What are the qualities that YOU look for in a dojo?

Convenience and schedule is certainly a noble and important quality - what good is the best school if you can't get there? But over time, I've been able to adjust my schedule based on a good place to train, so, while they are important, they aren't the end-all-be-all for me.

It is sometimes easy to spot frauds in styles that I know, because I've been doing it for many years. I know what I know, and if someone doesn't know what I think he should, that's not good at all. I try to weed out the obvious McDojangs. For what's left, I have a series of questions I ask of taekwondo instructors before I join. But I must first explain myself:

I've been practicing for over 30 years. At 4th dan, few places want to take me in. Too often, older experienced students come in with baggage looking to train but not learn anything. They are admittedly difficult to work with. Instructors do not want to give them leadership responsibilities, until both student and instructor get along and the incoming student has a clear understanding of the instructor's goals and way of doing things. So personality is a big thing here. Walking in the front door and asking many of these questions directly is liable to get me tossed out in the first 10 minutes. Rather, these questions are what I have in my head, and I let a casual conversation answer them. As such, these questions are not direct, but rather, discovered. I list them as if I would ask them directly, but, that would not be the way I handle them. Also, I say "he", but, I'm just as open with men and women instructors. I asked these very questions some years ago (and they were direct questions), and the instructor abruptly stopped me and asked if I wouldn't mind having coffee with him and a few of his senior instructors and talk about these questions. I'm friends with him to this day, but, we did part ways.

1. How fast do students advance? I'm looking for time based on experience, individual progression, etc and ends with something around 6 years or more for black belt, and no less than 4-5 months for lower underbelts and 10 months or more for senior students.

2. What do other schools think of your school? If he says he has good relations with many area schools, that suggests he's not a style snob.

3. What do you teach your senior instructors? It's okay that the basics are occasionally covered. It's expected (in taekwondo) that they're learning new forms. But what are they really learning? I'm looking for depth of forms analysis (self-defense) and teaching others. Maybe they do other things, just want to see what they do to retain people.

4. What does it mean to be a black belt in your school?

5. How do you teach self-defense? I'm looking for basic self-defense concepts, like centering, rooting, distance, lines of attack, eye line, environmental awareness, multiple foes, multiple friends, weapons, ethics, and law. They need to cover grappling, throwing, falling - as well as the usual striking/kicking.

6. Do you have a self-defense curriculum? This will weed out the places that do nothing but wrist escapes, or who just spar. I'm looking to see if they teach techniques, then test the students as the advance.

7. On what basis do you have a self-defense curriculum? I'm looking to see if they base their curriculum on forms. Sometimes, they'll answer "that's how our organization does it" - which tells me they parrot things, and don't have an understanding. Remember, I'm talking to the head honcho - the guy who should know better.

8. Can I watch a few senior student classes?

9. Can I watch a senior student test for dan grade?

- these two will tell me what they're teaching, how they're teaching, what is expected to be learned, and whether the students appear to have an understanding.

10. What do you tell your students what forms are for? I'm looking for answers other than just "techniques".

11. How do you teach forms to beginners? seniors? senior instructors?

I think there are more questions, but they may be answered in casual questions, or sometimes, something is said that needs to be more further discussed.

My standards might be different than most here. For me I look for someone that has a strong background in a traditional martial art to the point where he knows much of the hidden bunkai of his style. this is truly rare and is always worth considering. Technique is fine to a point. Then as far as I'm concerned it is not about more technique, it is about the deeper levels of applying techniques. for instance what appears to be blocking is used at higher levels as striking, throwing, locking, trapping,....etc. Foot movements are applications rather than just moving to another position. All of what is common to most styles is in fact not what it looks like or what we all were told it is. The most effective ways to use those things is not the way we learned them or the way we all used them in the early years of training. This hidden level of application is all I seek anymore. More technique is just more technique and does not make anyone fight better. More logical and effective use of the basic techniques is a much more effective and fast way to end a fight. So for me these are the things that are important. Many others are not at that level of understanding and belief so their standards will be much different.

Cost is not the way to search for training. some people teach garbage and yet charge high prices for it. Many of the best instructors I have trained with either had low training fees or none at all. Price means nothing as far as quality. It is only something that each person might have as a limitation to their own training.

Promotions are not important. In fact anyone that makes that a conversation or selling point is instantly off my list as a possibility. Rank can't protect you. Only learned and developed skills can do that. anyone selling the idea of promotions is in fact selling promotions not correct training.

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This would depend on an individual's personal goals.

For myself I look for an instructor. I will watch them teach. I will notice the current students. Then determine if this is a good fit for me.

I didn't do this for my first instructor. I chose him out of convenience and affordability. I ended up with a very good instructor though. Then I saw many other instructors. Some I thought were very good and others I didn't think were so good. So when I could no longer train with my first instructor I sought out a good instructor. I asked my first instructor for some help and recommendation on instructors. Then I stumbled across and found my instructor's instructor by accident. I had met him and he also had helped to train us and asked for his advice too. I realized that my instructor was good because his instructor was. I visited every place that they sent me. I avoided one place that one sent me and the other said to avoid. I went to other places too. I chose a place that had a good instructor, but it wasn't going to meet my every goal. It was lacking teaching real self defense. The training was going to be more towards competing. I wanted self defense but also liked to compete. One of the best if not best of the instructors I looked at I turned down because I didn't think their training style would be a good fit for me personally. I knew I would learn a lot if I would train there. Eventually the school that I chose I had to drive further than I wanted but I made the sacrifice. But one day we were informed that they were going to be moving. Where they were moving was even further away. So that ended my training at that dojo. Then my search began again for an instructor. I ran onto an instructor in the oddest of places or so I thought. I saw a couple of the students then saw the instructor. I had been there many time for many years and didn't know they taught martial arts there. In fact I used to swim there and I was coaching basketball, football, and baseball there. I spoke with the instructor and inquired about his classes. He didn't seem interested, but he invited me to watch a class and see if I was interested. I showed up for his next class even though he didn't think I we were going to show up. I liked what I saw and joined and have been there every since. he got a lot of people that say they were going to come and never show up. Some come to a class or two and don't come back. This is why he wasn't too interested when I asked about the class. One of his students was one of my former basketball players. This really impressed me because I saw how discipline he was. He was my best player skill-wise. But he lacked any discipline so I let him go. His attitude would have hurt our team. i saw how far he had come. I knew this was the right place. The style was different than what I had studied previously. But that didn't matter as long as I had a good instructor.

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