Originally Posted by
Ray Pina
This is the great question and the heart of all the arguments on this message board. It starts with the simple question: What do you want? And then it requires one being honest with themself.
You can tell after checking out a school for 30 mins if its a fighting gym or a form gym. And by form gym I don't necessarily mean they just do forms. I mean they concern themselves more with the form (uniforms, alters, etc.) than the substance. A hard floor, no pads or gloves, etc., is a bad sign. A martial art school without live play is not a martial art school.
A fighting gym doesn't mean all they do is fight either. There's lots of conditioning and drilling and technical training.... I'd avoid a gym that just fought too. I think ideally 1/3 class conditioning/coordination, 1/3 technical training but live with partners, and then 1/3 free play..... something like that.
Essentially there's oriental historical society type schools and there's schools looking to produce physically healthy, technically trained competent martial artists..... one becomes a martial artist when they can express they're training for real. You can chamber a kick countless ways.... it's the why during the certain where and when that makes it an art. And that takes time. And it also takes pressure. Like a diamond.