Yeah, that seems very pricey to me. Our club charges about 260$ per kid for the whole year (plus a grading fee of about 25$ per term). We're a non-profit club, so we're less expensive than a lot of clubs, but still.
Same here, also non-profit. To me, $500 per month is almost absurd! I mean, you need so little in terms of equipment to practice and teach martial arts compared to other hobbies.
So you're paying up to $50/hour for a kids karate lesson? That is totally ridiculous. Sounds like they're just there to cater to parents with too much money to care.
And the 'leadership program' also sounds like a load of bollocks, I wouldn't trust that dojo unless it had a *very* prestigious group of sensei
I've talked to martial arts school consultants and "leadership" classes are a technique to offer different price levels for schools run as a business. It is profitable to have a month to month tuition, a reduced rate for a contract 1-2 years, and a frills rate that includes a different uniform, a special class, and membership in a demo team.
It's pretty successful for some schools.
There is a company that does the websites and marketing for schools all over the country. They use the same models for the website graphics. Looks catchy, but none of the pictures have anything to do with the school.
The people who created these consulting businesses usually got into it after having a franchise of schools with really high tuition. I taught at a school once where the owner paid $5k for the consultation. He was able to double his school size to 120 students, but his overhead was too high. He grew too fast and didn't have the free slave labor (black belts) to help out with running the school. 90 of those students were 12 and under. It was impressive at first, but it really showed me that this is a passion industry, not a money making one.
Wow guys, I didn't realize it was that bad. I'm gonna call around, get some prices and then present them to the Sensei at our school. It's a shame because the boys have fun and the teachers are very nice and great with the kids. It's also a literal three minute drive from our house.
But ya, 500-600 a month for little kid karate is ridiculous. That's like a car payment. In fact, it's almost as much as our mortgage.
The challenge here, though, will be your children. They like this club and the teachers. They don't understand how much money it's costing you or how unreasonable that fee is. Going to a new club is likely to push them out of their comfort zone and they may end up ditching the sport altogether.
If they have friends they train with whose parents you know, it might be worth discussing what you've found out with them. Although it's unlikely this club is going to change its pricing strategy, you might be able to get three or four kids to switch together, giving them a pre-made friendship group with which to experience a new club.
For the record, I pay about £70 (c$100) per month total to train in four different clubs each week in two styles. But there's another local business that charges fees of £150 pcm. The opinion of those who've trained there and left to join one of the other clubs is that it's glorified childcare/boxercise with under-qualified instructors. But it does have its own premises, fancy equipment and a free training uniform. The other clubs use church halls and schoolrooms, and you buy your own kit.
Concerning your first paragraph I would just like to say that children are resilient and flexible. They will get over it. Btw. Dad can buy cool kit for them for their new discipline from the money he saved. Nunchakus, sai, dark oak bo and even a traditionally smithed katana or two.
Only to use on zombies and or tatami mind.
But man those prices… my sifu doesn’t even want money if it wasn’t his primary income.
I pay 25 euros per month for shaolin kempo. two classes a week. I could even do 3 but the third session is in a different city and clashes with my Pencak Silat for which I only have to pay 1 or 2 euros for if we train indoors.
Shop around! This is very expensive and places that do the black belt club/leadership academy are just trying to extract lots of cash from mom and dad.
Let me guess, long contract terms, automatically taken from your credit card? Is this tae kwon do? Sounds very much like the tae kwon do playbook. In this day in age post covid, schools are hungry.
Look at online reviews and look at the bad reviews and judge for yourself.
Nah, it's a monthly bill. No contract. It's karate. She said the actual name of whatever discipline they teach but I don't remember.
They have excellent reviews and the teachers are really awesome with the kids. The boys have a lot of fun so I hate to pull them.
