Which dojo?

I am new to martial arts (or anything like it) but have always wanted to take it ( I'm 29 ). I decided to find one to take the other day but need some advice on which one. There are a good number of schools around here but most have the "mcdojo" signs I have read about, or are too expensive. I have narrowed it down between two schools:

One school teaches Karate from various styles apparently. An excerpt from an article about the instructor says "he combines Shotokan, Kempo, ****o-ryu and two forms of Taekwondo". He was the US karate champion at one point and is in the karate hall of fame. His name is Cliff Yawn. Here is a news article about him http://savannahnow.com/effingham-now/2009-12-26/martial-arts-family-tradition#.USAcGSfyqRt

The other place teaches something I have never heard of called "taekidokwon". I can't find any info about it on the Internet but the guy says he is only the 3rd generation instructor and it is new. He supposedly won the gold metal for TKD in the 2000 pan am games and is in 4 different hall of fames ( I cant verify any of this using the Internet ). His name is Rob "superfoot" Ludgate.

My goal for martial arts is to learn self defense, and get in shape. Plus I think it would be fun.

So, who do you guys think I should choose?

 

Welcome to MAP

I can't help you too much with which would be better to take as I've never heard of taekidokwon, I can't find anything about Mr. Ludgate being in multiple halls of fame but I found a list of his accomplishments here:
http://usblackbelts.8m.com/about.html

Not sure if it helps much.

 

My advice would be to go and visit the various schools in the area and try t get a feel for the atmosphere and what they do. Talk to the instructor and let him/her know what you are looking for (sport, self defense, fitness, whatever) and then ask if you can do a trial lesson for free.

Try out all the schools you can and go with the one that seems to fit you best.

 

Thanks for the replies. I'm going to the karate place on Monday to watch a class.

Hopefully someone here has heard of taekidokwon. It just seems a little strange to me that there is no information about it. The closest I have found is a school in Australia that teaches "viper taekidokwon".

 

To be honest, neither of the two options you have listed seem at all promising, both are throwing up numerous red flags.

The website and facebook page for Yawns Karate and fitness Center does not look at all inspiring.
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Yawns-Karate-Fitness-Center/382418245168487
http://www.yawnsfitnesscenter.com/

The only references for Rob "superfoot" Ludgate that I can find are self promotion. I see that he claims to have won gold and bronze at the 2000 pan-am games. The pan-am games happen 4 yearly, there were no pan-am games in 2000.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pan_American_Games
It is probably likely that the rest of his claims are equally suspect.

This article claims that Rob "superfoot" Ludgate was an olympic gold medallist.
http://www.thetruecitizen.com/news/2010-06-02/Sports/The_fight.html
which I am pretty sure is completely false. I see he claims to teach MMA, Jiu-Jitsu and Self Defence. I would not go to this guy to learn anything.

 

Go for BJJ, I know its the most expensive one, but its worth it.

 

Yeah BJJ is 100 a month here.... too much for me. I might take it long enough to get the basics down after I have got decent at whatever else I take but not until then I don't think.

I think the Ludgate guy is out. I'll let you guys know how it goes on Monday with the other place. I know the website sucks but that doesn't necessarily mean the dojo does.

Thanks for the comments so far, especially to kave who did research on these guys lol.

 

Can you send us the link to the BJJ class info?

$100 is cheap, relatively, to the art, quit a luxury item like a form of junk food you eat a lot of, or candy or beer and put that money towards the training and you will double your results.

The list of guys in my gym that have lost very large amounts of weight just through BJJ (and in their desire to get better work on diet) is staggering - lots of people coming in over 250lbs walking around now at 170lbs.

 

^ IMO this is good advice

 

BJJ is always good advice!

 

Here is the link http://www.redlinemma.com/

The problem is my wife was planning on joining too. That would be 200 a month not counting gear and other fees they have. I just can't afford that.

 

Only unlimited training is 100, its 70 unlimited if you sign up longer and they have family discounts too.

Or payg and block book for that discount.

http://www.redlinemma.com/prices-and-rates

 

Hmm, I didn't notice the cheaper rates haha. I just read the 100 dollars in bold and stopped reading lol. I will check them out then. Does BJJ have any stand up combat at all though?

 

Depends on the school - likely will be mostly on the ground though my school is 50/50. No striking the standup is throws like Judo.

Can't tell if that's a good school as it doesn't list the instructors but go check it out. In a school you are looking for 3 things:

1. Is the style respected.
2. Can the teacher both implement the art AND convey the knowledge for you to be able to learn the art.
3. Is there a sufficient base of students to teach and share on a peer2peer level, their will ideally be several tiers of knowledable students. In bjj that means as a new white a few 3 or 4 stripe whites, 5 blues, 3 purples, 2 browns as a great mix for a smaller school.

If this is a new school it might not have that diversity in students, but if it is established or available elsewhere then that's where you want to be.

Also it is worth checking competitors records too especially if its a new school - not a total deal breaker if they don't have but if they do its a great sign.

If it makes you feel any better in NYC the top schools are charging $250-$300 a month..

 

As its called redline mma, they should do the works, stand up, clinch and ground

As shown here -

http://www.redlinemma.com/redline-mma-classes-in-savannah-ga

 

Well I told you guys I would give you an update after going to watch a class tonight so here it is....

The first thing I noticed is that no one was wearing a gi. I thought this was odd for a karate class.

Once the class started one of the black belts started instructing them to do warm ups. This consisted of lots of stretching, 50 push ups, 50 sit ups and a good amount of really high kicking. Then they split everyone up by belt color and started working on hits, kicks, and blocks. The black belts are the ones who did the teaching, the instructor either stayed behind his desk or went in the other room.
I didn't see him teach at all, maybe he did later though I'm not sure.

We were sitting in front of the orange belts (this is the 4th rank in their belt system). When they started working on front kicks I noticed a few of them had issues keeping their footing. They were kinda stumbling around a little. I don't know anything about karate but I would think by orange belt they should be pretty good at a front kick (they also called it snap kick I think).

The class was mostly kids. The most common belt color was orange but the colors ranged from white to black with most colors in between. The instructor wasn't really interested in talking to us and seemed occupied with paper work or something. We ended up leaving before the class was over.

I never did see the upper belts get any training, maybe that was another night or something.

Anyway, we are going to keep looking. I mentioned the mma school to my wife but she's not thrilled about it lol. We are trying to find something we can do together but if we can't I might just do mma on my own.

I found a full contact (but with cups, head gear and gloves) Kenpo/Bujutsu school. My wife is ok with this since they have all the protection. Here is the link http://savannahkenpo.com/index.htm

We are going to watch a class there soon. I will let you know how it goes.

 

There is a Gracie Barra BJJ school at The Complex http://www.thecomplexsavannah.com/Savannah-Brazilian-Jiu-Jitsu-bjj.html I don't know if you have looked into these guys, no price list though (so probably expensive).

 

The mma school will have seperate classes for each of the arts, so you wont be kickboxing without protection on.

 

See if the school/teacher will give you a "couples discount". Tell them what you are willing to pay and that with sincerity, you do not mind paying up to full price within a year or so.

 

"The instructor wasn't really interested in talking to us and seemed occupied with paper work or something."

^If this is accurate, then IMO this is the most troubling along with that the adults have to train with the kids.

I think you should go watch a BJJ class and try it if you can.