How to Choose a Martial Arts School in Orlando

by John Graden | Oct 16, 2023 | Martial Arts Children, Martial Arts for Children, martial arts schools

The martial arts is a fantastic way to gain control of your life and transform yourself into a healthy, confident person.

However, martial arts is also an unlicensed profession. There are hundreds if not thousands of various styles and interpretations.

While earning a black belt is an honored achievement, no universal standards exist for obtaining the coveted rank.

There are also no professional or educational requirements to open a school.

Someone could come out of college with an MBA and open a school and someone could come out of prison and open down the street.

When it comes to choosing a martial arts school, it’s all about the instructor. A martial arts school is first and foremost a personality-driven business.

The atmosphere, attitude, and makeup of the school reflect the owner/instructor. With that in mind, here are seven steps to choosing a good school.

Step One: Continuing Education

Because martial arts is an unlicensed practice, you want a school that is committed to continuing education.

For instance, schools that are members of the Martial Arts Teacher’s Association (MATA) are schools that are keeping up to date with best practices for teaching, classroom management, and safety.

MATA is the largest organization specifically focused on instructor education and offers the MATA Instructor Certification Program. Look for MATA Certification as an indicator of the schools’ commitment to continuing education.

What are the Major Martial Arts Styles?

by John Graden | Jan 22, 2023 | Martial Arts Children, Martial Arts for Children, martial arts schools, Program Pages

What’s the Best Martial Arts Style?

A style-based school typically says that in the title. Taekwondo, wing chung, kung fu, aikido, Shotokan. Okinawan, karate etc… There are a ton of different styles. What Are the Four Major Martial Arts Styles? And all these styles were developed in pretty much the four major Asian countries China, Japan, Okinawa, and Korea.

They all have their specialties. For instance, Koreans, tae kwon do is focused on kicking. Okinawan karate is typically a block and counter system while a Japanese style, like Shotokan, is straightforward and linear. From China, we get Kung Fu which is typically very circular and smooth. These systems were created in Asia decades, if not 100 years ago.

Who Created the Martial Arts Styles?

We don’t really know exactly who created each style. In many cases, often it was a scholar that had no experience or credentials in dealing with violent people on a daily basis like law enforcement.

When you join a traditional style-based school, you’re introduced to all of the legend and lore that go with it, so it’s exciting. You get indoctrinated into that style’s, traditional techniques, and in almost every case, they’re the exact opposite of what a student-centered school would teach.

The reason it takes so long to earn a black belt in a traditional school is that the curriculum is just so padded with complexity. That’s a style-centered school.

The Modern Approach to Learning Martial Arts

In contrast, a student-centered school takes the best of all the styles and brings them together to fit the student.

We’ve adapted the martial arts now, and now we’re, we’re molding it and calibrating it to the body size, the mental state, the maturity, physically and mentally, emotionally of the student so that they can get the most out of the martial arts fast.

We call it Empower Kickboxing, the martial art that you can master faster. And it’s true.

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