How Do I Know Which Martial Arts School Is Best?
By Jeff Baines
5th Degree Black Belt in Kempo
2nd Degree Black Belt in Tae Kwon Do
Level 4 Apprentice Instructor in Jeet Kune Do
Owner of Dojo Source
So you have decided that you or your child want to try Martial Arts, you go online and you search Martial Arts near me. If you live in a rural area you may only find a few options and this makes your search a little easier. If you live in a city or suburb you may find 10 to 20 options, as of writing this there are 19 Martial Arts businesses within 8 miles of my location when I searched. Ten to twenty businesses are a lot of places to visit, so here are some tips to narrow your search. This article will show you the best way to choose the Martial Arts school that is right for you.
First, choose a school that is convenient for you to get to. If it is so far out of your way that you never make it to class, obviously that is not worth your time. Although the best school might be farther away, if you never have an excuse to be out that way you will be more tempted to miss class. Although there are some teachers and classes that are worth going out of your way for, I have made Martial Arts a huge part of my life so I am willing to go far for class, but you just have to weigh the importance and convenience for yourself. If you are just starting and it feels like such a long trek that you miss a couple classes in the first couple of weeks, you’ll probably miss more soon so make sure you feel like the trek won’t stop you from going much.
There are many different popular Martial Arts styles to choose from, Kempo, Karate, Tae Kwon Do, Jiu Jitsu, Judo, and Muay Thai just to name a few. Each school in your area will probably do a different style, some may do similar styles but even that can have variation. So how do you choose a style? Well, don’t worry about this too much, if this is the first time you or your child are trying Martial Arts you can’t really make a mistake on this. All styles can be lots of fun and can make you better both mentally and physically. Depending on your goals for Martial Arts, different styles will meet those goals better than others but the style you choose is less important than the location, instructor, and class culture. But if you are really worried about choosing a style here is my recommendation.
If this is your first time doing Martial Arts, I would recommend doing a Striking Martial Arts style like Kempo, Karate, Tae Kwon Do, Muay Thai, etc. as the focus of these styles is on learning proper form for punching, kicking, and blocking. Punching, kicking, and blocking are your first line of defense in an attack. If your striking is very good, your attacker won’t be able to use the other types of Martial Arts easily. Most importantly, striking Martial Arts place a high priority on developing good footwork, balance, speed, coordination, flexibility, and strength so this is especially useful for children and adults that are looking to gain coordination. Of course I am a little biased coming from a Striking background in Martial Arts, BUT most non striking gyms (like Jiu Jitsu and Judo gyms) don’t just teach their style they will also teach a striking Martial Art along with it. So that being said, again you probably won’t go wrong choosing any of the styles available to you. To read more about Martial Arts styles try reading How Is Karate Different From Martial Arts?
Okay now that you have selected a few gyms in your area, contact a few of them and see if you can set up a free trial or a chance to watch a class. Most gyms offer something like this so definitely take advantage of it. Once you get to the gym here are some things to look out for. First, how does it feel there? Do people seem happy and seem to enjoy being there? This is a great sign, although if there is a crying child it isn’t always the dojo or the instructor’s fault. Sometimes children are crying because they just woke up from a nap, or because their screen time was interrupted to come to class and this is upsetting them.
Next, watch for crazy punishments for mistakes or disrupting classes, instructors will give out a reasonable amount of push ups or other exercises and the really good instructors will make sure students know it isn’t a punishment, but just a way to reset yourself. Poor instructors will yell at students for mistakes, give an unreasonable amount of exercises (like an amount that takes a significant portion of class time away), or do some sort of task that causes pain that goes beyond muscle soreness from exercise. If you see instructors that are giving out these sorts of punishments, this probably isn’t the place for you.
You do want Instructors that are good at setting boundaries. If an instructor says “don’t touch the wall” and then the student immediately touches the wall to test it, the instructor should give that student some kind of consequence so the student knows not to touch the wall. This brings us to our next thing to watch for, who is teaching you or your kiddo? You want an instructor who gets paid to teach. There are some dojos where students who are high ranks have to teach in order to move up to their next rank (sometimes without being paid). I question whether or not this is legal, but even if it is legal it most certainly is not ethical in my opinion. Even if it was ethical though, these kinds of “instructors” are not who you want teaching you or your child. Students who are forced to teach without pay have no reason, other than the kindness of their heart, to teach well or to push themselves to be good instructors. You may get very lucky and find a student that teaches classes and they are amazing but they would be even better at teaching if they were offered fair compensation for their time and special instructor training classes taught by the owner or senior instructors.
