You train in a Mcdojo!!!!

[telsun]

Okay maybe you do not, but it might be

 

Let me explain;

 

I have always chosen the clubs I train at with care. I have trained at three clubs seriously.

 

The first club I trained at was in Shotokan. It was suggested by my uncle and he had checked out the other local clubs for me. The standard was very good. The instructor was extremely talented and it rubbed of on me (he is now an English coach, last I heard). Anyway I quit that club and took a break from karate for a few months.

 

Someone recomended another club to me, so I went and checked it out. This time it was Goju-kai. I was introduced to bagwork, a complete eye opener after never having done it before!! It was all very different to the Shotokan club I had trained in. Anyway the Sensei gave the club up and someone of limited ability took over. It was time to move on......

 

I spent a few years wondering different clubs and styles not finding anything that matched my Goju-kai instructors superb tuition. Until one day I saw an advert for an Okinawan Goju-ryu club.

 

As soon as I met the instructor I just knew that he was something a bit special compared to what I had previously seen and trained in. I realised that I had only been taught "superficial" karate and that I had no depth......

 

Looking back I realise that despite believing that I was training at the best clubs around at the time, there was still better to be found. There is probably a better instructor than I currently have but it is hard to imagine that!!

 

So are you unknowingly training at a Mcdojo?

 

Have you progressed through clubs like I have?

[Kyle-san]

I went through two different clubs that were in the process of becoming McDojos.

[CheekyMusician]

Well my club has elements of the McDojo about it, but to be honest I don't have much choice.

 

There isn't many martial arts clubs around here anyway, and I'm quite short on time, so I have to go to a club that I can fit into my schedule

 

I've trained at other martial arts clubs (and watched other martial arts clubs), and all in all I wouldn't say my club is bad as such. I've got two excellent teachers, large classes with friendly people, a safe environment to train in (although its not so safe that we have to pull all our punches or anything and therefore not get any decent preparation for a self defence situation), its fairly priced and very close to my home so its easy for me to travel there.

 

Its downfalls, however, are that there is quite a lot of kids in the classes, that we rarely practice kata, and that people very rarely fail belt tests. I mean, they wouldn't let you pass if you performed attrociously, but they don't expect a very high standard from the people testing either.

[delta1]

I see your point. But consider that different people want different things from the arts. Schools cater to different needs. I define the McDojos as schools that advertise one thing and deliver another. Typically, they promise effective self defense, but teach suicide. A lot of people don't want to train at the same level of intensity as an NHB fighter or a warrior. So if you want that kind of training, you might need to look harder and be aware of the difference, as you pointed out. But I wouldn't label a school a McDojo just because they don't train insane, or they train for sport or spiritual developement. As long as they deliver what they say and are reasonably effective, I have no problem with them. I do have a problem with a liar trying to sell me anything (politics, religion, McMartial Arts).

[Kamidake]

What's NHB stand for? (No Hakama Boys? )

[focus102]

I am currently finishing up a contract at a place that will sell a black belt to anyone with deep enough pockets.

 

There is a different instructor every night so they don't really know where you are up to or what you need to practice. Belt testings are every 2-3 months and cost $60. Everyone passes regardless of their actual skill. The prices of classes are pretty high too. The material taught is a huge mixture of stuff from all kinds of styles that they put under one name.

 

I am now looking around at other schools and there are many in NY. I have found some that are OK but not perfect, a majority of them are McDojo's though. I only found one or two that I am seriously considering training in. What makes these different is that they are not trying to sell their system. There is this one school that told me to look around at other schools before deciding to train at theirs. And even then, they have to interview me and decide to accept me as a student! And they were completely open about their whole system without anything to hide and making sure I know what I'm getting into. That's a place I know I will get a quality instruction at.

[karatekid1975]

I been to three clubs. My first was cool. Good for self defense .... I thought. Second one, not my style. Over priced and not enough self defense. This one is great. Lots of self defense and a great workout. I get my money's worth. Very rare for TKD schools here, but this place rocks!

[granmasterchen]

i have had my share of mc dojos, and been through several different schools.

