How much are you paying for your martial arts lessons

When I first started training over 7 years ago, the rate was $15/month for unlimited classes. Testing promotions came with a belt fee (which mostly covers travel expenses for some of the testing panel, some of whom come from out of state). The cost is now around $50/month, but once you are an adult red belt and above, at our school it becomes a training requirement to assist with teaching classes. At that point, we no longer pay tuition.

I know someone said something about the cheapest place probably not being the best (and neither the most expensive), but my dojang has been and still is the cheapest in town, and I still think it's the best (could be partial, though! ) I base this, of course, on having visited the other schools and observed classes, as well as testings, and I've also paid attention to where tournament competitors are from and how they perform.

FYI, NONE of our instructors are paid, save the free tuition, and I can honestly say that besides being a great place to train, I feel like I have an extended family at my dojang. My instructors also both continue training. The head instructor of our TKD program travels over an hour one way twice a week to train, and her husband, the head of our hapkido and grappling programs, travels to Ohio and back (from Wisconsin) to continue his training. The two of them are also taking another student and me to Korea with them next year to compete in Seoul. Where else can you find something like that?!? I love it!

Bottom line, don't choose your school/instructor by cost, and definitely don't choose it for a belt guarantee. Choose your school after careful observation and even trying a class yourself. Taking the time to pick correctly is a better guarantee that you will reach black belt than signing a contract is.

 

I now pay £90 for a month of unlimited training and it's worth every penny.

 

I pay $100 per month at my school. This normally includes 3 classes per week, which are two hours a piece. Sometimes there are extra training classes for various reasons. There is no charge for these. Seminars are usually $25 for four hours, if a well known instructor teaches. It is not mandatory to attend.

You must buy a gi for $95 unless you already own one. You must also join the USJA for $40. There is no charge for belt promotions (which are few and far between), or any other hidden fees.

I am located in a big city in the USA. Hope this helps.

 

No offense, but that sounds like a total scam. If they can guarantee that your daughter will have a black belt by the end of the year, then it's total McDojoism.

Also, think about that price. I pay $40 per month to learn one art, and can learn additional arts for only $10-30 dollars each at the same school. My main art practices up to six hours a week, which is equivalent to one hour a day with a Sunday break.

If you multiply $50 per month (the amount I'm paying) by 36 months, you get about $1,800, or $600 per year, for about 8 hours of practice per week.

I haven't read the whole thread so I don't how often your daughter goes to martial arts (if that was even mentioned later in the thread) so I can't attest to how much you are paying per class.

Overall, that amount of money seems rediculous, as although the instructor might be very talented and experienced, it doesn't justify that much money.

Also, just so you know, my school is a prominent school in the area, and the instructors are not paid as it is a non-profit.

The belt testings and so on do not come with a fee at my dojo, and the gi you can either buy through them or out of the dojo.

Registration with different organizations, USA Judo and US Judo Association, for the purposes of competing in tourneys, etc. These memberships can also help in some cases if you change schools or go to a different dojo.

Ask the instructor there who taught him, and see if he has any lineage. I know a bit about fraud in the martial arts, and if this guy doesn't have credentials or anything, it's possible he's just a fake.

He is smart however, if 10 people sign up for this black belt program, he's just made $75,000!

 

£40 / month unlimited ju jitsu, £30 a year then £10 lesson BJJ, but I don't end up going that often, only once a week if you add it up.

 

£4-£5 a lesson depending on what it is.

 

In my experience and what I'm used to, if you want to train 2/3 times a week, I'm paying £40 or thereabouts per month. Or around £6 per session were it less.

For what its worth, there seems to be a growth in nice glossy dojos selling expensive packages to people guaranteeing them BB's. I guess it comes down to how much money ypou want to spend and more importantly WHY your training in the first place.

 

Nothing. I have trained for years for free and this is how it's gonna stay. I have made a site for my club 5 years ago and promoted the dojo in it (quite a lot). So my sensei decided that it's not fair to ask for money, when I did this for the club

 

i may self pay 4.50 a hour to learn other styles i charge my stundents 35 pounds a month and they can come six days a week plus grading on in the price as well

 

Wow, some really good prices here.
I must say I got analed when I signed up for Muay Thai first time. $300 for 10 private lessons of 45 min. Later on learned they didn't even teach elbow and knee strikes in their "Muay Thai program".
The monthly membership is $95/month with a required one year contract. Why the f******** did martial arts have to evolve into coorporation-type business?

 

I trained a long time at a taekwondo club that was based at a YMCA, so the price was very reasonable and you could pay per class or for an extended period as you saw fit. Gradings were really cheap, and black-belt gradings were free. As an instructor and senior student, I didn't have to pay (and still don't whenever I come in for a kick around).

