Mcdojos

[mal103]

Depends on what you want to teach and what your students want to learn, if it's a mix of technique, spirit, sparring and learning applications then I think this is fine, if they want to just bash hell out of each other then maybe they should try MMA or cage fighting.

A lot of students gain from confidence, humility, awareness, fitness and respect, most of these types of gains can't be taught by just sparring/grappling.

[Wado Heretic]

I generally consider a McDojo to be a place which has poor business ethics and practice, rather than necessarily poor martial practice.

Looking at the article posted; I believe the writer comes from a MMA/Free Fighting point of view and looks primarily for efficacy that can be proven “on the mat”. Sadly, Kata and a number of traditional practices do not readily fall into that paradigm. Really, it is in the eye of the beholder and the imperative of the practitioner what constitutes a “real” fighting art. If you are a Karateka, prepare to be labelled a woo peddler. The Bunkai and Karate-Jutsu phenomenon is a direct reaction to this labelling.

Kensei posted a list of qualities of a McDojo I agree with; but I do feel it covers poor commercial practice as I feel the term McDojo encompasses rather than poor martial practice which I suspect the OP is more interested in. My personal list is as follows:

1: Begin with their level of “Aliveness”. What kind of contact do they engage in, and is it relative to age or universal across age groups. That second part is important because no one expects 7 years olds to be trying to punch each other out on a regular basis. For children you should probably be expecting light-medium contact in a lot of safety gear, with compliant partner drills, and perhaps breaking with purpose made equipment. For adults, who are in their prime and beyond the beginner level, you should be expecting medium to hard contact on a relatively regular basis; with any drills being goal based, and related to kata and actual fighting. Breaking should also be a rare occurrence and designed to challenge the person attempting the effort. Done excessively with purpose made materials designed for safe breaking, it becomes meaningless.

A lack of contact, even in safety gear, inside of anything but a Tai Chi for health session is your first tick on the poor practice list.

2: Instructor involvement and fitness. Again, let us take age into consideration; is the instructor looking around 65 and not quite their trim fighting shape anymore? Let us not go expecting them to be fighting everyone when sparring comes around. However, if they under their 40s and have a belly that might just get them lucky with a walrus let us think carefully. A good instructor, in my experience, will make the effort to do everything he or she asks of you and will actively participate in partner work. The following are some questions I suggest you ask about an instructor when looking at a class:

Do they make the effort to work on an exercise at least once with every student to give direct feed back?

Do they make a point of participating in sparring on a regular basis?

Do they do the kata at least once alongside the class?

Are they happy to play the Uke when there are odd numbers?

If you can answer yes to most of these questions and it is not just a token effort, than I congratulate you. You have found a good instructor. However, if as stated, your instructor is not in their twilight years and does not make even a token effort you are dealing with either a case of A) Ego or B) Indolence. Either is a big tick box on the poor practice register.

3. Knowledge base. When asked; can the instructor offer a logical reasoning for something that can be related back to a combative meaning? If not they may be lacking in knowledge base. Furthermore, how willing are they to be asked and answer questions. Now, some teachers may have a rule of leaving your questions until the end, or may not have an immediate answer. This does not mark them as questionable; it is a refusal or inability to answer questions that marks them as such. Furthermore; look at the senior students. How readily can they assist you when you have a question or issue? Their ability to respond is a mark of their education, and that education comes from the instructor. Note; every student is an individual. Do not judge all students or the instructor on the basis of your encounter with one student.

So our third tick box is this; do they refuse to answer questions, cannot provide answers, or provide nonsensical answers? If yes, than that is our third tick.

4. Technique Quality. Again, age comes into this. We should not be expecting an older man to have the speed and power of a 27 year old. However, age is no excuse for bad technique; do they flick the wrists instead of thrusting the arm out straight? Are their kicks barely chambered and are not brought back? Is their movement closer to stomping than gliding? Not all the hall marks of bad technique, but look for clumsiness; it is a large indicator even to the untrained eye. Furthermore, observe the students. Are the black belts and brown belts closer in movement to the instructor, or the white belt that joined just a few weeks ago? That is a huge indicator of the quality of instruction. Again, use a broad view and look for general quality. Do not allow yourself to have tunnel vision on one poor student, which it is very easy to do. Furthermore; it there are a lot of black and brown belt students with poor technique, this is indicative of both poor teaching and poor business practice. This, I consider the final check on the test of a poor school.

There are many more things to check really, and best advice is to believe in your gut reaction. If something feels off it is best not to ignore. Also, I realise I sound really arrogant with such statements and frankly I am because I have learned absolutely nothing from my time practicing martial arts except how to punch people.

That is the final check, do not listen to people who out of hand dismiss ethics as integral to martial practice. I used to think it was not that important as one pays for lessons and really, is it a karate teachers business to tell you have to live? It is not, but if they have no thoughts on how the martial arts should be used, this is often indicative of them not being all that involved in thinking about their chosen art. A lack of thinking indicates a lack of committal and a fall into routine and failure to own their karate. These traits are the traits of a bad teacher.

