how do you know you have not develop into a McDojo?
I read a very long question asking about McDojos and felt that I did not really understand the question. Still it occured to me, everyone has a different definition of a McDojo and I have seen respectable schools gradually change becoming what the tried to avoid. Many people come with their own definition of a McDojo but I think most of us believe that a McDojo is like porn, you know it when you see it, when it is another school.
My question is how do you really know that you are not part of, or becoming a McDojo. Please don't say something like lineage, full contact sparing, "Realistic" training or "Tradition" as I am sure that you can find any of these in a place that people would say they do this but are what most martial artist would consider a McDojo.
Thanks
Update:So far all are interesting answers but still none have been able to tell me how they know they are not a McDojo. This is not meant to attack anyone but rather to redirect a question that many have answered about other schools, styles... How many of us can really show why we are not a McDojo?
Comments
Mcdonalds does not sell food.
They sell food-like products.
A mcdojo is a place where martial arts "like" movements are taught, not real martial arts.
If a school teaches the real thing but has a student pick-up service van, that school has the intention to survive and thrive.
The teacher wants to make a living by teaching martial arts. So he has pizza parties every now and then. He has birthday parties at the dojo for the kids.
He wants to make a living. He doesn't want to work at some dead-end job, so he carves a niche for himself.
He does not award a black belt to those who do not deserve it.
Here is a video of a 13 year old Black Belt.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s-UOQephPaM
Does he deserve to wear a black belt?
I say absolutely! Is he from a mcdojo?
Absolutely NOT!
He's is a black belt under the Kyudokan Shorin Ryu of the Higa Family.
Anyone who knows anything about karate can see this kid does better karate than many adults here in the west with decades of training.
Mcdojo is about fooling the public into believing they are learning martial arts, just like mcdonalds is fooling the public into believing they are eating food.
Edit:
It looks like the "thumbs down" troll is out in full force tonight.
If not lineage, sparring, realistic training, then what do you want - ESP? And who told you tradition tells you if a place is a McDojo or not, because I never heard that one before?
If an instructor cannot tell you who is his teacher or trace his lineage back to someone who is an acknowledge expert, then what is he other than a fake? Who would you want for a doctor - someone who went to Stanford Medical School and can prove it, or someone who can't?
If you don't spar in martial art, then you are just learning to dance.
If you don't train realistically, what are you training for - unrealistic fighting?
The term McDojo is a grey area, that is used by many to describe schools that they do not agree with their ways of training.....Health and effectiveness are two main points.
Of course, even the most well known martial artists have a story to tell as a joke, that someone came and told them or was telling around, that what they were doing was gymnastics or something...Lol!!! because they were not hitting trees hard, or street type of fighting, in their training regimes, but when tested they proved their effectiveness immediately and they explained nicely, that what they were doing was also good for health.
We can easily argue convincingly, in favor of the most misunderstood ways of training, or against the most glorified ones...:)
If someone likes what he/she does, the people and the instructors there, the place of training, and he/she thinks that his/her school is good for him/her, then is likely to be fine:)
Because my teacher's first obligation is to passing on the martial ABILITY to his students.
He's not driven by money or pride or some crazy sense of obligation to the style that demands it be exactly the same as the way he learned it. He teaches us as individuals, he lets us learn by making mistakes and he drives the lessons home with hard knocks.
He'd never taught kickboxing a day in his life until I presented him with an entrance form, he read over it, looked up at me and asked if I'd ever done kickboxing before. I said 'no' and he said 'sure, facing a kickboxer on his own terms would be "character building"'. I think he was as keen to work on it as I was. He just loves what he does and what he does is teaching.
I have see full contact places but the have no technique, it's just brawling basically. You can still have resistive training even and poor to no technique.
Even more funny is the mma gym by me that has 15 belts before black belt and they charge 95 for their yellow belt test. And they only do lite contact.
It has nothing to do with the style it has to do with how good your training is
I'll add a little more later
I know for several clear reasons.
1) I closed my commercial dojo in late 1997 because it was getting very hard to get students. There were 11 commercial dojo in my area in Virginia. And five different parks and recreation classes. I was only teaching adults. All my competitors were teaching both and I knew that less than 15% of all martial arts students in the U.S.A were adults then. I closed and continued to teach a select few adults.
2) I have never used contracts or promoted anyone based on anything other than knowledge, understanding and ability to use what they know as realistic self-defense.
3) We have never and never will use tournaments as part of our training. to do so means we must leave out much of what we do in the dojo. About 50% is grappling to include joint locks, throws, chokes, and pain compliance techniques (what others would call submissions). We fight standing kneeling, or one the ground.
4) Although I at one time held testing 2 to 3 times a year, only a few students were allowed to test, and were selected by me. For the last 8-10 years no testing is scheduled and students are told that if they are there for rank they are in the wrong dojo. I rarely ever promote anyone now and if i do they do not know it in advance. I teach technique and principles. Not a list of things to memorize for promotion. by not having list for rank promotion the student must focus on improving and fighting better, not what do they still need to learn to get promoted.
5) Those that do get promoted are students that I would put in front of anyone of any style. I know before hand that if I put a color belt in with someone from another school that is wearing the same rank level my student will clearly be far beyond them.
In conclusion, I guarantee good training and the knowledge students need to progress in self-defense skills. I do not guarantee anyone that they will be able to be anything other than well trained for the time they spend with me. How good they get is not limited by me but rather by their own efforts. If someone has developed the understanding and ability to use what I have taught then and only then to I teach them more. I never hold back from those that are ready for new technique/concepts/applications. I just make sure I'm not wasting my time or theirs by teaching them something new just because they think they are ready for it. No one is more qualified than I and to decide who is and who is not ready for more in my classes.
All students must understand that I will look out for their best interests. However, any student that places their judgement above mine is corrected once. If they don't get it then they are shown the door.
Money has never been a reason for taking a student or keeping one.
Case and point. I trained on student for several years. When he began to slack off I prodded him to train. When he did not get his act together after months of my prodding I stopped teaching him. My time is to valuable to spend teaching those that will not train or just occupy space for the misconception that being here means that they are progressing. Lazy students are not tolerated. Students that come in demanding this or that are turned away. Student that come in thinking that money entitles them to training are told the facts. That being that I earned what I have to offer through hard work and money sacrifices for many years. Paying is required but is only expected. no amount of money would be enough to pay for what I can offer. Money does not give one the right to train. I and only I decide who understands that training is a privileged not a right. Those that respect that are trained well. Those that don't are not trained.
So I think I can safely say that I'm not running a Mcdojo by any definition of the word.
Note: I am answering this not to justify what I do. (I could care less who believes me or not). I post this because it might have meaning to students that have much less experience separating the Mcdojo from the legitimate martial arts schools.
...
I took an ancestrol vow to dispose the people who don't want me to know my truth and heritage. til I pass on or odd.