Birthday parties does not make a place a mcdojo.
If the school has a watered down curriculum it is a mcdojo If it is a belt factory it is a mcdojo. If the standards are low for promotion it is a mcdojo. If they have young children with black belt It is likely a mcdojo. If they have people under 40 having a master's title it is likely a mcdojo. If they have a black belt guarantee it is a mcdojo.
Of course this list could keep growing.
It's hard to tell, and as others have said without specific details no one can give you a good answer.
I will say that "birthday parties" are a screaming red flag to me. Now if they're for folks in the dojo and not a regular money making thing then I'd ignore them and not think anything of them. But if they're part of the dojo's business plan then I'd be concerned.
Also there is no such thing as a "standard" black belt. Black belts are ranked in "Dans" or degrees. 1 Dan or 1st Degree, 1 Dan or 2nd Degree. Now some styles put stripes on the belt to indicated this. And some put a stripe for each degree above 1st Degree while others like Uechi Ryu don't add a stripe until 6th Degree or Rokudan
A mc dojo is called that, because a company goes around and bribes all the instructors for local martial arts businesses and hires the ones they want. Then gets the city to intervein on the companies behalf depending on if they complied or not and joined the mc team.
If they comply, the company comes in and replaces their awesome school with the mass produced, factory assembly line Mc Dojo.
The key factors of a Mc Dojo are corney canned lines.
Rainbow selling (they promise results and never deliver them TO YOU but they seem to deliver them to others, yet you still are getting beat down and lack the confidense yet it is totally cool to them and they will avoid you if you attempt to confront them on tactics or help for fights/ inpending self defense situations).
Career, salaried members of staff. Like, they get paid to be there but it seems like entitlement and not like they earned it and they sort of focus on that. Like when's pay day, are classes over yet?
Distance when you confront them about real scenarios "We don't teach fighting here!" (seriously, they will tell you that. At a martial arts school. A fighting school doesn't teach fighting. R E D F L A G).
It's like, it looks like a real place, but the teaching is so off you can't possibly learn anything and if you do it's by osmosis and the only thing you can show off is a belt. Not the moves, Not the results. A belt, while you have zero apply-able skills.
That's another thing. If they say they teach kung fu and have belts. Or they teach one countries art and substitute things. Like sashes in karate! OMG!!! Red flag, it's not based on teaching. It's based off a business investment.
McDojo, massproduced factory assembly line business company posing as a studio. Mass produced like Navy Housing. Mass produced like business predictability models.
Not working because they have tons of illusion but won't give you results you know you can apply today, just qwerky stuff that may work or may not work.
If you get good instruction I would stick around until you are above it though because, its easy and more then likely you will enter a mcdojo. If you find one that isn't and enable you to preform in the way you imagined you'd develope then, milk it for everything it's worth. You might end up in a mcdojo and get no real training one day.
Hosting parties for kids as a fundraiser does not mean that your school is a Mcdojo. Now if the little kids are all black belts then I would start to wonder. Mcdojo is in reference to the curriculum and what is required to get promoted, not how many parties your dojo hosted.
having one item on that list by jess does not make it a mcdojo. nor does hosting children parties
there is no set time for obtaining a black belt and it should not be guaranteed a black belt is earned not given to you. ground fighting is a small part of all martial arts, and having ranks in other styles is common.
what is import in a qualified instructor is how his students look. is what he is teaching practical, and do they spar.
how you train and spar in the dojo is the same way you will defend yourself in the street
Just from what you wrote, there is no way to know definitively. If your sensei's children are not adults, then they have no business teaching and I would be very skeptical of this school. I have no idea what you mean by "higher rank than basic black belts." You need to be more precise in your wording. What do you mean by "standard black belt" and "touch of jiu jitsu"?
You also made no mention of which style of karate is taught at your school or where and from whom your 6th degree black belt sensei received his training and rank from. Even if your school is an "independent", your teacher must have had studied somewhere or belonged to an affiliate/association even if it is just an informal group of disciples who acknowledges their common teacher.
the fact that you have belts makes it a mcdojo
My dojo seems legitimate, but I wanted some feedback. The sensei is a 6th degree black belt, and his son and daughter teach as well and are higher than basic black belts as well. I read McDojos host parties for kids and such, and I noticed that mine does this, but could it be that they only do it to make some extra cash after noticing the McDojos doing it? There is adequate individual instruction, not a set amount of time to get a black belt (just an estimate), and they are sticklers for detail. What do you think?
