tells.

Here’s the hard part: let them do it.

You don’t need to engage with drama publicly.

When possible, we try to engage people who are slinging mud at us and personally have a conversation with them.

It’s important to not let these conversations devolve into shouting, name calling, or violence.

Speak from your point of view, do your best to understand theirs, and try to come to a common understanding.

Many times this will fix issues from becoming public crap storms.

Other times, no amount of trying to find common ground is going to work.

If you extended the olive branch and they won’t accept it, it’s time to step back and leave it alone.

Don’t engage in back and forth social media arguments, don’t air out the “truth” about your former staff member, and don’t comment negatively on the bad google review.

Focus on your school, your members, and your staff. When you sling mud, everyone gets dirty.

It’s not the easy option, but taking the high road pays off in the long run.

Eventually, the people who bought the narrative about your academy will circle back and find out who you truly are.

Focus on making sure that you’re prepared to make great individual impressions instead of trying to shape the public’s impression of you.

In the end, if you make enough good impressions then the story people tell about your school will be a positive one.