Choosing a Quality Martial Arts School in Waterloo

When shopping around for a martial arts school in Waterloo, you will want to make sure that you and/or your child receives quality teaching.   Not all martial arts training is created equally and in most cases, you will be locked in to a contract for a year so that you will want to make sure that you are getting high value training for your money.

Most martial arts schools will allow you to try before you buy.  So, before you commit, try a few classes at different schools in the area to see if you like the atmosphere, the teaching style and weekly class schedule.  You should also ask if you can watch a black belt class.  At that level, you will be able to determine even without experience if the school offers really good training.  Of course, they won’t all be the same martial arts style.  Some schools teach karate, while others teach Kung-fu or Taekwondo for example.  And, if you’re interested in learning an authentic martial art, there are some questions you need to ask of the school and of the instructor(s).

First, find out if the school is affiliated with a recognized federation.  So, for Taekwondo, that would either be WTF (World Taekwondo Federation) or ITF (International Taekwondo Federation).  Not only is this important to find out so that you will know that you’re learning an authentic martial arts style but also, if ever you change schools, you will want to ensure that you can transfer your credits to the next school, otherwise you may have to start all over again at the bottom with a white belt.

Next, you will want to ask about tournaments.  If you find out that the school interacts with other schools during tournaments then you will know that the teaching is “real” martial arts training.  If this is not the case, then this would definitely be a red flag if you are at all concerned about quality instruction.

Finally, find out about the instructor’s qualifications, their belt level and how long they’ve been teaching martial arts.  With many schools, their head instructor is the owner.  Generally, the owner started their training as a white belt and spent many years working their way through the belt ranks in order to be fully qualified to run a martial arts school and teach classes.  If this is not the case, then you may want to keep shopping.

D’Souza Martial Arts Academy in Waterloo teaches all levels and ages of students.  Classes are taught by the owner, a third degree black belt who began her training in 2000 and began teaching in 2005.  She has taught many students from little ninja level all the way up black belt level.  Contact us today to arrange a free trial.  You can check out the class schedule here.