I was once asked about a school in my area that is total McDojo. The person wanted to know my "thoughts as a real blackbelt." Given that they never saw me practice, I'm not sure how they concluded my 'real' factor, never mind that at the time, I was only a real blackbelt in kendo and the school in question is a taekwondo school. In any case, I went and watched a few classes, talked to the GM, and picked up some literature.
Here's what I said:
They have an afterschool program that picks up the kids and a karate camp. The kids have fun and it seems to be good exercise for kids and adults alike. The curriculum is a sport and self esteem/discipline emphasis rather than a fighting or SD emphasis. The GM was polite and the atmosphere is friendly, plus its fifty feet from your house. You're looking at $x per month for two years, by the end of which the student should be a blackbelt.
My actual opinion of the school wouldn't be quite so generous: the blackbelt students in the mixed class were mostly kids, but adult or kid, none of the blackbelts had the technique to support their rank, and few of the adult BB's were in shape, while fitness was one of the big selling points in the literature. The class was well behaved and the instructors taught a planned lesson. Not a horrible school, but you'd get no SD at all. Not really much fighting eitiher, near as I could tell. I saw no need to be negative in my review; the school owner is just a nice guy trying to make a living.
Anywhow, here was the upshot:
The person thanked me, visited the school themselves, and was debating on whether or not to sign up their kids due to the montly cost and the seemingly endless array of programs that involved greater costs. They did confirm, the GM was polite and the atmosphere was friendly, but they wanted a little bit more martial in their art. About four months later, they came through our door, unaware that it was the dojang that I was affiliated with; when we moved, we changed our sign and they thought it was a new school. They're quite happy, we got the business, and I said nothing negative about the other school.
Daniel
