Judo Lessons

Private vs. group lessons for martial arts?

I’m planning on starting martial arts (probably judo) when I enter college this year, and I was wondering what everyone’s thought are on the benefits of private lessons vs. group lessons. I’m not horribly out of shape (I’m 5’6 and about 140 pounds), but I’m not very athletic; I’m pretty self-conscious about the whole thing. Which do you think is the better, the relative anonymity of the group, or the personal attention of the private lessons?

There are advantages and disadvantages to both. Among the advantages you get more individual attention from the instructor and this can make your learning some things faster and enhance the speed of your progress in some ways. I say some because there are disadvantages as well. Being smaller you need to learn and work with a variety of people as you will find some techniques have to be modified slightly to use against opponents that are different in size than your instructor. In Judo and Ju-jitsu this is especially important as it helps you to develop your “sense of touch” by working and practicing with a variety of opponents. Not only that but some students can become de-motivated some when it comes to learning a diffucult or complicated technique. An instructor will make it look easy and do it without difficulty while you struggle through it. This can be very disheartening for some people especially if that is their only frame of reference. In a group situation you see others and the mistakes they make and learn from it as well as come to realize that you are not the only one that might be having trouble with that technique. Other students and keeping pace with them can also be a powerful motivator during classes as well as in regards to practicing and testing and promotions. Private lessons only tends to isolate you from all this and depending on your attitude and approach can restrict your growth and progress in some ways. I would opt for a combination of the two and unless the classes are extremly large and there is little in the way of individual attention I think you would benefit best from that as opposed to private lessons only.

Most decent instructors give their good students some private or individual attention when they need it as that tends to pay dividends in having a better, more capable, and motivated student. You may even find that no private lessons are needed at all and I would not worry about the rest. A decent instructor and school will realize that you are not very atheletic and build you into a confident, capable student. I think you will also find that most decent instructors and students can and will relate to you quite well as many of them, like youself, probably were not gifted athelets when they started either.

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