 Once upon a time in the 90s, little 14-year-old Mr. Dan embarked on his journey into the first karate school he came across. It had everything, patches, contracts, black belt clubs, tournament kata, and a robust roster of 300-plus students. Everything a great school needed. Or so I thought. I was in the Kemple McDougal, and I'm going to tell you why that was actually a good thing. Now this episode was inspired by a viewer question. PawsTape asks, How do you feel about franchise Kemple karate schools because there's pushback on some schools because of their short curriculum and the way they focus on children versus adults? I often hear from people doubting their own schools, and I hope that by the end of this video that you'll have a better feeling about the next choices you make going forward in your training. And for those of you who stick to the end, I will actually share some of the cringe of my early training, but please be gentle. To give a very quick answer, no, I don't think franchise schools are necessarily a bad thing. In fact, they can be a great benefit. But only if you embrace the three key pillars of analyzing your school. And if you're still not convinced, I'm going to give you a surefire way to find out if your school is actually McDougal or not, because it's how I found out. The first key component to play here, and this one is a pet peeve of mine, is that an art cannot be a McDougal. Y'all really need to stop making these statements. A McDougal is defined as an individual school whose sole focus is selling a fast food system of martial arts that favors profit over the quality of material. The term McDougal refers to an individual school and their individual practices. It does not apply across an entire art. And we're not only talking about Kemple here, it's all arts. I've seen BJJ McDougal's too. It's not a pretty sight. The images, they still burn. The actual training we're looking for is bullshito. That refers to an art that you think is garbage. Now, I personally don't like using that term because even in the most controversial of arts, you can still usually find a waste of schools that can actually offer something. So McDougal is just a school that tries to sell you something. And speaking of selling you something, let's talk about today's sponsor. Which is us, because nobody actually asked the sponsor this episode. Anyway, we have a subjectively awesome store with cool t-shirts and canvas prints featuring your favorite masters in martial arts. It's a great way to support the channel if you like us, and this way we also have something tangible to show for it. Besides, if you don't support our store, I'll be forced to resort to sponsors like manscaping products or something. And don't none of you want to ever see anything like that. Now there are a thousand red flags that you can pick up on if you suspect the school is McDougal, but there are some key clues right up front, especially when considering the school. First, ask about the instructor's background. Any teacher worth their weight in white belt tiers will be happy to share their lineage. If they are dodgy or dismissive and give hazy answers, well, survey says... That's a red flag. Related to this question, ask them about the style of the school. You should absolutely know what you're learning, even if it's a hybrid. And if they're a generic and again hazy about what the curriculum is, or just say a karate without any other details... Now this one's a little touchy for me because my first instructor, while he was very clear about our style, never really explained how Kempo was different from other arts. So when I was about 15 and some guy walked by the dojo and asked me what the difference between Kempo and other styles were, I could only speak in crickets. Ask if there's a fast track program or a black belt club. Now if they do have one, that's not necessarily a problem, but get details on what it includes. If it's material or benefit that you should probably be getting with your tuition anyway, it would be fair to question it. Now these programs are often cash grabs designed to make students feel inclusive or elite. Do they make you sign a long term contract? This can sometimes be a trap. Most reputable schools will have different short and long term options. Month to month is a pretty fair option that most reputable schools will offer. Now if they don't let you watch at all or they claim it's secret training, time to move on to the next prospect. Are there tons of children who are black belts? Now this one needs clarification. If there are, ask them directly if it's an adult black belt or a junior black belt. A lot of schools have abbreviated courses for kids so they can see progress and when they reach it, junior black belt level, they begin to train in the adult curriculum. Now I'm actually okay with this as long as that distinction is made. If you like discussions about McDogos and black belts, we've addressed these topics in much deeper depth so I invite you to check out our catalog and subscribe if you find any value in this content at all. So while many franchises can be composed of a chain of McDogos, that doesn't hold true to all of them. Many franchises are actually very positive and give you additional advantages. First is continuity and consistency. If you find a franchise school that you feel actually measures up, this gives you sister locations to possibly visit. Or if you have to move and make changes, a lot of what you learn will carry over. It also promotes inter-school