Ken Pankiewicz

I’ve just returned from the EFC Summit in Washington DC. I wanted to share some highlights with you and give an insight into why you should travel to next year’s event in Nashville. There were over 800 school owners, programme directors or instructors eager to train and improve their business knowledge.
Mike Allen did an excellent job of making sure all the UK visitors met-up several times a day to exchange notes plus introducing them to US school owners. At night we had dinner together and a drink in the bar to continue the networking!

Day 1
Thursday started with registration then four great breakouts. I went to Paul Garcia who gave valuable information on retention. I came away with info on running a “coach’s day” and father and son “punch and lunch.”
Next-up was Steve Doyon who focused on low cost marketing ideas. He handed out a folder with samples of all his internal marketing that he is doing in his school of 700 students! In his 60 minute presentation there was enough info to enrol at least 15 students each month for very little cost.
The other 2 speakers were Charles Chi on Social Media Marketing and Dave Kovar on Mastery Mindset
The evening workout and the Martial Arts being shared were outstanding too. Sifu Luigi Cuellar and Sifu Alex Chan did an awesome six station/six art workout on Thursday night. Followed by the amazing Kyoshi Dave Kovar with his never ending blend of skills and drills.
The evening finished on an emotional high as several high ranks were presented between Hanshi Greg Tearney and Grand Master Fred Degerberg. Multi-styles, multi-generations all demonstrating great respect and support of each other…an awesome start!

Day 2
Friday morning started with us all together. It was a great feeling joining 800 fellow martial artists in the same room. We were asked to think about this year’s theme “the turning point”; how can you make a difference in your martial arts school and community. There were several speakers giving their personal thoughts on the theme backed up with videos. Mr Nicholas Cokinos gave his Chairman’s speech and offered valuable insights and wisdom from his experience in running EFC for over 30 years.
The main martial arts display was headed up by Sifu Dennis Brown; it showed his personal journey from 30 years of Kung Fu training and included a display by the Shaolin Monks. It was great. Then Ernie Reyes the head of West Coast Tae Kwon Do gave a dazzling display with his 3 kids. (I want to look like him, when I am 63 years old!). It was a world class line-up of stars and performers.
The afternoon featured a choice 25 different seminars. The UK group spread themselves out to get to as many as possible. We then will exchange the notes amongst everyone from the group
The evening awards banquet and dinner was an excellent time to see everyone dressed up. Again Mike Allen had organised a table for the UK and Australian clients at the front of the hall. It was great to see many of the awards going to UK clients and staff. I was proud to collect Instructor of the Year on behalf of KickFit instructor Richard Parks.

Day 3
Saturday morning started fast & furious with former Dalai Lama body guard and World renowned Ninja, Stephen Hayes. Plus, Bruce Lee’s daughter, Shannon Lee along with a brief Demo by Garland Johnson and his wife Bridgett.
Then we had Steve LaVallee presenting his keynote speech on “Learn from the Past…Prepare for the Future.”  He always generates great excitement and gave out some real gems of information based on his experience. He had 60 members of his staff at the event!
The three breakouts were divided for Programme Directors, Instructors and Owners. In the owners seminar Mr Cokinos gave plenty of excellent reminders and the weekend came to an exciting Grand Finale with the talented Gabrielle’s Martial Arts Demo Team. What an excellent weekend of bonding, learning, sharing, training and inspiration.

How to Get to Next Year’s Summit
I have been a member of the EFC since 1997, this summit rates as one of the best. I urge you to make the effort and join us for next year. You will be surrounded by world class martial artists and have the chance to add to your business network. Attending each year has helped me grow the KickFit schools to their current level
Rules of 3 to Get to Next Year’s Summit
•    Call your account executive and book your place – consider monthly payments to make it easier to budget
•    Book your flights to Nashville early next year to get the best price. Use a good travel agent eg: Trailfinders or on-line booking eg: Skyscanner or Opodo. Also watch out for airline seat sales, British Airways usually has one during January or February
•    Pay a monthly amount from January, into a separate account to cover your hotel and living expenses. Mike Allen can give you more details on how much
I too would be happy to help with any questions you might have about attending the Summit.

Ken Pankiewicz

The EFC Drills & Skills Workshop run by Ken Pankiewicz and his staff at his Kickfit Academy HQ in Slough was an outstanding success.  Twenty six clients and staff from all over the UK enthusiastically arrived bang on time, in uniform ready for what proved to be one of the very best ‘on the mat’ Workshops we have run so far.

The meeting started with an actual Little Champions class with ten small children being taught by their regular Instructor Richard Howton.  The class started with the children bowing to the parents who all stood up and recited the Student Creed with the children.  Richard then skilfully worked through his lesson plan, handling the ‘spinners’ and ‘chatterboxes’ with great skill.  The children were kept busy throughout and they thoroughly enjoyed the class.

Once the parents and children had left there was a very lively Q&A about the class.  Everyone then got on the mat and Richard took them through some additional Little Champions Drills with the attendees as the students.

