Does your martial arts school nickel & dime you?

It seems that the martial arts school that we attend is beginning to nickel %26amp; dime for every little thing.....coaching fees, encouraging private lessons in addition to regular class, over-inflated union dues, etc. When we first started, it wasn't like that, but things have changed a lot. Does your martial arts school nickel %26amp; dime you??

Does your martial arts school nickel %26amp; dime you?
It's important to bear in mind that martial arts school owners are not paying rent/mortgage, paying for insurance, paying for association fees, paying utilities, paying Chamber of Commerce dues, simply out of a love for teaching -- they opened their schools to make a living and support their families. And part of making a living is passing these costs onto the students.





Having said this, there is a limit to what a martial arts school should legitimately ask a student to pay. The more traiditional schools -- the kind that don't offer frills like XMA and Ultimate Bodyshaping and other add ons -- will either:





• charge you tuition and then charge for rank testings





• charge you tuition, which might be a little higher but which includes all your testing fees





Some schools charge a one-time enrollment fee, which includes your uniform, your portfolio (if your school uses these), and also covers the administrative staffer's time to process all your paperwork and input your information into the school database.





If your martial art requires weapons (nunchaku, staff, etc.) or sparring gear, you would of course have to pay for this yourself. If you compete on a state or national level, then you'll have to pay for your governing body's membership dues (but you should pay this directly to that organization).





Black Belt testing is also usually an expense not covered by your tuition, even if that tuition includes your color belt rank testings. The reason for this is that many arts require their black belts to be certified by a national or international organization in order to be recognized (for example, the Kukkiwon in Korea for TKD, a honbu in Japan for Ju Jutsu, etc). Black Belt testing fees also should cover the cost of a student's new black belt uniform (and any patches or embroidery needed), a student's new embroidered black belt, a stipend for any of the masters that serve on the Black Belt Testing Board, and a small reception to honor the candidates once the testing is over.





Those are the basic fees that a martial arts school should charge you. But it does sound like your instructor/school is trying to charge you above and beyond all of this. Coaching fees? If your instructor is training you to compete, he should not be charging you to coach you when you compete! Your instructor should also be having you pay your association membership fees directly to those associations, not to him, since he seems to be adding on costs to pad his pockets. Private lessons? If he is doing his job, you wouldn't need private lessons!





I'm sorry to say that it may be time for you to sit down and let your instructor know that you are upset about these charges and fees. If he has nothing to offer you, then it's time to find a new school.
Reply:if you pay them for your training they will allow you to give them all the money you are willing to do so.....
Reply:Nope. In my old one, they had classes mon-friday, you paid like 50 for a week, and you could come as much as you wanted. You only paid for lessons, robe(jacket, whatever) and belts. And fees for competitions if you went to any.
Reply:Not as bad as yours. We have to pay the regular cost of lessons ($1000 a year), then a testing fee each time we test, and a $300 one-time fee for black belt candidacy, which repeats for every degree of black belt. But no union dues, no private lesson fee, no coaching fees, no extra class fees.
Reply:no my fee is 105 a month %26amp; includes as many lessons as you want ( tho most students go 3 or 4x a week)
Reply:Not a chance. I have known my instructor for going on 5 years and he runs a really good school for serious competitors as well as people just looking for a badass workout. Don't take that from any school, because obviously they are just in it for the money and short changing you big time. Why invest in a school that only wants your money, and could ultimately care less about your progression?
Reply:I currently pay $70 a month. The uniform was free, testing is free, private lessons are free....well you get the idea. Sorry to hear yours is about the money more so than the students.
Reply:Well as a School owner I would LOVE to charge you a hefty fee but myself would not feel it is fair. So you have owners that son't mind doing this and others that do mind and charge the bare min.





Now keep in mind that we have Rent, Insurance, Chambers, Testing fees, Mebership dues, Our own Training the trainers classes, Our own Weapons training, Guest Judges, mailers, parades, seminars, pro shops ect ect so yes some school may pass along each of these to the customer to cover it.





I myself have a couple fees set up for my customers that allow them to pick the best option, for example if you come in and just pay month to month i will be charging them the most compare to someone that signs up for a black belt program which is like a 2 yr contract so they will pay less a month.