Speaking of the owner, do they still teach? Usually the reason that this dojo exists is because the owner at least at one point was an excellent Martial Arts Instructor. If the dojo has become a huge chain, the owner’s time is probably mostly spent on business stuff and they don’t spend much time teaching. They hopefully have really good instructors that run each branch of their dojo, but this isn’t always the case. If the person with the power to change the curriculum isn’t actually in there teaching or at least watching students there is bound to be a disconnect somewhere along the line. Either the material will get old and need to be revamped, but the owner won’t notice because they aren’t teaching or seeing the material being used, or the other instructors will start to make small changes to the material because the owner isn’t doing quality control. You may have a good experience at a large chain or a place where the owner doesn’t teach, but having trained in many different places I can assure you, you will have a better experience going to a place where the owner is teaching a large number of the classes. The owner should also continue to learn with instructors of their own, you could study Martial Arts for a lifetime and still not know everything there is to know. Beware of Martial Arts “Masters” who don’t train and have their own instructor as you can start to get some weird and ineffective techniques, if you search No Touch Knockouts you’ll see some good examples (or I guess bad examples?). You want an instructor who hasn’t stopped learning and talks about their instructors, because then you know that they aren’t just making up moves that have no purpose or possibly don’t work. They are learning and training with someone who can tell them when a move doesn’t work.
Okay, you went to the free trial, the dojo feels like it would be convenient to get to, it was lots of fun, and the instructor was great. You feel good about it because it isn’t a big chain, it is a small local business with an owner(s) who cares about every student and is involved in the classes. Now you are talking to the instructor after class about signing up. Here at Dojo Source we try to make this as painless as possible, no registration fee, uniform and belt are included, no yearly contract. Everything is included in just your normal monthly fee, and you can pause or freeze your membership by just giving us 7 days notice. We also don’t make you pay before you leave, instead we send you a Membership Agreement that you can fill out at home after talking with whoever you need to about it and we don’t give you an expiration deadline of like 24 hours on our “Amazing One Time Offer”. While other places may use some of these high pressure sales tactics, you may have to accept some of that as this is the norm for businesses and gyms not just Martial Arts schools. The biggest thing to watch out for though is the year long contract. Usually there is no way out of these contracts and you will be stuck paying that even if you decide that it isn’t right for you after 3 months. Then you are either paying for something you won’t use, or you are dragging yourself to something that doesn’t feel like it is worth it anymore.
Great, hopefully you’ve visited several schools in the area and have a list of pros and cons for each one. The most important things to help you decide in order or importance. First, the school must be in a place where you won’t have trouble getting to even if you are a little tired otherwise you won’t go. Next, the classes need to be fun and the instructor should be knowledgeable and paid to teach you. You talked to other students or parents to find out how they feel about the class culture, the owner, the membership agreement, etc. and everything feels good. After the free trial class the pricing seemed reasonable, and they didn’t make you feel uncomfortable with their membership agreement or their sales tactics. Lastly you should consider the Martial Arts style, all styles can be fun so this is less important than the rest but if you found multiple schools that pass your other tests, then you worry about what style they teach (to read more try: How Is Karate Different Than Martial Arts?).
Outline
How Do I Know Which Martial Arts School Is Best?
-There are many different styles of Martial Arts and it can be daunting to choose which one if you know nothing about them. Don’t stress about this too much though, all styles can be lots of fun and you will improve both mentally and physically no matter which style you choose. For children especially (but also for adults looking to gain better coordination, balance and flexibility), I recommend a Striking Martial Art like Kempo, Karate, Tae Kwon Do, etc.
-Usually the school offers a Free Trial lesson or you will be able to watch a class. Take them up on this offer.
-Find a classroom environment that you feel comfortable with. Watch out for yelling and crazy punishments, there is lots of research that shows negative reinforcement doesn’t work.
-Watch out for the hard sell, many places will use high pressure sales tactics to get you to sign up. Usually small local schools will have much less pressure. Some schools want you to sign up for a year contract, these contracts usually don’t allow you to be flexible. You can’t break the year long contract or get a refund so be careful what you sign up for.
-Who teaches your or your child’s class? Is it an adult who is being paid to be an instructor or is it just a Black Belt or student that has to teach in order to get their next rank? Sometimes the owner(s) of the school stops teaching classes and lets other people teach, this can completely change the experience you or your child gets. Look for an instructor who has been teaching for a long time or where instructors are actually paid to teach, avoid places where students need to teach to go to the next rank (these instructors can be good, but it is hit or miss).
-Does the owner of that Martial Arts school continue to train and learn? If not, be careful. There are some “Masters” who have stopped learning from other people and started to train themselves, this has led to some strange and ineffective moves (No Touch Knockouts). If your instructor is taking classes in a new style of Martial Arts or trains and is trying to constantly improve, that is the kind of instructor that you want teaching you and your family.
-Was it fun? Did you or your child like working with that instructor? Try more than one gym to see what works well for you and you or your child.
Martial Arts is a wonderful activity that is both fun and has many benefits. I hope that you give Martial Arts near you a try to see the benefits for yourself. If you are near Arvada, CO come to Dojo Source to see a class for yourself. Click Here to try a Free Class.
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