Do You McDojo?

I usually get funny looks from parents when I use the term McDojo. Well, have you ever heard of McMansions? The houses that look really nice and sell for huge sums of money, but they’re made really cheaply, so they get black mold and break down quickly and there were tons of corners cut during manufacturing (no shut off valves on water sources, beams spread out too far apart, really low quality building supplies, etc). Most McMansions require the owner to pray that the building will even pass an inspection so that they can sell it.

That’s pretty much what a McDojo is in the martial arts world, except, the poorly made, rotting house in this situation is your child’s quality of education.  Marital arts can be a lot of things for a lot of people, but it’s not supposed to be a poorly built money pit. Unfortunately, so many parents don’t do enough research upfront, and they spend a lot of money on years of bad lessons.

Here are some of the many ways to spot a crappy, money grubbing McDojo:

• Is there a camo belt, a pink belt, a navy belt, or jr/sr belts? In the beginning, instructors in Asia gave their students a white belt which would eventually turn yellow from sweat, green from rolling in the grass, red from spilling your blood, and so forth until your belt was so soaked with your journey that it was stained black. There is a philosophic representation for each belt color, so tell me, what does camo represent in Japan? Oh, that’s right, nothing! It’s a different color of belt to get you to pay $100 extra for an unnecessary belt test. The same is true for many belt colors, including the stripped belts to show that you’re in between levels (note:  this does not include the baby programs for children under 6, they should earn belts with stripes). It’s a scam, even if the facility tries to make up their own representation for what that color means.  I’ve heard one instructor try to claim that camo means “lost in the forest,” which isn’t a bad concept to throw at parents, but it’s still not a legitimate belt color.
• Do you have to buy a new belt or pay for a new test for every degree?  Some places will have you earn three degrees of a brown belt before you are eligible for black, but you should not have to buy a new brown belt for each degree.  Likewise, places who give out junior or senior belts also shouldn’t make you belt test for those colors because they aren’t a new rank, it just means that you STILL aren’t at the next level yet.  Having to pay for this kind of testing is a clear sign of money grubbing.
• They have more than 8 belts. This varies based on the venue, but, because there are no regulatory or governing offices in most martial art forms, instructors can do whatever they want. In fact, every belt before black is frivolous, and the dojo decides how many belts students must earn, what colors the belts will be, and what order the belts are earned in.  For example, some places place green after blue and red after brown, while others do the opposite.  Most normal martial arts facilities should use 5-8 different colors of belt. Earning more than that only generates more cash for the faculty by charging you for more belt testing.
• Do you have to join a special Black Belt Club to earn a black belt?  Black Belt Clubs are becoming very common, and they are very expensive because they typically include private lessons on a regular basis.  If you choose to join a Black Belt Club, that’s great, but it should not be a requirement to become a 1st degree black belt.  A good facility will understand that not all students can afford higher tuition rates; a bad facitlity will try to force you to keep paying more and more as you progress.
• Are you forced to work for the dojo to earn a higher level belt?  A lot of martial arts require upper belts to help instruct the lower belts as an assistant sensei.  That is normal.  However, if the dojo is manipulating that by having students run the front desk, clean the dojo, and/or do other clerical or janitorial work for free, you should run away.  There are some dojos who will allow students or parents to work (“volunteer”) in the dojo if they are having trouble paying tuition (so you work instead of paying the full tuition each month), but this kind of work should never be part of the belt testing requirements!  Students should not be used as slave labor in the dojo, and any work performed outside of assisting in the class setting should be compensated, either with an hourly pay, or with free/discounted training rate.
• Will the instructors tell you WHY you’re doing what you’re doing?  Well trained martial artists know, move A is a blocking technique for when someone kicks at you, move B is for punching the opponent in the chest, move C is a way to stop an attacker from moving their wrist, etc.  Anyone can watch YouTube videos and learn the moves or forms used in a martial art, but that doesn’t mean that they are being executed properly or effectively.  It would be like a math teacher saying “2 X 2 = 4, now memorize it!” Yes, you will know the correct answer, but without the explanation of how multiplication works you cannot use that knowledge in any practical settings.  For example, my husband started training with a AKA dojo (AVOID THOSE!) and he learned all of the form movements, however, that was the extent of the training.  When we moved and he began classes at a JKA dojo the instructor pointed out repeatedly how the form was wrong and ineffective during a fight (things like, you have to put power into the move, this stance is to block a kick so you must respond like this, etc).
