So I'm working two days a week in Loudoun County, VA right now. Which will be meaningless to the vast majority of readers. But suffice it to say that there's some money out there. Let's call it comfortably middle class. I walk over to this shopping center, past the public library, on lunch breaks. And I've now observed not one, not two, but three different FLEETS of vans from various martial arts schools. I think they must run summer camps at the library or something. But I've twice come across a row of three large vans all sporting the name and logo of two different martial arts schools. Then I walk a little further and there's a school in that shopping center. This school has a mere two vans. In addition to an SUV and, I'm not joking here, a stretch limo. You could probably buy a bigger dojo(jang)/kwoon/gym for that outlay of cash. Many schools around here cater to kids and offer the extra service of picking them up from school. But that only explains the vans. Not the number of vans and certainly not the stretch limo. What the?!
Oooonly in America! Yeah, seems an odd thing to put your money in. What sort of MA was the gym that owned the limo?
I'm definitely in the wrong neighborhood. While I've seen plenty of summer MA programs for kids (I've even taught in a few), I've not seen the likes of what you've described. I can't even begin to account for the need of a stretch limo--MA themed tux and ball gown affair, perhaps? Edit: Having thought it about it a second and considering where you are, could the limo be for picking up the children of politicians for the program (a bus might be too 'risky')?
Hmm... That's a thought that hadn't occurred to me. Loudoun is about an hour outside of DC. But the money is certainly there. So that could well be.
I'd feel vaguely guilty about answering that one. Out of regard for the earnest practitioners of it here. But it rhymes with "taekwondo." Taekwondo is far and away the most commercially successful style in the States, historically speaking. MMA and BJJ certainly captured a certain demographic in more recent years. But overall, taekwondo owns the youth market.
*blank expression on face* Judo? I wondered if it was used by an MMA, boxing or similar gym. You know, take the team out at night and make them look successful and like they haven't lost all their previous 15 fights!
Complete wild guess on my part, but maybe it is for "Birthday Parties"? I know lots of schools of a certain type really cater to kids, and the limo might be to pick up the birthday kid? I don't think it is for Martial Arts themed Prom...
Also a good guess. I honestly don't know. I've attended schools that did birthday parties (back in the 80s and 90s, granted), but never one that offered that. But if you're trying to set yourself apart in a crowded field...
Maybe the owners of the dojang with limo gamble that it is an obvious (I'd say tackily obvious) sign of 'success' that will bring in more punters that are drawn to such things?
Yeah, that's what I began to wonder as well. And that's really what... offended isn't the right word... "struck me" seems noncommittal... I don't know. But it did seem really incongruous to me that, on the one hand we romanticize this stoic, self-reliant, minimalist aesthetic and on the other, sort of the ultimate bling. Weird.
I see a lot of that kind of thing up here in MD too - a lot of it around Columbia, but there is still a fair bit in Baltimore. Though there is a ninjitsu school in Columbia/Elkridge area that has several Hummers, the the flashiest multi-floor training facility that I've ever been in. I won't comment on what they were doing in there though.
I can sort of understand the minibus, it makes sense for the kind of after school classes that parents aren't around to get kids to, plus there's the whole Americans and driving thing. But a limo? Mitch
Wasn't there a husband/wife team that used to teach ninjutsu there? I think I visited their school years ago.
To be fair to me (the person I like most being fair to), the MA prom thing was just a joke. Still no idea why a TKD or any MA school would have a limo. Strange.
Probably my gratuitous use of 'Murikan grammar and phrasing (insert Ero worthy patriot-astic image here).
My school has two vans but they only bought the second van because we have an afterschool program and we need to pick up the kids. There were too many kids for one van and the family suburban they were using. There aren't any stickers on the vans, sometimes they slap on that metallic one when we go to tournaments. A fleet of vans seems a bit too much though for a school, unless they really have that many kids.
I know that a couple of MA schools near where I live have vehicles, SUV or pickup type things. I believe that these are probably vehicles that the instructor bought through the school for tax purposes (I don't know whether that's true or not, though). That still wouldn't explain a limo...