What to look for in a gym?

[casualbb]

This kind of goes along with my "suggest a style" thread.

A lot of the advice given to me was to check out the gym before commiting to it and see if it's right. Well, what things should I look for then?

I really have very little experience assessing martial arts gyms/dojos and I'm not even sure what to look for.

As a side note, the gyms I'm looking at so far seem pretty expensive, like $100/month. I can't really afford that as a student right now. Is that the going rate? Does price usually indicate quality?

thanks for the help

 

[cbcb]

I'd say the happier and bouncier the staff, and the brighter the lighting, the faster you should run away, for starters.

 

[ghettostudmuffin]

LOL, what he said.

That is so spot on in alot of ways.

If you want to fight like a badass, then you have to train with and around badasses! Plain and simple. I'd look for a very spartan, basic gym with some tough looking characters and watch them train a couple times on different occasions. I'd be looking for serious sparring and training with resepct being shown. I'd also expect the head guy to have some solid matches won against some tough competitors before I started forking my money over.

It's like punching. If you want to get good at punching people you gotta spar and learn what it feels like to really connect. Punching in air like Karate and other martial arts isn't gonna do it.

 

[BigVooDoo]

I agree with what's been said, but, first and foremost you need a to find a gym that will teach you the basics. Sparring is great, but it's useless if you are not taught the mechanics of footwork, punching, kicking, defense, etc. first. A good teacher will show you these things on focus mitts and/or thai pads and get you hitting a heavy bag. Once you have the mechanics down you'll be amazed at how much more effective your strikes are, then you can start sparring.

 

[Judo Tom]

i honestly feel the most important thing to look for is a good instructor!

how he runs the class will determine sooo much.

he needs to have complete control.. dojos should be a dictatorship not a democracy.

he needs to have a safe environment.. if you cant train safely.. you wont be training long..

he needs to be able to bring out the best in YOU. he needs you to bring out the best in YOU as well.

ive never seen a judo guy charge 100 a month but lots of MMA places now because they try to cover everything.. weights,cardio, boxing ring / cage, multiple instructors so that can get pricey.

just keep posting what you see and you will get some good feed back from us but ultimately you have to feel comfortable with the instructor and the students there.

BTW my sensei is like a father/best friend all rolled up into one and at the same time if he says jump i jump he says run i run i could be in the middle of a match and if he says something that makes no sense well i do it anyway with 100% confidence.. i actually dont even get to the point where i think about it.. he says it i do it.. and he has never let me down yet..

good luck

 

[Big Rick Rock]

I agree with Tom... Instructor, instructor!

The guy that teaches you should have COMPETED in the MA he is teaching. If you are looking to take up an MA where there is not official form of competition then you are wasting you time! (except for Krav Maga, but the guy should have at least been in the Israeli Armed forces for a few years).

Every guy that I have trained with has been a bad ass in their respective sport.



Questions you should ask your instructor...

-Does anybody in your Dojo/academy/school compete?
-How often do your students compete?

-Have you competed?
-how many years?

-Do you guys have a day when the more exprience guys come to sparr(every gym does) ... cool! when? can I come see? - Go on the night when the advanced students are rolling/sparring hard and you'll see what level the school is at.


If you are lucky, you might end up in a school where the instructor is somebody like this guy:
http://www.muaythai-nyc.com/fighters_KruPhil.html


PS: When I say competition, I'm not talking about that pussy soft-contact-point-system Karate and TKD... Unless you can hurt your opponent or get hurt in ever match, you are not practicing anything effective.

 

[philipusmcr]

You might even want to look up your instructor on the internet... If you are training in any applicable Martial Arts he has competed in some sort of MMA or competition and he will have a record. Thats what I did and was surprised to see all sorts of cool things my sensei has done. Also, look to see if he supports tournaments, and if his students win.

 

[Kane Fan]

This kind of goes along with my "suggest a style" thread.

A lot of the advice given to me was to check out the gym before commiting to it and see if it's right. Well, what things should I look for then?

I really have very little experience assessing martial arts gyms/dojos and I'm not even sure what to look for.

As a side note, the gyms I'm looking at so far seem pretty expensive, like $100/month. I can't really afford that as a student right now. Is that the going rate? Does price usually indicate quality?

thanks for the help

god I hope not a friend of mine is going to teach me for free lol
a friend of mine is in a pretty good BJJ class and he pays about 100bucks a month
you may be able to talk to the instructor and have him charge you a little less if you will give some time to help train newbies as you improve
that kind of thing has worked out before but I can't say for sure if a teacher would be up for it

 

[George Spellwin]

I finished my article on how to Find a Gym, the top 10 things to look for. Thanks for your help. Here's a link to the article "Find a Gym"!

 

[Landospike]

You should make sure you can do everything you want to do there. In other words, the gym needs to have all of the equipment you like and it needs to offer good 'operating space' during the hours you wish to work out. A lot of people make the mistake of showing up to 'tpur' a club during a time they are not going to work out. Always tour a club during the time you will work out there. This way you will know what the crowd is like.