Lobby Safety

A family oriented Martial Arts school should have a safe lobby as well as a safe training floor. Small children can easily get hurt in lobbies that are not set up properly. Items like trophies and weapon displays should be well out of reach. Proshop items should be hung up out of reach or in a locked display case. There should be nothing to climb on and minimal breakables such as statues or glass items.




There should also be established rules in a lobby to insure the classes are not being disturbed. You do not want a "free for all" in the lobby with kids jumping and running around. This demonstrates a lack of discipline and will affect the focus of the classes.


At American Kempo Karate Academy, our lobbies are comfortable, safe and have rules to follow so that there is a sense of order and discipline present. For more information, visit http://www.akka.com/ If you would like a virtual tour of our lobbies and training floors, vist www.youtube.com/akkainfo

Check Equipment Condition & Security

All the equipment in a Martial Arts school should be in good working condition. Be careful of anything that appears to be worn out such as mats, heavy bags, or kick shields. Old, worn out equipment should be replaced especially if it posses a potential danger to the students. In addition, the equipment should be cleaned and sanitized on a regular basis.

Items like weapons and hanging heavy bags should be hung up securely so nothing falls off the wall. If weapons are displayed, they should be out of reach from small children.

At American Kempo Karate Academy, we replace any old equipment and keep everything clean and sanitized so that our students can train with the equipment safely. For more information, visit http://www.akka.com/

Clean and Sanitary Training Facility

A major safety concern that a lot of people overlook is the cleanliness of the school. You want to make sure the school is cleaned and sanitized regularly. This includes the training floor, equipment like pads and bags, and the bathrooms that you and/or your children will be using. If you walk into a Martial Arts school and it smells, chances are, that location is not clean because that smell is just breeding bacteria. The last thing you want to happen is to catch some filthy disease like ringworm or a fungus like athlete's foot. You want to train in a facility that values a clean and sanitary environment. At American Kempo Karate Academy, we keep our facilities nice and clean with NO FOUL SMELLS. For more information, visit www.akka.com

Beware of Sparring Too Soon

Sparring training is one of the most exciting drills in Martial Art training.
A very common mistake instructors make with their students is they get them sparring too soon. A great question to ask an instructor is "when do students start learning to spar?" There is no standard time frame. A rule of thumb is that students in the beginner levels should be focusing on the their basics of standing, punching, kicking, blocking, stretching, etc. Sparring and sparring drills should not begin until these basics have been reasonably established. At American Kempo Karate Academy, a typical time frame is 6 months to start sparring. Even then, the students are just learning drills and not live sparring. Sparring can be very dangerous if it is not taught properly at the proper level.

Adults need to be careful of fight clubs. Often times, fight clubs just put brand new people in the ring so that their "champion" fighters have some punch dummies. Most fight clubs make their money from fight events and not from instruction so they could care less if you quit or get hurt. Don't let yourself be someones kick bag when your first start. Sparring is a skill that must be developed over years of training. If you find yourself in a fight club, make sure they actually train beginners. I also suggest you confirm the head instructor's background. If they are not a high level instructor in an established Martial Art, move on. Chances are, they are not qualified to teach.

Be sure that when the time does come to spar, what kind of equipment will be used. You want to make sure that a reasonable amount of safety gear is being used for sparring training to prevent injuries. Be careful of schools who try to sell you the safety gear too early in the training. Many times they are just after the profits of selling the gear and not in your proper time frame to start sparring.

At AKKA, we make sure students are properly prepared to start learning how to spar. Training is closely supervised to insure good control and safety and the students LOVE IT!
For more information, visit http://www.akka.com/

Learning Dangerous Techniques Too Soon

You have to be careful about what kind of material will be taught to a newer student at a given school. The Martial Arts contains a vast amount of dangerous techniques that can easily injure someone. Try to avoid schools that teach techniques like choke holds, joint locks, or eye gouges in the beginning levels. These types of techniques require a significant amount of control and supervision to be trained properly and safely.

We once got a complaint from a parent from another school that his 6 year old beginner was being taught choke holds. You read that right, SIX YEARS OLD! If you are a parent, DO NOT let anyone choke out your young child. Not the instructor or another child. This is extremely dangerous and could possibly lead to a fatal injury. Kids should not be taught any of this type of material until they have had plenty of control experience and should be no younger than 11 or 12 years old. Younger kids have not developed the control nor the maturity to safely practice these types of techniques. Yet there are plenty of instructors out there who continue to teach young kids joint locks and chokes and even brag about how "hard core" they are as a school. Younger kids also do not understand the potential consequences to others if they were to use these types of techniques. Some will go and use these on their friends at school with sometimes fatal consequences.

Any responsible, mature, experienced Martial Ats instructor knows this type of material should not be taught to newer, younger children. It is far too dangerous.

