Looking for a school for you or your kid, there are a couple of rules that you should follow:

You’re not going to be able to find a school that is good for you unless you are ready to ask some questions to the people working at the school. These questions are all important because they will tell you how well the school will fit into your lifestyle.

1) Find out what the school focuses on inside the studio:
People go to different schools for lots of reasons.  There are schools that focus on sparring (and there are many types of sparring), traditional forms, weapons, creative and extreme martial arts, discipline and lots of other focuses.  Of course you don’t want to hear, “We want as many students as possible.”  Better responses are generally “We focus on discipline and mental focus to enrich our students.” Hopefully, the school you are calling will tell you more than one thing that they focus on.

2) Play vs. Work:
If you are a parent, you will want to know how much of the class is spent training vs. games or socializing.  You will know what your child really needs and respond to.  If you are already a parent or an adult, you will want to ask what the age range is for the class that you will be attending.   It can be daunting (although a great lesson in humility) being 27 and going into a class where everyone is a higher rank than you and half your age.

3) Discipline (this is more for parents):
Ask what measure are taken to ensure discipline inside the school. The majority of adults that train are there because…well because they want to be there. Younger members of schools have a tendency to lose focus or misbehave. Make sure that the Disciplinary actions that the teachers use aren’t to extreme for you.  I.E. Expect to hear, well when a student pushes another student or is constantly not paying attention they will be assigned push-ups or having their belt taken away.  Never accept anything harsher than this because it just isn’t necessary.

4) Instructors
Find out about the instructors. It is very important to make sure that the instructors have experience and that they aren’t all “home grown” - students that have been there so long that they eventually just teach. Although “home-grown” teachers aren’t necessarily bad, having 4 or so teachers like that can be disappointing because having instructors that have different martial arts backgrounds is very beneficial.

5) Days/Time
Make sure that the days and times classes are offered are good for you.  I know this is common sense, but you would be surprised how many people forget about this.

6) Contracts
Make sure that you have the ability to pay month to month with no contract lengths.  Contracts are often hard to get out of without financial penalty and just aren’t worth it.  Again, you or your child are there to train, not be a number in someones spreadsheet.

7) Make Up Days
Most schools will offer several different plans for how many classes you can attend in a week.  Make sure that you have the freedom to switch which days you can attend. Things happen in life that we can’t always predict. It doesn’t make sense, to me at least, to give up a class and not being able to make it up in the next few weeks.

8) Belt Factory
Directly ask “Is your school a belt factory.” It seems forward and almost a little rude, but it is probably the most important question you can ask. You or your children are going there to learn skills for health and life, not to get a black belt.

9) Try It Out First Before Signing Anything
Be sure to try out the school first without having signed any contract/payment plan. The truth is you might not like the instructor, the school or its facilities, and how everything is conducted there. Find out if you like it then make your decision.  If you are an adult, be ready to be very sore the next day, just remember it goes away very quickly and your muscles will build up to it very soon.