How to Choose A Martial Art School for You or your Child
Finding a school that is trustworthy and right for your child or yourself can sometimes very difficult. There are many aspects to take into consideration such as:
1) If you spend the money for a lengthy membership will the school be there in a month? Or even a year from now?
2) Are your Children being properly supervised by responsible Adults? Or are they be being supervised by other immature children or young teenagers?
3) Is your Child being trained by a "Certified Black Belt"? Or are they being taught by a teen coloured belt?
Assistant coloured belt instructors are fine to have in the class as they can actually be helpful if they are responsible, reasonably skilled, understand the basics and enjoy helping, but there should always be at least one main properly trained black-belt instructor in the room controlling the flow of the class. Too many schools have Black Belts who hate teaching, especially teaching children. If you attend a school where the teacher looks like he/she has no interest in being there or looks like they are being forced to teach.......it's time to find another school.
4) And if so, are they a Certified Instructor/Master?? Or just a regular Black Belt that has not been trained to teach. There are really no special courses to be a Black Belt Instructor.
It is up the Head-Instructor/or Master Instructor of the School to teach Black Belts how to teach. These new instructors must be watched and guided regularly to develop their teaching skills. Unfortunately most of the time this is not what happens in most schools.
*Some Schools will allow anyone with some sort of belt (not even a black belt to lead the whole class). This is very bad. It shows that the Owner of the school has no interest in the school or doesn't have the time to teach or be heavily involved in the school.
5) Are there Separate Classes for Children and Adults? Classes for kids and Adults should always be separate unless it's specifically a family class where the intention is for the children to have an opportunity to do something with their parents. But for all the serious training the children and adults should always be separated.
6) Does the School Divide up the children's classes into Belt Ranges? Beginners, Intermediate, Advanced?? Or have age groups for the 3-6 years and 7-12 categories?
This is very important for kids to be divided........on the other hand Teens and Adults can work together fairly well even with different ranges of belts in the class mainly because of their maturity level. Where as children need to be constantly supervised.
7) Does the school enforce proper safety and proper use of safety equipment??
8) Are Parents allowed to watch classes or belt testing? Some schools don't allow the parents to watch because they would actually get to see what they are spending their hard earned money on. Which in a lot of cases for some schools isn't much.
-Proof that your child is being taught and progressing is being able to see what is going on in the class or the belt test. Allowing parents to watch is also insuring that their are other adults in the room in case of problem or emergency. This more heavily insures safety for all the children. Sometimes the instructor can't see everything that is going on when classes are packed and full. Sometimes it's a good thing to have someone watching in the background to say "I don't think Johnny is feeling well" or "Sally just got hurt".
-When checking out schools I highly recommend asking the person running the desk or the phone who is actually teaching the students? Don't be afraid to politely ask for proper credentials.
-Ask if the head instructor/master will be teaching their child daily or ever. In some schools in the area I have spoken to students who never see the head instructor for months at time because they don't seem to have the time to attend their own school. They get their underlings to do all the teaching for them. Very BAD.
Feel free to call us at PH: 905-623-2874 if you or your child are training at a school in the area that has questionable operating and safety procedures or just some simple advice on how to pick a school that is right for you even if it's not ours. I'm sure we can help you out.
-Adam Gibson (Master Instructor)
*More on this article to be posted soon.