What things do you like about the place that you train? What things to you dislike at the place you train? Is it too far away from where you live? Does it have very bad training hours that dont match your schedule? Does you Dojo(Dojan,gym etc) offer everything you are looking for are do you have to go to different schools in order to obtain what your looking off. Is is it a fun, friendly and safe environment or do you find yourself racing to your car after class is done? I really enjoy the studio where I train.Even though it appears to have a "rough" crowd,it is a really friendly enviorment.They teach every range in fighting.I learn stand up from the Muay Thai/Boxing class.From the MMA class ,I learn all of my standup grappling,groundfighting(submissions,chocks,armloc ks ,leg locks etc).The MMA class also has alot of open grappling instead of just going through drills.Dont get me wrong,drills are very important,but without sparring it is almost impossiable to get a true feel for the art. Another really good point about my gym is the hours you can pretty much come almost anytime m-f to train and a few hours on Sat.Also you can continue to spar after class and get specialized training without specialized prices;if you know what I mean. The bad points,well its a bit aways from where I live so a few days out of the week ,so I cant really stay to late after class.Also the style of Thai Boxing I orginal learned of quite different than the one my current gym trains in, so I sometimes wonder if that will conflict in my fighting ability.
I generally like my gym, there's only two things that annoy me 1) sometimes we have to use these old thai pads and punch pads, they're annoying... 2) the floor on my wed night training is always dusty and i train with bare feet... so that too is annoying besides that everything else is pretty good
1 The people and teachers at my dojo are very nice and are willing to work with every one. 2 The school is like 2 minuets from door to door, and thats if I have to wait at the light. 3 The classes are small about an average of 8 to 10 a night. 4 The classes are also affordable 80$ a month. Now the negatives 1 The classes are an hour long twice a week I thought that was average untill I saw something on MAP about 2 hour classes. (we are supposed to do stretching at home before class witch I do). 2 Some of the students dont give 100 percent when in class, not the black belts( that are a higher rank than me) and gives me concerns if the belts are not earned.( I feel i give 100% and been told so by my sensie). 3 It seems to me the class could be alittle more agressive :bang:
the coaches are very personable. give as much individual attention as they can. its a fairly new facility so all the equipment is brand new. the schedule isn't great but that will change when school starts and i am not working full time.
lol I know what you mean about using old Thai pads.I remember there was this one time that I had to use a set of thai pads so old,that every time I hit them all of the yellow stuffing would come out.It was all in my hair,in my mouth,horriable. ...to think,I wonder how many people's sweat was absorbed in that stuffing.
Good: 1.We do a healthy 50%/50% forms and sparring 2.Sparring incorporates all ranges: ti (striking with the use of legs), da (striking with the hands: all kinds of punches, all kinds of knifehands, palmstrikes), shuai (throwing, sweeping, takedowns, you can call it shuai jiao), na (the art of PAIN, IE Chinese chin na submissions: even small joint manipulation is trained, but not used in sparring, only drilled). 3.The sparring is done either light-semi contact without gear, or full contact with gear (headgear, gloves, sometimes body padding, sometimes shinguards, if we don't wear gloves then punching a padded face with a fist is not reccomended, then use palm strikes to the face, if no armor at all, then use either punhces with low contact level or palm strikes). Standup fighting is done using sanshou rules, on the ground we are trained to use jujutsu techniques or the ground techniques which are present in chinese kung fu. 4.The forms are mostly traditional. We study such forms as long fist. I have learned two traditional forms and one contemporary wushu form that I performed at The Second Tallinn Open Wushu Tournament with a score of 8.59. Mostly because of my emphasis on power in the traditional manner. 5.In inter-club and on wushu tournaments we have been very successful at sanda. I muself have not yet participated in sanda. But one guy in our club got second place in competiton against a jujutsu exponent. That guy in our club won many fighters there. That was quite good. Although I never saw it. There are probaly no other northern style practitioners in Estonia who put an emphasis on applying traditional knowledge successfully in real combat. All other schools of Chinese martial arts in Estonia are just some contemporary wushu schools (I like to call them McDojos) or some pretty high quality wing chun schools who spar full contact, just as I do in my school. BAD: 1.Sometimes (an emphasis on SOMETIMES) we have to learn a contemporary form in order to perform it in the annual Tallinn Open Wushu Tournament. Although we have learned alot of traditional taolu, I have never seen it being performed by any of us. EDIT: I have been training for only one year.
