When you find yourself in contact with an instructor, are they respectful and welcoming? Do they greet you with a smile? Do they shake your hand? These are all things you should look for in encountering a future instructor. There are good instructors and there are bad instructors, the good instructors understand how to relay information to their students. This usually involves some level of personability. If an instructor is rude or not personable from the beginning, they will likely be this way when teaching. Your instructor should be your friend and want you to be their friend. They should show interest in each individual student, regardless of their level. You will always find this in a respectful, humble instructor. In addition, students will follow an instructor’s lead. A friendly and respectful training atmosphere does not happen by accident – it’s always the result of a friendly and respectful instructor!

It’s easy nowadays for “MMA” schools to have instructors who have simply “fought” and as such deem themselves ready to teach. While competing is important, having a strong lineage behind the instructor is imperative. Ask what affiliations they have and who their instructors are. Do you homework and make sure the lineage is legit and credible. Google is a good tool for checking out the credentials and reputation of the instructor. A fight record is not necessary for an instructor to be a good teacher, but if the instructor claims a record, you should be able to verify it. Likewise, Google results should tell you all you need to know about any martial arts association the instructor belongs to.

Is the facility, and the instructors for that matter clean and healthy? Do they clean the mats daily? Is the gym space and equipment organized? Are there specific hygiene rules for students? If there is a locker room, is that area clean and tidy. Or instead, are there hairballs and dust bunnies in the corners? Are there dried blood and spit stains on the mats and floors? Do people wear their shoes on the mats? Do students continue to train with open cuts? These are all things you should be looking for when you enter a gym. The last thing you want as a student is to be infected with a skin rash or worse. Cleanliness should be one of your top priorities when looking to train at a facility.

People flock to good instruction. Likewise, people tend to leave schools when they don’t feel they are learning anything. A total number of students for a gym, in each class, etc. will give you a good indication of the quality of instruction. The less people who are in each class, the less training partners you have and thus, the harder it will be for you to progress. No gym can survive without students so it’s important you choose a successful gym.

Do they give you a good choice of classes or are there only a few to pick from? A well-established gym will have day and night time classes to allow for some freedom in your schedule. Also watch for gyms that simply have one “MMA” class and don’t specialize in each discipline separately. In learning a large number of skills all at once, you are bound to miss important details in at least some of the techniques, which makes it important to have classes that focus on each art specifically and individually.

Even if you are not going to a gym for family related programs, a gym that is welcoming to families will be more apt to growth thus sustaining any other programs. A family atmosphere also speaks to the instructor’s attitude towards teaching, and their ability to be personable. Is the instructor interested in how a student will develop as a person as well as a student? Are they able to connect to different types of people, and of different ages? If so, they will probably be more willing to teach children as well as parents. An instructor that is only interesting in turning the most athletically gifted students into “fighters” probably won’t be teaching family oriented classes.

It’s easy to try and overcompensate for any of the above by bragging about how many fighters a gym has or how “fast they can get you a fight.” Be very cautious of these types of gyms. Many times their focus isn’t on the instruction but on bragging rights. A true gym will want to give you the proper training first and then look for fights once you are competent. No responsible instructor will give you a fight before they are satisfied that you are both interested in competing and competent enough to protect yourself from serious harm in competition. Instructors who are more interested in their gym’s reputation than in your health and safety should always be avoided.

There are two extremes to avoid with the level of sparring in a new gym. First, schools that have you spar too early or too hard may sound appealing and “tough,” but this is an easy way to get injured or develop bad habits by sparring before you know the basics. Watch the sparring or rolling sessions at the gym if possible, and ask the instructor about it. If it looks like students are often trying to knock each other out or break limbs, or if the instructor tells you that you’ll be sparring by your second week, it’s probably a school to avoid. On the other hand, schools where contact stops after the first good hit, commonly called “point sparring,” or where the instructor tells you that school’s techniques are “too dangerous” to spar with will not help you develop the technique or toughness necessary to become a good martial artist. The ability to compete or defend one’s self can only be learned by doing, but a responsible instructor will help you do this gradually and safely.

The instructor at any gym should be able to tell you, in specific terms, what each style taught at the gym has in terms of strengths and weaknesses. No one method of training can encompass all of martial arts, so the teacher should be able to tell you what each class will give you, and what it will not. If an instructor tells you that a particular style will make you good at everything, with no drawbacks, this is likely an exaggeration meant to sell you the program. Common sense and the Internet are good resources here, if someone tells you that training in boxing will teach you how to grapple, they’re probably not being totally honest.

Watch out for gyms with only one instructor! An accomplished gym will have multiple instructors teaching along with students who also assist with classes, as an instructor truly dedicated to the martial arts and the complete learning of his students will encourage advanced students to become instructors in their own right. As anyone who has studied pedagogy (the science of teaching) will tell you, being able to explain and teach concepts to others once they have been learned is an important step in mastery. Encouraging students to work towards becoming teachers demonstrates a commitment from the instructor to make sure his or her students understand fully each concept and will continue to help a new generation of students master them. This also ensures the health of a school for years to come, while having more than one instructor in a class ensures that more students can receive individual attention in training.