What to look for when choosing a style of martial arts

Last week a tour group of Americans came to Beijing.  The Beijing Chinese Medicine University asked me to help guide a small group of Americans around the university where they were to watch various performances and attend some lectures on Chinese medicine.

One of the stops on the tour was at the gym to see a qi-gong performance by the school's wushu team. Not knowing the difference between wushu and kung-fu the Americans were a bit confused because qi-gong didn't look like any kung-fu they'd ever seen. This lead to a group of guys from Rochester, NY and San Diego asking me about what kung-fu I do here in Beijing and how I found my teachers.  Ultimately the question was: "What are the most important things to look for in a teacher?"

The answer kind of depends on martial arts are you looking to study. If you've already picked a style you need to start asking questions about the master you'll study from.  Are there private or group classes? How often does he recommend you train? Most important is to get the master's history. The first thing you should ask about is the amount of time he's trained the style you want to learn and is it the main style he practices. Some instructors will personally train in one style and pick up some others just because they know students will want to study it, thereby making some extra money. This often includes things like exotic weapons that aren't native to the instructor's style and trendy kung-fu. This can be something like a master who specializes in a family style learns some Shaolin forms just because most westerners have heard of Shaolin from kung-fu movies.

The next question is about lineage. All masters have a master.  You generally want to pick a master who has a close connection to either the inventor of a style, the decedent of a style or one of the inventor's close disciples. Most styles of kung-fu practiced today are still less than 200 years old. This means it's still possible to find people with a good, direct linage. In family style systems the master will be accepted into the kung-fu family. They should have some certificate or token showing this. Sometimes your prospective instructor won't be in the family, but will have a certificate from the head of the family stating he is authorized to teach that style. For non-family systems the instructor should have some kind of certification from the governing body stating he is permitted to teach.

There are still some good teachers who don't have any kind of certifications because of falling outs with masters or other organization members, but be careful, you never know if they really learned all their moves from some Jean Claude VanDam movie.

You should also ask the teacher about his own history.  Has he studied since he was a child? Does he get in fights a lot? Has he ever had a job where he needed to use martial arts? What is his philosophy on when to use use what you learn in class?

All of these can affect the quality of your training and ultimately your ability