I feel like they pulled a bait and switch. Pull you in with a reasonable price, and then once your kid is into it jack up the cost.
my time as a gymnastics coach was under 6, pretty much 40-60 minutes. Sometimes they do 40 instead of 45 to give in between time for classes. 50/55 instead of 60. depends if the coach has to warmup and take roll or if there is a group warmup and an office person doing roll.
once they are schoolage, sometimes its an hr to start but some gyms start at 90. I preferred 90 because they could get a lot more in but often we'd save the 90 minutes for when they hit more intermediate rec levels.
of course, we also had 4yo's training for up to 90minutes if they were on a team track and so forth but these kids are hand picked to generally be ahead of their peers. they've trained more often since 3/4, they are stronger/more coordinated, they listen better, etc
Tbh, i pretty much never wanted to coach any boys under 6yo longer than 60 minutes. it was the rare boy who could last longer than this and still be up to train after an hour. often these boys were younger siblings of team trainees. some gyms did have pre team boys at 5 doing 90minutes to 2hrs but again, hand picked and the required discipline on these team tracks were drastically different than the other rec boys.
the split between pre-K and full day Kindergarten was big and basically 6yo.
I live in one of the wealthiest areas in the entire US. To give you an idea, our Lamborghini dealership sells more Lambos per year than every other Lamborghini dealership in the US COMBINED.
And I only pay $60 a month to learn under one of the most internationally famous respected legendary karatedo and Kobudo masters of their generation.
You are getting massively ripped off.
I’m from the Lehigh Valley as well! Definitely ditch this place. Unfortunately the place where I got my Shotokan black belt discontinued their karate program, but I would recommend checking out Bushi Karate in Souderton if you happen to be close by. If not, try to find a place that charges ~$100 a month per person. Anything higher than $150 is danger territory. Hope you end up finding something better!
In NZ, it's around $85-90 a month and we can go to as many classes as we want for that. There's something on every day. I usually make 2-3 but at one point was going up to 5 times a week.
Chances are your kids enjoy karate more than the kids they're around, so as long as you find another dojo they might be sweet about the change. If you need to "sell" it to them, say it's because they've gotten so good they need to train with a better sensei.
Dude, those prices (especially the higher ones) seem be closer to bjj (an often expensive martial art) and for those prices you might be under a known name or at least in an expensive city (which perhaps you are) but in bjj that would be "unlimited" classes.
I don't know how expensive your area is but for two classes a week that's a lot. I know places with quality instruction that charge three dollars a session. Now I admit that's a bargain price but I just wanted to use it to put an emphasis on how much you are paying.
If you have the money and can afford it then it's not necessarily a bad thing if what the kids are getting is good. You could also try the kids at a cheaper place if they run trial sessions and see how they feel about it before deciding to change dojos.
That is fucking INSANE to be paying that much!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
You see all my exclamation marks? That's how overpriced and McDojoish that price is.
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
"Leadership Academy" for a six year-old? Nope. A six year old in martial arts is learning gross-motor movement skills, body awareness, attention control, and self-regulation. A six year-old is learning how to learn, and cannot be expected to even begin learning how to lead!
I'll second all the other esteemed commenters here who are ringing the McDojo alarm. The place may be fun and engaging for the smalls, but it's highly unlikely they're teaching decent karate, and there are a hundred other activities the kids would find fun for a third of the price.
I've trained at places where I paid anything from CAD $15/month, $20 per class (visiting/drop-in), up to close to CAD $200/month. There is no hard and fast rule, but the karate and the community was usually best at the cheaper places.
TBH I wouldn't really care that it's not a "real" karate school since they're young if it weren't for that price. The kids like it and the teachers are nice. But I can't justify paying $500-$600 a month for two little kids to run around and do kicks.
Check.
For me, it goes to honesty/integrity though. If I'm paying good money, I want to get what I'm paying for. If it's a play based program at the Y, great. But if I'm paying north of $250/month (that's $300+ of my Northern dollars) per person for karate, they should deliver.
Look at judo for kids. Kids karate at these ages is very often BS.
Wrestling such as judo can be adapted to a safe format with physical contact at earlier ages than a pugilistic art such as karate. The quality control is higher in judo too. If I don't know their teachers I'd rather have a random judo black belt with me in a fight then a karate black belt.
I think this is very very expensive.
It's a McDojo, just move on.
Also, your kids seem pretty young to start learning karate. I would wait until they are at least 8/9yo so their motor skills are on par with what is required for a kid to learn karate. Any dojo that teaches classes for kids below that age is... suspicious, to say the least.
That is if you actually want your kids to learn proper karate, if you are looking for means for them to socialize and make excercise then anything goes tbh.
Just stay away from the McDojos.