brotherhood and an extended family that you can collaborate with at seminars or sharing ideas and perspectives. Quality control and this is a big one. A good franchise school will have a system of quality control. Now I would like to refer to Kemple 5.0 by Joe Speekman and I bring him up a lot because I have personal experience with it. Mr. Speekman is very adamant about keeping a level of proficiency among all of his students. He has tons of locations around the world and he travels and he keeps strong tabs in each school to make sure that they are on par with his standards. He also has very skilled instructors running each location as well. All black belt tests go through his main school to make sure that he's aware of all black belts representing his system. We were a Speekman franchise school many, many years back, even before he released 5.0. And Mr. Speekman himself came to Florida personally many times to make sure that my new instructor was keeping the quality intact. I personally have hours and hours of home footage my instructor shared with me, of them going over every single technique, form and basic. It's something I treasure and protect and it helped me a ton in my own personal study. So there can be some serious benefits to your training if you find a franchise with that kind of commitment. Now as a disclaimer, I just want to articulate that there is no set specific rule for McDowell Joe. A school could still have some of these red flags and not necessarily be a bad school. So if you've gone through this list and you're still not quite sure if your school is what you want it to be and you've been there for a while, then there is one surefire final test. Work for them. Either join their staff or volunteer to teach. This is like an all-access backstage pass to the workings of the school. This is how I found out because I became a part-time instructor in high school. Mainly, pay attention to how the owners talk and behave off the mat once the class is left. Sometimes a shift in language and demeanor can lift the curtain a little bit. Now my first instructor immediately started swearing and dropped a charming nice guy role model act that he had publicly. Listen to how they talk about recruitment because sometimes your duties might be to conduct introductory classes or sign up new students so see what they prioritize. How much work will they unload onto you? Now when I started teaching, we were just a handful of us teenagers, we weren't even black belts yet but we were supposed to just be assistants to him as he taught the school. After a couple of weeks he disappeared into his office to play solitaire while we taught all the classes on our own. So I taught for my first instructor about two to three years and it broke a lot of illusions I originally had. Now I do want to give him credit that after a while he broke away from the main franchise and became his own entity and there was a substantial increase in quality after that. But I got my taste of what a mcdojo was and honestly I'm happy for it. I now have that baseline to compare and it's easier to draw that line between the school that values quality of what they teach over the one that's just out for a quick buck. So as I promised I will share some of my early days of training. Please be gentle in the comments. Now there's a fair amount of cringe when I watch my own performance but I want to be clear about something. I am not ashamed at all. I look back and I see the quality wasn't there but I still worked my ass off to get through it and I'm still proud of my own progress. But in this school at this time it was simply about memorizing sequences. Just being able to repeat them so we could test. There was no pressure testing or deep study of why we were doing the moves we were doing and you can see that in my movements. I have no urgency or application. I'm literally just walking through the steps. There was a lack of adaptation. No critical thinking. No spontaneous trills. No veering from the set combinations either. Our forms were simply tournament forms. I forget which one this was. I think it was called universal five or six and this was for one of my tests. I spent months learning this but there was zero bunkai to it. No rhyme or reason as to why we were doing these moves. Just memorization of cool patterns. Not what a real cod is. These were tournament forms and I actually found it hard to learn these and memorize them because they didn't have any of that meaning behind it. They were just moves. So honestly I do value the experience I had. While my early training may not have been up to the value I found later I really am fortunate to have been through it and gained this perspective. It has seriously helped me fine tune my focus and my goals as I continued and hopefully this helped provide you some insight as well. So to answer the question definitively, no. I do not feel that franchises are specifically a bad thing. Plenty of great ones out there. Grace, did you just do anyone? But the key is in determining that the individual school you're going to is the right path for your goal. Now hopefully after this episode you'll be more armed with information to decide that for yourself. And Campos and Art does get questioned and sometimes without my push of nerve deep down inside I understand why it's questioned. So if all you Campo haters want to find out why you're wrong we stir that little pot right here. So go ahead and check it out and let us know what you think. But please be gentle. Or not, I can take it.