I just moved and I'm trying out a studio really close to my house...how

Soy_K

How did you end up at your studio? What factors made you choose it?

Out_of_Bubblegum

For me, it's not about picking a studio, so much as it is picking an instructor.

That being said, I've trained at a few different schools over the years.

When I first started, it was convenience, as I didn't know anyone or anything about the martial arts, and had a coupon.

When that school closed, I went to another club that was owned by a student of my instructor - so that was by recommendation. It wasn't a very good recommendation, as it turns out, but that is another story!

I ended up taking that club over, then merged the club with my current instructor's club to open a larger school.

When I was in the military, I looked up all the schools where I was stationed, and picked one that looked good. One time, I found one which was owned and taught bye Y.K. Kim (bonus points to anyone who knows that name!) and decided it would be a good fit, and signed up.

3 studios I trained at... I was the owner of.

And finally, after my break from Martial arts, when it was time to return, I found out that my neighbor recently got his 1st dan from a local school. I asked him if he'd like to spar some time. He agreed - others joined up in the training sessions.... and now I train with several of that school's black belts weekly, though I'm not officially a member.

Bianca42

My husband studied Kung Fu when he was in the military. We knew we wanted to get the boys into martial arts of some kind, but I left it up to my husband to find the right school. He couldn't find a Kung Fu school in our area. We ended up at a karate school based on both proximity to our house and reviews that he read online. (I think there are 5 karate schools within a 10 mile radius of my house.)

After the boys did 2 weeks, I decided I didn't want to sit on the sidelines fiddling with my phone while they trained.

trackercasey76

My son got a free month for Christmas and I got bored watching,

Soy_K

the wushu studio i go to i researched. it's quite a drive from where i am. when i visited i was really impressed by the students there. the other one i tried at my old location was all about proximity. this one too - proximity from my house. it was very very different than my wushu studio and even the kung fu i tried in oakland. i'm not sure it's totally for me, but i might finish out my 4 class trial just to give it a chance.

HeliumIsNoble

I'd say I ended up at my first school just on proximity, but that would be underselling it. I ended up with the martial art on proximity too! I just wanted to learn a martial art, ANY martial art. I can't say my family were delighted, and it took a few weeks of grovelling, bargaining and negotiations, but eventually it became clear that I really meant it. So my mother gave in and said she'd sign me up for judo, as a sort of compromise. It turned out there wasn't a judo class locally, so then she thought Aikido, but the instructor put her off during the telephone consultation. The local karate school was out, for Reasons. Related Reasons to why I wanted to take up some kind of martial art, in the first place. The TKD school was all that was left after that.

And thank goodness for it.

Second time around, I chose a school because it's owned and led by a particular instructor who taught at my original club. There is another entirely separate, non-allied school that is closer- a lot closer -but I'd rather have a slightly longer travel time than compromise on the instructor team, especially when my children are involved.

LuizH

I ended up at my current dojo at first because of convenience - they are within a mile of my house, so I can walk there, and they train on a Thursday night which is when I was free. I had also have a stint of training in the same style as a teenager (it actually turns out that my old sensei and my current sensei originally trained in the same club, so their styles were even closer than I'd expected). We did try a couple of other schools/arts briefly, but this club felt like we were part of the family from the day we walked through the door, that may not be why we chose it but it is why we're still there now.

Geocitiesuser

A friend invited me to come try it out. I liked it, and stayed.