Joining a martial art school is a major life purchase, like buying life insurance or a vehicle, and ought to be treated as such. When making these decisions, you certainly want something that will fit your budget, but you also want something that meets your needs. So, while cost is an issue, it is not the only consideration, and certainly not the first.

Say your buying a vehicle. You first need to decide what you need it for. Are you going to be hauling materials, do you have a big family, are you going to be traveling long distances, etc. There are vehicles for all of those purposes, but, for instance, a pickup truck doesn’t do the job of a sedan. The martial arts have similar divisions. Each martial art school is unique. The schools and the arts they teach have different goals, and therefore have different methods of approaching those goals. In order to decide which martial art fits your needs, you’ll need to determine your martial arts goals. Luckily, these goals fit into five categories: sports, entertainment, cultural preservation, low-impact exercise, and practical self-defense, or tactical combat.

Just one caveat before we start discussing the categories: schools and arts sometimes mix emphases. For instance, you can have a combat art, where the owner of the school has a competition mentality. By the same token, you can have a cultural preservation art where the owner has a combat mentality, etc. In other words, just because the school advertises a sport art, doesn’t guarantee that you will be winning, or even entering competitions if you join. You’ll need to do your homework to discover what the schools real goals are. Here are some suggestions.

Sport Arts
Definition
A sport art is one in which the martial aspects of the art have been converted into one recognized and sanctioned game. To avoid injury, all arts have developed games, but in a sport art, a particular game has become the main focus. These games range anywhere from point sparring in tournaments to Olympic competitions to “no-holds-barred” matches.

Goals
The goal of a sport art is to win contests, pure and simple. With this in mind, the school owners see their students and participants as athletes, and depending on the intensity of the competition, the goal is to get them ready for competition.

Signs
There are three ways to identify a sport art. First, the school will have a trophy display. A good sport school should be able to coach its students to victory in competitions, but be careful: these days people get trophies just for participating. Plus, anyone can pay to have a trophy made. If you’re looking for a good sport school, be sure the school is actually winning its competitions. Second, there will be a well-established ranking system. When winning competitions is your goal, it’s important to match people with comparable skill levels. Therefore, there must be a well-developed ranking system that is easy to understand across schools. That way when different schools get together to compete, they can match opponents with some degree of equality. Third, there will be a focus on one aspect of fighting to the exclusion of others. In other words, fighting can be divided into at least four categories: throwing, grappling/wrestling, kicking and punching. Originally, all arts combined these elements, but as competition gained more popularity, they were divided for ease of scoring. In many cases, the school will have created an artificial environment to favor one of these aspects of fighting. For instance, a grappling/wrestling art favors a soft, slick padded floor, but a striking art needs a solid surface to connect the strike to the ground. However, if you create an environment that favors the one, you discriminate against the other. Some sport schools also offer supplemental, short-term self-defense courses.

Benefits
Sport arts are often associated with large organizations. Consequently, joining one of these schools gives you the opportunity to attend events with a large number of people with similar interests. Depending on the level of competition, there may be an intense focus on getting athletes into competitive condition. Having scheduled competitive events gives a well-organized school the ability to coordinate its training schedule to have athletes in peak performance capacity near event time. The athletic demands of these arts are comparable to those of just about any competitive sport, and the injury rate is significantly lower.

Drawbacks
The physical demands of a sport art often burn an athlete out at a young age. Though the injury rate is low in young athletes, as the body gets older, performing some of the required movements becomes more risky, so participants don’t see the art as a lifetime pursuit. In addition, the technical demands of the sport inevitably remove the competition from realistic combat. Martial competitions fall into two categories: recreational past-time and spectator sport. The recreational sports place a high value on safety, so the rules of the competition will limit time, number of opponents, techniques and target areas and reduce impact. Spectator sport organizers are primarily interested in selling tickets. Consequently they will implement safety rules like those of the recreational arts, but they will also implement rules designed to create a spectacle. In both cases, players inevitably learn to manipulate the rules to their advantage, like forcing fouls in a basketball game. This tendency to manipulate the rules can become institutionalized to the point where the competition bears very little resemblance to actual combat.

