picking the right MA school

[nk_london]

hello all,

just wondering if the more experienced in this forum can give some advice on how to pick a good MA school. First step of course is to visit many schools and see which one fits but how can you tell if you've never studied it before? specifically i'm looking at mma/bjj schools in london uk and of course there are a lot. how can i know which ones are just feeding me lines and which actually walk their talk? does it boil all down to the main trainer or how much students spar with eachother, or how much time they spend on theory vs practice ...just wanna make sure i'm looking for the right issues when choosing a club.

[Ahoym8e]

Well, the first thing I did was introspect a little about what I wanted from the school. Did I want to become a mega badass? just get in shape? learn a competitive sport and participate in tournaments? Hard art or soft?

Once you've decided what you want you've already cut about 90% of the available schools.

I wanted to learn proper strikes and groundwork, so I joined a school that teaches Jeet Kune Do concepts and Submission Grappling. It would have been foolish for me to consider Aikido or Tae Kwan Do.

When you decide what it is you want to do or learn, post again and there are plenty of Brits on here that'll point you towards schools in London. Attend them and see if you feel comfortable (do you like the general demeanor of the place, is it full of psycho dirtbags or not, is it clean, how is the chemistry with the teacher and students, that sort of thing).

My humble prediction is that you'll end up with in a Geoff Thompson gym or some Straight Blast affiliated place. If so: good deal, they are legitimate schools (all hearsay, but where there's smoke there's fire )

[nk_london]

thanks for your helpful advice. well, what i'm looking for is to become a badass fighter i guess so ideally a school that combines some stand up strikes with good grappling and submission fighting. i heard shootfighting combines many forms. i'm coming from singapore to london. we have one mma school in singapore that does one hour of muay thai and then one hour of grappling which was quite nice but i only just discovered this place and now i'm leaving for uk. am originally from canada which has this one school called extreme MA which i heard is good.

i suppose if i met a trainer who was very focused on practical aspects of fighting and taught both the techniques and how to mentally prepare for real fight scenarios. i've seen guys who were really good streetfighters but they seem to have a very good understanding of how to avoid getting beaten...i suppose that comes with experience. there is a strong self-defense element to it for me but i also want to combine it with serious weight training so i can be solid as a rock. there are muscular guys and then there are guys who seem to be built like a brick wall... not sure what kind of training gets one in that kind of shape....i'm tall, lanky, and small-boned which makes me look weak unfortunately...