Editorial

There is an intrinsic problem that exists in many forms of non-competitive, "self-defense" martial arts - mostly older martial arts styles, but can be applied to any martial art that does not contain or emphasize a competitive sports component.

The definition of a "McDojo" is a martial arts school that is solely established to make money instead of genuinely teaching martial arts.

Are you concerned that you, someone you know, or your child may be stepping into a McDojo to learn martial arts?

Read on to find out the top signs of a McDojo, and if your school has checked off the majority of these boxes, your school might very well be a McDojo!

In the world of martial arts, most of us were first exposed to it through movies and media - such as Kung Fu classics made by the Shaw Brothers' studios, Bruce Lee, Jackie Chan, Jet Li, the Karate Kid movies, or some similar combination of the above.

The romanticized idea of martial arts was always presented to us more or less in a very classical way: Learn martial arts, defeat the bully, exact revenge on the bad guy, win the tournament, and become the hero.

To us, martial arts was about training as hard as you could, winning the most amount of competitions as you could (in forms or fighting, or both), becoming a tough, hardened bad ass with world class martial arts / fighting skills, and becoming the best version of yourself that you possibly could be in the process.

Former Two-Division UFC Champion Georges St-Pierre, the definition of a model martial artist and champion.

The mindset of a true martial artist was to continue to train for life as an eternal student to keep bettering oneself on the path of perfection (perfection of course, doesn't exist), and continue to seek new challenges, conquer new plateaus and reach ever new heights - as long as the body was able and the circumstances allowed it.

We had always thought this was the way of the warrior, and the "hardcore" path that everyone took to mastering their martial arts.

Then we realized, we were in the minority that held that mindset or belief.

Having trained in Taekwondo, we understand that the art itself has evolved into a sport and lost many of its other techniques in favour of only focusing on kicks.

Competition Taekwondo, at the lower and middle levels, also looks tame in comparison to full contact Muay Thai kickboxing bouts.

However, high-level, Olympic-level Taekwondo in the Adult Men's Division, is definitely not without its uses.