At American Kempo Karate Academy, dangerous techniques are taught in the higher levels after a student has established a certain amount of control and maturity. This insures that students can learn these valuable self defense techniques and can train them safely with each other. For more information on our programs, visit http://www.akka.com/

Beware Board Breaking

The practice of board breaking has to be one of the most ridiculous training drills in the Martial Arts. It also has to be one of the biggest reasons why people will NOT take Martial Arts. The practice of breaking boards, bricks, ice and other items on fire may look impressive on TV, in the movies, and even more impressive live, however, this practice turns a great deal of people off from the Martial Arts because they think that to learn Martial Arts, they are going to have to break things with their body parts. Can we blame them for thinking this? Martial Artists have been made fun of for decades for this silly practice. All people can picture is themselves or their child breaking these items then hurting themselves. Others, especially kids, will think this is the coolest thing ever and go and try it at home without any training and really get hurt.

The rational behind the practice of breaking is that if you can break these items, you have tremendous focus and power and that you are now able to push through barriers you did not think were possible. This is quite a stretch for a justification and this can be true to a point but the reality is that these items do not move nor hit back! Plus there are plenty of other "safe" ways to push through "impossible" barriers and develop the skills of focus and power. Is it really worth the risk of breaking your hand, foot, knee, elbow, or head? I don't think so!

What many people do not know that these "breaking demonstrations" are often a hoax. For example, the "breaker" will use brittle or weak materials making it easier to perform the break in the meantime "wowing" the audience. Many of these demonstrations are just an ego boost for the performer. How does breaking construction materials display the benefits of Martial Arts? It does not and it makes our whole industry look BAD.

If someone does have an interest in breaking, they should be properly trained for it and be under careful supervision of a qualified instructor. It also takes time to develop the strength and bone density to effectively break these items and NOT injure yourself. Do NOT EVER let your untrained child do a break these items unless they have been properly trained to perform a break. I will see instructors bring boards to fairs, demonstrations, or promotional booths and have untrained kids from the crowd try to break boards. This almost always ends badly with a child crying after they hurt themselves. This is now a child that had an interest in Martial Arts but has had a bad initial experience therefore will NEVER enroll in Martial Arts training.

I cringe every time I see a Martial Arts demonstration and they perform a break. It is giving the public the WRONG impression of what we are really about.

At American Kempo Karate Academy, we do not believe in the dangerous practice of breaking especially for brand new students. It is simply not worth it for anyone. For more information about our safe programs, visit http://www.akka.com/

Proper Use of Safety Gear

Martial Arts schools that teach sparring of any kind should have required safety gear for the given sparring drills. First of all, students need to have their own gear mainly due to sanitary purposes. You also want to make sure you have gear that fits YOU and/or your child properly. Gear that is too big or too small can actually create an accidental injury.

All safety gear needs to be in good condition and of the best quality you can afford. Gear that is worn out or of low quality can also cause unnecessary injuries to themselves or the other students. There is a time to cut corners on expenses. Safety gear should NOT be one of them. Buy the best and cry once. A good Martial Arts school will have high safety standards for the gear. To give you an example of quality safety gear visit http://tinyurl.com/akkaproshop This site has some of the best brands of safety gear.

For example, for all sparring training at American Kempo Karate Academy, our students are required to wear a head gear, mouth piece, sparring gloves, rib guards (under 18), protective cup for guys, shin guards, and sparring boots. This gives the students a great deal of protection and allows them to enjoy the sparring training safely.

Be cautious with schools that make claims that they don't need to wear safety gear when they train. Chances are, they have high injury rates and pending law suits. Don't trust your safety and the safety of your child to just anyone!
For more information about the safety of our programs, visit www.akka.com.

Training Floor Safety

Depending on the style of Martial Arts you are looking for, most schools should have some sort of matting for a training floor. Any school that teach sparring, grappling, wrestling, and/or self defense techniques that involve taking an opponent down to the ground should definitely have a matted training floor.


As a parent myself, I would be very concerned about a school that did NOT have a matted training floor for my kids to train on. Accidentally falling on a hard surface can cause very serious injury. Students also have to be aware of slippage. When a hardwood or tile floor gets wet from sweat or condensation, it becomes dangerously slippery.

Martial Arts training on a good quality mat allows the instructors to deliver a much more realistic experience since they know the flooring is much safer. It will be much more difficult to properly and safely train students for self defense on a hard surface without someone getting injured.

Another advantage to a matted training floor over a carpet is the sanitary factor. Carpets will trap sweat and dirt which is a breeding ground for bacteria and other parasites. Quality matting is much easier to clean and disinfect. Fight clubs are notorious for people catching parasites like ringworm due to unsanitary floors and/or mats.

You want to make sure any poles are completly padded from 6 feet up down to the floor in case a student crashes into one by accident. If the poles have a base, be sure that is covered as well.

At American Kempo Karate Academy, all our training floors are matted with Olympic style Martial Arts mats and are sanitized on a regular basis. Poles are fully padded. YOUR safety is OUR top priority! For more information, visit http://www.akka.com/.