Mac’s KungFu Institute

This school isn’t a /​bad/​school, per se, but I really didn’t get a great vibe from it. I’ll weigh the pros and cons:
Pros:
The school was really inexpensive month-​for-​month.
If you have a kid, they did really well with instilling discipline and respect. «yes sir» and «no sir» were common.
The instructor (who wasn’t the school owner the night I visited) was very knowledgeable and skilled. It was obvious he’d had quite a bit of training in kung fu.
Cons:
The «school» is actually in a church gymnasium. When doing warmups and other exercises, (push ups, etc), you’re on this VERY hard surface, barefoot, and no give whatsoever. This is eventually going to kill your knees and other joints when you’re doing moves that require quick jumping and stomps.
The instructor, though knowledgeable, was kind of… up on himself. Every time he would have you do some hard, esoteric move, he would explain how his instructors would have drilled this into you, and made you do it over, and over, and over again. Sorry, this isn’t China. People don’t devote their lives to practicing kung fu. On top of it, I got the feeling that the guy really didn’t care that I’d had any other martial arts training, treating me like I was a complete newbie, who didn’t know what a «proper» punch was.
You’re not really learning kung fu– the program, when you sign on, teaches you «traditional» karate, punches, kicks, etc, which you learn to spar with, and then as you progress, you apparently learn more actual kung fu.
Classes of mixed ages: Adults practice with children. Having experienced both mixed and seperate classes in other settings, it’s WAY obvious that children and adults have different needs to cater to, and having both children and adults together, in my opinion, is a HUGE distraction.
If you want a cheap martial arts class, go for it. I only visited one class, but I could tell this school was not for me. «Hard» traditional training methods don’t benefit you as much when you could incorporate isometric exercises that are far safer. Standing in one pose for an extended period of time doesn’t teach you how to fight. I came out of the class aching, not in a good way, but with a tweaked back from these exercises. I couldn’t see myself going back for what amounted to more punishment.