When you sign up to a Martial Arts class you need to be cautious. In the UK there is no official regulating body meaning that any bod can call himself a black belt and start making money as a karate or jujitsu instructor. A lot of them can even make up their own martial art – that way becoming the leading authority of that style. The first tip I’ll divulge in this article then is to go for an established martial art and sub style. Look online and read about the different types of martial art – Karate, Jujitsu, Tai Chi, Capoeira, Judo, Kung Fu, Jeet Kune Do, Aikido, Tai Kwon Do… these are all examples of real, proper styles. Then you need to learn what sub style you want to do – for example if you do karate it might be shotokan or wada ryu, Tai Chi has Chen or Yang style and Kung Fu has Shaolin style or Wing Chun. Make sure that the class you pick teaches a legitimate style within the style too then.

This way if you ever move home you’ll be able to continue your training elsewhere without having to go back to white belt. Furthermore you’ll be able to research the style to make sure it suits you, and will be able to research while you do it to supplement your training. Furthermore you know the style has been tried and tested and has depth to it having been around for hundreds, possibly thousands of years. That’s far better than a few moves and forms some fella put together in his garage.

Even when the style is real though you still get a fair lot of con artists, or people who mean well but just aren’t that good. For this reason you should look at two things – the grade of the most advanced instructor in the class, and whether or not the club belongs to any larger organisation. While some guys will brag about being a black belt, depending on the club that’s not necessarily any big deal either. Some clubs will practically give away black belts in order to make their student base appear more advanced (which is why you also shouldn’t trust classes that are full of black belts). Even those that don’t though, in these it takes about four years to become a black belt, six to become a second dan and about eight to become a third dan. Would you take lessons in anything else where the teacher only had four years experience? Even eight? If it belongs to a larger organisation however it means that the syllabus is coming from an 8th dan and that they have passed at least someone’s quality control.