One does not or should not pay for studying martial arts (such is a distortion by westerners). One pays to assist in the maintanence of the dojo, a place for training and for spiritual development.
You say that you have trained there for over ten years, then you should well know if the teacher is truly teaching his art or is less than credible...as you should not be a novice.
Its hard to judge from the info you've given us. However, this does NOT sound like a MCdojo.
Its only 600 a year, which is less than 60 a month. Not bad, some places in my area are 2000 a year. Weapons are awesome dude! What do you mean you HAVE to learn them? They're fun! Workouts are too much? Start running and you'll get in good shape. Not enough Bunkai? That may be an issue, but that doesn't point me towards mcdojo.
I recommend you go back. The biggest question I have is why did you leave? If it was an injury, and now your healed, great. But if there was a problem, then you should fix it before you go back. You went there 10 years. I think you should be able to tell whether or not its a mcdojo on your own by now.
Edit: You don't mention why you left. You also don't mention any pros, which may help you decide whether or not to go back. The only Huge red flag
It all depends on what is important to you in a martial arts school. You said that the school teaches little or no self defense. That bothers me personally, but I do not speak for all martial artists. Like another guy on the panel said $600 a year is a very good price for a martial arts school. Many schools charge $200 per month which is 8 times what this school costs per year.
As far as traditional martial arts like Goju Ryu are concerned, enjoy them while they last. Many TMAs have gone the way of the dinosaur since MMA took the world by storm in the mid-1990s.
Ten years in business? Sounds pretty good so far.
Doesn't sound as if you got your black belt in a year.
$600 per year is stinking cheap.
Weapons training is a huge boon (most of us have to seek outside training).
You just burned out dude. You're getting the itch again, so stop in and say hi.
Not giving black belts to children is always a plus in my book. Too pricey is another sign of a Mcdojo. Sounds pretty solid to me.
I trained Goju Ryu at this place for about ten years and I stopped going a few years back, mostly because I just lost interest in karate. I want to start training again and I'm thinking of going back, but I'm not sure if it is the best place. This the web site: http://www.robitaillesacademyofmartialarts.com/main.html
The good aspects were: Full contact sparring, grappling, tough workouts, Sensei is a nice friendly person and so are the other students, classes during the day and night(unlimited), no kid blackbelts, $600 for the year, and it's across the street from me.
The questionable aspects: Self defense wasn't done that often(~3 times a month), and bunkai wasn't done that often either. The workouts are sometimes too much. We have to learn weapons, which I'm not that interested in. The organization he belongs to is run by him. Also there's no Hojo Undo, but I guess no one really does that in North America.
Most of the other dojos don't look any better. There is one that does okinawan Goju, but I would need to take the bus there and it's late at night. I most likely will just return to my old dojo but I wanted to hear what others think.
