Hey, GP, I'll offer my two cents worth.
When I look at a website for a martial arts school or instructor, there are a few things I'm looking for:
What do they teach?
How do they teach it?
Who teaches it?
What are their qualifications?
What are the location, hours, pricing, etc.?
How easy is it to find all of the information above?
Are there any red flags that make me wonder about what is being presented?
Technically, factors such as spelling, grammar, clarity of expression shouldn't make a huge difference in evaluating someone's ability to teach martial arts. However if there are major obvious issues with those factors, it gives me at least subconscious doubts about their overall professionalism.
With all that in mind, let me go through your site and see what jumps out at me ...
What do they teach?
Starting on your home page, the only specific arts listed are Tae Kwon Do and Hapkido. There's a link offering to explain what TKD is, but it leads to a page which no longer exists. There is also a link leading to a general history of Hapkido. One of the other pages leads to the assertion that HAPKI reality-based combat "
is a non-traditional HAPKIDO art as taught by the Founder of HAPKIDO, Choi, Yong Sul." This is somewhat confusing - if you are teaching the art as taught by the founder, wouldn't that make it traditional by definition? Clicking around a bit I also find that Sungja-Do is an eclectic art "
based on Korean, Japanese, Filipino, Indonesian and other martial arts". There is no explanation of what those arts specifically are or who created the art, but I'm going to assume that you are the founder?
How do they teach it?
Nothing really helpful here.
Who teaches it?
That would appear to be you, George Petrotta. I'm a little confused, in that you seem to be placing a heavy emphasis on your international association, but there are no mentions of any other schools or instructors within that association.
What are their qualifications?
All I've been able to find so far is that you have been training for over five decades and that you started with Judo. It also states that you are "
the leading authority on the art of Sungja-Do". If Sungja-Do is an art you created, then that would seem obvious. I don't see anything mentioning your rank or experience in Tae Kwon Do, Hapkido, or whatever other arts you drew upon in creating your own system.
(Please note that this is not an attack on whatever your qualifications are - I'm just saying that it would be a good idea to mention them on a website promoting your instruction.)
What are the location, hours, pricing, etc.?
If I'm reading things correctly, you only teach private lessons and seminars in the Florence, SC area and don't currently operate an active school?
How easy is it to find all of the information above?
Not super easy. You have a lot of random links cluttering up your home page and no clear organization of the information on your website. As a counter-example, I'll share the link to the gym I train and teach at. I made the website - I won't claim it's the best around, but you should be able to find any info you want pretty quickly.
Four Seasons Martial Arts
Are there any red flags that make me wonder about what is being presented?
For me, the top concerns would be:
- Lots of talk about your international organization and how to pay for a membership, with no meaningful explanation of what the organization does or what benefits a member would gain.
- The "promotion requirements" page only list prices for testing and certificates, but nothing about the actual expectations regarding skill and knowledge. That's not a good look.
- No details about your experience or credentials.
factors such as spelling, grammar, clarity of expression
Different fonts, font sizes and colors all over the same page. Random all-caps, italics, underlines. Misplaced punctuation. Sentences with no clear meaning.
As I said, none of that necessarily relates to your abilities as a martial arts instructor, but it kind of hurts my eyes and doesn't leave the best impression.
Hope that helps.
