Thread: McDojo or not

tkd guy, dont worry about the term "mcdojo" It doesnt mean anything. If u train hard and learn good strong techniques from your instructors then your onto a good thing.
your instructors sound like they have quite a bit of experience so thats good.
Ive never understood the term Mcdojo really, if a school is successful and open more gyms they get called a mcdojo, but if a school isnt successful and only has 1 or 2 gyms then they avoid the label? have i got it wrong?

mcDojos are gyms that hand out belts for money.

Those do exist.

They aren't hard to figure out which is which.
When you have a 7 year old black belt than loses his balance throwing a roundhouse kick, that's always a good sign of a mcDojo.

I agree. But McDojos too have 7 year olds that can throw flashy round kicks.

What makes a school a McDojo is that when the 7 year old with the sweet round kick gets cornered by another kid at his school - the same weight as him, that kid with no training whips the snot out of him.

So, TKDGuy, if you guys box without the standard tae kwon do rules (no face hits, 1/3 contact level, high kicks prefered attack, only hit the torsofront and head, break after each "point" and resume fighting, etc.) and instead spend time kickboxing and wrestling with a fairly uncomfortable level of contact.. then no, you aren't at a mcdojo. Not by a long shot.

If you are doing lots of point sparring, memorizing kata, and not groundfighting not learning takedowns/clinch, then you are probably at a mcdojo - would you like a McKata with your McBlueBelt?

The BEST way to find out, if you are REALLY curious, is to find a competitive JUDO/BJJ school, and go take a free lesson. . Then go to a boxing/Thai boxing gym. Do the same thing. Be friendly. Many of them were tae kwon do students once too. If you do pretty well at both places (fighting - not drilling), by your own judgement, then dude - go back to your teacher and be content. YOU are the only authority about your own training. Feel free to experiment, and find what works.

That's the way to find out, in my opinion. .

Train with all kinds, take on what works, drop what doesn't : Evolution baby!