Did you know that when choosing a martial arts school for your child (or yourself), that is the question most important to ask? Martial arts schools aren’t all alike.
There are four main forms of martial arts. Japanese, Chinese, Korean, and Brazilian, with over 190 different styles to be learned. Some of the most popular types being Karate, Judo, Aikido, Muay Thai, Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, Krav Maga, and Kung Fu.
Let’s take a look at the difference in teaching styles regarding competition based and technique based schools.
A competitive martial arts school will be focused on teaching you their particular form. It’s very structured in that you can expect the same thing day after day. This teaching style is comparable to going to the gym and doing gym exercises for the first portion of your class and then the last half is spent learning the form.
Competition-based styles offer the practitioner enhanced flexibility and agility. You will use your training to compete in matches of that particular martial art style. Typically, these competitions have many rules (like any competition sport) and are usually timed.
If you (or your child) are competitive by nature or love competitive sports, then a competition-based martial arts school might be the way to go.
With a technique based school, the focus is on learning techniques and training in various real life scenarios. This generally includes ground work as well.
When a school is technique based they will teach you starting with the basic part of the move, all the way through to the advanced technique. The goal is to make sure you not only know the technique from start to finish, but you also know how to counter that technique when it’s done to you.
Typically, this will give the student a fundamental understanding of the practical application of the martial art both on the mat and in the real world where there are no rules, referees, or timeouts.
What do you or your child want to get out of your martial arts journey? Do you want to feed your competitive nature and compete against others for rank and trophies? Or, are you looking for a deeper understanding of the art and its practical application?