Also keep in mind when you first start out you are just learning martail arts, i am not going to make you buy sparing gear and throw you into a ring of black belts and say FIGHT! so as you or your kids go up though the ranking it seems like you are getting nickled but really your not it just ok they are taking the next step in the training. again we offer packages so when you do sign up we offer it ahead of time and we alos explain it that if you do month to month at each belt what will be required so that way you have a heads up and if you foget that is not our fault we gave fair warning to what lies ahead.





As for you i would check around for other places! our basic fee is $75.00 a month no contract with unlimited classes with a free uniform. after that it goes down in price cause then you are signing a contract with us.
Reply:Nah, mine is really cool about the fees. I pay a monthly fee and as long as they know I intend to pay them, they're not on my back about it.


They've had a hard time keeping the dojos up financially, actually. But this tells me what they really care about is teaching the art.


I don't know what your school's like but I really feel, to them, that's not the priority. My sensei teaches from his basement right now, but you can tell he loves what he does.
Reply:no
Reply:My training is some what differant than most. I refuse to pay for such crap. sounds like your into a school that just wants to help you unload your cash. If issue is money, they do not care about you or your training. All a school like that wants is cash. Regardless of the style I think your at a bad place. I can see and understand trying to make a living with your art but get real. If you are strapped for cash soooo bad that your sucking the life out of your students your either a money grubbing low life or you are making some bad judgements with the schools cash. I really think that who ever runs your dojo isn't making bad judgements with the cash. If your willing to keep on draining your cash into the blood suckers pockets lets just hope that what your paying for is worth it. The biggest reason people treat the martial arts like a big piggy bank is becasue they usually find people willing to fork over the cash. Don't be one of those people. People can justify the reasons all they want, dosent make it right.
Reply:Welcome to watered down commercialized Martial Arts of America.3 years $5000 dollars and a black belt later do you really know how to defend yourself or how to scream and hit boards and air?
Reply:My school charges $65 an month to go up to 4 times a week. There's a kyu test charge of $30 and the shodan is $130. Being someone who has a job and goes to school, money is very tight. But I do a lot of extra work for the school in terms of translating and teaching so if I can't make a payment my teachers are okay with it. They operate on a good faith system.





Lately, a lot of blackbelts have been quitting right after their test. It used to be that if you passed, you got $100 back. Now, the blackbelt test is $200 and there is no refund to discourage people who just want their belt. I don't know if it will work because crazy rich parents will pay anything for that stupid strip of cloth.





The money issue has been on my mind lately as well. However, after reading a bit, I see I don't have it that bad. If it does get more expensive though, I will have to work it all off or leave.
Reply:thats crazy man id quit and take something cheaper where im from most schools chareg around 8-10 dollars a lesson or much much cheaper if u pay per month and i do 2 types of MA so id say LEAVE THEM
Reply:one of my schools charges ~100$ monthly for unlimited weekly access to all shaolin kung fu and tai chi classes. There are no belt testing fees. There isn't an advertised private lessons that I am aware of. No union fees (it's a big organization -shaolin-do).





You get charged about 50$ for seminars with the grandmaster or high ranking practitioners (if attend). You can buy your weapons from them (range depends on wood finishing you want and weapon in question) for usually less than 150$; they are well crafted and balanced (not sharp). They charge you about 120$ for a yearly trip to china (if you go) to visit and train at all the famous shaolin temples that still remain.





There is probably more info online, but we hardly pay for anything and we get good teachers and facilities.
Reply:No.





90,000 won (about $90USD) for as many classes as I want to go to in a month.





No registration fee.





Dobok was 30,000 won? 20,000? I don't remember, but it was cheaper than any I've bought in the States and better quality, too.





No belt testing fees for color belts.





Black belt test 130,000 won, automatically Kukkiwon tested by a panel of Kukkiwon judges. (But I live in South Korea and it's essentially impossible to test without it being Kukkiwon.) Not sure of second+ belt test fees, but the fees are clearly posted.





If you want to buy sparring gear/equipment you can, but there's a stack in the dojang that we all use. (My nurse mother would freak out if she knew that.) Nobody has their own sparring gear.





There are extras most months you can pay for, but it's entirely optional and there's no pressure to go. (Extras include things like paintball day, tournaments--and we pay the regular tourney fee, sledding, hiking trips, etc.)