How to not wind up at a McDojo
Consequences of Finding a Bad Martial Arts School
So what are the consequences of going to a bad martial arts school? Well one you might learn stuff that doesn’t really work and as we know 70% of martial artists lose street fights. Next you might go to a place where you are always getting beat up and injured and who wants that? And finally I’ve seen places where people go week to week, month to month and year to year and never make any progress. How frustrating would that be? What a waste of time and money.
So I’m going to give you 10 rules to help you make sure you find an amazing martial arts school.
Rule #1 Pick the Correct System of Martial Arts for Your Goal
I normally break down martial arts into 3 categories:
- Traditional martial arts
- Sport martial arts, and
- Realtiy-based combative martial arts
Now sure there are people who want fitness, and go to cardio kickboxing. Then there are so-called schools who are telling you that they are teaching you Krav Maga when they are really just making you knee a pad 50 times and telling you that you are learning to fight while getting fit.Come on people let’s get real that is fitness not martial arts. If you want fitness there are better ways to get fit.
But let’s talk about real martial arts. First up we have traditional martial arts. These are great for kids especially because kids are too young for the reality of violence. They can learn forms, discipline, they can learn how to master their body and become incredibly coordinated, that’s one of the hallmarks of traditional martial arts.
Then we have sport martial arts. Boxing, kickboxing, Muay Thai, MMA, Brazilian Jujitsu, Sambo, Judo, the list goes on and on. Sport martial arts are great to watch, they are great competition and they might be great for kids but I’m focusing mostly on adults here. So when it comes to adults here is what I’m going to tell you. If you want to compete you should get into a sport martial art. If you are looking for reality you want to go into that 3rd category of a reality-based martial art.
Why the Marines Changed Their Martial Arts Program
Here’s what I’m talking about. The Marines used to teach a mixed martial arts-based fighting system. There were some consequences. One of which there were 3 Marines in Iraq who were detaining a suspected insurgent. The insurgent started fighting back and one of the Marines jumped on the guy and started fighting with him (MMA-style), of course he was winning, he’s a Marine he’s going to win. His 2 buddies were standing there cheering “yeah yeah yeah kick his butt” because that is how they were trained, for a one-on-one sport. Well as the Marine had gotten the insurgent on the ground the insurgent pulled out a knife and repeated stabbed the Marine and killed him.
That was a failure of training. That was the wrong martial art for the wrong job. If these guys had been trained in a reality combative-based martial art all 3 of them would have jumped on the insurgent immediately and ended the situation.
The lesson learned is that while sport fighters are fighting for real, they aren’t in a real fight. There are no rules, weight classes, gender classes in a real fight. Tactics, techniques and strategies are designed to win in that sport and they may not be appropriate for the streets or a military or law enforcement situation.
So make sure you pick the right style for your goal.
Rule #2 Find a Place that has Amazing Great People
You want a place that’s warm and welcoming. You don’t want a place where people are sizing you up and there’s a lot of ego going on. Hey if you want that kind of place they are out there, there is plenty of them. But when I’m looking for a martial arts school I want to find a place where the people know each other on a first name basis they are all happy to see each other they all coach each other and help each other grow and that’s just an amazing learning environment. So find a place that has just great people.
Rule #3 Low to No Injuries
Now that might sound weird to you. You might think “well martial arts… aren’t I supposed to get hurt?” Well… no not really. I mean sure occasionally you might get a little bump a little bruise or something like that but we shouldn’t be leaving with regular injuries this is not conducive to learning and it really shows that the instructor and the students just are irresponsible and really don’t care about anyone’s safety. So find a place where you are not getting injured regularly.
Rule #4 Instructor Cares More About Your Progress than Your Paycheck.
Ok now look I’m a martial arts instructor it’s how I pay my mortgage it’s how I put food on my plate but here’s the bottom line, a really good martial arts instructor is going to take the time to treat each one of his or her students personally, individually they are going to listen to their concerns they are going to be there to answer questions and they’re not going to just sit there and cater to their favorites and let everyone else sink of swim.
If he takes the time to come around and talk to you, work with you answer your questions and you feel like you are getting the attention that you deserve then you have found a good school.
Rule #5 Martial Arts Instructor Trains with You
They should train with you at least some of the time. I can’t tell you how many martial arts schools I go to and you see the old instructor, and he’s usually not that old, probably my age or younger and they are sitting there watching their students train and then they turn around and walk off and they start having a conversation and they are not even paying attention. Maybe their mystic chi energy has grown too big and usually their belly matches the mystic chi energy, and they feel that they don’t need to train or pay attention to their students.
Ok hey look, first off no one is so good that they don’t need to train. Skills degrade if you don’t at least maintain them. I know if I’m going to work with an instructor or recommend an instructor I want him or her to be working with the students.. A) that shows that he is committed to continue learning and B) he can get in there and model correct behavior. How a move is supposed to look, how a sequence should go or whatever the case may be that’s be. So find a good instructor who is going to get in there and train with you at least part of the time.
Rule #6 Find a Martial Arts Instructor Who is Actually a Good Teacher
Now that may sound a little weird but just because someone is good at something doesn’t mean that they know how to make YOU good at something.
