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Just wanted to see what the dress code is at everyone’s respective school. Where I train, it is now MANDATORY that you wear a Krav Maga shirt and pants/shorts at EVERY class. I’m a little bummed out about it because I can’t really afford to purchase a whole new training wardrobe right now. I’m starting to wonder what the point of learning how to fend off muggers is when I won’t have any money left for them to take anyway 😥 . Any policies where you guys train as far as wardrobe goes?
From our school’s website:
Self-Defense Class:
* Pants: Any kind of training pants. No shorts
* Shirts: Krav Maga t-shirt or a plainblack or white t-shirt.
No elaborate logos; no multiple colors.
No tank tops or sport bras.* Shoes: White-soled or non-marking athletic shoes–such as
cross training, martial arts, or wrestling shoes.* Recommended Gear: mouth piece, hand wraps or bag gloves with
wrist support, athletic cupNo dress code at my school, and I am glad… I love the fact that KM is not a traditional martial art and would be frustrated if I had to wear a uniform.
Yeah, I just noticed this today. It won’t affect me too much right now, since I already got a bunch of shirts, although they are getting really old and soon the logo may be too faded to read (will that still count? 😕 ).
I don’t have too much money to spend either and couldn’t afford to buy a bunch of new shirts at around 20$ a pop plus pants around 40$. If they are going to do this, I hope they’ll have some good sales at least, or raffles to help out the less fortunate Krav students. It’s also still time to revise your Christmas wish list. Less Playstation 3, more Krav shirts instead…
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GiantkillerIm thinking that you buy the cheap multi-pack of plain white T-Shirts and get a black sharpie… Instant home brewed Krav shirt….
At the school I go to they don’t have a \”real\” dress code, but it is prefered that you wear a KM shirt or pants. Sometimes you don’t really have all the uniform and it’s okay with the instructor. 😀 I keep trying to add to my KM clothing collection, just in case this does occur. As far as shorts go I haven’t seen them worn to often.
I wonder if they’d accept the homemade T-shirt, although I like the idea. 😀
What if someone shows up without a Krav shirt after Jan 1st? Will he not be allowed in class?
I think maybe one should consider giving people a bit more time. One month advance notice may be tough to meet for students on a budget, especially the ones who currently don’t have a KM shirt at all. It’s Christmas season and people are budgeting their money, sometimes rents will be increased around the 1st of the year… Just something to consider. The thing about workout shirts is that you need a lot of them, and if you are going to put on a fresh one in each class, that’ll add up.
This shirt discussion reminds me of this nice lady who used to teach at the NTC, Chantel. She had \”T-shirt contests\” sometimes, forming two groups of students, around 6-8 in each group. Those two groups would compete against each other, doing warm up exercises, push-ups, running etc. Then each of the members of the winning group would get one free T-shirt, so around 6-8 T-shirts per group. At first I thought it was a promotional NTC thing, but turned out she actually paid for the shirts herself (over 100$)!! Really nice and no, I never won (not my fault, of course! 😉 ).
Anyway, maybe they could do something similar (this time school sponsored). Or a Krav shirt egg hunt, hide some throughout the gym and let the students search (they could also be attacked during the search, just to make it more Krav-like! 8) )
Or we could have a shirt recycling program, have the rich students donate their old shirts to the poorer students, instead of to the Salvation Army or whomever they usually give their old shirts to.
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Giantkilleror have shirts printed… a quick google search sent me to http://www.customink.com
If i order 20 shirts its $11 each… if I order 200 its $7.50 each. Take orders from your class and print your own! (might want to ask the NTC is this is a trademark/copyright violation 🙂
I had a thread about this before too. It is funny how it is about 50/50 with schools that require the krav gear, and those that have no uniform requirements. I personally am not fond of the fact that we are required to wear uniforms. At the end of the day it is just another avenue for your school to make a little extra money.
I would much rather pay $100 for a seminar of some sort where I am going to learn some technique than pay $20 for a $3 hanes shirt that says krav on it.
\”At the end of the day it is just another avenue for your school to make a little extra money. \”
But school are a business! They have expenses, payroll etc, just like any other. We don’t blame a car dealer for trying to sell us extra warranty or \”rust\” protection because we expect them to. Why do we expect a martial arts school NOT to try make money? Whatever it is one trains, they are expected or required to have equipment or uniform. This is pretty much the same. If I am so against the requirements, I can always just train in a garage with friends. Besides, if someone has difficulties paying for the uniform, just talk to the owner. I am sure they would give you break.I don’t think anyone was suggesting that schools shouldn’t be allowed to make money, but I guess one of the problems here was that this requirement came a bit suddenly.
