What exactly is a McDojo?

[Mervyn]

I know its a bad place for martial arts, but how can you tell if a school is one? What about the prices? What should the right amount be? [lets say 1 hour of training each day]

[UseoForce]

Signs of McDojo:

Fast rank advance (Black belt in a year or two).

Young kids (under 12) with black belts.

Heavy testing fees and other hidden fees in addition to high dues.

Promises of rank or skill level after X amount of time.

Shady instructor credentials.

People being promoted without requisite skills.

May be some, all, or none of the above, but that's the general idea.

[Mervyn]

Mmm OK, where should the price and hour range for non-McDojo schools?

[ivette_green]

24 hours a month divided by 25 dollars a month, whatever that turns out to be in dollars an hour is a very good rate (IMO and all that).

[UseoForce]

Depends greatly, both on the particular school and the art.

For example, BJJ is expensive for 2 reasons.

1) There are very few groundfighting schools in a given area (except for large cities), so there is no competition.

2) BJJ is simply in high demand. Economics 101

Arts like Judo and TKD will usually be cheaper.

Time spent training will just depend on the school.

[TKDguy]

actually that really depends, but I will give it a shot:

Taekwondo: $50 to $90 per month, Im paying 85 for unlimited classes

Judo: about the same 50 to 90

Hapkido or Aikido: might cost you a little bit more since there is less students in it but if you have a good sensei who teaches for art and not money it will be pretty low Im doing Hapkido for free same for Aikido my Taekwondo Teacher teaches me it.

Muai Tai:I heard some people paying 60 per month for it

Karate: about 50 to 90 per month

so Practicly Im paying 85 dollars for Taekwondo, Hapkido and Aikido per month, Im so lucky!!!

[Mervyn]

I'm looking at this website near my area and the prices are $45 per week/$79 [unlimited] for Kids and $50 per week/$89 [unlimited] for adults. Looking at the class schedule, it only lasts about an hour [4:15pm-5:00pm for kids] each day.

[G95champ]

Prices change based on your location. Classes in LA are going to run more than those in Montanna.

McDojo simply is in it for the money. They prob. have a lot of tests and things to make extra cash with. They prob. want you to sign a big long term contract.

You also deal with teachers who are not good teachers. They may have a lot of belts and stuff to show how good they are. Physically they may be good. However they prob. have no ties to any famous teacher or org. you can trace. You may also see a lot of asst. instructors teaching that are not qualified.

Now with all that said you may have some of those in your dojo and you may NOT be in a McDojo. Running a dojo cost money and there is not a great deal of money to be made in Martial Arts so yes it is about the money sad to say. Also to get people in you may have to offer extra classes that the main teacher don't have time to teach and may allow a high ranked student to teach it.

Its really a gray area but when I see 6 year old black belts I call them McDojo's.

[UseoForce]

give us the website, we'll check it out

[Mervyn]

Here is the website

http://www.oyamakarate-sf.com/