[sensei8]

I generally consider a McDojo to be a place which has poor business ethics and practice, rather than necessarily poor martial practice.

Looking at the article posted; I believe the writer comes from a MMA/Free Fighting point of view and looks primarily for efficacy that can be proven “on the mat”. Sadly, Kata and a number of traditional practices do not readily fall into that paradigm. Really, it is in the eye of the beholder and the imperative of the practitioner what constitutes a “real” fighting art. If you are a Karateka, prepare to be labelled a woo peddler. The Bunkai and Karate-Jutsu phenomenon is a direct reaction to this labelling.

Kensei posted a list of qualities of a McDojo I agree with; but I do feel it covers poor commercial practice as I feel the term McDojo encompasses rather than poor martial practice which I suspect the OP is more interested in. My personal list is as follows:

1: Begin with their level of “Aliveness”. What kind of contact do they engage in, and is it relative to age or universal across age groups. That second part is important because no one expects 7 years olds to be trying to punch each other out on a regular basis. For children you should probably be expecting light-medium contact in a lot of safety gear, with compliant partner drills, and perhaps breaking with purpose made equipment. For adults, who are in their prime and beyond the beginner level, you should be expecting medium to hard contact on a relatively regular basis; with any drills being goal based, and related to kata and actual fighting. Breaking should also be a rare occurrence and designed to challenge the person attempting the effort. Done excessively with purpose made materials designed for safe breaking, it becomes meaningless.

A lack of contact, even in safety gear, inside of anything but a Tai Chi for health session is your first tick on the poor practice list.

2: Instructor involvement and fitness. Again, let us take age into consideration; is the instructor looking around 65 and not quite their trim fighting shape anymore? Let us not go expecting them to be fighting everyone when sparring comes around. However, if they under their 40s and have a belly that might just get them lucky with a walrus let us think carefully. A good instructor, in my experience, will make the effort to do everything he or she asks of you and will actively participate in partner work. The following are some questions I suggest you ask about an instructor when looking at a class:

Do they make the effort to work on an exercise at least once with every student to give direct feed back?

Do they make a point of participating in sparring on a regular basis?

Do they do the kata at least once alongside the class?

Are they happy to play the Uke when there are odd numbers?

If you can answer yes to most of these questions and it is not just a token effort, than I congratulate you. You have found a good instructor. However, if as stated, your instructor is not in their twilight years and does not make even a token effort you are dealing with either a case of A) Ego or B) Indolence. Either is a big tick box on the poor practice register.

3. Knowledge base. When asked; can the instructor offer a logical reasoning for something that can be related back to a combative meaning? If not they may be lacking in knowledge base. Furthermore, how willing are they to be asked and answer questions. Now, some teachers may have a rule of leaving your questions until the end, or may not have an immediate answer. This does not mark them as questionable; it is a refusal or inability to answer questions that marks them as such. Furthermore; look at the senior students. How readily can they assist you when you have a question or issue? Their ability to respond is a mark of their education, and that education comes from the instructor. Note; every student is an individual. Do not judge all students or the instructor on the basis of your encounter with one student.

So our third tick box is this; do they refuse to answer questions, cannot provide answers, or provide nonsensical answers? If yes, than that is our third tick.

4. Technique Quality. Again, age comes into this. We should not be expecting an older man to have the speed and power of a 27 year old. However, age is no excuse for bad technique; do they flick the wrists instead of thrusting the arm out straight? Are their kicks barely chambered and are not brought back? Is their movement closer to stomping than gliding? Not all the hall marks of bad technique, but look for clumsiness; it is a large indicator even to the untrained eye. Furthermore, observe the students. Are the black belts and brown belts closer in movement to the instructor, or the white belt that joined just a few weeks ago? That is a huge indicator of the quality of instruction. Again, use a broad view and look for general quality. Do not allow yourself to have tunnel vision on one poor student, which it is very easy to do. Furthermore; it there are a lot of black and brown belt students with poor technique, this is indicative of both poor teaching and poor business practice. This, I consider the final check on the test of a poor school.

There are many more things to check really, and best advice is to believe in your gut reaction. If something feels off it is best not to ignore. Also, I realise I sound really arrogant with such statements and frankly I am because I have learned absolutely nothing from my time practicing martial arts except how to punch people.

That is the final check, do not listen to people who out of hand dismiss ethics as integral to martial practice. I used to think it was not that important as one pays for lessons and really, is it a karate teachers business to tell you have to live? It is not, but if they have no thoughts on how the martial arts should be used, this is often indicative of them not being all that involved in thinking about their chosen art. A lack of thinking indicates a lack of committal and a fall into routine and failure to own their karate. These traits are the traits of a bad teacher.

Solid post!!