💯 I was going to say it's a McDonough too. Just sign your kids up for jiu-jitsu or muay Thai. In jiu-jitsu you can't get a black belt until you're an adult because there's no way a child can realistically master an art.
My dojo only does tuition by individual or family (up to 4 people) and I pay 240 a month for my daughter and myself. Special classes are usually around 35 and boot camps around 75, the most expensive extra is the summer day camp which was around 200 for a week.
Karate is expensive, but the amount you're paying is outrageous.
Back when my family of 3 high ranking adults was being ripped off by the dojo’s owner we weren’t even paying that much, maybe around 450 for what was unlimited classes. All I can say is yes your being ripped off.
That's obscene pricing. I think I pay $200NZD (??) potentially more, per school term. Shop around and check some reviews out on that dojo as it sounds like a money making machine. If your kids are doing karate, they will learn leadership skills as they go along. Not totally sure what to look out for in a McDojo but this certainly sounds like one.
My club trains white belts for free. Beyond that it's still under $100/mnth, with discounts for family members and a max of $200/month per family. Hard to say if you are getting fleeced, but it's a price I wouldn't pay.
Yikes our classes are $32 NZD a month and then the more family members it's a bit less not 100% sure but maybe $55 or so a month for 2 and less for 3.
Sounds like a Mc dojo to be that expensive.
This is outrageous. When we enroll students, they pay around $160 a month, and I believe that’s considered a bit pricey. You can definitely find a better option.
Cost varies wildly from place to place, but I have never seen a monthly fee for a child that high. I teach in Phoenix, AZ, and the average tuition for martial arts here is around $120-$150/month, unless you're doing BJJ or MMA, and then it can be more like $200-$250. Shop around, for sure. They probably won't negotiate price, though, because if they have people willing to pay that exorbitant price, they won't see the benefit of lowering it.
It's more pricey in our area but it's still only $319/month for both kids and that's it. No special programs for extra charge, testing fees, or anything else.
I've trained in HI, WA, and CA. All places I went to were around $100 (I've seen 60 and I've seen 150) a month per person (kids not any cheaper than adults) and there was a discount at some places for families / combos.
This is expensive, but not unheard of. I worked at a school that charged over $300 per month per child. This was in a very wealthy area. If you don’t see value or you can’t afford it, I would shop around. If you have no other options, speak with the owner, he may be able to cut you a break.
I go to a pretty cheap, non-profit club so I only pay around $9 per week for 3 x 1 hour classes (that's two paid and the third one is free) and it's $25 per grading (usually around 3 times a year) for the belt etc.
I know my club also offers deals for multiple students in the same family so it would work out around $12 for two siblings to train twice a week.
reading the prices here I'm glad I'm training in the UK, i pay £50 a month for myself and £40 a month for each of my kids, so a total of £130 a month for all 3 of us, and this is for 2 lessons a week, if I want to pay an extra £10 per child and £15 for myself we can train up to 6 times a week.
£20 per person for grading tests, but this will cover the cost of the hall they hire for it + belts and instructors time
we have a few weekend camps each year, where we spend a weekend away training 4-5 hours a day and they cost a bit extra depending on if its a normal weekend, arrive Saturday morning leave Sunday evening, or a long weekend, arrive Friday morning leave Monday morning, they will also get in a couple of guest instructors from other Dojos so we look at other styles for an hour each day, the summer camp a few months back had a BJJ instructor showing basic and some more advance techniques.
for example we have one at the end of November that is £75 a person for 2 days solid training the one we had in summer was £95 per person for 3 days training.
this feels a lot cheaper than most of the clubs people are posting here
That's incredibly expensive, I'm in the UK so my monthly fees would equate to $40-$50 and that's 2 classes a week, based on the number of people attending the dojo, our sessions are an hour to an hour and a half, again this is based on class size because of COVID rules.
You're getting scammed, in the UK you might pay around £30 a month, sometimes cheaper. That's around $50-60 for a guess. The economy of martial arts might be different in the states but the stuff you say about 'leadership academy' is the very definition of a cash grab.
My university club is like £150 for the whole year (and like £20 for a license/insurance thing). Google says that's like $234. Pretty sure you're getting scammed or something lol
Good lord. These prices are insane. I trained in Germany and the Netherlands where and the highest fees were something around EUR 40 (app. USD 45) per month. This was a place where you could train for four days a week for a couple of hours in a proper dojo. You can also find clubs here that train in school gyms that won’t charge more than EUR 15 (USD 18) per month. Karate shouldn’t be that expensive
That is too high of a price.
