Lately, I’ve been noticing something that’s really starting to irritate me. Someone will mention their desire to explore martial arts, usually on social media. What comes back is a barrage of “my school is best” and “my art is best” posts. Now, we’ve talked a lot about that but when we talk about it in the context of a potential martial artist, all we’re doing is turning them off from ever training. See, people don’t like to make bad decisions. And if multiple people that they respect offer contradictory opinions… they’re likely to make no choice. And if you’ve been listening to the show for a while, you know that one of our goals here at whistlekick is to get more people to train. After all, martial artists make the world a better place. So it really does all of us a disservice to answer that question – What martial art should I do – with such a direct answer. If you sold cars, houses or even cheese – would you even answer the question, what car, house or cheese should I get? Of course not. You’d ask questions. In sales, they’re called qualifying questions. And guess what? If you’re even thinking of answering the question, you’re a sales person. And you have a duty to the person asking the question, the people you train with and the martial arts community as a whole to help them correctly. Just as you shouldn’t teach at a martial arts school if you’re not willing to give your students the best instruction you can, you shouldn’t engage with someone on the question of what art to take. Let’s now go through the questions you should be asking and how to handle this whole situation. For full show notes, please visit:  http://www.whistlekickmartialartsradio.com/105-find-martial-arts-school/   If you’re involved in a school that spars, chances are you’ve clashed shins with someone. Man, does that hurt. There are plenty of shin guards on the market, but ours are the only ones that are comfortable to wear, light-weight, double reinforced and actually shaped to fit your shin. When I’m at events I demo them by shin kicking door frames. Seriously, these things are great. You can learn more at whistlekick.com.