Fake / Scam Martial Arts Academies and Dojos

Post Reply New Topic

So it's different to how you would ideally like it.

That may make it sub-standard but hardly fake.

I was not referring to all of what I said as fake.

For example, as mentioned in a previous post where they were rewarded a badge for sitting still for a minute. That's some mumbojumbo, and I would call it fake, or the instructor a fraud, unless they are teaching specifically people with disabilities of some sort that keeps them from staying calm and sitting still for short periods of time.

Here's how you can avoid McDojos altogether:

Find a BJJ gym in your area. Ask the instructor what his lineage is. Look it up on the internet. There's a 99% chance it will check out.

Or:

Find an MMA gym in your area. Ask the instructor if they compete in local tournaments. If yes, you're golden.

Actually, all the points you summed up are true for many 'legit' dojos as well. The oldest Karate dojo on Okinawa, an Isshin-Ryu dojo, checks all the boxes.

Don't believe all the talk about traditional martial arts being watered down in the West. They don't fight in Asian dojos either. Some do, but most don't.

I continue to push MMA/BJJ for people who want to learn how to fight/defend themselves: no pointless rituals that have nothing to do with fighting and which are merely done for the sake of tradition, no kata, no useless drills that would never work in real life, no fists on the hip crap, and no awkward, pointless stances to mess up your knees.

I'm pretty happy with my years in judo. I think it's a good mix of traditional martial arts and what you're describing. It's relatively safe, too. Looking back, I'm happy my parents had me in judo. We did lots of calisthenics, bear crawls, we even crosstrained sumo wrestling, and this is like with 10 year olds. I do wish the teacher was a bit harsher, though, looking back. The main teacher with the 3rd degree black belt was like 50+ years old, and he'd been practicing since the 70s I think. For me, I only went up one belt in my year and a half or two years there. I think if I stayed another 3-4 months, I'd have tested for my orange belt, the second belt. Also, once you went to adult classes, you'd have to retest for an adult belt, too. So they definitely didn't just hand out belts there, that's for sure. NONE of the kids in the class had a black belt, though, I think the highest belted kid was like 2-3 away from a black belt. It wasn't some super pro class, either, it was just at the YMCA.

So yeah, I like judo. Maybe I'll take it again someday. I think the next martial art I wanna take is tai chi, as tai chi seems pretty awesome. I'd say if you're a fulltime fighter, you'd wanna combine it with something else, but I feel it'd be good for being able to efficiently use your body's strength. Tai Chi was originally a pretty deadly martial art, but now for the most part, it's basically dance class or exercise for old people, but it's very hard to find "real" tai chi teachers. Tai Chi eventually gets into swordplay and stuff, too. It looks pretty cool, but it's very hard to verify some of the tai chi claims, eh, I'd like to try it, though.

Personally, as far as feeling comfortable in a fight, I'd say in most cases, the strongest person wins. Think of it this way, a Corvette Z06 vs a Geo Metro on a race track. Let's say the Geo was driven by a skilled race driver, right, and the Corvette by an average person, the Corvette would still likely win, just because of the power difference. There's exceptions, the Corvette driver could be a bumbling idiot, but generally speaking, Corvette driver would be able to win with a lesser skill level. I think it's more the same way with martial arts, and Bruce Lee had the same idea. His opinion on traditional Chinese martial arts was they focused so much on technique, and not enough on the body. Ideally, you'd want a perfect balance, but yeah. The thing is, you can know a whole ton of technique, but without power behind them, they're useless. Bruce Lee was a big advocate in compound weightlifting exercises, he was always experimenting there trying to find the best ways of physical conditioning.

As for fighting, the problem is, you have to devote a LOT of time to particular kata to make them a regular motor pattern, so much that a once a week for a couple hours class won't do it. Basically, you see people like Shaolin monks in China who can do all kinds of amazing stuff, that's ALL they do. It's quite idiotic to expect you, just because you're being taught their particular martial art (even if the school isn't a bullshido school) to be anywhere near capable as them, because you're likely only going to class once or twice a week for a couple hours, whereas they're "in class" all day everyday. Even figure skating, for me to learn my turns or whatever, I have to attempt and fail/do them crappy a few thousand times. I practice an hour a day, 5-6 days a week, and I'm still not "good," and pro level people easily practice 4-6 hours a day, almost everyday. And figure skating, to learn it's "kata" it's a relatively stress free environment compared to a fight, so that's another thing.

So complex martial arts, if you devote that heavy of an amount of time to them and learn them correctly, sure they'd work, but in modern American society for most people it's simply not possible. The other thing people neglect is again, the body. All those traditional martial artists did practice with weights, isometrics, etc, I'm guessing an equivalent amount of time would be spent on the weights/isometrics/bodyweight exercises, as would be spent learning kata or sparring. The other difference in the traditional Chinese schools was they'd fight eachother. If a new school came up, it'd have to prove the efficacy of it's martial arts by fighting with the other schools, that doesn't happen here.

