Picking a New Dojo

[pdbnb]

Hey guys,

I have been training for about 18 months with a wonderful kickboxing club. Great people, excellent instruction, relaxed, informal environment, extremely affordable pay-as-you-go payment structure and convenient venues for me.
Sadly, as of Easter, they have relocated too far for me to follow, so it is now time to find a new club.
Around my area, within walking distance, I have four. I'm planning to have taster sessions in all of them, but just wondering what are some red flags I should look for that would rule such a club out?
So far, the only ones I feel kind of weird about are:
- One of the clubs has a beginners session involving no contact/no sparring. I get the no sparring part, but no contact? So, no pad work either, right? Traditional martial arts-sryle line work, etc?
- Many of them have more than one focus. While my club was JUST a Freestyle KB club, most of these also have boxing and MMA classes (though not all with the same instructor.)
- A lot of the pictures of the students make a couple of these seem like serious-business places (lots of lads in MMA shorts with their tops off and tattoos), which, again, my club WASN'T, and is not what I'm looking for.
- One of them has no pay-as-you-go option, just a monthly fee/yearly membership.
Am I on the right track? Anything else specific to look for?
Thanks!

 

[drop bear114 53]

What do you want out of a kickboxing school?

 

[skribs113 133]

I don't see anything that is a red flag from your list.

• Beginners session with no contact/no sparring - not necessarily a red flag, as long as they quickly get into contact and sparring. You'd have to ask them what "no contact" means. You could also mention that while you are a beginner in their art, you do have previous experience and you're looking to get into sparring right away. They may give you an exception.
• More than one focus - absolutely NOT a red flag. It could be multiple instructors running different classes, or it could be someone with lots of experience. For example, I could run a Taekwondo program, teach a Hapkido class, or coach kids or a beginner's class in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, because I'm a 4th degree black belt in TKD, black belt HKD, and purple belt in BJJ. My BJJ gym has BJJ classes run by BJJ black belts, and Muay Thai classes run by a coach with Muay Thai experience.
• Pictures are serious business - go in and find out if that's a good representation. It's not a red flag for the school. But if it's not what you're looking for, then it's not the right school for you.
• No pay as you go option - if you're locked in to a monthly payment (i.e. you agree to pay $200/month for the next 12 months, and if you quit next week you'll still be charged for 12 months) that's a red flag. If you're just agreeing to have payments made every month and can cancel at any time, that's not a red flag.

You have to decide what you want out of a gym. If a gym isn't giving you what you want, then it's not a good fit. If you want to spar right away or you want to pay per class, and gyms don't allow you to do that, then it's not a good fit for you. But when most people hear about "red flags" it's not about wants, it's about either safety or quality.

• A gym that doesn't spar at all? That would be a red flag.
• A gym that has one coach teaching 5 different arts when their background shows they are low level in 3 of them? That would be a red flag.
• A gym that when you go in, you get a vibe that this is an unsafe space to train, or you go in to watch a class and see multiple people get injured? That would be a red flag.
• A gym that locks you in for a year (or multiple years) that would be a red flag.

Even then, a red flag doesn't necessarily mean a bad gym. You could've just gone on a day when everything went wrong. One example for me, I went to one gym where normal tuition was $150/month, but I was given an option for a discount at $400/year. Yes, I was locked into that price for the year, but I stayed there 3 months and got my money's worth.

 

[pdbnb]

I'm not bothered about fighting in the ring or whatever (I'm 40, short and a featherweight). I just want to keep training.
In my old club I was just waiting for the date to grade for yellow belt (and already late at that since I failed my white belt twice) but I was progressing loads, especially after shaking the pressure of failing two gradings - so I'd like to just keep working on my techniques, etc. in a somewhat laid-back environment (our school pushed us hard, but they weren't training fighters or even training anyone specifically for competitions).

 

[skribs113 133]

Competitive gyms still have hobbyists, and lots of competitive gyms take care of their hobbyists. For example, I compete in BJJ competitions. If you were to walk into my gym as someone new to BJJ and get on the mat with me, I'm not going to beat you up or break your arm. I'm going to safely control you for a bit, and I'm going to teach you a bit. Not everyone in a competitive gym competes. In most gyms where people compete and there's even a competition class, I'd say more than half of the students don't compete.

I think you need to sit down and decide what's most important to you in training. Because you seem to not want to go to a competitive gym, but also not want to go to a casual gym. There's not much left in-between.

• If you want to be in a laid-back environment, you might prioritize something that is more casual. Something like the first school you mention that doesn't have beginners spar. You may want to look at places where they focus on technique over anything else, because you specifically say you want to keep working on your techniques.
• If you want to be pushed hard, you should find a gym that pushes people hard. If that gym has competitors, that gym likely pushes people hard.

Spend the next month going to different gyms. Talk to the coaches, watch a class, try a class. Read the Google maps reviews and talk to the gym's students and ask what they like about the gym. If you find a gym that seems to have the culture you're looking for, then stay there. If not, keep looking.

If you're comfortable with giving away a little bit of info about yourself, you could also post the gyms' websites here and say, "Here are the gyms I'm looking at, here are my goals, which of these gyms would you recommend based on my goals?" Understand that we would then have a general idea of what town you're from. I know some people are fine putting that information on a public forum and others are not.

 

[drop bear114 53]

Yeah. The competition fighters gym can go one way or the other.

So either you kind of get expected to be at a level or you have a hard time.
Or
You gain the benefit from the guys you train with just being better martial artists without the expectation to compete.

I don't think it detracts from competitors to work in with hobbyists.

This is our sparring. And nobody is getting murdered who shouldn't be.

16 reactions | Saturday Shark Tank 🦈💥 Big rounds. High pace. The whole room working. Fight night is getting close and the intensity’s lifting every session. The boys are putting in the work now so they’re ready to perform on the night. 👊 🎟️ Ticke

Saturday Shark Tank 🦈💥 Big rounds. High pace. The whole room working. Fight night is getting close and the intensity’s lifting every session. The boys are putting in the work now so they’re ready...

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