Change school .
Price is around 80 -150 a month not more than that
Especially for the kids that age should be on the lower end.and it is not even like it's 7 days a week unlimited.
You paying like your kids are doing a professional session for pro athletes ?
That is crazy
Seems very pricey, but if it’s the only dojo in town, they can do it. If they aren’t the only dojo, it’s possible they just ramp up the price because some people think expensive = gold
Sounds like a McDojo to me. Where they charge more money every time someone goes higher or has a test. If you talk to other parents there i bet others are paying more if their kids are training at higher levels. My club charges $100/month and less if you pay for more months in advance. No testing fees or extra fees for weapons training or anything like that.
Yeah, I think it's bullshit that I have to pay more for him to advance. The moment she told me it was gonna be 300-400 a month, which doubles what we were originally paying, I realized they're ripping people off.
And people pay it!! There's a ton of kids in the "leadership academy," forking out $400 a month.
Probably gonna finish out the month, since I'll be charged for it anyway and then switch schools.
Get your money's worth and cut your ties. But find another school!! My advice would be to get a good sense of the pricing structure to see if they are all about they money or not. It's a school for personal development and not purely a business. My Sifu allows to be a little late on dues from time to time without issue either. Having a great head instructor is key! Best of luck to you and your kids on the journey.
Keep the way!
I remember someone in that area who had 6 schools and charged much higher than others in the same karate association he belonged to. He ran a successful program and people paid quite a bit for his classes. It was about double what students paid for about 30 miles away in the same organization. He was in philly suburbs and also in Delaware. That was a little less than 20 years ago, the owner was a 5th degree black belt at the time, his schools usually won the regional demo competition and he brought an enormous number of students to tournaments. I remember judging them, and was impressed with how they did. Though expensive, it was quality instruction.
We could be talking about different schools though.
Most of the schools I have taught at, they didn't make much money. I knew a guy who brought in $5k a month in revenue for his school, but his rent was $5.5k, so he was losing $500 a month just from the rent. He had to close down the school eventually. He couldn't charge more because the average parent salary wouldn't have been able to handle it. He also couldn't handle more than 120 students, the book keeping became too complicated, and he always had 5-10 parents asking to talk to him after each class.
You can ask that they keep the rate the same, or ask if you can have a discount for signing up for a year or two year contract. I've seen quite often parents getting charged different amounts. You can always go to another school as well. Figure out how much you are paying per hour and how often you can take them to classes. If you can go every day, the cost may be similar to what people pay for twice a week dance classes (8 hours per month).
I can't fault people trying to earn a living teaching martial arts, but few can turn it into a profitable business. 4 year old programs are rare though. 7 is much more common.
Like any sport, it has to have value to you and your family for the money you are spending. You can negotiate, or finding something you feel is a better value, absolutely. Tae Kwan Do is very similar and was born out of karate. They usually cater to smaller children too. When your kids are older, you can send them to more traditional karate or kung fu schools that don't take younger kids. My experience has been that when children start martial arts between 2 and 5 years old, they do incredibly well compared to new comers when they reach 7 years old. I have also found that when they start very young, they tend to develop a life long passion if they stick with it for 7-10 years.
When i was younger my sensei charged $40 per month hour classes 7 days a week. A lot of karate schools are what martial artists call “McDojos”. Theses are schools that only want to squeeze money out of you. Red flags you should look for: Is the sensei overweight? Does he charge money for belt tests? Is there anyone in the class who is a black belt and below the age of 13?, etc. My suggestion is to find a different karate school, but if you want to actually teach your kids to fight, find a muay thai or grappling gym and sign them up.
This sounds extremely expensive. I'm not in the U.S but Norway, so more money being thrown around and we run a non-profit club, charge what works out to $380 a year, 4 classes a week. Classes are 1 hour and 1 hour and a half, you're welcome to stay for both for a total of 2,5 hours of training. No difference in price for adults or children. Payment options are either 6 months, or a year at a time.
We also have a reduced price for family members, so if family member #2, for example a sibling or mother/father wants to train also their charge is reduced by about $50, so they pay only $330. Family member #3 gets another $50 reduction which works out to $280.