Dramatic Arts
Definition
One of the most popular theatrical spectacles is the fight scene. Thus, martial arts have always been a part of the theater in every culture. Dramatic arts emphasize theatrics in their martial pursuits.

Goals
The goal of a dramatic art is to stimulate and maintain an audience’s interest. That audience may consist of anywhere between one and a billion people. School owners see the participants as performers, and groom them for the stage.

Signs
You can identify a theatrical martial art by its broad, dramatic motions, a focus on forms or Katas with mysterious motions, and two-man, choreographed exercises which prolong the “combat” and stay outside striking range.

Benefits
First, theatrical martial arts require great physical condition, reflexes and timing. Though they can’t guarantee that you will get into shape, participating in this type of activity is a great motivator. You’re more likely to look like Colin Farrell than Arnold Schwarzenegger, unless your brand of entertainment is MMA or professional wrestling. Second, there’s more money to be made in entertainment than in any other branch of the martial arts. Chuck Liddell received somewhere in the neighborhood of $1,400,000 for the highest grossing fight in MMA history. In contrast, Jackie Chan makes between 10 and 15 million dollars per film. In 2010, Chan made 5 films. As long as we’re comparing moneymakers, the UFC total revenue for 2006 was 200 million dollars. Contrast that to the Mayweather, De la Hoya fight which alone grossed $120 million. And that UFC high of 1.4 million is a mere pittance compared to a typical $30 million for a boxing prizefight. Even for beginners, MMA amateurs can make between $50 and $100 per fight compared to a typical $300 for an amateur boxer. So if you’re going to get into the ring for money, the smart money is in boxing. However, the even smarter money is in entertainment.

Drawbacks
The problem is there are very few positions available that pay the kind of money we’re talking about. Jackie Chan makes that kind of money because he is one of a kind. You’re more likely to get a volunteer job at your local theater group. But don’t expect to get a lot of combat training in a theatrical school. Schools that spend a lot of time getting students ready for demonstrations rarely have enough time to also train them to defend themselves. Furthermore, a good number of these theatrical arts have lost track of their origins and have confused themselves with actual combat arts. Even if the owners are sincere, these arts are useless in combat.

Cultural Arts
Definition
Throughout history, many societies have identified their culture with their ability to make war. This is not surprising, since technology is often spurred by the necessities of war. Every technology becomes obsolete, and some are reluctant to discard old wisdom and methods that have come to define their people. These people then systematically recorded their arts and passed them on through generations.

Goals
Every systematic martial art seeks to pass on ancient knowledge of how to fight, but a cultural art also seeks to preserve traditions that were associated with the art, but not central to the martial nature of it. Or in other words, it seeks to preserve the essence of a group of people.

Signs
One sign of a cultural art is a strong emphasis on tradition and trappings. A cultural art places a high value on tradition and will insist on wearing the clothing of a previous era and on observing the ceremonies associated with that culture.

Benefits
Cultural arts are a goldmine for the anthropologists. Although they can’t possibly recreate the ancient culture with any accuracy, they do give us some valuable insights into those ancient cultures and in the people who seek to preserve them. Furthermore, some valuable information on combat still survives.

Drawbacks
If effective combat is your goal, you should probably avoid these arts. They may or may not teach you effective fighting methods, but even if they are based on combat arts, there are much more efficient systems out there that don’t require your adopting a foreign culture to reach your goal. Unfortunately, these cultural arts are generally the ones that market to parents, whose children, by definition, are not capable of deciding whether or not they want exposure to a dead, foreign culture. The most dangerous of these arts, despite the sincerity or ignorance of their exponents, are those that seek to indoctrinate their students into a religion, or, worse yet, a secret society associated with organized crime. Even though these associations may be both geographically and temporally distant, surely gang culture or foreign religions are not what most parents have in mind when sending their children to learn, “discipline,” “self-respect,” etc.

Fitness Arts
Definition
A fitness art is one that has taken the movements from martial arts and converted them into aerobic, anaerobic and resistance training.

Goals
The owners of a fitness school see their participants as clients and seek to tone their bodies and improve their appearance.

Signs
Fitness schools will spend the majority of time on physical fitness and conditioning. This is the most obvious sign. They will also usually be associated with a gym. Also, some form of the word “fitness” will be in the title of their business.

