Is this a McDojo?

Question

I took Tae Kwon Do when I was a kid and I never knew about McDojos. I quit because it was boring but now I want to go back after like 3 years lol. But I just want to make sure if anyone can tell me if it looks like a McDojo from their site?

http://www.ismaa.com/ISMAA/ABOUT.html

Answer 1

A quick look at the web site made me notice that they are affiliated with NAPMA.  NAPMA is really big on promoting business practices designed to maximize profits for martial arts schools. Basically they advocate such things as birthday parties, teaching 3,4,5 year olds. Promoting black belt clubs and rapid promotion of students to maximize profits and retain students.  Yes I'd have to say that this is very likely a McDojo.  I'd be inclined to find another school.

Answer 2

It is not possible to tell a McDojo from a school website.

It is in the details. I see from their website that at least they acknowledge that students have different reasons for becoming involved in martial arts and that is a good thing.

Things to beware of are:

Does the master spend some time with the students on the floor? If not that is not a good sign.

Does the school have long term contracts that guarantee outcomes? This is another caution.

Does the school have high testing fees. This is another bad sign.

Does the school allow you a  free trial period of a few lessons? This is a good sign.

Does the instructor have regular period or times of one on one instruction with the students or at least in small groups? This is a good sign.

Taekwando when taught correctly for combat is a very effective art. Not all Taekwando schools or for that mater any other Art are taught as well for combat as they probably should.  Taekwando gets a bad rap because of its' popularity and the proliferation of sports Taekwando. In my personal opinion ITA is strictly a sport style. I do not mean this in a derogatory sense. There is room for sport as well. People should not be mislead however.

Answer 3

Short answer, Yes.

Long Answer, it depends on what you are trying to do. If you want to learn to fight effectively and defend yourself against a larger and stronger attacker then that school will not help you. If you want to learn olympic style sparring and compete in olympic style tournaments that school looks to be a solid competitive school.

They are firmly a TKD school though, I'm sure they are very very good at TKD. I have a 1st Dan Black Belt in TKD and I enjoyed it very much when I was taking it, but the first time I sparred a person from a real combative art (Muy Thai) I got destroyed by someone with 1/4th my experience. The training methodology of TKD is generally not conducive to learning how to fight at any range other than kicking range. My suggestion would be to visit your local MMA gyms if you want to learn to defend yourself effectively.

The arts you want are Boxing, Wrestling, Muy Thai, Judo, Brazillian Jiu Jitsu, and Kyokushin Karate. They are the most likely to practice against resisting opponents and provide you with a realistic set of techniques that you can apply under pressure.

Answer 4

I have gotta agree with the first poster, I have a black belt in Karate with a Kyokushin lineage and TKD guys with the same amount of experience where pretty easy to defeat by simply getting inside them and boxing them, it is also pretty easy to sweep them and take their a** to the ground.  When I started training in Muay Thai it was more evenly matched, I won/lost at about a 50% ratio with guys about my own level.