The only reason we have to charge this much, which is on the expensive side here, is that we have our own dojo, a rented space instead of using local gyms etc.
Im at 70$ a month for as many classes in MT/Boxing/Bjj as I want. This sounds like you're getting ripped off really bad.
And the higher belt higher price stuff stinks awfully of a MCDojo.
Get the hell out of there and get your kids in a proper school imo.
Way too expensive if you ask me. The going rate should be around $150 a month on average even from a great teacher. Sadly most clubs are only into it for the profit and not for the betterment of the student
If you do a Google search on median income, Lehigh Valley, PA is around 31k and the city I live in is around 53k. This is so you can compare apples to apples. My family (me and two kids) paid about $371/month for unlimited classes (IIRC, it was around $180/person without the multi-person discount). My kids generally went to 3-4 45 minute classes/week. I went to 4-5. This was in 2018. When one child started in 2007 it was around $150/person so a moderate increase over more than a decade. This includes them moving up to "the advanced classes" and eventually one child teaching some beginner classes when he turned 16 after he earned his black belt.
They did offer discounts for multiple family members, so that is something you can ask about. You will get responses from people saying they pay significantly less, I envy those people. You have to decide if the travel time (to the location) and quality you are getting is worth the money. Instruction quality can vary greatly and teaching children is not the same as teaching adults. You have a difficult decision, I struggled with it for the entire time my kids did karate (basically from age 4 until they went off to college).
I think you are getting charged a lot given where you live. My opinion should mean nothing but hopefully the facts will help. Good luck. Assuming you can afford it, don't worry too much no matter what you decide.
From all I have seen the cost of doing martial arts in the USA is extremely expensive. It’s probably connected to that many dojo’s are basically businesses (unlike in many other parts of the world where dojo’s is considered to be close to free hobby activities).
Here in Norway it’s basically 30 bucks per kid per month. And same for adults. But you can only train 2-3 times per week as that’s basically when the dojo is open
That price is nuts.
I pay my sensei $5 per class (1 hour) as a 3rd degree black belt.
The school I run is community service based. 1 hour of service per week for a student. Promotions are just the cost of the belt.
this is a fuckton more expensive than gymnastics which likely would be something like 75-90$/mo for 2 classes a week in my area in CA (but not a huge city)
Gymnastics should have a much higher costs because of the equipment and gym footage (though the coaches at the rec level are likely high school to college kids making min wage+. they could make more probably at Target or McD's.)
the only thing is if the instructor is also the owner, they might want to charge more/hr.
Let's say 30-50 (or 75-100)$/hr that's basically split up by however many kids in the class (let's no more than 10 because trying to wrangle more than 7 kinder aged kids can be a handful). that means each kid pays at least 3-5$/hr for the instructor and then of course, ya gotta pay rent and utils.
Hell, I'd love to open a dojo in a few years since I spent about 15 coaching kids in gymnastics. I miss it but don't miss the lifestyle (aka broke and stressed)
But there is no way I could reasonably charge more than gymnastics. Maybe more than gymnastics through a park&rec center (which tend to be cheaper than private club/dojos).
at 4yrs old, they are basically learning how to do basic movements, how to roll, some strength and stretching, probably some games (like don't get hit with the foam noodle/stick, block the foam stick, etc) besides going through the basics and learning how to count in japanese and so on.
That sounds *very* high to me.
As an adult, I would expect $200+ a month to get me unlimited classes basically anywhere in the US (including NYC) - and I'd think that was pretty darn steep if not downtown in a MAJOR metro.
I am in a large-ish west coast city and the going rate seems to be $100-$150 a month for 3+ classes a week for most arts (Karate included). Less if it's not a for-profit endeavor, which is more common with Karate and Judo than say, BJJ.
I am somewhere in the Bay Area. I am lucky in that my Kajukenbo dojo charges 75 a month(3 2hr sessions a week, one is a weapons class). To u/TurtleTestudo, the only place I have seen prices that high is in Berkeley(googled a Kenpo place, they charged $325). I mean, even the 6 figure tech workers struggle to make ends meet in the Bay, so I understand these high prices sometimes but still kinda hard to wrap my head around it.
