Picking The Right Martial Arts School
When deciding on a martial arts training school, there are many factors that that come into play. You need to become a detective and do some investigating. Think about what the advertisements are actually saying – the cheapest program might not be what you are looking for if quality is priority #1. The best Competition team might not be what you want if you want a relaxed atmosphere..
Businesses invest a lot of time and money into advertising because it draws people in and sells their product or service, whatever it maybe. These advertisements are meant to draw you in right away and make whatever they have seem irresistible to you while making also making you feel that they are the best company to buy it from. The ads you see every day are not always going to be completely true and this is what you need to be wary of.
A martial arts school may say that they have all black belt teachers, and give you a guarantee that under a certain criteria you will move from white belt to blue belt within a year. Something like this should instantly tip you off that you need to do some serious investigation. You should look at where the instructors trained and where they got their belts. Some schools hand out belts like candy because it makes the school appear to have a high numbered of colored belts, but in reality, the black belt students could be the skill level of purple belts. If you want to have good instruction and actually learn, you need to know where your instructors came from. At my Columbia Martial Arts center, the instructors’ Brazilian Jiu Jitsu lineages is easily traceable all the way back to the founder of the style. If you are simply looking in to martial arts to get a black belt and just walk around feeling macho, they yes, sure go to a school like this.
Another issue with a school like this is that they are promising you a certain belt rank after a set period of time. They may say something like, train three classes a week and after a year, we will give your blue belt. The issue with this is that not everyone is the same and you should attend a school that realizes this. Everyone learns at a different pace and has different athletic background and therefore can not possibly all get their blue belts under the same time. Training for a year doesn’t prove you possess the skills of other Blue Belts; it simply indicates that you have the dedication and willpower to train regularly for a year..
Cleanliness, Student-teacher ratio, and reviews by students are three other important criteria.. The cleanliness of a school is very important because the mats which you work out need to be cleaned daily and if they aren’t properly cared for, you can get easily get skin infections such as ringworm, especially if you practice a grappling martial art. There should not be more than twenty to twenty-five students per class.. If there are more students than this, the instructor will be hard pressed to correct the mistakes made by his students.. Even better schools will have multiple instructors per single class – like they do at my Columbia MD Martial Arts School.
Finally, a good tactic to finding a good martial arts training school is to look at student review. These will offer you a good insight on what people already think of the school. Students will tell you their experience at the school and if they would recommend it to others. A lack of testimonials indicates either a poor program or a lazy owner (both bad things).. To find a quality martial arts training school that works for you, you have to be a detective. Look at all the schools around you in your area and go into the school for a visit. Pay attention to the smaller details that make a difference and beware of crazy advertisements. Start narrowing the options down and before you know it you will be training at a quality school.
