Why does everyplace have to devolve into a McDojo?

**j416to** · Posted On: 11/21/2004 10:29am

1) My health club is getting rid of the hanging heavy bags because "they don't fit with the image they want to project." They're being replaced by spinning bikes and a surround sound studio.

2) The kickboxing instructor at my university's athletic facilities kindly suggested that I not bother joining his classes, because his classes are "meant to create an environment where people can develop their self-esteem, not their fighting skills."

3) It took me 45 mins to drive over the Karate Dojo where my Kenjutsu class was being held today. But when I got there I just couldn't bear to walk in and head to class, because there was a Little Ninja's Birthday Party going on. The place was swarming with little kids, kids running around dressed up as ninjas, swinging mini kendo shinais and breaking fake cardboard bricks. When I walked in the door, one of the parents asked me if I was there to entertain the kids. I looked at my gear, turned around, and drove home.

4) The MT gym I've been training at for the past year has now decided to implement a new growth strategy. With two facilities, one in Toronto and the other in Thailand, and all the fighters to support, two of whom have won World Championship Belts in Thailand, the gym has now decided to branch out by offering Corporate Fitness Instruction, a kid's program, self-defense classes, fancy new color photo ID membership cards, and a clothing line, complete with an upscale MT fashion show at one of the local night clubs in the entertainment district.

WTF??? Please help me understand what the hell is going on, or just negative rep the crap out of me, so that I can just say **** it, and never come back.

I realize that everyone needs, and deserves, to make enough money to survive, but isn't there some place honorable and financially viable, between abject poverty and becoming a McDojo?

**PeedeeShaolin** · Posted On: 11/21/2004 10:55am

Never going to happen. You're witnessing the poison of capitalism at work.

In order not to totally sell out ans blatantly sell **** you have to have integrity, something that the American society no longer teaches.

Martial arts will go the crappy way that everything else in this country has gone: all image and no substance.

The future is grim.

**NextGuard** · Posted On: 11/21/2004 11:18am

I've been helping with a local dojo looking at relocation. The economic remind me of a business deciding whether to outsource. The few dedicated people just need a quiet out of the way place to train but there aren't enough of them to support the whole dojo. So they want a storefront with good walkthrough traffic to attract new people. Then there is insurance, utilities and staffing when classes aren't going on.

And all of a sudden somebody says - "you know, the money is in teaching kids." That would solve our money problems....

**Equipoise** · Posted On: 11/21/2004 11:20am

The hearts of men are easily corrupted. I watched my WC school go from Hardcore to utter crap.

When I first started, it was 9 students, 3 new guys including myself, and it was close knit and no bs, we learned alot and eventually we moved up and were allowed to spar in the senior class. Then more new people came with their kids, and less and less time was spent on us learning and more and more on dealing with these stupid kids. Then the school moved, senior class was done away with, 5 old members left. Then all learning stopped, sparring stopped, everything died, and money become the priority. Cosa e la vita..

**SifuAbel** · Posted On: 11/21/2004 11:29am

Thank you mary sunshine...............

So was your class canceled at the karate school? Was it going to happen after the kids party? If so, then I'd say lighten up. Why is it a bad thing that your teacher has tried to actually make a little cash? Has the quality of YOUR training diminished because there was a kids party? Remember, its not all about you. When its you having to pay the rent, you'll be singing a different tune.

"the gym has now decided to branch out by offering Corporate Fitness Instruction, a kid's program, self-defense classes, fancy new color photo ID membership cards, and a clothing line, complete with an upscale MT fashion show at one of the local night clubs in the entertainment district."

Does this change your training, if it doesn't , then so what? Its only a Mcdojo if the quality goes down generally. Not just because they offer a class for lay hobby practitioners as well as the serious classes.

Akira has a good example of a Mcdojo syndrome. The only fault there was that the instructor didn't just add the new classes, he REPLACED the old one with it. It was no longer a supplement but a mainstay.

**Equipoise** · Posted On: 11/21/2004 11:31am

And all of a sudden somebody says - "you know, the money is in teaching kids." That would solve our money problems.

We must have gone to the same school :-/ Our stories are almost identical.

**SifuAbel** · Posted On: 11/21/2004 11:35am

"And all of a sudden somebody says - "you know, the money is in teaching kids." That would solve our money problems...."

usually the kids class is at an earlier time. How else did he fill that time before?

**Deadpan Scientist** · Posted On: 11/21/2004 11:39am

I agree with kfdw completely.

**Equipoise** · Posted On: 11/21/2004 11:48am

It went from before our class, to 15 min into our class, to the whole time and he would play dodgeball with the kids, not anything ma related. Instead of getting to work on things that would better our training, we did endless drilling on the most basic things. It's okay to review, but not ad nauseum.