Hey guys, I've seen a couple of cracks about McDojo's and I was just wondering how you tell the difference? I live in a small town, so we don't have any schools run by big names. We train Japanese jiujitsu, but we don't learn any of the Japanese words for techniques. Our techniques are not taught as the be all and end all. As a school, we do well in grappling competitions. Could I be at a McDojo?

The one thing McDojos lack is legitimacy. I live in Rochester, and in our area there are 2 or 3 schools that claim to teach Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, and also claim to have black belt instructors. Those 2 or 3 schools, are McDojos because they are selling a fake product. Most McDojos are Karate schools jumping on the MMA bandwagon trying to make a few bucks.

if your instructor teaches outta a book then its a mcdojo...

like tiger shulmans

it dosnt really matter if your at a mcdojo if your doing well at competition. thats usually a good indicator. i just go by the whole i just started teaching grappling in the last year but i have a whole lot of experience just never taught it before. theres like three schools in my area that just started teaching grappling and claim to have bad ass instructors. i mean the one instructor that claims to be a grappling expert ive raped in free rolling. so stay away from schools like that.

For me a lot of it has to with legitimacy and heritage of the school. My school is a certified Gracie Barra school under Draculino. If you can't trace the roots of your instructors belt get out.

Same with my Wing Chun I can trace my teachers back to the source. It's even worse in Gung Fu a lot of the time because people make even greater claims and aren't challenged to back them up. Where in grappling people seem to be more open to taking challengers, however at Gung Fu and other "traditional martial arts" schools try and get a free spar session with the head instructor that includes grappling and no stipulations good luck with that....

lol mcdojo, funny term.

but seriously the best way to tell is if you can't trace their linage(splng?)

For me a lot of it has to with legitimacy and heritage of the school. My school is a certified Gracie Barra school under Draculino. If you can't trace the roots of your instructors belt get out.

exactly, every BJJ should be easily traced back to the Gracies


Same with my Wing Chun I can trace my teachers back to the source. It's even worse in Gung Fu a lot of the time because people make even greater claims and aren't challenged to back them up. Where in grappling people seem to be more open to taking challengers, however at Gung Fu and other "traditional martial arts" schools try and get a free spar session with the head instructor that includes grappling and no stipulations good luck with that....

I agree most traditional guys are complete fakes or delusional weirdo's. I would stay away from any school without live sparring.

My teacher is ranked in sherdog weight rankings and has won North American and Brazilian sub grabbling comps, also fights in Shooto and should have title fight soon. i dont question shit but i know of a few guys at my gym that are blue belts and used to teach at other gyms