What exactly is a McDojo?

[tufrthanu]

OK first off...thats not 45 dollars per week...thats 45 dollars a month to go once per week. so its 79 bucks a month for unlimited classes. Thats probably about average but you can check other schools in your area to see. Thats Kyokushin Karate btw. If you see any black belts under 16 that will be a give away. I believe. Personally I don't agree with useos first 2 criteria as some of the worlds best martial artists got their black belts in short order. As to the young black belts thing...it depends. Alot of schools have them as Jr. Black Belts. If they know their stuff they know it whether they are 8 or 18. I would agree however if you find a 6 year old black belt that might not be a good sign.

[Sam]

To be honest i dont think there is a definitive guide to what McDojo is.... you relly would just have to go along and see it and decide for yourself..... you cna usually tell from teh quality when you walk in

[Rick]

Okay, one thing i've picked up on in the last decade or so is that a lot of schools get things technically wrong in the etiquette side of things. For instance i was doing a japanese martial art and the "sensei" was counting in Japanese. Only thing is i was studying japanese at school and he was coutning wrong, he was even making up numbers that i'd never heard before.

I also trained in a korean style for a while and the instructor was making us call him "sensei", whereas "sensei" is Japanese terminology for "teacher". The korean version is something like Kyo Sa Nim. When i did HapKiDo we just called our instructor "sir". You'd do well to look out for things like that.

Like everyone else has said too, young kids with blackbelts, quick and easy gradings, and hidden fees everywhere. McDojo's irritate me.

Rick.

[Adonis]

to me a mcdojo is a place that is overly expensive and you don't the quality of training to the dollar amout your spending.

Personaly I consider any thing over 100 to be kind of expensive. I would probably go 150 at the most. but if I pay that type of money a month I am expecting darn good insrustion.

[aefibird]

Looks like a good website. Give it a go and see what you think! That's the best way to find out about a place.

[y2_sub]

I navigated thorough the site and i came up with 2 conclusions :

1- World Oyama karate seems to be 99% yokushin

2- That dojo doesn’t look like a McDojo , fees are reasonable (79 unlimited), and from the photo gallery , they seem to have some good fighters , if a dojo is going to make me a good fighter then i don't care wither it was McDojo or not

[Adonis]

to me mcdojo is a combination of money seeking and poor instruction and student performance level comapred to simuluar or same style of the art.

Taekowdo, Kenpo, or any school that pushes black belts in 1 or 2 years. outrageous prices, and alot of hidden prices, that are mandatory to do pay to reach the coveted "BLACK BELT" and poor quality over all students is a mcdojo to me.

renzo gracie jiu-jitsu adacedmy in new york I think you can pay around 150 or 250 a month. thats expensive but is it a mcdojo no because of the quality of students he produces. As well as quality martial artist he is.

but if he had a rediculous program that produced low quality students alot of belts to push out there for getting more money from testing free's. then I would say its a mcdojo.

biggest thing of mcdojo is poor qaulity of students especially higher rank comapred to other schools of the same art.

[tkdBill]

McDojo is a term that seems to be used to describe any dojo that someone doesn't like. While "McDojos" definitely exist, I think the label is way too overused. You cannot use price, age of blackbelts, testing fees, etc. to make such a determination.

McDojo is a school that offers low quality training to a high volume of people. Expensive does NOT mean McDojo...in fact a very high quality school is likely to be expensive. I don't think anyone should call a school they are not thoroughly familiar with a "McDojo". Without actually experiencing the training offered and working with the students of a suspect school, you are being prejudiced.

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[Mervyn]

Alright, I'll check this place out tomorrow or something. Thanks guys!

[TJS]

Looks go to me.

Im not big into Karate but If I were to take karate it would definetly be Kyokushin or one of it's offshoot(whitch that school is)

You will proabably be in for some tought training but it will be worth it.