Is it a MCdojo?

[BudoTiger]

$130 for classes isn't bad depending on what your getting. In southern california it ranges anywhere between 80 to 300 a month depending on where you go and how many classes you take, whether you take private lessons or not. i was paying $165 a month at my old school for 4 group classes a week and a half hour private lesson.

[danbong]

$130 a month for group classes is very typical in high cost or large metropolitan areas. It looks like Clarksburg is on the edge of Washington DC, so that would fit both counts. If you have a modest size school in a desirable location in those areas, rent alone is easily $4000 and up per month. So you need to have 40 to 50 students paying over $100 a month just to break even. That explains the marketing drive to enroll students and the fairly (to you) expensive tuition.

Oh, and let's not forget, the landlord typically wants to see 6 months of rent in the bank, which means that you have to have $25,000 cash on hand. Not too many people are going to make that kind of investment just to hope to break even.

For some of the other items you listed - spending lots of time working on basic techniques is the sign of a non-McDojo. That's how you build great technique, not how you attract and retain lots of lazy students. Age doesn't matter too much. Young instructors tend to have lots of energy and enthusiam. And you can have a ton of good experience by the time you are 25. On the other hand, they might not have highly developed people skills. Sometimes younger instructors also think that because martial arts is the most important thing in their life, it should be the most important thing in yours too.

My summary would be that don't worry about if your school is a McDojo or not. Think about if your school is meeting your needs or not.

[mmljpp]

seems fine to me

[mortalflesh]

It seems fine to me as well. 25yrs old does seem a little young to be running what seems to be a "for profit" dojo. The price seems a little high to me, although I pay $40 a month for my Shotokan training...which is about standard around here, but then again our dojo isn't in a shopping centre.

Regarless of what others may think, if you feel good about your art then stick with it. It sounds good to me. Someone else mentioned that the word "McDojo" is thrown around way too much and I agree. There is one popular MMA forum that seems to throw that around to define any traditional form of martial art. So take it with a grain of salt.

[Throwdown0850]

130 dollars seems like way way way too much to me!! I dont care how much training you get!! Maybe its just me, but I only paid 30 dollars a month and helped out around the dojo, ( which wasn't much work at all )... honestly, I wouldn't pay a cent over 80 a month for any training....

[Rateh]

Throwdown it really depends on where you live. In vegas the cheapest school was $40 dollars a month. And it was in a really scary run down part of town. The part where there isn't much lighting and you're always afraid your car won't be there come class end. They were a non-profit dojo as well.

[DWx]

$40 a month seems cheap to me. I shell out (my parents shell out) £20 a week which is about $40 dollars. A month that works out to around $160. And I only have 4-5 hours a week.

[Sam]

I think you'll find that's tagb.... hehe And I can say that I'm a member

[armanox]

and how could you not have heard of Kicks karate? its the mcdonald of karate.

I'm English - we have GKR instead

Don't feel bad. I live in the same state as Sir Gerbil and I've never heard of them.

Wow, thread necromancy.....I might have to pay Sir Gerbil's school a visit....

[cjgotti]

Depends how often you go a week? I might have missed that in your post. My current master has allowed me to do a 6 month contract (their minimum time) for 108 a month...once a week. I'm not crazy about it but I knoe I can afford it. Unfortunately the classes aren't that long, but we get quite the work out during then (I've only been to one so far)