You may or may not be familiar with the term McDojo; for those that are unfamiliar with the term, a McDojo is a martial arts school that is primarily in business to make money and prey on the unsuspecting; it parades itself around as the only place to train true martial arts and oftentimes presents itself as a legitimate martial arts school with legitimate instructors.
However; upon further inspection, there are some elements to this school that proves it is a horrendous martial arts facility and is in business to either take your money or fulfill a self-serving, self-promoting goal of a narcissistic owner.
Following you will find four indications that you are at a bad martial arts school…
4) An unclean facility
There is no further comment needed. If the facility is not clean and whose students get more staph infections than the number of staff the Pentagon employs then you probably need to look elsewhere.
3) Unprofessional instructors
This is very similar to the unqualified instructor, however; there is a slight difference in that this instructor is disinterested in his students and is more concerned with himself.
Whether they are more interested in texting than teaching or in the worst case scenario use any excuse they can to beat up and punish their students during training in an abuse of power. If you witness this behavior in your gym; you probably are attending a McDojo.
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2) A sincere lack of leadership
Just because an instructor has competition success, does not mean that they are a good business person or a capable leader. All of us have worked under managers in a business who had not spent a single hour learning about how to effectively lead people.
The martial artist is no different. In some cases, the head instructor is seldom at the school teaching the classes and the school is run by others.
In a worst case scenario, a poor instructor will belittle and talk down to students at any chance possible, even if it something as trivial as coming in second place at a martial arts tournament.
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1) A cult mentality
This one is all too common sadly. Not everyone who opens a martial arts school does so because they genuinely love teaching the martial arts and helping improve student’s lives.
Some people want their name on the sign; want to be perceived as important; wish to surround themselves with people who tell them they are great.
Perhaps their ego demands the attention? These types see themselves as bigger than the martial arts and will often disparage other instructors and schools and prohibit the students from training anywhere else.
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They will award black belts but prohibit their students from competing because they are too dangerous. Their school is the best and if they don’t know it – it isn’t worth knowing! This is a McDojo!