Benefits
Aside from the obvious benefits of fitness, a well-designed martial arts fitness program offers a kind of fitness that is hard to match. The martial arts require strong muscles, like any other fitness activity, but they also require strong bones, quick reflexes, coordination, timing, balance, and sound judgment. In addition, a martial art requires both aerobic and anaerobic conditioning.

Drawbacks
However, if fitness is all you’re after, there are probably more efficient and less expensive methods available to you. Most communities offer a municipal fitness center with a track, a pool, weight machines and an aerobics rooms for somewhere around $100/year. Most martial arts fitness programs offer very little in actual self-defense instruction. If you joined a tennis club for fitness, you’d actually want to play tennis and not just for 25% or less of the time. You wouldn’t want to just spend your time swinging a racquet through the air. By the same token, no amount of punching and kicking the air or targets can substitute for working with an actual living and breathing partner who will move, resist and make the exercise more realistic.

Self-defense/Tactical Combat Schools
Definition
A combat school recognizes the brutal nature of actual combat and doesn’t sugar coat it.

Goals
A combat school owners see participants as clients and seeks to increase their odds of surviving a violent encounter. However, if you view self-defense or self-preservation as confronting threats to length and quality of life, it can take many forms including improved physical, mental, emotional and financial health. Still, other goals, such as creating a social network and achieving fitness are secondary to the goals of survival.

Signs
The first sign of a combat school will be the preponderance of time spent working with a partner. Unlike sports schools, which focus on one game, a combat school will have a variety of games to simulate different aspects of fighting. These games will be loosely defined, so that participants can negotiate the level of intensity and amount of realism they are comfortable with. Along these same lines, combat arts will have some aspects of all elements of fighting: Throwing, grappling, kicking and boxing. However, unlike the MMA which generally treats these aspects separately, combat arts will treat them as a unified whole. Also, there will be some work with weapons. Finally, in combat arts they will talk about “conditioning,” rather than “fitness.” or “getting in shape.”

Benefits
Combat schools spend time on working techniques with partners, building striking power and conditioning the body for combat. They will focus on activities that you can keep up all of your life. The variety of activities in a combat school will keep your interest, but they should prepare you for combat in a very short time. Though combat schools generally allow beginners to work with advanced students and instructors, the advanced students understand how to level their activity and work with the newcomers’ abilities. This results in shorter time to get students combat ready.

Drawbacks
First, combat arts aren’t suited to all audiences. The art is generally too complex and brutal to teach to small children. Likewise, unless the student is already in great shape, it is too demanding for seniors to start. Second, combat schools must balance the variety of activities with the time it takes to condition. “Conditioning,” means preparing the body to perform the activities necessary for the fight. It doesn’t mean getting into shape, so if you’re interested in getting into shape, you’ll have to dedicate more time to it.

After you’ve decided if the school’s goals fit your goals, you need to determine whether or not you fit into the school’s demographic. Martial arts schools cater to different audiences. Audiences fall into these categories: children, adolescents, adults, and seniors.

Children need
Because of the developing nature of children’s bodies and minds, they need physical activity that complements those changes. For instance, children’s joints are more limber than are adults’, but their bones are less rigid. Therefore, they are not ready to support the force of realistic punches and kicks. On the other hand, their light, compact bodies can easily endure falls and rolls. In addition, their neuropathways are still developing, so movements that require complex coordination of limbs, particularly subtle movements are too complex for children to process. Finally, they are still developing a sense of morality, so they are not prepared to determine when different levels of force are appropriate. With this in mind, a children’s program should focus on a lot of low-impact, simple, non-lethal activities that are age appropriate.

The international Olympics committee did a study to find the average ages at which a child was generally ready to begin a certain type of sport. The following list is a summary of their findings for activities associated with martial arts.
Activity—Age
Tumbling: 6
Wrestling/grappling: 8
Kicking: 10
Boxing: 13
So an ideal children’s martial arts program would separate children according to age, and at each level, they would focus on the age appropriate activity, with some of the other activities mixed in.