 

I started out learning how to fight on the streets and with boxing...this gave me a fighting spirit so to say....when i finally went and got started in martial arts it was in a TKD class, it was the greatest class that i have ever been too. The style wasn't the typical TKD that i later realized existed, this style covered everything from punches, elbow, knees, head butts, kicks, throws, pressure points, manipulation, full contact, grappling, stand up fighting, arm bars, self defenses, breaking, trapping and so on, it had everything! After 9 yrs there i went to the military and trained with the special forces and had access to many schools in my travels around the world. My first base had a school located close by, the instructor was said to be an 8th dan and taught kickboxing, american karate, okinawan karate, weapons, and aerobic kickboxing....well this was my first experience with a mc dojo, thankfully after these early experiences i learned to pick instructors better. I had also trained with many other TKD individuals who had no where close to the skill that i had, and i trained with hapkido and combat hapkido, finally i found some friends that trained in kung fu and many different grapplers and learned from them, still i ran into fakes, like more TKD, KSW, and TSD, also capoera.....at later bases and times i ended up just teaching b/c there were no real schools around only mc dojos.. I went back to my TKD class and found how great it was and appreciated the instructors even more, i later trained in more kung fu and then came to japan and studied some kaju kenbo and other styles, the kaju kenbo is the closest to a real class to me yet it still has some problems....they don't want to spar, but it is still an opportunity to learn some more skills, and i teach yet again, so that individuals can learn how to defend their selves and fight back....

[LordBucket]

Here in California, martial arts studios are almost as common as gas stations. Just off the top of my head I can thinks of places where there are studios in adjacent commercial centers with only one road between them...a two minute walk away.

 

Unfortunately, a lot of them cater to...forgive the stereotype...dumb f*ing Americans. Personally I think that's why there can be so many of them so close. There are a lot of stereotypical overweight, fat lazy slobs who want to feel good about themselves...but are much too lazy, as well as too accustomed to immediate gratification to stay interested in any studio with standards.

 

I once visitied a Tae Kwon Do school, for instance, in which the second highest ranking instructor could not consistently perform a spinning back kick with a straight leg. Maybe one out of three times her leg would never fully extend.

 

You would think that this sort of place would do very badly, but frequently these places do very well simply because they cater to the sort of student who isn't interested in learning martial arts. They're there to be able to say to people 'Oh! I'm a black belt!' and feel good about themselves, so it doesn't really matter if they, or their instructors ever learn to be able to performs manoevers that would be expected after six months of practice.

 

On the other hand, there are some excellent schools as well. Last Thursday night I skipped my Wushu class because of a knee injury and decided to go check out some other studio just for fun. I found a studio (also happened to be Tae Kwon Do) and saw an instructor teaching a children's class with whom I was very impressed. At one point, he was coaching some students on their roundhouse kick, and lightning fast spun his body halfway around (all while looking the student dead in the eye and speaking) and locked his kick up at head height. He held it for a few moments, then rechambered his leg and hips, paused another moment, and then whipped it out again, again paused, brought it back down to the ground and kept right on talking the entire time. Now...you've probably seen this before, probably a good number of you can do it yourself, but there's a certain point of skill at which somebody can do this sort of thing with such absolute nonchalance that it becomes impressive. He was there. He was also excellent with the kids, cheerful and did a good job of communicating his ideas.

 

So sure...there are a lot of McStudio's out here. And there are a goodly number of good studios, and a few really great ones. I suppose that people take martial arts for a broad variety of reasons, and I happen to live in an area where pretty much anything you're looking for can be found, and it makes sense to me that the studio's I consider 'great' would probably be an absolutely dreafull experience to someone who was looking for a different sort of experience.

 

It used to amaze me to see people stay totally loyal to their McStudio even after seeing somebody at half their rank at another studio easily perform manoevers that even their instructors couldn't do. I've seen it several times, though, and it doesn't amaze me anymore. People genuinely get different things out of their studios.

 

Bucket Man

[Kirves]

Yeah, McDojo is usually bad quality by intention of the owner/instructor. When the instructor does his best to teach you what he believes is a good style, it isn't McDojo. But when the instructor only cares for attaining as large student base as possible, and getting as much sales as possible, that's McDojo.