Different prices make no sense. There isn't m or f Wing Chun, the same things are for people, regardless of gender. A school should also realize that the concern most women have when taking an art is for that situation when assaulted on the street. Most of them are going to be men attacking a female, so they should train against men.
An introductory class like that, should have been focused entirely on you. It's unfortunate the school sucks, as WT is said to be founded by a woman. A school doesn't need to be state of the art in terms of training equipment, but slick floors sound like a problem.
Except for charging you $50 for an intro class and the 1 year contract, everything else you written is not really indicative of a good or bad school.
1) Pricing is very dependent on the locale and demand. If you were in NYC, $93/month would actually be slightly below average. If you were in Houston, Tx, it would be slightly above average for the area. A good school also has to keep the student to teacher ratio below a certain threshold so the instructor can teach effectively. Some schools control this ratio by turning away potential new students if class gets crowded. Some schools charge more to keep the numbers down and because they can. All you need to do is shop around and compare. A sampling of one is not a useful comparative data.
2) With very few exceptions, the Wing Chun schools I have encountered do not have warm-ups as part of the regular class curriculum. The idea behind this is 2 folds: You are expected to come early and do your warm-ups on your own time because class time is for instructions - it is not a fitness class. And second, in real life you do not get to warm-up before defending yourself. Whether this approach is training is right or wrong is arguable.
3) Monkey-see-monkey-do is how most teachers teach beginners. The simple fact is that beginners do not have the background to understand much of what is behind the techniques they are learning. The usual progression to teaching is to first introduce the "moves" without the application(s) it instill a sense natural movements, then refine/correct the student while adding more details and eventually how to apply it. If you expect a dissertation on the theory of each and every move of Sil Lum Tao, you are going to be bogged down in lecture for several days without doing any useful training.
4) Lack of belt system is not a disqualifier because the belt system is not something Chinese martial art uses. And in vast majority of Chinese martial art schools, one's rank is what the Sifu say it is and what ones seniority relative to the other student depends on how long you been with the school. The idea behind the absence of ranking is that you are there to improve yourself for yourself and not to lord it over other people. Besides, a mugger out to do you harm is not going to be asking for your rank.
If you are uncomfortable with this school, then all you need to do is shop around more. It is better to spend a few extra weeks (maybe even months) to find a good school than to jump and find out you've been had.
Traditional Chinese martial arts schools don't rank, trust me, I've been to China and seen probably some 100 schools and not one ranked. So you are good there. I would say if there is a school that ranks with sashes it is not traditional and if they have belts, find a new school.
You don't say how many times a week the instruction but $140 does seem a little high unless you live in New York, DC, Washington State or California or the training is exceptional with top teachers. I wonder how much it is to train with their master. I bet you that is not included in the tuition.
The thing that bothers me most is the 'womens class' and to top it off it is 'easier' from what you say. If you are attacked in the street and need to use this as self defense do you really think your attacker will cut you slack just because you are a woman? I bet you he won't. Schools that take it easy on women because they think women can't do are pathetic and they are not doing you a favor. I would not sign up for classes like that either.
Can't you watch classes? I would watch the coed class just to see how it is different from your other class.
You can do forms for warm up. It really depends on how you do it.
Quite frankly if your gut feeling is that something is wrong there probably is. I would be doing some, ...well a lot,... more shopping before committing
Trust your instincts. If you don't feel right about the school, look elsewhere. Lack of a belt system wouldn't bother me, but the contract would. I always tell people to never sign contracts...the school should sell itself, and you should have the option to pay as you learn.
Sad thing about wing chun is that it's very popular these days, and there are a lot of people teaching it who aren't actually qualified.
It should be about the Art first, money last. Money is just to cover overheads, not furnish the teacher's pocket. Ditch them, if you have a bad feeling, trust your feelings. You should feel safe and trust the instructor(s), contracts and direct debit payments are the products of businesses, not a true martial arts Dojo. Find a teacher that puts your understanding first :)
sounds dodgy to me. most sifu's would be proud to tell you the history of their art and their lineage.
that said, wing chun is a bit like chess; reasonable simple to learn the basics but takes a lifetime to master so maybe they didn't want to overload you with stuff.
generally you would expect some sort of warmup anywhere and the price seems pretty high but i don't know how it compares to other USA schools.
what's the name of the school and whats their web address? there is a web forum that enjoys naming and shaming mcdojos so you could try searching for them on http://www.bullshido.net/
You said: "She didn't told me much". That's the same for my old Dojo, the instructor didn't told me anything except for the warm up and the first day, then he just lets me do it and corrects my error. So that way I learn much more than just him bs about crap that I need to know.
Umm here's how you identify one: http://mcdojo-faq.tripod.com/
Hello Everyone,
So I have been looking to get back into martial arts after having a bad experience with a TKD McDojang.
I found a Wing Chun Kung Fu school that is uber close by me, and I signed up for a $50 intro class with them. (Probably should have been my first clue that the intro class wasn't free.)
There are two programs in the school: a women's and a coed program.
I started out with the women's program for the intro to see if I would like it. I went there, and the instructor just had me to a 'monkey see, monkey do' of a form with her several times over with her looking at herself frequently in the only mirror in the place, had me chain punch a sand bag, and just talk to me briefly about the martial art itself. She really didn't explain to me what I was doing, why I was doing it, and we didn't even warm up before we started going through the forms. I decided after that I was going into the coed program because I did not think she was a great instructor. I just told her due to scheduling I wouldn't be able to stay so as to just get out of the situation without saying that I didn't think she was a great instructor.
So I called the coed program sifu, and I talked with him a little bit, but I found out that the women's program and the coed program are run differently. One of the things that flagged me to this being a potentially bad school was the 'one-year contract', and the fact that the coed program was $50 more a month than the women's program.
I am starting to worry that this might be another money grubbing martial arts school and the instructors are not the greatest.
I like the martial art itself and it's history which are really cool, but something just doesn't seem to be right with me as far as the instructors, the pricing system, etc.
Could anyone let me know what their thoughts are as to if I should drop and run or stick around?
Thanks!
