Pro and cons of choosing a school..help wanted..

[Kalma]

While talking to a friend they mentioned two different schools and he bought up some interesting points on school choosing.

Lots of students vs. a small number of students. I said go small, he said go large so you get greater variety of training partners and more people to learn from.

I thought if there were fewer people the instructor could give you more time, again he mentioned that this may be true but the need to experiment and adapt wont be as great due to less students to train with.

There were other elements we discussed, such as training frequencies, fees, seminars held by the school, the schools development etc, but the big point was is it better to train with lots of people or a minimal number ?

Discuss

 

[thesnowman]

i prefer small schools. more one on one time with the instructor is better for me. i do see the point about large training groups though

 

[David_Jacobs]

Number of students is less important than the quality of students. In other words, 5 great training partners is better than 20 crappy training partners. Of course, the more training partners you have, the more likely it is (hopefully) that you'll have more higher quality training partners.

Here are some of the other points to consider (of course, depending on where you live, some of these might not be available):

1. Is the instructor a black belt?

2. Is the instruction set up to accommodate both competitors and those who are not interested in competing?

3. Has the instructor competed (and medaled) internationally?

4. Does the academy have students that have competed (and medaled) internationally?

5. Does the instructor spar with ALL of his students or just a small clique?

6. Does the instructor teach with an organized curriculum that makes sense?

7. Is the sparring portion of class a free-for-all open mat or is it supervised and organized by the instructor? (In every decent wrestling program, sparring is organized and supervised.)

8. How are promotions awarded? By merit or by number of classes attended?

9. In addition to tuition, what additional charges are there? (E.g., promotion fees, belt stripe fees, etc.) Perhaps more importantly, are these fees disclosed up front when you sign up?

10. How long are the classes?

 

[Jango]

I like smaller classes for the reasons you mentioned. The school I go to has both morning and evening classes, the latter of which is FILLED, while the morning classes almost never have more than ten students.

On Friday mornings, there are sometimes only one or two other students, so it's basically like having a semiprivate with the instructor without paying the $40 or so for the individualized instruction. Pretty awesome.

 

[Hellboy31]

I prefer small (or medium size)... maybe 10 to 20 people per class.

I'd rather have more personal instruction from my instructor than a wider selection of training partners. If you're constantly working with different people, it's hard to get good at smashing one kind of game.. You just don't have enough exposure to any one game to really kill it. But, if you consistently train with someone who plays spider guard, one day you'll be pretty good at smashing spider guard (for example).

Today, I took a morning class at my gym. It started at 7am and it was 12 degrees outside so only one other person besides the instructor showed up. I basically got a free private... See where I'm going with this?

 

[sanuces]

i prefer a medium to large sized class so i can roll with a bunch of different folks with different games but my game took off when i started attending the smaller, lunch classes with the same core group of dudes...so i guess i like both. i get something i need from both environments

 

[lethalweapon]

I've been doing BJJ on/off since 2004.

I started at a school with a LARGE number of students, say 40+ (evening class).
Now I'm at a place where there's 6-12 guys (morning class).

If I had to do it over, I would start at a school where CLASS size (not SCHOOL size) is small (under 15ppl). For example, school may have lots of students, but few take the morning/lunch class.


Small class is good for getting personal attention from the instructor. You want that attention in order to build good basics/foundation. You'll have a few guys to practice on, some with more -some with less experience.... you'll figure out the game at a good pace, work on some moves and find out somethings are working better than others.

Once that foundation's down, it's better to have a bigger pool to work with. As others said, more training partners means everyone's bringing a different game, options, variety, pace, etc... for you to answer.

When one reaches the point where they don't feel like they're improving, you either focus on your holes (which you'll always have) or go to a bigger class with more people that can challenge you.

While talking to a friend they mentioned two different schools and he bought up some interesting points on school choosing.

Lots of students vs. a small number of students. I said go small, he said go large so you get greater variety of training partners and more people to learn from.

I thought if there were fewer people the instructor could give you more time, again he mentioned that this may be true but the need to experiment and adapt wont be as great due to less students to train with.