• They brag about titles.  Now, if you earn a title, it’s good to be proud of it, but a true martial artist isn’t trying to cram it down your throat and will have some modesty about themselves.  They will show you through their actions how skilled they are, not through their constant bragging.  For instance, if someone says they are a Grandmaster, and, therefore, you must bow down and treat them like the god of Karate, they are no-good ego maniacs who obviously do not get anything about the philosophy of Karate or the element of self-control (ie, the most powerful guy in the room doesn’t spend all his time flexing his muscles for other people to see).  Similarly, some schools will brag that their classes are taught by a world champion.  Now, that may be true, but martial arts is a very competition heavy system and there are hundreds of world champions titled every year.  Anyone who wants to turn a profit can start a tournament system and proclaim a world champion at the end of their season – they are just like dance and baseball league competitions.  Yes, the winner still had to earn the title and defeat opponents to get it, but some competition circuits are much more competitive than others.  Some are new, or have bad reputations, and a world champion may have only been selected  from a pool of 20 other competitors.  So, in some competitions, being crowned the world champion is like having the top GPA in your home school class.  Whether you have titles or not makes no difference in how well you are able to teach others – that is what is most important in a sensei!
• This is really an extension of the last point, but research any titles that a dojo gives to you!  Google is in everyone’s phone these days, so there’s no excuse to accept anyone’s word for anything!  My husband started Karate in a little town, and the man who ran the dojo claimed the titles of WKU Hall of Famer and 1998 Olympic Gold Medalist in Karate.  It sounded wonderfully impressive, but guess what the reality was?  WKU was not any kind of martial arts association, it stood for Western Kentucky University.  WKU also had a list of every athletic Hall of Fame inductee that they’ve ever had, and guess who’s name wasn’t on that list?  Sensei’s!  In fact, all of their inductees were from team sports like baseball, soccer, football, etc – there was not a single member on there for any martial art!  Now, I’m guessing that information wasn’t published on the WKU website in the early 2000s, but it is certainly up there now!  Then, if you look up the 1998 Olympics, first, they were Winter Olympics, second, Karate has never been an Olympic sport!  You can only get an Olympic Gold Medal in Karate if you are doing the Junior Olympics, at which point in time Sensei would have been in his late 30s.  It turned out that this sensei was a drug addict who made up a nice background for himself to teach people nothing (well, maybe what he learned watching Bruce Lee movies) and get paid for it.
• The head of the dojo won’t share his lineage.  Martial arts lineage, that is. Anyone who has trained and earned their right to be an instructor (again its not regulated so anyone can claim to be a 200th degree black belt) should have no problem telling you who trained them and where that facility is located.  Be very wary of anyone who claims to have been trained in another country, or if they claim that their old dojo is now closed down.  Either of these scenarios could be very true, but it’s also an easy way to con people.  I took a trial lesson from a Kung Fu Master who would not speak of his lineage.  I ended up getting a bad vibe and not attending that facility, but, when I did start lessons at another facility a few months later, I was told that the bad-vibe guy had a suspicious lineage.  I ask what that meant and was told by my instructor that this man had been a lower level sash, then disappeared for a few years and came back claiming to be a black sash from China, with no proof of his time in training.  You would think that, if people are questioning you, you would at least show a passport stamp, photos, or something to try and legitimize your claim.
• The dojo won’t allow you to wear a blank uniform.  It’s very common for martial arts venues to have uniforms with their logo on the back, and many places will give them out for free with your registration fee, but once your child starts to grow then you’ll be paying $30-100 for a new uniform at the dojo.  To the contrary, eBay and online realtors are flooded with uniforms that are blank (no logo on the back) and cost a fraction of the dojo’s expense, so, they are a much better deal for the parents.  Some dojos will not allow you to wear any uniform without their personal logo on it, which is a shallow and ridiculous way to force you to spend money on THEIR advertising.  Tournament uniforms may be another story, since you are representing that facility, but the normal day-to-day uniform should not have to have the school’s logo on it.  Note:  it is bad taste to attend Dojo A and wear a uniform with Dojo B’s logo on it, so please do not do that!  That is not what I am promoting here!  But no-logo uniforms should not be an issue.
• They won’t compete.  I’m not a fan of competitions, but if your dojo will not compete at all, that is a red flag warning that you’re paying for bad classes that are sub-standard.  Unless a dojo is relatively new, they should have a competition team, or a good reason not to have one (ie, you live 300 miles from the nearest big city).  Also watch out for things like “our moves are too dangerous for tournaments,” or “I’ve developed my own personal style,” because that’s just a way to con you even further.
