| Choosing a martial art can be a laborious process, made more tiring if approached with the trial and error method. By this I do not mean trying each martial art you find, but more of looking at classes for each martial art and then going back and making a decision. That being said, however, there are definite advantages to this method, the strongest of which is that you get to see for yourself what the martial art is about, and how a particular instructor teaches it. Many instructors (in my limited experience all of the good ones) have a "try before you buy" policy, meaning they let you participate in one or more classes free of charge, with no obligation to return or make any type of payment in the future. Beware of instructors who try to have you sign a document during your trial class(es). I have a friend who thought she was signing a waiver (which is standard procedure, just about all places will have you do this) and then found out that included was a six month contract. She was therefore legally obligated, by simply trying the class, to attend as a paying student for six months. The moral of the story is: Read everything put before you carefully . No matter how friendly or fatherly/motherly the instructor appears, always approach the signing of documents as a business contract, because that is exactly what it is. For more on this, I'll do a section on documents at the end of these pages. For now, choose the links on the side for more detailed information to help you in your search for martial enlightenment. |