How did you find your schools?

Discussion in 'General Martial Arts Discussion' started by koolaid, Jan 22, 2008.

  1. koolaid

    koolaid Valued Member

    I have found usually the best schools to train with are the schools that arent advertised.
    I find the schools that advertise or are apart of an association tend to become a bit commercial and focus mostly on comps or flashy moves instead of the art itself (which is fine if that is what you are after, its just not for me)

    The best schools I have found are ones I have randomly stumbled apon (I found two schools while going for a run ages ago)

    How can you find these unadvertised schools?
     
  2. Hapuka

    Hapuka Te Aho

    By the Yellow pages and Internet.
     
  3. taekwondo911

    taekwondo911 Banned Banned

    first of all i think that this thread should be moved to the schools disscutions section.
    About finding unadvertised schools is by looking around and asking people .
     
  4. taekwondo911

    taekwondo911 Banned Banned

    :D :D :D
    lol
    but those are advertised
     
  5. IronDragon

    IronDragon Banned Banned

    LOL :D
    I'm glad someone understands the difference.


    As for finding them, guess it all depends; word of mouth, going to areas where cultural MA's are prominent such as a China town for CMA's and such, gyms and so on and so on...
     
  6. hoppergrass

    hoppergrass New Member

    I drove by my school many times and finally decided to stop in and see what it was about. It has since moved to a better location where people can see it when they drive by. Since I've been there, I've noticed that most of the people who come in already know a student there so I think half the students are referrals.
     
  7. Moi

    Moi Warriors live forever x

    The muay thai teacher we train under is famous where we live, just about every martial artist in north of the country knows about Russ.
    The judo club was recommended by someone on MAP.
     
  8. Yohan

    Yohan In the Spirit of Yohan Supporter

    A co worker let me know about my current MMA gym.
     
  9. Yohan

    Yohan In the Spirit of Yohan Supporter

    Well I actually originally found it in the yellow pages, but the guy from work got me to actually come down there.
     
  10. Stevebjj

    Stevebjj Grappling Dummy

    I found my school on the internet, and asked about it on Bullshido. One of the bullshidokas vouched and I took the plunge and went in.
     
  11. Cait

    Cait da Bionic is BACK!

    I followed my instructor :D

    Being new to the area, he started out teaching at the local rec center. When he opened his own place, I went with him.
     
  12. Davey Bones

    Davey Bones New Member

    The Kung Fu studio was found via an ad in the paper about a year befofre I started, lol. I couldn;t do it at the time, then when I decided I could, remembered the ad and called.

    The BJJ school? The sister of one of my former students/classmates trains another art at the studio where I train BJJ, so I looked the school up on the web. Many times before I left the kung fu studio.
     
  13. forever young

    forever young Valued Member

    my wing chun school i found by overhearing a conversation. Basically as i walked past i heard someone mention the words wing chun and as a friend had just shown me a little i asked these guys about their school and ended up going there. My bjj class i asked on map and cloudhandz found a school teaching not far from him, that was last febuary and i been there since and am loving it (must admit i have neglected my kung fu for a while - porra!!)
     
  14. kabaroan

    kabaroan W.O.R. / Kabaroan

    Always wanted to learn FMA, but never had the chance until I relocated to Sacramento. Almost made the trip to Stockton, CA to learn Giron Arnis from the Stockton Bahala Na guys, but with a new born baby, it wasn't in the cards. I ended up finding my instructor, AGM Ed Bansuelo, teaching at a neighborhood community center and have been with him ever since. I train with him as much as I can and support him and Grandmaster Estalilla to the best of my abilities.

    I enrolled my son and myself in TKD when the instructors started teaching out of our Home Owner's clubhouse. We've been doing it about a year now. We love it - its nice to cross train.
     
  15. Burbs

    Burbs Valued Member

    With in reason, I was open to any Art as long as it had in part some internal aspects of MA and possible meditation. I visited a handfull of schools in my area (from yellow pages and interweb searching), but once I went into one of them and saw the students, the teacher, and the philosphy behind the Dojo, I knew I had found exactly what I wanted. Two years later and still loving every minute of it.
     
  16. Coges

    Coges Valued Member

    Saw a clip of Hapkido on the web and then went through every search possible to find a school in my area. Ended up training at one only to move. Turned out to be for the good in the end as I found my current school only 25 mins away and have been there for ever 4 years.
     
  17. Gong_Sau_Rick

    Gong_Sau_Rick ultimate WSL nutrider

    My school is unadvertised, you pretty much can only hear about it through word of mouth. Ironically a BJJ/Judo man recommended I train where I currently train. Thank God for him, I can't think of anywhere else in country I'd rather be training.
     
  18. Rhea

    Rhea Laser tag = NOT MA... Supporter

    By walking past the hall in my leisure centre, then spent ages trying to get the courage to go in.
     
  19. armanox

    armanox Kick this Ginger...

    The only way that I would know about my Shorin Ryu school is the fact that I'm related to the instructor. No advertising (aside from word of mouth), nada. Not to say that being related to him makes him any less qualified, his teacher's license is ligit (issued by the Okinawan Prefecture).

    The Aikido school I found because it was down the street from me. I did a little bit of research and said sounds fun and just went in one day.
     
  20. nready

    nready Verifying DMI pool....

    Lets see!
    The instructor of Wing Chun I meet through the school I attended that taught Taiji, Hsing Yi, Pakua. Which I was just looking at the time I meet the instructor of Taiji, Hsing Yi, Pakua for someone that showed real knowledge(it could have been any system) and it happened to be him, was not at that time advertised on in any phone book so meet by chance. The fact that he seemed to know so many people it helped me to see how things worked in different systems of fighting and thinking. I also meet like people that did shaui jiao. There is so much more, I was looking for more taijiquan when I meet this guy at one Chinese New Year thing and studied Chen with him. Chen was taught at the same Church in Kansas City as this old woman that taught WuHao system of Taijiquan.

    So is what I would say once you meet someone that teaches like you like. Keep you eyes open to see who might know same instructor that has knowledge you would like to know. I have found this to work for me, often the people you meet are the people meant to assist you in learning, so be open and logical about what you would like to know.
     

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