Kickfit Instructors Richard Parks and Sarah Davis then took the attendees through Junior Class drills including warm up routines, message of the week and pad work drills.  The class was followed by a Q & A and general critique by Ken.

Ken then covered some Adult Class Drills before running through the Instructor Reference Guide that he uses to train his instructors, concluding the meeting with another Q & A session.

The workshop then closed and after some general networking the attendees left with many of them having very long journeys back to North Wales, Cornwall, the South Coast, the East Coast and the West Country, but all of them were looking forward to the exciting changes they were going to make in their school.

The Workshop was very good and we have received excellent feedback.  Every one was very appreciative of the information they received and the enthusiasm and time that Ken and his Instructors gave us so freely.

I was impressed when I heard Mr. Cokinos speaking about our purpose in promoting black belts. Students entrust us with their time and their bodies in order to promote themselves to black belt. I think it is important that we all work harder to get our students to the place they need to be.

It is important to put time into our students. Also, we have to have a plan. If students have a game plan, their chances of performing well are higher, provided they put in time and effort.

If you were a student of mine, I would grade you in five different areas when it comes to black belt promotions: attendance and commitment, spirit and energy (it is our job as coaches to pull it out of them), knowledge and skills, fitness (flexibility, strength and stamina) and lastly, martial arts protocol. These have to be explained to students so they know how to achieve them, and this is done right from the beginning, when they go in for their first round of testing.

Mike Allen

Good morning everyone.

The fabulous EFC International Summit this year is being held in the superb Ritz Carlton Hotel in Key Biscayne Florida on the 1,2 &3 October 2009.

Where on this planet can you go for 2 days and be trained by the best of the best?   The speakers are the greatest in the martial arts field, not only in terms of training, but also in terms of business.  Their expertise is truly unmatched and the best thing is, they will readily share their ideas with you.  If you are truly serious about improving your operation so that you can teach more students the benefits of training in the Martial Arts, then you just owe it to yourself and your school to be there.
The EFC fee is £185.00, which covers Summit entry:

* 24 workshops to choose from
* Handouts and study material to take home
* Banquet Dinner
* EFC Passport/Workbook

The Summit Hotel costs $318 per night which includes all taxes so there are no additional costs.  The  Hotel  also provide two free lunches per day and a packed lunch when you leave.  The rooms usually have two double beds, so they will sleep four people.  We stayed at this Hotel in 2007 and it is superb, right by the sea, super pool etc.  ‘Live the life of your dreams ‘.

To book your flights you might like to try the following web site:

http://www.travelsupermarket.com/flights/results.aspx?masterquery=true&aggregationid=1574000000000075533&available=40&BnBOption=1

Contact your Account Executive by phone or email today to book your place at the Summit.

I hope you can make it this year ‘As it will  change your life’.

Mike Allen

Ivan Kravitz

EFC USA Board Member, Master Ivan Kravitz will host the upcoming Meeting of Minds, in Nottingham. If you’re serious about growing your business, you must attend this meeting!

Date: 20th – 21st June 2009

Venue: Shudokan BBA, Nottingham, England

EFC UK Advisory Board Member, Ken Pankiewicz

UK Advisory Board Member Ken Pankiewicz and his wife Anne-Marie are currently holidaying in Brisbane, Australia, on the 11th Ken will fly to New Zealand where he will present a Y-Factor meeting at Tom and Olivia Coopa’s school before returning to Brisbane to continue his holiday.

By Debbie Thompson

In writing this article, I am assuming that you are taking your team to the Summit (very wise on your part) and that they have earned their way (again, very wise on your part). I am also assuming that you have signed up with EFC, booked your flights, and have your hotel reservations. Now, how do you insure that your money and time will pay you back ten-fold?

Let’s go through the list of things to do for your team and to tell your team to set them up for success.

Continue reading →

Here’s why you need to register immediately!

Here’s what the veterans of EFC have to say about why everyone must go…

Because in order for you to stay on top of the martial arts game, you have to go to the best conference. For instance, when we are talking about 45 minute classes, where did we get that idea from? EFC. Did it work well? Yes. When we first started our business and talked about contract amount vs. people taking money in each day, it gives us longevity, because we know that the contract amount will be there. Where did we learn this from? EFC. So if you don’t want to go to the EFC Summit, it is almost like you don’t want to be in the martial arts business for a long time.

—Tony Thompson West Coast Tae Kwon Do Continue reading →

Twenty clients attended a very successful X Factor meeting facilitated by EFC UK Board Member and top school owner Ken Pankiewicz. The meeting was held at Lee and Lisa Kent’s beautiful new school in Cheltenham and everyone was made very welcome. Many of the clients had not previously attended an EFC Meeting and most had travelled long distances to attend.

The meeting covered the Enrolment process from start to finish, organising and running a Black Belt Graduation, why you need to know your gains and losses and a lively Q&A session.

The meeting was very well received and all attendees took copious notes and were busy formulating their action plans.

Many thanks to everyone who attended, to Lee and Lisa Kent for making us so welcome and of course to Ken Pankiewicz for his valuable information and time.