Recently I have been training at a hapkido club, and their pricing really bothers me. Firstly, you have to pay for at least three months in advance. I have been training for long enough that I knew whether or not I wanted to join after the free initial lesson, but I think it's a bit much to expect someone who is new to martial arts to sign up for three months after only one lesson. The price is about AU$250 for the three months and you can do as many classes as you want (there are nine a week), but personally, I only have time to come in once or twice a week. They have been pretty good about it, letting me train about four and a half months before my next payment, but it still bothers me. It's not that I can't afford it, I can (just), but there seems something... inherently dishonest in not letting people pay per class (or at least, say, pay for 10-20 lessons up front, as opposed to a time period). I actually don't think I want to train there any more, but I'm now paid up for the next few months.

Additionally, their grading fees seems quite steep to me. The yellow belt gradings are $60, $80 for blue, and so on for each colour. This seems an indefensibly large amount of money to me for sharing 20 minutes of someone's time and a cheap $7 belt. The gradings aren't particularly long compared to those we did in taekwondo which were maybe $20 (if that, I can't really remember).

 

Im currently paying £3 for an hourly lesson with training twice a week and the hope of another class on a saturday as well will make it 3 times a week.

£25 for each grading and that includes the hire of the hall, the instructor and the new belt if you are successful.

Very good pricing in my opinion as the Shotokan that I was involved with previous to my TKD where nearly £5 a lesson and I dont think I got anywhere near as much benefit from it as I do the TKD.

Iain

 

Blimey!! That's a LOT of money. Even when I was doing Kuk Sool, which was on a standing order, wasn't that much...about £35, or $70 a month = $2500 for 3 years but you can stop the standing order at any time.

How far do you really want your kids to go with martial arts anyway? Personally these so called 'programmes' I find a bit of a con and are very money orientated. Thats my opinion.

 

This thread is 3 years old.

Nice threadomancy.

 

at my school zanshin kai goju ryu, black belts are taught for free after attaining one, me being one i help my sensei teach begginners to be of some compensation for free practices

 

BLACK belt in 3 years

I would forget it

 

Depends on Location

Hiya,

It is difficult to critisize a dojo owner without understanding the costs involved in running a dojo in the area you live. There is also a big difference between someone who teaches a few classes at a university and someone who has invested their lifesavings into a clean, safe and purpose built training facility. Not to mention real estate varies incredibly within a single city let alone across different countries and currency rates.

If I could teach for free I would and the amount of times I have said 'if only I lived here....' or 'if only I had a dojo there....' and 'if only I had my own dojo'... I have lost count. As much as I hate charging to teach I would hate not teaching more.... just as I cant imagine life without parting some of my wages to pay my instructor for lessons.

I would never put a price on my black belt or the impact achieving my black belt has had on my life.... it only took 25 years of chopping and changing from different schools and different art forms before I found what I was looking for.

I charge kids £12.50 a month (standing order) for a 1 hour class per week plus £30 pounds a year membership and insurance. Adults, depending upon grade, train anything from 1.5 to 3 hours one night a week at a cost of £20-30 per month plus £30 annual membership and insurance.

I am sure it isnt the cheapest around but Bristol isn't cheap and people with the space (landlords) know it. The fees pay the hall hire, the equipment, and sometimes cover the cost of my car which transports the matts, shields and other equipment on a class by class basis.

The cost of a black belt is up to the individual. As for time, well, my wife acquired her first dan in just 3 years and had an impressive record of 26 firsts, 18 seconds, and 13 thirds in national competitions including one British championship. So time is not necessarily a problem - but beware of guarantees.

 

In my main art, we charge $35/month for 2 1.5 hour classes a week. We had to increase our prices a few years back. We are still one of the cheapest schools in the area, but our prices were so low that we were not being taken seriously. People assumed that because we were so much cheaper we must not be worth it. You get what you pay for mentality.

Right now I train at a JKD school. I pay $100/month. That is for unlimited classes. They have JKD (5 times/week), BJJ (also 5 times/week), and Wing-Chung (2 times /week). The sifu that runs the school is under Guru Inosanto and JJ Machado respectively.

Coming from my original school, this seemed expensive, but when I actually looked at what I was getting, it seemed much more worth it. This school was also recommended to me from someone back home (moved away for school) that I respect very highly. I also tried many other schools. They were all expensive (upto $85/month) for less classes and something that I only sort of wanted. All the BJJ, MMA, etc school that I tried were ego trips for people wanting to get in the cage. All of the traditional schools could not compare (in my mind) to my original art. I came from a very traditional karate school that is very street oriented. We train in deep stances only part of the time, and that is used more to get all of the mechanics down 'perfectly' so that you will know how to adjust it in a fighting situation. We also do frequent, full contact sparring. A cup and mouth piece and no striking to the dangerous areas (joints, spine, the triangle on the face, limited to kidneys and groin once you learn enough control, etc). It starts off pretty light, but as you move up in the ranks the contact gets harder. We consider learning what a hit feels like as a vital part of training. As you can imagine, it is very hard to find a traditional school that has the same ideas.