TreeKicker

Do you really believe people aren't suppose to punch each other in the face because of hard bones? Every fight I've ever seen in real life has had people trained and untrained punching one another in the face. One time a kid in Jr High broke his hand. One time recently someone cut their hand on a tooth. A hundred times otherwise it has been fine. Maybe someone who never lifted a weight in their life, never played a sport, and never worked outside is too weak to make a fist, but a fist is a natural part of our evolution. It isn't an artifact of gloves. There are ways of punching that aren't really good due to gloves, like big overhand rights to the top of the head, but lots of punching is just fine. It is the same as kicking. Lots of kicking is fine but shin guards teach you to kick people in the elbows. I have personally seen, repeatedly, recently, people get punched in the face out of anger and the fist goes undamaged.

People get knocked out in Kyokushin all the time because they are busy punching on another in the chest while someone kicks them in the face. I don't have any experience without face punching so I don't know how you combat that problem. Good luck.

I have to take issue with this point. I was in the ATA, and the ATA has a camouflage belt. I think most people are more irritated that its not one of the "traditional" belt colors out there. The ATA has a 9 belt system before reaching black belt status. Each rank has basics, forms, and one-steps to learn for the test. I don't think a 9 or 10 colored belt system is too out of hand now days, nor do I think that it would necessarily mean the school is a McDojo. Fair enough, Brian. Keep in mind i did say that one or two of these things does not make a McDojo. I would agree that a 9 belt system is not excessive. However, there are ATA dojos that have far more than that. It just depends on the franchise owner. Does it matter how many belts someone has or gets? Unless you think their students are lagging behind because to large of a percentage of their training time is taken up with belt testing, I don't see how it matters. If you treat your purple belts like they treat their striped belts, or if they get their 7th belt with the same amount of effort that your students get their 3rd belt, that just makes your 3rd and their 7th belts equivalent. It doesn't mean that anyone learned anything different. Do people resent the frequency with which some people get patted on the back?

I don't think it is a good idea. It gives the appearance of favoritism and can easily lead to unprofessional behavior. A lot of the time, people are looking to you as a leader. They have friends already.

McDojo is a term used by 50 guys on the internet. It is never going to gain traction with the main stream because real people get business.

Ha, thanks. I've been reading up on the business side of things a lot lately. I think businesses that get started out of passion should be successful, because generally people will share your passion. Game stores. Model train stores. Bicycle shops. Karate schools. People like this stuff just like the person that started it liked it, but people don't necessarily know about your store or what to do with it when they get there. People, I think, want to be hard core, but need help getting there. I took martial arts for years before I had the fitness or guts to start doing hard sparring, but the school I went to provided that for me, a place to train while I was weak, and then a place to train when I was strong. They also have 225+ students. They were doing something right.

You could McDojo yourself up. People get mad about McDojos because they have crossed a wire in their brains that think clean gyms + modern salesmanship = bad training. You don't have to sacrifice the quality of your school. There is good evidence that drop out rates are the same between hard and easy activities because quitters gonna quit. He's doubled the number of belts and gives them out faster? So? Your belts don't mean jack stuff anyway. Branding is a sacrament. Take out a small business loan. Use it to hire a marketing company. Get a real website and photos. Read a book on Search Engine Optimization. Clean your school up. Stop training people for free. If they aren't paying you, they are still probably paying for their smart phone and fast food. Let them get a land line and eat rice and beans if they want to train. I'm not joking. If people are coming into your "hard core school" and not hacking it, that's because you as the teacher are not doing a good enough job teaching supplemental exercises to bring them up to speed. You are selling crap they can't use. They would stay if you would help them.