After spending several hours there I left with mixed feelings. I am going to try and sort them out here.

The school offers a huge variety of classes, everything from traditional Okinawan Karate, to fighting Jujitsu, to weapons with Kendo, to Tai Chi Chaun, and even a "Quick Self Defense" class (QDT) that is a hard-core 4 month program teaching you practical self defense moves. (Basically Karate without the style, just pure defense). I really like that is had such variety.

The head of the school, Sensei Marty, is a nice guy. He has a TON of experience with other programs and has several black belts in different styles. He has trained with lots of "well known" people and has been in the martial arts for 30+ years. He is the only main teacher, the rest of the instructors are simply other blackbelts.

The school itself is small. There are two training areas - a larger one up front that is carpeted, while the one in the back is smaller with mats. Because the main karate area is carpeted, and doesn't have mats, the sparring is based on points and is not full contact knock-down. I will admit to being disappointed by this a little bit. The QDT class is full contact knock down, but it was a lot smaller and all the students were "beefy" men which was intimidating.

At NEMA anyone who is a blackbelt becomes a teacher, a Sensei, and teaches classes. This is different from Tiger Schulmann's where black belts were Sempai's and Sensei's were trained professional instructors who went and worked directly with Tiger himself. Another difference is that NEMA doesn't have junior instructor ranks, so there are no Joshu's or Ushi-Deshi's.I am not sure which program I want to do, the QDT, the traditional Karate, or neither. As I mentioned in the original post, I used to go to Tiger Schulmann's Karate in Connecticut where I trained under Sensei Hunko. At the time I didn't realize how unique that program is. It is karate with katas and basic movement training, as well as grappling and kickboxing. The sparring is full contact - not just "point" sparring with minimal contact. It's that type of program I am interested in. Something more physical - more contact - more fighting, but still the grace of Karate.

I am not interested in quite as much pure fighting as the QDT program, but want a little more than the Karate offers. I want practical street fighting skills in addition to the style of Karate, and I think that is going to be really hard to find. TSK did a great job combining Karate with street self defense and fighting - while the NEMA Dojo seems to separate the two a lot more.I guess I am more interested in Jujitsu or Kyokoshin type styles, or a program like TSK that is simply based on karate but fuses it with other fighting styles. NEMA does have a jujitsu program but you can't do only that, you need to complete the Karate or QDT training first.

Originally I signed up for a one month trial, but I think I am going to cancel and stick to my own exercise routine for now until I can do more research. I'd like to find out more information on other local schools and maybe find a style that is more hands on fighting. Plus it is $99 a month, and Ry and I were just talking about how to cut out as much extra spending as possible and to try and pay off as much of the student loans as possible this year. I don't really need this extra expense, and if it isn't something I am totally gung-ho about I don't want to spend the money.