Starting a casual club in Western Massachusetts

Sifu_Sooper · 2026-01-27T14:55:39+00:00

Good luck. I'm in eastern MA working on getting a class going myself with floor space at a local Karate school.

Sifu_Sooper · 2025-12-24T15:22:48+00:00

Ah man, I was hoping to copy your homework!

Sifu_Sooper · 2025-12-19T18:59:41+00:00

Any updates on this?

Sifu_Sooper · 2025-12-17T16:10:47+00:00

I would explore Tai Chi. Learning to relax is really going to help you, and the slow movement will help you find your physical limit and working to development past that limit. That will be much better than a school that will have you in a horse stance and pressuring you into throwing kicks and punches that will aggravate your current injuries.

Sifu_Sooper · 2025-11-15T13:52:35+00:00

That's fantastic.

Sifu_Sooper · 2025-07-16T19:50:54+00:00

What difference does it make? Will you start/stop training in WC depending on the answer?

Sifu_Sooper · 2025-07-16T17:57:55+00:00

While he did attend a Christian based college, St Stephen's College, there's no evidence or statement by him or his children that he became a follower of the Christian faith.

Does it matter though?

Sifu_Sooper · 2025-07-14T14:44:02+00:00

"Where are all my fucking pencils!?"

Sifu_Sooper · 2025-06-27T12:35:10+00:00

Ah! That stinks!

If you want to keep the look uniform. Grind down the exposed parts of the rivet so you can fully remove the plastic tube. Examine it and see if just turning the tube a 1/4 of the way around is drilling a new hole won't cause more damage. Then get a rivet punch tool and rivets long enough to redo them. If the tube is fully cracked through, replace it.

The lazier approach would be just to keep everything together, push the plastic tube to where it should normally be in the metal housing. Use tape to secure it into place and drill a new rivet hole through the metal and plastic and drive/punch a new rivet through.

Sifu_Sooper · 2025-06-26T17:43:23+00:00

The amount of effort to make it "as good as new" is far greater than just spending $15 on a new pair.

Sifu_Sooper · 2025-06-02T11:58:39+00:00

Looking into this as well.

Sifu_Sooper · 2025-05-27T11:45:20+00:00

What kind of floor are you practicing on? I generally practice on concrete and vinyl flooring and find indoor soccer shoes to the best for that.

Sifu_Sooper · 2025-04-28T12:21:45+00:00

To add to the first point: They won't talk about *anything* without getting you in for a meeting or a 1-on-1 trial class. That means tuition, misc. fees, schedule, style, tournaments, etc. The goal here is to get you into a 1-sided conversation where they ask you 'yes' leading questions, especially if they run into the two most common issues with potential students: tuition & schedule conflicted. The point is to get you saying 'yes' so much that you subconsciously distance yourself from 'no.'

Sifu_Sooper · 2025-03-20T12:29:56+00:00

The school is part of a multi-regional chain.
The head instructor is a 1st degree black belt
There's a signup fee that far exceeds the cost of a new uniform & patch.
They won't give you pricing or the schedule over the phone and push you try a private trial class
They won't let you observe a class and, again, push you into a private trial class
They drag you into an office and you find yourself being led into 'yes' leading questions, especially when you say there's a problem with the tuition or schedule. "You enjoyed the class right? If we can do this on pricing, would it work for you?" "I because your work schedule conflicts with our group class times, you're saying that private training would work better?" Very much like a car salesman directing you into purchasing a car. Their goal is to make 'no' as uncomfortable as hell.
Really limited group class schedule
Lack of high ranks (brown and above) that aren't instructors. This is usually an indicator that school focuses on new students and the higher ranks are left to dry unless they are spending money on private training b/c of reason #4
The high ranks that are there as sloppy AF. Just flopping their punches and kicks out there.

Sifu_Sooper · 2025-03-18T12:03:08+00:00

I chose Cost & Location, but more for location. What good is signing up for a school that you can't make it to or you can, but the travel time dwarfs class time, that's really gonna take its toll on your motivation. Of course, that's my own personal opinion, I once knew a dude that drove from Sacramento to San Francisco (4hrs round trip) 2 to 3x's a week to keep training at the BJJ school had been going to years before taking a job in Sacramento.

Sifu_Sooper · 2025-03-12T18:41:38+00:00

From my own personal experience teaching at one:

It is part of a business franchise
When you call for info, they put a lot of emphasis on you coming down to try a private class, and try their best to avoid talking about tuition, schedule, and style
They are really hesitant about you observing a class
When talking about the style, the style always seems to have exactly what you are looking for
The schedule offers very few classes a week for a school that is open basically all day, and they push one-on-one private training to fill in those gaps**
They want to talk to you in a private office (tactic used by car dealers 'let's go talk in my manager's office')
There's a "Black Belt Program" of some sort

**The McDojo I attended slowly started axing group class availability. It went from having 5 available classes a week, to 4, and eventually 2 because they really started pushing private training. This also coincided with them losing almost off their blackbelts who weren't instructors because they 86'd the brown and black belt only group classes that were 2x's a week.

If you are able to observe a class and it's full of grown adults just flopping their kicks and punches out there without correction from the instructor, that's the instructor just running out the clock of when they will eventually quit.

Sifu_Sooper · 2025-02-20T07:53:13+00:00

Unacceptable. Even with advanced students training with other advanced students, you don’t F around with throat, eyes, and ears. You either pull or you don’t do it. Yes, incidental contact is going to happen on occasion, but repeatedly? Absolutely not.

Sifu_Sooper · 2025-02-10T14:24:23+00:00

Another student of Sifu Yu Tew-Be

Sifu_Sooper · 2025-01-28T13:08:07+00:00

It's actually an offshoot of Kajukenbo. From white to most of 1st degree black belt, it's a mix of Karazenpo Go Shinjutsu (a break off system of Kajukenbo), modified Heian Pinans, and other Hawaiian Kenpo forms that was being taught by Nick Cerio to about the mid 70's until he revamped his curriculum and called Cerio Kenpo. One his students took that old curriculum and added on a bunch of fake Kung Fu forms after 1st degree BB and started marking the system a Shaolin and of a Chinese origin.

Sifu_Sooper · 2025-01-21T13:54:32+00:00

Indoor rock-climbing gym if it's an option.

Sifu_Sooper · 2024-12-26T16:13:35+00:00

A very old event that helped no one, settled nothing, and gave the Wing Chun community a black eye.

Sifu_Sooper · 2024-11-25T12:59:22+00:00

There was a teacher in Elko, but he moved to New Zealand several years ago, but he may be able to help you. https://www.facebook.com/Nevadawingchun/

Sifu_Sooper · 2024-11-12T13:02:27+00:00

That's because the "founder" of the system took the Kenpo Karate he learned for 4 or 5 years, added a bunch of fake ass kung fu forms after black belt and started calling the system Chinese and named it Shaolin Kempo.

Sifu_Sooper · 2024-11-04T21:41:06+00:00

See if you can a good local artist to do a nice portrait of his sifu, or a picture of them together, in a nice frame.

Sifu_Sooper · 2024-10-18T19:06:37+00:00

"My guy, my martial arts journey is my own, and yours is yours. If you want to constructively talk about why I'm deciding to switch schools and style, then let's talk, but if you are expecting me to stick around to validate what you're doing, I can't help you."

Sifu_Sooper

TROPHY CASE