Choosing Your Next Martial Art School 101
You don’t have to drive too far to find the nearest martial art school. Finding a good dojo, though, is nothing short of a miraculous feat. So what should you look for on your quest to find the utopian school?
It’s crucial to determine why you’re studying a martial art so you can choose the most appropriate school for your specific needs. Most schools focus on sport-combat which can allow you to spar at full speed and compete in tournaments. Others, usually much harder to find, focus exclusively on real-life street combat and effective techniques against multiple attackers and weapons. So ask yourself if you want to get fit and compete or be able to protect yourself in a life and death encounter?
It’s imperative that you search for a school where the students’ safety and well-being is the primary concern. There are many schools where bruises, chipped teeth, pulled tendons, torn muscles, and broken bones are commonplace. Some schools even take pride in injuries as a way to condition your body to take pain and toughen you up. In reality, that only helps to age your body and increase the likelihood of developing arthritis and other degenerative health problems.
It’s crucial to study with a teacher who is not only skilled in martial arts, but who is also secure with his or her own self. Some teachers will deliberately injure you if the teacher cannot counter a physical technique or a challenging question. In other schools you are not allowed to ask the teacher questions at all. You are just forced to do as they are told.
It’s essential l that you study with a teacher who will strive to remove your ego and who is also working diligently to remove his or her own ego. As you mature in the martial arts you should become more open-minded and less prone to fight. You should only use your martial art on a physical level as a last resort.
You want to find a school with great students. Skilled students are an indication that the teacher not only has excellent martial art abilities, but is also a gifted teacher. The saying that the “apple does not fall far from the tree” is a perfect example of this.
Ideally, you locate a school where creativity and sensitivity is emphasized. Many schools focus on memorizing thousands of pre-arranged techniques. You can gain a much higher level of understanding if you learn how to see and spot principles of martial science instead of merely memorizing movements. That will enable you to develop the creativity and sensitivity to invent your own techniques if you’re ever attacked in an unfamiliar way.
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Sensei David Weinberg, 3rd Degree Black Belt in Freedman’s Method Ketsugo Jujutsu, Reiki Master, Certified Personal Trainer, and Integrative Flexibility Specialist
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