Rust protection is optional. Uniforms at other schools may cost a good amount of money, but they usually last longer (gi) and you probably don’t change your whole uniform for every class.
Shirts have a tendency to rip (especially doing KM drills). They get sweaty quickly and most people put on a new one for every class, some even change their shirts DURING class. So, if you don’t already have some shirts and pants, you may be looking at a few hundred dollars to spend during the Christmas season, during which a lot of people are short on money anyway. So maybe one could allow for a transitional period and let students wear either black or white shirts instead of KM shirts, to give them more time to stack up on the mandatory stuff.
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GiantkillerI wouldn’t have too much of a problem with it if the clothing wasn’t so overpriced. Let’s face it, a pair of krav maga pants cost about as much a whole gi at a traditional martal arts school. Roughly 40 bucks. C’mon, a gi is built to last. way sturdier than krav pants that tend to rip right where the sun don’t shine, if you know what i mean. also, the pants don’t fit. This has been discussed before on the board so i won’t babble too long on it. let’s just say that i have them hiked up way above my belly button and i am still stepping on the bottom of the pant leg. i bought a size small and i am 5’7\” so WTF! as far as the shirts go (around 20 smacks), rip rip rip….. that’s why i didn’t care if i wore my 2 dollar white hanes t-shirt and it got destroyed. So far i have bought 3 krav shirts (1 ripped), 2 pairs of krav pants (1 ripped after 2 classes 👿 ), and a pair of krav shorts since i couldn’t stand tripping over my pant legs anymore. so, what does that come out to? around 200 dollars. 🙁 On top of that i am positive that the remaining items of clothing that are still in tact will not last another year. I love this school, but this policy blows. I seriously hope the NTC reconsiders this.
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quote \”Emil\:\”At the end of the day it is just another avenue for your school to make a little extra money. \”
But school are a business! They have expenses, payroll etc, just like any other. We don’t blame a car dealer for trying to sell us extra warranty or \”rust\” protection because we expect them to. Why do we expect a martial arts school NOT to try make money? Whatever it is one trains, they are expected or required to have equipment or uniform. This is pretty much the same. If I am so against the requirements, I can always just train in a garage with friends. Besides, if someone has difficulties paying for the uniform, just talk to the owner. I am sure they would give you break.these are the types of things that annoy me about Krav and your post doesn’t really help. Keeping the doors open is a big deal, and I certainly don’t have a problem with someone being successful and profitable. I’ve hesitated posting to this for a few days,wanting to let it slide….Sorry, I couldn’t do it 😈 I really hate the comparison to a salesman trying to sell you an extended service warramnty to a manditory uniform . One is attempting to push a load of unnecessary shit on the consumer the other is forcing it on them. You actually end up punishing your best customers by enforcing things like this. How many uniforms does GK need to buy taking 4 classes a week for 9yrs? One of the other things you said that I don’t get is for years krav has been trying to identify itself not as a Martial Art, but as a self defense system, Are you trying to turn krav into a traditional martial art. I thought the idea was to train for reality. Women in screw me pumps,short skirts and purses and guys saggin and draggin seem like the proper uniform for that. While some of the new yuppies may get off on the idea of getting into their shiny new Krav Maga uniform and wearing it everywhere they go ,to let the world know their tough, they are statistically not the ones who are going to be repeat customers in the years to come. I won’t even get into the train in a garage comment, it pissed me off so much I could spit,so I leave it at this. Some of the best instructors in the world train in backyards, Where do you think Inosanto learned the FMA’s? When a school starts a new dress code or starts enforcing one that hasn’t been enforced for years people feel infringed upon. If you want to increase profits use salesmanship to intice the buyer. Make the product irresistable and people will buy,willingly in a spirit of harmony. Make them feel forced to buy, they’ll resent you forever. A business cannot grow without the goodwill of it’s customers. It’s there to serve them and its profitability is a reflection of that service, not some slick marketing bullshit. Emil, I’m sure your probably a school owner, and I assure you I’m not attacking you personally, but the more involvement I have with you guys the more i think your losing contact with your customers and the spirit of what krav was about.
mike
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