What Should A Person Look For In A Martial Arts Instructor? Part 1

What Should A Person Look For In A Martial Arts Instructor?

By Brian Dooley

There are no hard numbers, it is estimated that approximately 1%-5% of the population participates in martial arts training on an annual basis. (1) Once a person decides to pursue martial arts for themselves or as an activity for a child, chances are they have not had any experience in evaluating an instructor. Many rely on the advice of friends and family for recommendations. Some people simply go to the closest facility to their home. Others may rely on Yelp! or other sources for guidance.

Over the course of a few blog posts, the instructional staff at Orange County Judo Training Center will offer up some suggestions that we feel are important in determining if a martial arts instructor is the right fit for you.

Our staff has more than 250 combined years of experience in martial arts with many coaches holding advanced ranks in multiple disciplines. Most of the staff are parents (some are even grandparents) and have multi-generational family participation in the martial arts. When we recommend martial arts instructors to friends, acquaintances and family, here are some of the questions and criteria we use:

● How well organized is the martial art in the area and country?

● Is there a certification process in place for instructors in that discipline?

● What is the process for enrolling in classes?

● How does the instructor interact with the students?

● Does the instructor have multiple offerings of classes based on age?

● How well does the structure of a viewed class meet your expectations?

We will dive deeper into this topic over the course of a few posts. Feel free to share some of your thoughts or questions in the comment section.

(1) Statista shows that approximately 3.42M people practiced martial arts in 2017. Some other surveys show as high as 5% participation rates among self reporting respondents. Simmons Market Research has a 5% figure from a study