So yeah, my main point, it's not that traditional martial arts are "bad" by any means, just they take a lot more dedication and time than is humanly possible for most people. So MMA/BJJ, they just decided instead of being good at a bunch of stuff, to devote their training to a few things, so that the people doing it will be actually good at the few things they do and know them. Rather than "learn" 40+ kata, and not actually "know" them. So yeah, for most people, taking the minimalist approach of MMA makes more sense. But to deny, say, the Shaolin monks, and go be like "Yeah bro, *insert famous MMA fighter here* could totally scrape them yo" just seems absurd to me.

That said, going off what Bruce Lee said again, the body. All the techniques and whatever in the world are pointless if you don't have a strong body to carry them out. Sure, you might have inclinations to "fill in the gap" with technique, but I'd say it's harder to do that than just get stronger.

To think otherwise would be absurd. Let me put it this way: do you think an unknown Chinese tennis player, who claims to have played tennis his whole life, but whom you've never seen pick up a racquet, let alone compete, would stand a chance against Roger Federer? Of course not, that would be insane. Fighting isn't any different. Competition breeds the best. Be it tennis, racing, fighting, or anything else.

Judging by the ones I've seen, Shaolin monks rarely weigh over 150 lbs. and their actual fighting skills are debateable at best. They'd get massacred even against journeyman MMA pros, let alone UFC fighters.

As for Tai Chi being a deadly martial art...
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S19VsB7__v0[/youtube]
It doesn't matter if you have 10, 50, or 70 years of silk reeling, breathing and pushing hands practice; you have to actually fight to become good at fighting.

That video is hilarious. I've seen girls in the ghetto without any training fight one another in the street better than that! Those lil 120 pounders can generate some powerful punches, and slaps, let's not forget hair clinching. Ah, but 1953 was a long time ago. People have evolved much beyond those times, and I am sure there are some tough and very skilled tai chi people out there, but also many silly practitioners as well. Unfortunately or fortunately... The silly ones outnumber the legitimate, or so it seems if you just take a look at the YT videos, or the local mental guy at the park practicing moves...

A person can spend decades striking the air or a bag, and playing patty cake with other people, but it's very possible none of that will translate well at all in a real fight.

Like it has been said before... If you've never fought, you don't know what fighting is like. Good sparring sessions will definitely familiarize you with what it is like to have a fight. Even then, you only know how you fight... when you get in a real fight. Hit and get hit back basically, but there's more to it than just that obviously. Perhaps going near 100 percent wearing thick pads with a trustworthy buddy of equal skill level and physical fitness will make it more of a reality for people.

I consider learning one art first, say wrestling for example a good way to go. Learn the ins and outs, and become a specialist at it, then transition to another martial art, like kickboxing for example, while still getting better in wrestling, and maintaining that skill you've gained in wrestling, while improving your kickboxing skills steadily to be a great way in improving in all aspects of fighting. Baby steps...

A lot of these schools that teach many different things in one artform, but don't specialize in any popularized style used in MMA in particular, they seem to suffer. The guy who was taught how to do an armbar in Krav Maga won't be as good as the JJ practitioner who lives and breathes armbars, same goes for mainstream striking based artforms. Krav Maga is a good balance though, especially towards self defense against the common man who isn't very skilled which happens to be I believe the majority of people getting into stupid fights in the street. The trick is just to sift out the frauds, and find the real training real people. Every martial art has their frauds.

When you've got an artform say for example one of the more popular artforms used in MMA locked down and know it inside out, that's when it becomes real dangerous and very useful. If it's all you know, there are certain vulnerabilities which can hurt you, that is why it's good become very good at one thing, and work your way up at another, until you're good at both. The reason I mention popularized or mainstream artforms in MMA is because those tend to be the most effective.

I have been satisfied With my Instructor. He is an member of the Chinmukwan Taekwon-Do Federation and he will not push people thru just to have more black belts in his classes. He does teach some children that for them its just some thing to do after school but that type stay white belts pretty much indefinitely. He still teaches the traditional way with katas and you are expected to use them like you are in a real fight or you will never advance. He has one student that just turned fourteen that is about to get his black belt and he has earned every bit of that rank. He is quick and precise with all his moves. As to hands on fighting he believes in sparing and the intensity is based one experience. Self defense once the basics are practiced its hands on even at the white belt level. I don't want a watered down instructor and he will make you do push up even for slips of maners such as not bowing out ect even the youngest will follow proper manners or be doing push up. I love that I didnt get enroled ina Mc.dojo!

What does the age of the instructor have to do with anything? I have one teacher over 50 and one teacher under, by the younger is as experienced.

Anyway, were I train we don't give anyone a grading/colour for aprox two years, though they will be working toward it all the time. Those that are just interested in getting coloured belts or sashes soon leave. We also only have 5 to obtain (used to be 4), so we don't just dish them out. It is about

The whole colour system originated from other sports, like athletics and swimming, it was adopted by martial arts at the turn of the century.

I have mixed feelings about it, you need something to motivate the grades bellow, but you don't want them to be preoccupied with grading rather than developing their overall ability.

There is no point grading someone just because they demonstrated they can do something once, they need to consistently delver without thinking about it, which is why much of the grading doesn't have prior warning.