Case in point. Several years ago I asked a soccer coach, “hey when you kick the ball do you look at the goal or do you look at the ball or do you look somewhere else?” And the soccer coach looked at me and said, “I don’t know.” Now that should seem a little strange to you but here is what we find in the world of athletics and the world of martial arts. I hesitate to use the word natural but there are people who pick things up easier and they excel at things. Maybe they don’t have all of the skills to be world-class but they have enough skills to be competent. Maybe they have really good vision or they have really good athleticism in certain areas and that helps them fudge through where they are lacking some skills, like where to look when you are kicking a ball or where to look when you are in a fight.
There’s a place you should be looking on a human body when you are in a fight by the way.
A lot of times these people they never had to struggle with certain things so they don’t know how to fix them. A really good martial arts instructor usually is someone who had to struggle just like you. A really good martial arts instructor who is a good teacher can see you struggling and they can walk over and say, “hey can I show you something real quick? I remember when I used to struggle with that move as well. Let me show you something that helped me.” That way you make really amazing progress.
Rule #7 A Great Martial Arts Instructor Should be a Coach Not a Critic
A critic tells you what you are doing wrong, a coach tells you what you are doing right. The world of sports psychology and performance shows us that athletes make the best progress when their coaches tell them what they are doing right so they can continue doing that action. Now of course, especially if you are new to martial arts, you need someone coming around and correcting things when you make a mistake, I get that. But there’s a way that a coach will do it different than a critic.
A critic will say, “hey you are doing that wrong” or “hey what did I tell you about where to put your hand or whatever.” A coach will come by and say, “I like how you were doing xyz, let me show you how to make it a little better. Put the hand here, etc.” That will make sure your learning experience is fortified with positive reinforcement of the things you are doing well and ultimately you will feel better about your progress and you will make quicker progress.Just remember an awesome coach gives far more kudos than corrections.
Rule #8 A Really Good Martial Arts School Should Do a Lot More Drilling than Sparring
Why? The world of sports performance shows us that for every hour of competition an athlete should spending 5 – 10 hours training and preparing for that competition working on specific skills. Well folks sparring is competition whereas drills are for making you better at sparring.
Imagine you take someone new to a boxing gym and you throw them in the ring and you don’t really show them how to parry and how to fire a jab back so all they are doing is getting hit repeatedly. But instead you pull them aside and give them 5 – 10 hours of drills of how to do a really good parry and how to throw a really good jab and now you are going to see that in more of sparring-like situation what happens to their jab and their parry, can they maintain their skills? The answer will of course be “yes.”
Now as you progress your drills can become closer and closer to sparring. And likewise sparring can and should be made closer and closer to drills.
Now at a reality-based combative martial arts school like mine we do primarily drilling (since head-butts, groin shots, etc. don’t work well in sparring) but what happens over time is our drills start becoming faster, more challenging and they have more randomness to them. So they start to resemble the feel of a real violent encounter or street fight where anything can happen and I like to see how they respond. If I see that the quality of what someone is doing decreases I will dial it back and I’m going to drill what they need to work on.
The bottom line here is that what I’ve discovered in all of my years of martial arts and athletic coaching, really lazy coaches will have you do nothing but sparring and fitness drills. Why? It is easy, it doesn’t take any brain power from them. A really good marital arts instructor or coach is going to watch and see what drills need to fix the skill deficits of their fighters or athletes. So make sure you find a place that uses a lot more drills and learning activities to teach and then sparring or sparring-like drills to test your progress.
Rule #9 YOU are More Important than Any Style or System Created by a Person
And every style was created by a person FYI. There is no martial art handed down on a golden tablet from the Almighty.
Bruce Lee frequently said that the individual is more important than the style. He was frustrated that each martial art style forced the individual into a box. Just because the style worked for the creator of that style doesn’t mean it will work for you.
You may be a male or female, big or small, fast or slow, you may have amazing agility or you may have orthopedic issues that limit how explosive or quick you can be. Heck you might be a security guard who’s primary concern is protecting yourself and others without a lawsuit or you might be a single mother who’s primary concern is protecting yourself and your family at all costs. You are a unique individual and you should be treated as such.
So if you go to a martial arts school that says “this is how we do things and you have to do them exactly like this.” They make you use some absurd spinning tornado kick or flying wrist lock regardless of if you are arresting someone, have a gun pulled on you, or if you are fighting 5 people. That is absurd! Tactics, techniques, everything changes based on the scenario. As Bruce Lee said you need to become water. Water can turn solid, liquid or vapor. It can change based on where it is. You as a martial artist need to become water, so find a school that allows and teaches you to change based on who you are and what the situation calls for.
Rule #10 Dread It or Love It?
This is an easy one. If you dread going to your martial arts school there is probably a reason why. If you love going to your school and look forward to it there is probably a reason why. Listen to your gut on this one.
Final Thoughts
So that brings us to the conclusion of our 10 rules. I encourage you to get out there and watch a class, pay the drop-in fee and participate in a class if you can. If you find a bad school then cool! You just eliminated a bad one and you are one school closer to finding the right one. So get out there and find an awesome school.
Until next time,
Brian
