McDojo Horror Stories

Anyone who has been around the MA community for awhile has come across a McDojo. That is a school that purposes to teach a martial art, but, in fact teaches a fictitious parody. Sometimes just misguided would-be teachers and other times outright criminal frauds.

I'd like to hear about others experiences and mis-adventures with these types.

 

Depends though, alot of people who study at mcdojo's dont want to beceome hardened martial artists, they just want a fun, confidence building fitness hobby...

If the student wants to become a hardened fighter then he/she knows what they themselves have to do.

Blame the dojo for not teaching you the right and proper forms and kata's... but dont blame the dojo for not making you a "fighter".

Besides, how many of those in a McDojo practice in there own time away from their dojo?

I see it as " the student gets out what he puts in... "



thats only my opinion though...

 

i know a dojo in lake in the hills illinois i wanna give the name but i don't wanna offend anyone. this dojo is the biggest mc dojo in the world seriously they promise a black belt in less than 2 years something called the black belt club. this one boy who i know he was testing for orange belt and all he had to know was the dojo's rules and he would get to be orange belt he didn't have to perform anything. also this dojo doesn't break boards it just does form and no sparring classes.

 

No Sparring? Uh-oh...

 

Sparring is the best im affraid <3, it's definatly a very important part of martial arts.

 

Yup yup. Sparring is defiantely important.

Temple Kung Fu is a McDojo. Can't see the class, have to join first. No sparring. No forms (yes, strange as it sounds, I went there for a year and didn't learn a single form). Basically, they teach you how to do a good horse stance.

PL

 

as in, the shaolin temple? i'm a little ignorant here...

there's a mcdojo i went to that had a fun "game" like dodgeball at the end of every class..classes were 45 minutes...other students taught you techniques...wow, it was great.

 

Did I read that Temple Kung Fu website right? Kungrobics???

 

Yep. It's not a good sign when all they mention is Kungrobics. I don't see anything about what art(s), lineage or anything other then product lines. We teach self-defense, great i.e. we will show you how to protect you from yourself, now give us your money.

 

Kungrobics - Tae Bo in a temple!

 

I did buy one of the books by that grandmaster Simon guy. It explains how most of the different arts came about and such, and how he made his art. But I had to BUY the book...

PL

 

Reminds me of my Psych 4 teacher...the book was a requirement since she was the author

 

Should have asked her if there was a chapter on treating egomanical patients and people with delusions of granduer. (Why do you ask? Oh, no reason ;P)

Alright I'll throw in my own story: I grew up in a fairly small town (100-150 thousand people) There were three MA schools, Okinawan Karate and two Tae Kwon Do schools. The one I attended was taught by a middle aged (50s) Korean gentleman. (actually it was Moo Duk Kwan that he taught, but that's too much info for the Caucasian people. Moo Duk huh? Yeah I'll take some of that with rice). Our Jr. High School had a mix of students from each of the TKD schools. We had the idea of setting up an inter-school meet. I was first up so we put on our hand and foot pads. We proceeded to the center of the floor bowed to the instructors and my opponent and the match commenced I faked a jab and landed a round kick to the stomach doubling my opponent over. I was thinking, cool, I won then I noticed the looks of anger and dismay from the members of the other school. You see my teacher was old world Korean; we put on hand and foot pads at the end of every class and squared off and fought either light (no punching for the head) or full contact bouts, this is what we called sparring. The other school only did non-contact sparring the pads were just in case you accidentally hit. We worked things out amicably, but that was an eye opener for me.

 

ROFL

 

Lots of stories, to tired to share

 

I have a question, what exactly is full contact? Full power, or no pads + full power? I've been wondering for a while.

How did you work things out? They can't hit, but you can?

PL

 

I've noticed schools will define full contact differently. For us it meant you were free to punch above the shoulders. Kicking the head was always fair game for us.

LOL, Once we agreed on a common set of rules all went well (but sure felt weird trying not to hit). I think the damage to the instructors ego was worse then the kick I gave his student.

 

Tell that to the student

 

I bet that if you taped him watching you two spar, you could pin point the exact moment his ego shatters.

PL

 

haha

KFP