Benefit of the Back Yard Dojo

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Except in rare cases all my time on the dojo floor has been in the form of a back yard, garden if you will, dojo. As a Marine I always trained with other Marines whose martial expertise was made available to me both one-on-one and in a dojo-like environment, i.e., several of us would go out back of the barracks and practice. After my active duty as a Marine closed I began teaching and practicing in my garage, in other students garages, in parks or other venues of like kind that could be classified as back yard dojo. 

I would venture out to visit other dojo, both non-commercial and commercial, to challenge myself and those would would follow my lead. 

The major benefit I felt I got from teaching in a back-yard dojo, literally free for all parties involved, is we were able to leave a lot of the requirements of a commercial or commercial-like environment behind and focus exclusively on training, practice and gaining experience. Except for the black belt we focused on said efforts and removed the obstacle of belts, status outside the dojo and testing. Since we had no overhead we could remain dedicated to what it is to train in karate. 

Another benefit of the back-yard dojo is smaller groups of practitioners so that training and practiced remained at a student to mentor ratio of three or four to one, i.e., one sensei to three or four deshi/senpai. Larger groups tend to water down the efforts and force folks into a syllabus/lesson plan like effort. It loses the free spirit creativity found in smaller group environments. 

Still another benefit is that practitioners don’t get lost in the group setting and closer relationships can be developed that foster, support and build solid foundational relations that create the creative environment of trust and respect necessary to teach, train, practice, learn, understand and apply martial skills especially in regard to self-protection. 

There are even more benefits like the one that says with no overhead the practitioners save a ton of cash, they no longer have to have any anxiety over paying fees like dojo dues and seminar dues and association dues, etc. and then they are even left to choose whether they want to use a karate-gi or just gym clothes.  When you consider all the other ancillary costs to be in a commercial dojo along with what it costs for uniforms, weapons and other training stuff the overall costs are just what the practitioner wishes to spend. 

Because of my back-yard dojo efforts I can say I have spent no more than necessary to gain the expertise, efficiency and professionalism without incurring costs and obligations that often come with others like association dues, association dojo dues, associations testing fees, association rank fees and the list goes on when you do the way of the commercialized dojo.

Now, it must be said that I firmly believe that all those commercialized dojo can, and some do it well, achieve awesome results even with all the costs incurred and what I provide is the understanding that even when you achieve sensei qualifications status you are under no obligation to go that way on your own and can become a great back-yard/garden dojo sensei. 

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