Withers M.A.A. Posted April 25, 2003 Posted April 25, 2003 For whatever reason people don't feel that Martial Arts instructors should make any money. They should all live in poverty because they love to teach. It is like any other job you may love doing it but you NEED to make money!!! 2nd Degree black belt in Kenpo Karate and Tae Kwon Do. 1997 NASKA competitor-2nd place Nationally in Blackbelt American Forms. Firearms activist!
fireka Posted April 25, 2003 Posted April 25, 2003 i would like to keep this post going a little longer as it now as much more relevence for me. the new dojo i joined, all the sensais are volunteer. the head sensai was told by his sensai at one time not to commericalise this art. this is why we have a nice dojo and excellent training for only 35 dollars a month (all of it goes to maintaining the dojo) however, i am puresueing the martial arts as a careear goal. and while there are many careers in the martial arts, the easiest to get into is definitly instruction. How then can i do this as a career, and is it even right to, without being called a Mcdojo. i dont want to get rich, i just want to live comfrobly and more than anything teach the martial arts. i dont plan on telling my sensai this is what i plan on doing because it will likely offend him. "i could dance like that!.......if i felt like it...." -Master Betty
fireka Posted April 25, 2003 Posted April 25, 2003 hobbit bob, one thing in response to your post. your right! i hate korean arts to! the one joy i get out of open competetion is knocking a tae-kwon-do artist on his !@*&^# "i could dance like that!.......if i felt like it...." -Master Betty
hobbitbob Posted April 25, 2003 Posted April 25, 2003 Er..the Korean Art comment was sarcasm..... Most McDojo train in TKD, but just as many use the Shotokan curriculum and one, in the New Jersy/Pennsylvania area uses the Kyokushinkai curriculum. There have always been Starkadders at Cold Comfort Farm!
karate_woman Posted April 25, 2003 Author Posted April 25, 2003 i dont plan on telling my sensai this is what i plan on doing because it will likely offend him. How are you going to keep your training up after you reach black belt if your Sensei doesn't approve? I don't think defining a McDojo should be soley based on making a living off of martial arts, which is why I started this thread; I objected to the automatic categorizations people seemed to be using to define McDojo in their posts, and wanted to bring it out in the open. Here is an artcle I found my MJ Harday. I can't find the original source for it but it seems to have been reproduced on several other forums online. I AM THE PRODUCT OF A McDOJO by M.J. Harday I went into a training program in good faith. I didn't know much about karate, or even that there were different types of martial arts, but I did know that I wanted to learn how to defend myself. To someone like me, whose only exposure was through TV and movies, when a school opens and you go to see the instructor, and he looks like what he does is a lot like the things you see on TV, you tend to believe that they really do know what they are doing. When the price seems reasonable and he says "you look like you're in pretty good shape, good enough I can promise you'll be a black belt in 2 years" you get excited, and you sign on the dotted line. When he offers you a 10% discount for paying cash up front, you jump at it. And then you start your classes, knowing that in just 2 years you'll be a black belt and you'll be able to defend yourself. He was right. In 2 years I did get my black belt. I went through the test with a dozen other people, and we all paid $500 to test, and amazingly enough we all passed. We were downright proud of ourselves and each other for getting through 2 years of sweat with each other, helping each other to learn along the way. Our classes just seemed like what a karate class should be. We bowed in, we called each other 'sir" and "ma'am"; we exercised and pushed ourselves hard to get into shape; we learned countless katas and spent hours working on special kicks. We learned a lot. What we didn't learn though, and didn't even realize we weren't learning, was how to use the techniques that were in the katas. We never learned to combine techniques. We never realized just because we could do these katas well, and just because we had nice looking, fast and powerful kicks, that we didn't know how and when to use them. We never sparred. None of us had ever taken any real contact. Most of us, so damned pleased with ourselves for sticking with it for two whole years, stayed and went for our 2nd degree black belts. And then third. The only thing that changed in the class patterns was the katas we learned. But we were doing so well! I could have stayed on that happy little path for the rest of my life if not for what happened to someone else. I wasn't even there, but it opened my eyes. It scared me so badly that I had to start reading notes posted on the Internet, and comparing what other people were saying about their schools to what was going on in mine. I even started checking out the things other schools in the area were doing. One of the men I started class with, one of the guys who blazed his way through to black belt in 2 years and stuck with it along with me was beaten up in a way I didn't think anyone could survive. He was a mass of ripped flesh and broken bones and blood, and that was after a few days of healing. He lost the hearing in one ear and for a while they weren't sure he was going to walk again. All because he was attacked, and he thought he knew how to defend himself. He says now that he was confident until he was hit with the first punch. All that kata practice hadn't taught him how to block effectively. We were never taught that a kata is a fight from one side and that the things we were doing represented someone else fighting us. It was just patterns we had to learn. Block-punch-kick... well how in the hell was that supposed to teach us anything when we never really knew what it was in the first place, what the movements represented, and how to counter attack? We're not black belts. We're a bunch of well conditioned dancers. This guy could have died. As it is he will have lasting effects of being beaten for the rest of his life. It was an eye opener for all of us, when we realized none of us had ever even taken a serious punch. Things just kind of fell into place then. We didn't spar. We weren't allowed to compete. The reason given that sport held no place in his teaching, but the truth is that he couldn't afford for us to be exposed to people in the martial arts who knew what they were doing. A few months later, we know. We were conned. This joker left his own instructor as a blue belt with only 2 years instruction because he thought he was good enough. It wasn't good enough. His ego could have gotten any of us killed. If you own a belt factory, please think twice about what you are doing. Your students trust you, and the rely on you to teach them well. I spent a lot of years of my life thinking I was being taught by a high ranking black belt when he was just a smooth talking jerk who couldn't stick with his own training. I thought I was about to test for my 3rd degree black belt. Now I know, after talking to people and then going to see other schools, that I am probably no better skilled than the average 1-2 year student with a orange or green belt. I might be faster and have more endurance, but they know more than I do. I have started training now with a Chung Do Kwan teacher who is 100% different. Nothing is a given with him. He didn't promise me anything and hearing my version of How-I-Got-My-Black-Belt insisted I begin as a white belt, and he would give me ample opportunity to progress if I learned things quickly. You know, that first black belt just isn't as attractive anymore. I just want to be able to defend myself. If you own a McDojo, think twice. It's not your life that might end in a bloody heap on the side of the road. Can you live with that? I hope not. The journey of a thousand miles begins with one step. -Lao-Tse
delta1 Posted April 25, 2003 Posted April 25, 2003 That was good, KW. I have no problem with the sport people or the health crowd, as long as they are up front with what they are doing. But those who are dishonest are charlitans and liers, plain and simple. Calling them a McDojo is letting them off too easy, in my opinion. What they are doing borders on the criminal- fraud at least, and possibly manslaughter if one of their students gets killed. Rant over! Freedom isn't free!
Guest Posted April 25, 2003 Posted April 25, 2003 fireka: how many competitions have you participated in?
hobbitbob Posted April 25, 2003 Posted April 25, 2003 Fireka, SMR, can we PLEASE not turna serious discussion into a "my style can beat yours with both feet tied behind its back" argument? This isn't Carbonecho, for pete's sake! There have always been Starkadders at Cold Comfort Farm!
hobbitbob Posted April 25, 2003 Posted April 25, 2003 Osu! There have always been Starkadders at Cold Comfort Farm!
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