There were other elements we discussed, such as training frequencies, fees, seminars held by the school, the schools development etc, but the big point was is it better to train with lots of people or a minimal number ?

Discuss

 

[lethalweapon]

excellent questions

Number of students is less important than the quality of students. In other words, 5 great training partners is better than 20 crappy training partners. Of course, the more training partners you have, the more likely it is (hopefully) that you'll have more higher quality training partners.

Here are some of the other points to consider (of course, depending on where you live, some of these might not be available):

1. Is the instructor a black belt?

2. Is the instruction set up to accommodate both competitors and those who are not interested in competing?

3. Has the instructor competed (and medaled) internationally?

4. Does the academy have students that have competed (and medaled) internationally?

5. Does the instructor spar with ALL of his students or just a small clique?

6. Does the instructor teach with an organized curriculum that makes sense?

7. Is the sparring portion of class a free-for-all open mat or is it supervised and organized by the instructor? (In every decent wrestling program, sparring is organized and supervised.)

8. How are promotions awarded? By merit or by number of classes attended?

9. In addition to tuition, what additional charges are there? (E.g., promotion fees, belt stripe fees, etc.) Perhaps more importantly, are these fees disclosed up front when you sign up?

10. How long are the classes?

 

[RetiredWisFighter]

I'd much rather train at a small school that has 1 BB instructor, 2 browns, 2 purples, rest blues and some new whites vs a gym with 150 members where you rarely roll with the instructor or higher end belts

 

[blfdgrappler]

I go to a small affiliate school (the main school is 1.5 hours away). Our group has about five of us who are there every week (give or take). Sometimes it may just be the instructor and me or another guy depending on weather, etc. (as others have commented, you can't beat that one-on-one attention). Other guys drop in and out, but we never really have more than 10 guys from class to class. Although I want to see a new crop of whites come in, it has been great among the five of us. We have all really bonded and pull for each other. If we want more bodies, we can always travel to the main school. Sometimes that is good, but honestly, I love the comfort of our small group.

 

[Blue Streak]

I deliberately train on the nights that tend to have small classes. This is because the quality of training partners and the amount of attention I get from the chief instructor are both better at these classes.

Where I train, there are no beginner, intermediate, advanced classes. Any rank can come to any class. In class, training partners are deliberately set up so that higher belts work with lower belts. This is great for lower ranked students as they learn a lot more working with a senior student than they do working with someone at their own skill level.

However, now that I have moved into the senior student grades, I find that whenever I attend the larger classes I get paired with a junior student because the number of lower grades equals or exceeds the number of higher grades. I don't feel like I learn as much working with a lower grade, so I have started going to the smaller classes where I tend to be one of the lower ranks and generally get to work with someone who is a higher grade than me.

At some of the classes there will only be a handful of students, and a bunch of black belts, so that every student gets to train with a black belt for that class. So I basically get a private lesson for a fraction of the cost. I feel that I improve a lot more this way.

 

[David_Jacobs]

excellent questions

Number of students is less important than the quality of students. In other words, 5 great training partners is better than 20 crappy training partners. Of course, the more training partners you have, the more likely it is (hopefully) that you'll have more higher quality training partners.

Here are some of the other points to consider (of course, depending on where you live, some of these might not be available):

1. Is the instructor a black belt?

2. Is the instruction set up to accommodate both competitors and those who are not interested in competing?

3. Has the instructor competed (and medaled) internationally?

4. Does the academy have students that have competed (and medaled) internationally?

5. Does the instructor spar with ALL of his students or just a small clique?

6. Does the instructor teach with an organized curriculum that makes sense?

7. Is the sparring portion of class a free-for-all open mat or is it supervised and organized by the instructor? (In every decent wrestling program, sparring is organized and supervised.)

8. How are promotions awarded? By merit or by number of classes attended?

9. In addition to tuition, what additional charges are there? (E.g., promotion fees, belt stripe fees, etc.) Perhaps more importantly, are these fees disclosed up front when you sign up?

10. How long are the classes?

Thanks. Admittedly, this is not so subtle marketing on my part. :icon_chee

You can probably guess the answers I'd give to the above questions. :icon_chee