Furthermore, children need social structure and clear achievement. Therefore, the class rules should be well defined, as should be requirements for advancement. Advancements need to be regular and equitable. On the other hand, children are much more easily adaptable to cognitive ambiguity than are adults, so they can easily move between unrelated activities, and they are less dependent on unifying theories. So a children’s class should move quickly between several types of exercises.

Adolescents need
Until they reach adolescence, boys and girls bodies develop at roughly the same rate, so there is no reason why they can’t train together, but when they reach adolescence, they should be separated.

Adolescent boys begin to develop power, so their program should have a lot of physical activity, and it’s appropriate to introduce higher impact exercises and resistance training. At this age they begin to grasp higher cognitive concepts, so it’s appropriate to start explaining the physics and physiology behind the movements in the art. On the other hand, they are still very competitive, so they need to have opportunities to prove themselves. However, it’s important to start giving them a sense of the morality of fighting at this point, and you still shouldn’t show them any lethal moves, because this is the age at which they are more likely to get into a fight.

Adolescent girls also need a lot of physical activity, but their program should be more focused on grace and finesse than on power. They, too, can comprehend the physics and physiology, and it is just as, if not more important to give them a sense of when the use of violence is appropriate and when it is not.

Adults need
At about 18 years old, you can start teaching anyone just about anything. Depending on the art, it becomes appropriate to put males and females back together again. At this point, however, the structure of instruction must be much more systematic. Adults expect an explanation for why they are doing what they are doing. They have to put it together cognitively in their brain, so they know when and where each thing they do is appropriate. They need a deeper explanation of the physics and physiology of the movements as well. Precision and accuracy become much more important. In addition, they need techniques that are much more practical. So, the kinds of things that require a gymnast to do are no longer applicable. Also, it becomes less important to them to do the art for competition, and more important to do it as a lifelong pursuit. The activities should, therefore be less challenging to the joints and muscles. What I mean is, you don’t want to kill yourself while you’re training, but you still want to be able to condition and stay in pretty good shape. Adults are a whole lot more comfortable with who they are, and are just trying to find something that works for them instead of trying to create an identity for themselves through their activity. Also, adults are looking for a place to make connections to further promote activities that interest them.

Seniors need
Seniors also need a practical art. They need something that’s effective without having to employ too much athleticism. Again, precision and accuracy are more important than are strength and agility. They also need something that’s going to allow them to move through all the range of motion of the joints so they can keep mobile. Seniors are also interested in social networking.

Sports arts like
Sports are mainly interested in adolescent and young adult males, but those arts for which competitions are a multi-million dollar industry (mixed martial arts) will begin combing the field early for children. Those that seek to attract females are usually more exploitative. On the other hand, Olympic-style sports arts recruit young adults of both sexes. Finally, tournaments are designed mostly for adolescents.

Dramatic arts want
Dramatic arts are looking for children, adolescents and adults. There is not as much interest in seniors. They want people who look good on stage or screen. So athleticism is a prime value.

Cultural arts want
Cultural arts are most suited to academic adults, but they tend to target children and adolescents. There is an aphorism among martial teachers that the money is in teaching children. Many of the different types of arts use this reasoning to teach children’s classes, but the cultural arts are probably the least suited to it, but the most prolific at it. The trouble comes when the art is associated with a foreign religion, secret society or gang. It does make sense, however, that you would want to start indoctrinating quite young for this type of group.

Fitness arts want
Fitness schools are mainly looking for young adult females or seniors, though they can attract any age or sex.

Combat arts want
Combat arts are looking for late adolescents to adults to start, but you can carry on these activities into your senior years. It’s not a good idea to start a combat art when you’re over 65, but if you start when you’re younger, you can keep going until you die. Many masters of these arts continue practicing the art into their 80’s and 90’s. These arts are for people who are serious about a lifelong pursuit of health, rather than fitness, and who take self-defense seriously. Also, these arts tend to attract a more intellectual crowd.

