Are “McDojo” accusations unfair to legitimate martial arts schools?

[SeekerOfTruth007]

Sure, there are bad Dojos that just sell out belt rank to people, and then for every bad Dojo there is someone teaching real martial arts from the same original "style" of martial arts.

My Sensei was definitely not a "McDojo". Not even one person got promoted to 1st Dan the entire 4.5 years I trained with him, and only one person got promoted from 1st Dan to 2nd Dan that entire time. It took me a YEAR per belt after Purple Belt to rank up to 1st Kyu/third degree brown belt.

He was at the time a 4th Dan black belt (now 7th Dan) and 240lbs of solid muscle. They used to take Okinawan Oak bo staffs and break them over his solar plexus in ONE HIT and the man didn't even flinch when you hit him like that, and it takes a heavyweight black belt swinging the damned thing to make it hit hard enough to break.

He was a Marine Corps veteran and some of his students were Marine Corps veterans. We didn't' play around we had "close to full-contact sparring" every night after class too and he didn't go easy on women just because they were smaller either.

I especially liked the Japanese Jujitsu and Judo instruction, and I also liked the 1-hour advanced Cardio Kickboxing class, which I took 5 nights per week back then.

I know there are some bad dojos that teach crap for martial arts, or who lower their standards just to charge promotion fees. That happens, but it can't be everyone.

I'm actually hyper-critical of teachers of my own styles of Martial Arts. I fear many supposedly Isshinryu instructors have lowered standards and are just doing Points Sparring, which has nothing whatsoever to do with real Self-Defense instruction.

Also, there ARE "Boxing McDojos" too. For every Championship level pro boxer, there are SCORES of people who try to go pro as a Boxer and lose their first 4 or 5 fights in a row and just give up, because they suck.

[BlackFalcon03]

I've encountered a few McDojos. Hate to say it they were usually BJJ and one Sambo. Also most martial arts are run in classes out of joint gyms. So for instance you coukd have kids learning jujitsu on one side and taekondo on the other. Worth mentioning that a 4 dan black belt might be a greag martial artist but a poor sensi.

Boxing McDojos are usually rare. In boxing gyms the coaches are generally only intrested in coaching amatuer prospects and rarely pro boxers and the rest is boxing classes. Gym im at they just let you pay membership and you are free to train.

[SeekerOfTruth007]

BJJ is overrated, especially since all good strikers these days have excellent takedown defense.

At the local Gracie United Gym, all of the guys who went Pro in MMA have all their wins by submission, but all of their losses are by KO, because they never learned how to throw punches nor block a punch. And they really are trained by Royce Gracie and his immediate family.

I say learn striking and striking defense first, THEN learn submissions and submission defense. In a real street fight, most fights involve throwing a good punch and KOing the opponent, even fights that go to the ground are often determined by striking.

[BlackFalcon03]

I would say BJJ is incomplete. Its missing key techniques from Judo or traditional jujitsu. The Gracies spread the myth that 90% all fights end up on the ground based on an LAPD study that related to arrests not street fights.

I think if you are at a reasonable level of most martial arts, practice regularly and are in shape you shoukd be ok as its very rare that anyone who knows how to fight will come looking a fight.

Every martial art has certain weaknesses so cross training with others or doing mma is important. For instance a BJJ guy who tries a take down on a boxer for the first time might get caught and most boxers have no clue about take down defence.

I like judo and boxing for on the street defence. Quick left jab right cross is usually enough or if grabbed a basic judo move that slams them on to hard ground. Then make your escape.

[SeekerOfTruth007]

The only real time I defended myself in a 1vs1 fight, I used Ippon Seio Nage to throw the opponent to the ground, after punching him twice. After he was face-planted on the pavement, he gave up. It's the opening sequence of Seisan Kata from Okinawan Karate.

[Twalli]

I call them elevator dojos, they promise black belt after 1-2 years, regardless of actual skill or ability. I reached black belt at one of these schools in elemntary school and then stopped for a few years. Maybe 2017 or so I restarted at white. Before COVID-19 hit here I made it to Green (White, Yellow, Green, Blue, Red, Black)

[Anonymous]

Yeah…