• They require competitions to advance.  People should compete because they enjoy it and they have a talent for it.  Tournaments can be expensive and full of potential to get hurt, so they are NOT for everyone.  However, some dojos require you to fill your sensei’s ego and enter a number of tournaments to get your next belt.  A dojo that requires tournament participation is one that is desperate to gain credibility, and plenty of black belts have never been in a contest.
• The belt test fees sky rocket after you’re a few belts in.  Belt testing fees are normal, but having to earn and pay for a dozen belts is not.  Be wary of fees that go up exponentially, and ask for the full range of belt testing fees before you commit to a dojo.  A wholesale belt costs $3, and the instructor’s time to test you isn’t worth another $42, or more, for the three minutes you’ll have his attention during your test.  In fact, while most facilities will do belt testing days, they are not at all required in the martial arts system, and an instructor could award a belt at any time if he sees that his student is ready.  Unfortunately, so much revenue is made from testing that most dojos have adopted them and made them mandatory, and quite a number of the dojos charge $45 for the first few tests, then $100 or more for the others.
• They won’t talk about fees.  I have spoken with dojos before that have given me the line “well, you have to come do a two week free trial and see the BENEFITS of martial arts for yourself, then we’ll talk about the price!”  I told them where they could stick it!  I think hiding behind a free trial period and hiding your fees from your potential clients is on the same level as crack dealers who give you a free “taste” to get you hooked.  They want you pumped up about martial arts, then talk to you while you’re on a work out high so that they can charge you whatever they want.
• They have attendance quotas to advance.  This is ridiculous!  Belt advancement is supposed to be about the student’s individual ability, not how many classes they paid for!  If you have to attend 10 , 20, or even 70 classes to test for a belt, than that just means that the instructor wants to milk more tuition out of you in between belt tests.  Ask about the length of time it takes to acquire a black belt.  For an adult who attends classes once per week, it should only take about three years to go from white to black.  If they tell you five to six years, they are holding you back for more tuition revenue.  If they tell you one year, they are not giving you quality instruction and are just passing students through to get their money fast, before they realize it’s a scam.
• If they claim to be a JKA or WTF or whatever affiliated school, are they actually registered and listed on the respective parent sites?  Not all associations list their memberships online, but you should be able to find out with a phone call.  I was tricked into signing my kids up for a WTF Tae Kwon Do school (WTF is the system the Olympics follows) and found out that they used the title WTF, but they did everything in ATA style (which it the Americanized, give-us-money-for-low-quality-training/nickle-and-dime the parents system).
• They have a lot of little black belts.  Children might take up to ten years to earn their black belt.  Depending on a child’s talent, and how old they are when they begin, they may require less time.  However, if you notice a lot of young children in black belts, or a lot of people in general wearing black belts, then that dojo isn’t doing a good job, and they are passing kids through whether they are capable of doing black belt level work or not.
• The sensei is constantly unavailable to speak with parents.  He won’t answer emails or phone calls and hides behind his office staff so that you can never ask him a question or address a concern.  This is the sign of an immature, inexperienced instructor who is terrified of someone questioning him.  A person who has nothing to hide always makes time to speak with his clients (eventually), but someone who ignores and avoids his clients all the time should be a big red flag.
• If they are MMA, there should be NO BELTS.  MMA means mixed martial arts, as in the instructor just does random things and charges you money for it.  There is no style, no philosophy, and no belt system to go with it.  But, again, Boy Scouts shops have more restrictions on who can buy their merit badges than any martial art has on who may pass out a black belt.  I’ll tell you what, for $500 I will watch a video of your child spazing out, and if I like what I see, I’ll send you a black belt in Ran-Dom, along with a certificate that I authorized that black belt.  THAT is the level of regulations that all of martial arts has; it’s an honor system, so of course some people exploit it.

Not all dojos who do one or two of these things are bad, just like a not all McDojo’s will fulfill every warning on this list.  What’s important is that you do your research and know what is and is not normal.  Now, if you don’t care what little Tommy and Susie are doing, as long as they are out of your hair for an hour, that’s also your call, but I’m a believer of getting what I pay for, so I personally try not to support false advertisers who are in business to bleed you dry.