Equipment
There are two categories of equipment, those that the school furnishes, and those you need to buy yourself. You’ll want to buy the equipment that you wear because you tend to sweat in it, and you probably want to avoid wearing other people’s sweat. So the major consideration here is whether or not you want to use the kind of equipment you need for the training, and if you do, can you afford it, but we’ll look at that again in cost. The other type of equipment is what the school furnishes. A school should have equipment for conditioning the bones and skin and for building coordination. It also ought to have the kind of equipment you can use with a partner for building power. If it has any ground fighting in it, it ought to have floor mats, and these should be in good repair and clean. There should be a clear policy not to use shoes on the mats; otherwise, you can spread ringworm. So, the school should have heavy bags, kicking shields, focus mitts and any other equipment unique to the art that they teach. For instance, if it’s a self-defense/combat art, the school should have mock weapons to train against. You can usually find out what kind of equipment an art needs by checking on line. If the school doesn’t have all of the equipment, it’s likely that the teacher isn’t qualified to take you all the way through the art.

Time Requirement
As I have already pointed out, joining a martial arts school is a major life purchase, partly because it requires your time and effort for success. So in considering your time commitment, you should keep three things in mind: First how much of your time will training require vs. how much time do you have to commit to training? In other words, does the class meet once, twice, three times per week, etc? Does the class meet for fort-five minutes, an hour, two hours, three? Can you commit to that much time? What if you want to commit more time; is it available to you? Second, how much time is required to complete the training, one year, five years, ten years, twenty? When you’re through training, will you be able to continue practicing and honing your skills? Third, how much flexibility is built into the training? If you are either faster or slower than does the school adjust for that? Will missing a class, two classes, or a month of classes prevent you from progressing, etc.? Can you make up missed classes? If not, how much does it put you back? The fact is that emergencies come up, and you have to miss sometimes. The school should take that into consideration.

Reputation
You should also take a schools reputation into account. There are a few ways to check into reputation. Obviously, you can’t ask the instructors or school owners, because they are clearly biased. One way to check is to get on the Internet and see how many people are talking about the art and/or the school. Another way is to check on the length of time the school has been in business. Martial arts schools start up every day, and many don’t have the ability to stick around. You don’t want to get started on an art and find that you are going to be left halfway through your progression. You’ll also want to talk to several of the students at different levels. The new guys are almost always excited about the choice they’ve made, but they can give you a pretty good idea of how the teacher interacts with students. On the other hand, you want to talk to the advanced students and see if they still feel that they are getting value for their money. It’s not that uncommon for the quality of instruction to fall off at the upper levels when the students’ skills start approximating those of the instructor. If he isn’t teaching them, chances are he won’t teach you either. Finally, find out what organizations the school is associated with. It’s good to be associated with an organization that oversees the quality of instruction at its various schools, but this actually can cut both ways. In other words, if a school is associated with a very strong organization, the teachers sometimes rely so much on the program that they miss the details that really make it work and start treating the school something like a fast-food restaurant. On the other hand, several of the best instructors seek independence precisely because they find that the organization is too stifling. If that’s the case, you can only rely on the instructor’s/school owner’s reputation.

Atmosphere
Also, if you’re going to be spending a lot of time in this school, you’ll want to know how people are expected to interact with each other. Are they serious about training? Are the seniors helpful or competitive with the juniors? Are they open or secretive? Do they allow questions and answers during training sessions? Do they allow students to talk among themselves? Most of all, how do you feel interacting with the other students? Do you feel comfortable or uncomfortable? If you’re not going to be happy training there, you should probably just avoid it.

Convenience
Actually, for the most part, this is not a major consideration. The school that meets all of your requirements will probably be one-of-a-kind in your city, or you might not even be able to find it in your city, and you’ll have to be prepared to go wherever the school is. But convenience may be a consideration where your children are concerned. If you have more than one child enrolled and they are in separate classes that meet at different times or on different days, you’ll have to consider how you’ll get them all to classes, especially if the school is across town.

Cost
Once you’ve found the art that suits you, you should consider cost. If you’re lucky, you’ll be able to choose from several arts that fit your needs. In that case, cost should be your determining factor. However, if your choices are more limited, cost should be less important. Of course, if you can’t afford the combat art you want, and all that’s available is a theatrical art that you don’t want, you’re probably better off buying a set of DVDs and talking a friend into practicing with you in the back yard. Just keep in mind that you’ll never master a legitimate art without a competent instructor.

