I'm about a month and a half into study at the new studio and generally finding it to my liking. It's an interesting beast in that it bears certain hallmarks of a for-profit self-help program or multi-level marketing scheme; advancement in the middle ranks is specifically tied to boosting the school and, if I wanted to, I could spend thousands of dollars on seminars and specialized training programs. At the same time, however, there's a lot of substance to the program itself; they do most things at least as well as, and some things notably better, than other places I've studied.
Contrary to my initial assessment, the Studio Y program doesn't throw people into the deep end of the pool1. Beginning level students start out with very basic material; I think I've officially learned a couple of punches and a couple of kicks. And there's instruction on how to punch/kick properly, combined with a modicum bag work, which compares favorably to Studio X. I'm starting to form the opinion that this sort of focus on the basics at early levels is the best way to promote long-term development.
I'm particularly enamored of their approach to forms. There's one main form, "Pal Gae" (pronounced "poll gay"; I'm guessing at the spelling), which everyone learns and which often forms the basis of warm-ups/calisthenics. Structurally the form is a relatively simple series of Bagua-style stances2 and strikes, but its hard to do right. Performing each stance correctly, and transitioning between stances, is physically demanding; I (think) I'm getting better, but I've still got a ways to go before I'll be able to do the entire thing decently.
What I really like, though, is that it's clear why this form exists and why its a focus of practice. It wraps up essential conditioning and instruction into a concise package that works both sides of the body equally; whomever designed this particular exercise knew exactly what they were doing. Again, this compares favorably with other studios where many of the forms lack an obvious raison d'etre.
Now, on to the list of negatives. It's not apparent that they do any sparring; I've seen no evidence of it in the studio and no one has ever mentioned it. I don't think that's a huge deal for me personally; I like sparring, and think I'm pretty good at it, but I'm not going to suffer in its absence. However, I'm again starting to form the opinion that some sort of sparring is important for the development of beginning students. Some students are so concerned with hitting their partners, and consequently so tentative in practice, that it's hard for them to learn techniques correctly. I watched a number of newcomers to Studio X become better martial artists, in part, because sparring encouraged (or, in some cases, forced) them to get over their natural reluctance to punch people. There's at least one student at Studio Y who's obviously in need of this treatment.
The only thing which has really annoyed me so far, however, is the studio/s approach to conditioning. Here they really do throw students into the deep end of the pool; everyone does the same set of calisthenics, same number of reps, holds for the same count, and so on. And the instructors invariably spout the typical balderdash about mental discipline and "powering through". Really, people, no amount of mental discipline is going to allow the typical beginning student to do 50 pushups in a row, so why even ask them to try? Recognizing that this is high-touch, but there's a lot to be said for ramping students up in reasonable increments. In many respects it's almost exactly like weightlifting; you start small and work your way up.
If I ruled the world I'd have a separate class just for conditioning. The problem being that, if you're really putting 100% into the conditioning portion of class, you may very well end up too tired to get much out of the instruction proper.
In general, however, I feel like the pros vastly outweigh the cons. There's something to be said for having studied under a number of system; I really do feel like I'm getting a much better handle on what works and what doesn't.
1 It looks like the instructor showed me Koo Yung Bōp because he knew I had previous experience.
2 Which are taking me awhile to get used to; they're a lot different from the straight-ahead kung-fu that I've done in the past.
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