McDojo's

[M@T]

I keep seeing this term pop up and aint 100% sure of its meaning. Would someone please tell me what it relates to. I know it's something to do with Tae Kwon Do.

[gregimotis]

These guys talk a lot about McDojos:

http://www.bullshido.com/

I think it mostly refers to chain Martial arts schools like AkkA, but I hear people use it to describe anywhere they think the instructors are underqualified.

[cakegirl]

Well, the original website www.mcdojo.com is not working, and the new one http://www.bullshido.us/ is down, so here is a link to another forum.

What is a McDojo??

Cakegirl

[adacas]

McDojo's make me sick. They have no problem what so ever handing out blackbelts to people who barely know how to throw a punch. They just want to make everyone happy and make a few bucks out of it. Make sure little Timmy gets his belt so his mommy will keep driving his sorry butt back here every day so we can make our quarters and dimes. Tae kwon do seems to be one of the worst perpetrators of this crime. I'm not saying they all do it. I know of a couple legit schools that train their students real well and I'll give them their props.

[M@T]

Thanks guys, my suspicions were correct

Now let me tell you a story about the biggest McDojo con in the whole world.

There's this Australian bloke by me who is a blackbelt in Shotokan karate and he got this belt at a respected club. He then invented his own style based around Shotokan called Gokanroo. Kangaroo/Gokanroo/He's Australian. See the pisstake in the whole thing. Seriously this is not a wind up.

Anyways, he started a school and placed an advert saying he was looking for instructors to train up. He promised anyone who took him up on the offer a blackbelt within 1 year if they trained 3-4 times per week. So, he trained several up and when they became a blackbelt he gave them their own club and they were instructors. Then they had to get some students which they did by travelling round all the local estates getting people to join up. Then this whole thing just kept repeating and now he has schools everywhere.

But, every school has to give 20% of its takings to him. Everytime a student gets another student to join the new student has to pay £40, and £10 of this go's to him aswell. Basically, everyone who does this Gokanroo has to pay him for everything they do in the club even if they never train with him.

He charges £15-20 for club daytrips so all the students can go for a day out together and he usually takes them somewhere thats free to get in like the beach or a local landmark thats like £3 in. He puts a Bar-B-Q on so everyone can eat on the cheap and thats it for your £20.

Last I heard of him he he had just bought a Ferrari

[Toudiyama[NL]]

M@T

sounds like a piramidscam, that's even worse than McDojo

[cakegirl]

I know people who trained with this guy back when he was with Shotokan. Apparently, his karate is really good. However, that doesn't mean that the people under him are any good - they all answered an ad in the newspaper basically offering them a job and a black belt... Some came from other styles and martial arts and had a strong background, some didn't.

The people who do GKR worship the head guy like a god. The kids are overawed when they see him at a tournament, ask for his autograph, if they can get their photo taken with him, etc.

The saddest thing is that for a lot of people, they join GKR, have a terrible time with an incompetent instructor, and then quit. It's not sad that they quit, but it's sad because a lot of them never go back to any other martial art - they think "I've tried martial arts, and it sucked". And so they never find out what it's like to actually do a martial art that doesn't suck.

...And the others quit and join my school

Cakegirl

[M@T]

Originally posted by cakegirl
I know people who trained with this guy back when he was with Shotokan. Apparently, his karate is really good. However, that doesn't mean that the people under him are any good - they all answered an ad in the newspaper basically offering them a job and a black belt... Some came from other styles and martial arts and had a strong background, some didn't.

The people who do GKR worship the head guy like a god. The kids are overawed when they see him at a tournament, ask for his autograph, if they can get their photo taken with him, etc.

The saddest thing is that for a lot of people, they join GKR, have a terrible time with an incompetent instructor, and then quit. It's not sad that they quit, but it's sad because a lot of them never go back to any other martial art - they think "I've tried martial arts, and it sucked". And so they never find out what it's like to actually do a martial art that doesn't suck.

...And the others quit and join my school

Cakegirl

Whoa, are you saying you've heard of this guy. He lives like a few miles from me, I thought he was just some local chancer who rips people off. Didnt realise he was well known

[cakegirl]

Nope, GKR is eeevvvveeerrrryyyyywwwhhheeerrreee!

And it's crap!

[Hook]

I was one of the original members on McDojo (Bullshido). It was/is a nice web site where you can basically talk about anything you want to.

A few of us from ADCC switched over to there so we could talk more freely.

Like mentioned before a McDojo is a MA school that has a teacher that may be a great fighter, and hold several belts. But they are basically there just to rake in some money and not really teach you anything.

I use to go to one. The owner/instructor was a highly qualified teacher, but it seems that you were there only to get the crap beat out of you.

When it comes to BJJ is what I study the most, you want to learn how to roll, and the fundamentals of the art. But there you basically got thrown around, as if they were just there to show that they could beat the crap out of you anytime they wanted. To me that is not the way to teach.

That school has helped with some known fighters, that some of you have probably heard of. But unless you were one the their favorites, you were just there to let the more advanced students use you as a grappling dummy.

Reliable sources have said that since they shut the school down, that they have found out that all these world champ. titles that he had claimed to have, were fraud. That he would say he was leaving town for a competion, and come back with a trophey. They later found that he never went, or if he did he neverqualified. The sad thing is that this poor bloke went out and bought his own tropheys. That is what I call a McDojo. What do you guys think?