When comparing the cost of instruction between one school and another, it can be helpful to look at both the monthly costs and the total costs. For example, one school may have a five-year program for $200/mo. where another has a fifteen-year program for $100/mo. At first it may look like the $100/mo program is the better buy, but if you total the costs, the five-year program costs only $12,000 where the fifteen-year program costs $18,000. Then, when you add in the additional fees, the difference may be even more significant. Here are some of the things that a martial arts school might charge you for:

Fixed Costs
Membership
Some schools charge a membership fee. You might want to find out what this membership buys you. For instance, does it allow you access to facilities like training equipment or open gym? Does it guarantee you your place in the school? Does it register you with an organization? If so, what are the benefits of membership? Does it allow you to enter competitions and other events, or do you just get your name on a list? How often do you have to pay membership fees? Those should figure in to the total cost.

Insurance
Any legitimate martial arts school has to have insurance. Most of them figure the cost of the insurance into the tuition, but some itemize it so you can see what you’re paying for. However, a good insurance company charges somewhere in the neighborhood of $6 per student per year, so if the cost is significantly higher than that, you may want to find out what you’re paying for.

Tuition
There are several ways to charge for the cost of instruction. Some schools simply charge a monthly fee. They may allow you to pay on the honor system, or they may put you under contract. A month-to-month arrangement allows you to leave whenever you feel it’s necessary or prudent where a contract will obligate you to a certain dollar amount for a length of time, though you will probably pay monthly. Both of these arrangements are somewhat ambiguous in terms of what you receive for the money. They basically mean that you are paying so you can go during that month or time period. If that is the case, the school might as well call themselves a club and charge a membership fee. Contracts become particularly questionable when it comes to children, since a child’s needs change over time, as I discussed above. It would be unwise to lock a child into an activity that he or she will grow out of. A final method of payment is by course. This method is somewhat similar to the method used by colleges and universities. In other words, the school says there is a body of knowledge and skills that they will share with you for a certain price. This instruction will require a certain amount of time. The school can then break this amount down into monthly payments or charge one lump sum for the course. The course arrangement is the most transparent, but there will obviously be succeeding courses and the cost may rise with each succeeding course. If so, check to see if you are receiving more for the money. In any case, this method makes it convenient to determine the total cost of instruction.

Different schools use different methods of payment or offer you a choice of different methods. These are cash, check credit/debit, automatic withdrawal and billing service. All but the first two create an expense for the school and they those fees may be figured into your tuition.

Startup Fees
Some schools also charge an initial fee to get you all of the equipment you need to start. These items might include a uniform, belt, and other equipment, such as logbooks and reading material. It’s not uncommon for schools to inform you about these fees after you’ve committed to a contract, so be sure you ask about startup fees and include them in the total.

Recurring Fees
Private Instruction In addition to the group classes, some schools offer or require private sessions. These sessions may offer additional instruction, or they may simply be a one-on-one where the student receives individual correction. These sessions will inevitably cost more than group instruction, so it is important to find out if such sessions are required for advancement, how much they cost, and how often they occur and figure them into the total cost.

Event Fees
If you decide to join a competitive school, you will inevitably be expected to compete. In that case, you may have to pay a fee to enter the competition. Also, it is common at such events to be tested for advancement. Such schools will certainly charge a fee for the testing and for the certificate and belt you receive if you pass the test. Non-competitive schools will also often schedule events such as seminars and workshops to bring several people together at the same time and work on specific concepts or techniques. Some schools will require attendance at some of these events for advancement. If they are required, you might want to determine whether or not they actually give you something you couldn’t have gotten in class before you join. In any event, figure the cost of these required seminars or workshops into the total.

Paraphernalia
Finally, many schools sell other material associated with their art. These might include instructional material such as books, posters, CDs and/or DVDs. They also might include identifying material such as shirts, training pants, shoes, etc. There may also be items associated with the culture surrounding the art, such as flags, stickers, food, etc. Usually these items are optional, so you may not want to figure them into the total, unless you are prone to buy such items.

If you include all of this information you can compare apples to apples when considering which martial arts school to join.

For further information, visit the Wing Chun Hall at 3575 S. West Temple Ste. 16
Or contact us at
(801) 487-7438
wingchunhall@hotmail.com