How are the schools in your area?

[1ststater]

Good Afternoon:

I am content with my current school, sifu and instructors, etc...and have been training there in Kung-Fu for about 1.5 years - and just started Tai Chi. How are the martial arts schools in your area? Are there too many schools or not enough? Are they looking soley at $$$ or are they intentley interested in teaching the martial arts? What do you look for in a martial arts school, sifu, instructors, etc...?

What's your take?

[solidtux]

Good Afternoon:

I am content with my current school, sifu and instructors, etc...and have been training there in Kung-Fu for about 1.5 years - and just started Tai Chi. How are the martial arts schools in your area? Are there too many schools or not enough? Are they looking soley at $$$ or are they intentley interested in teaching the martial arts? What do you look for in a martial arts school, sifu, instructors, etc...?

What's your take?

There are 4 kung fu schools in my area that I know of. I've physically visited 3 of them and only checked out the website of the 4th.

One of the schools looked like they were doing very well. They have weapons all over their walls, their school is huge and they have plenty of students. Also, their prices seemed to be pretty reasonable. They had separate prices for their style of kung fu and tai chi. I've heard of schools giving you tai chi for free or at least a considerable discount if you do both classes. Anyway, after reading about that school online, I decided there was too much drama for me to want to be in it. I don't really know about the instructor's style at that place because I only stayed to watch one class.

Another school that I checked out and stayed studied in for a few months was doing pretty well too. Their school wasn't as big as the other, though it probably had more students. What I liked about the instructor in this school was that he went over to Hong Kong to learn all the pieces of his kung fu style from 3 (I think it was 3) different brothers who each knew a different piece of the style. So he was able to say that he is one of the few people, if not the only person, who know the entire art. He definitely knew what he was doing, but I didn't stay with them because I ran into some financial trouble and his school was terribly expensive. The instructor at that school seemed more like a businessman at times than an instructor. If I had the money, I would go back to that school, but not until I felt I've learned enough from my current school which will probably be many years.

The school that I didn't actually visit looked more like an MMA gym. The videos he had looked too "pretty" for my taste, so I just left that one alone.

The third school that I physically visited was the one that I currently train in. I was kind of skeptical at first because it was outdoors and only had a few students, but I got over that (at the time I only thought that schools in strip malls were real schools). What I like about this school is that the instructor is serious about teaching kung fu. He went to Taiwan for 16 (I think) years to learn kung fu the way it was used in the past when it was used for life or death situations (when it mattered, as he says) as well as learning how to read, write, and speak Chinese. He write researches and writes articles about kung fu. I get the vibe from him that he wants to teach you kung fu most of all and that money is secondary.

So I guess, I personally look for monetary value and the quality of the instructor. Hope that helps.