Build your own McDojo (N.A.P.M.A.)

[Punisher]

Yeah, but just because it's a hobby doesn't mean the instructor is unqualified, as they may have been doing the hobby for many years. They may have been committed to this hobby more seriously in the past. For example, a lot of instructors at universities do not teach MAs for a living, but some of them do it damn well simply because they've been practicing so long.

It has nothing to do with qualifications. It's about priorities and how much you can actually give to your students. You can be the best instructor in the world, but if you're stuck working overtime at the office and have to cancel class, it doesn't really matter.

[Deadpan Scientist]

When your sole revenue source is your martial art, it almost becomes a necessity to become McDojo Bullshido.

It is important for our mission that this is not really the case.

[Aesopian]

I'm fairly sure the owner of this organization is a BJJ blue belt at the school Bizarro Root and myself train at.

[Deadpan Scientist]

......

[Wounded Ronin]

Actually, if you go to your local bookstore, you can find a bunch of books sometime specifically on dojo management. Reading them gives you a lot of perspective into the world of the McDojo owner.

What I wonder is whether McDojo owners are more commonly real martial artists who decided to sell out, or if they're more commonly weak and incompetent martial artists who don't realize they're teaching crap?



I think that it is possible to make a living while teaching good MA. One guy I know, Kevin Seaman, runs a MA school in NY state as his primary source of income. He's been in business for a long time but I think that he also teaches actual good MA skills.

Personally, however, the most important things that I have learned have by and large been taught for free or for only a token fee. Pretty much never in a brick-and-mortar actual dojo establishment, come to think of it.

[Wounded Ronin]

Actually, look at this. NAPMA actually sells you a cirriculum. So, in theory, you could not even be teaching a given MA. You could just be teaching whatever NAPMA tells you to teach.

http://www.napma.com/page.cfm/6,0,0,0,0,32,0,0.html

EZ Defense for Women Program
Created by NAPMA's EZ Defense developer, Bill Kipp, EZ Defense for Women is an innovative, scenario-based curriculum that teaches students how to turn fear into power.

Your students will learn how to assess danger, become assertive, set clear boundaries and prevent physical attacks. Even more, this unique program teaches students how to get control over the adrenal rush that occurs when confronted by an attacker. This is absolutely critical knowledge for all students to learn and we hope you're teaching it!

Use this valuable material to supplement your current self-defense classes, incorporate it into your school's curriculum or use it as a seminar-based alternate profit center.

For the low low price of only a few hundred dollars, too. :angry7:





http://www.napma.com/page.cfm/6,0,0,0,0,41,0,0.html

If your school offers fitness classes, your students will love shaking their hips to this fun, cardiovascular workout that blends popular Latin dance moves with techniques adapted from various martial arts disciplines.

Taught by Waleska Lorenzo, this exciting and challenging class will attract new students to your school and keep your current students coming back for more!

I can't believe they're serious.





http://www.napma.com/page.cfm/6,0,0,0,0,33,0,0.html

NAPMA's innovative new EZ Defense for Children program uses playful scenarios to teach children how to effectively deal with threatening situations that range from schoolyard bullying to stranger abduction.
Taught by NAPMA's EZ Defense developer, Bill Kipp, EZ Defense for Children gives you a powerful and necessary program that has been proven effective in teaching children how to effectively protect themselves.

This program delivers a wide range of essential, age-appropriate self-defense strategies that you can teach to kids, including:

• Verbal boundary skills to help stop a potential abduction
• What bullies look for and common mistakes kids make
• How to act assertively and stop a bully in his/her tracks
• Strategies for helping friends who are being bullied
• What kids should do when they're lost
• Safety tips for staying home alone
• Family passwords and child lures to watch out for

I always thought the bullies who were the real threats would physically assault you even if you were acting assertively.

[SifuAbel]

I've said it before and I say it yet again, a mcdojo is a mcdojo because of its teaching methods, not the business methods. Its a Mcdojo when the absolute quality of the whole school goes down in the name of making money. You can still have a kick ass teacher, teaching good MA, with sound business sense and managment. The NAPMA group emphasises guidlines toward managment.

If you want to teach a small group in a park somewhere, thats fine. It doesn't reflect on quality. But if you teach in a nice facility on main street USA you better be a sound businessman. Because you will lose your shirt otherwise.

As to this matter that an insturctor SHOULD be this humble self depricating sort who basically just gives away what cost him time, sweat, and pain; I say bollocks. This sort of hand-out mentality is lazy. Like a MA welfare state. Back in the "day", if we are going to use the term, the student had to PROVE himself worthy to study with the teacher. That doesn't seem to exist now. Now its 'gimme everything you gotsimply 'cause I paid my monthly dues.

[SifuAbel]

Punisher is right.

[Bizzaro Root]

I'm fairly sure the owner of this organization is a BJJ blue belt at the school Bizarro Root and myself train at.

<------------- are you serious



he does sell a grappling cert, complete with a video by Calos Newton.

[albert]

It has nothing to do with qualifications. It's about priorities and how much you can actually give to your students. You can be the best instructor in the world, but if you're stuck working overtime at the office and have to cancel class, it doesn't really matter.

You seemed to be stating that teaching MAs for a living is necessary for being a good MA teacher ("When you don't teach for a living it basically boils down to a hobby.") However, looking at this post that doesn't seem to be the case. What exactly is your view?