Very New; Trying to avoid "McDojos"

[15love]

What is a "McDojo?" Is it a chain of dojos under the same owner that produces inferior product? How does a newbie recognize one?

[bushido_man96]

What is a "McDojo?" Is it a chain of dojos under the same owner that produces inferior product? How does a newbie recognize one?

Not necessarily. An instructor with several school branches might be a very good instructor, who produces good black belts, and therefore has a good product to put out.

But there are some warning signs. Watch some classes, and see how good the black belts look. See if you can tell who looks like a beginner, intermediate, and advanced. Then, get into the pricing and how they run testings and such. See if they have some "packages" that tend to do nothing more than make them extra money. If the higher ranked students tend to look a lot like the lower ranked students, then there might be some issues there. Look into things like that. Hopefully, that helps.

[15love]

What is a "McDojo?" Is it a chain of dojos under the same owner that produces inferior product? How does a newbie recognize one?

Not necessarily. An instructor with several school branches might be a very good instructor, who produces good black belts, and therefore has a good product to put out.

But there are some warning signs. Watch some classes, and see how good the black belts look. See if you can tell who looks like a beginner, intermediate, and advanced. Then, get into the pricing and how they run testings and such. See if they have some "packages" that tend to do nothing more than make them extra money. If the higher ranked students tend to look a lot like the lower ranked students, then there might be some issues there. Look into things like that. Hopefully, that helps.

Thanks. I've only attended one adult class, but I was extremely impressed with all that attended. The lowest belt, in the class, was a 4th Kyu & she was good. My kumite partner was a BB and obviously outclassed me by a mile, so it was a good sign that there is a ton I could learn from my current dojo. And then there's the owner, who was beyond great, IMO. It only took me a few minutes observing his teaching techniques & examples to realize I would love to be 1/2 as good as him someday.

[bushido_man96]

That's great. It sounds like you've got something good going for you there. Keep us posted on your progression.