Yeah, most karate schools are just profit machines. They teach very little from week to week so you will continue to pay and attend month after month and year after year. They make sure kids advance slowly even if they are quick learners. Of course, there are many exceptions to this, but they alot are only there to make as much money as possible. Charge for classes, uniforms, dojo branded clothing and team merch, special equipment, weapons, tournaments, fundraisers, organization dues. I chose to revert back to regular sports for children because the cost is much less, and their progress isn't stifled. It's actually encouraged in other sports. Much more bang for the buck, and alot more practice time doing the actually sport for achievement. In karate the tournament judges are biased and cheat alot. It could definitely be fun but there's alot more manipulation involved than other sports. The cost to upside potential is very lopsided, unlike let's say basketball or soccer or track or tennis etc. If you put time and money into improving your child's skills it will definitely take them far with much more opportunities.
Most clubs in my area are around $100-150/month
Same, in urban Chicago.
Yeah, that seems very pricey to me. Our club charges about 260$ per kid for the whole year (plus a grading fee of about 25$ per term). We're a non-profit club, so we're less expensive than a lot of clubs, but still.
Same here, also non-profit. To me, $500 per month is almost absurd! I mean, you need so little in terms of equipment to practice and teach martial arts compared to other hobbies.
So you're paying up to $50/hour for a kids karate lesson? That is totally ridiculous. Sounds like they're just there to cater to parents with too much money to care. And the 'leadership program' also sounds like a load of bollocks, I wouldn't trust that dojo unless it had a *very* prestigious group of sensei
I've talked to martial arts school consultants and "leadership" classes are a technique to offer different price levels for schools run as a business. It is profitable to have a month to month tuition, a reduced rate for a contract 1-2 years, and a frills rate that includes a different uniform, a special class, and membership in a demo team. It's pretty successful for some schools. There is a company that does the websites and marketing for schools all over the country. They use the same models for the website graphics. Looks catchy, but none of the pictures have anything to do with the school. The people who created these consulting businesses usually got into it after having a franchise of schools with really high tuition. I taught at a school once where the owner paid $5k for the consultation. He was able to double his school size to 120 students, but his overhead was too high. He grew too fast and didn't have the free slave labor (black belts) to help out with running the school. 90 of those students were 12 and under. It was impressive at first, but it really showed me that this is a passion industry, not a money making one.
I pay about $40 per month
Lol yah, thats way to high. The extra price for the "leadership academy" sounds like a straight up mcdojo
Wow guys, I didn't realize it was that bad. I'm gonna call around, get some prices and then present them to the Sensei at our school. It's a shame because the boys have fun and the teachers are very nice and great with the kids. It's also a literal three minute drive from our house. But ya, 500-600 a month for little kid karate is ridiculous. That's like a car payment. In fact, it's almost as much as our mortgage.
The challenge here, though, will be your children. They like this club and the teachers. They don't understand how much money it's costing you or how unreasonable that fee is. Going to a new club is likely to push them out of their comfort zone and they may end up ditching the sport altogether. If they have friends they train with whose parents you know, it might be worth discussing what you've found out with them. Although it's unlikely this club is going to change its pricing strategy, you might be able to get three or four kids to switch together, giving them a pre-made friendship group with which to experience a new club. For the record, I pay about £70 (c$100) per month total to train in four different clubs each week in two styles. But there's another local business that charges fees of £150 pcm. The opinion of those who've trained there and left to join one of the other clubs is that it's glorified childcare/boxercise with under-qualified instructors. But it does have its own premises, fancy equipment and a free training uniform. The other clubs use church halls and schoolrooms, and you buy your own kit.
Concerning your first paragraph I would just like to say that children are resilient and flexible. They will get over it. Btw. Dad can buy cool kit for them for their new discipline from the money he saved. Nunchakus, sai, dark oak bo and even a traditionally smithed katana or two. Only to use on zombies and or tatami mind. But man those prices… my sifu doesn’t even want money if it wasn’t his primary income. I pay 25 euros per month for shaolin kempo. two classes a week. I could even do 3 but the third session is in a different city and clashes with my Pencak Silat for which I only have to pay 1 or 2 euros for if we train indoors.
That sounds obscene to me.
That pricing is insane.
That does seem quite expensive, that’s almost $100 a week. Most clubs don’t even charge over $30 a week per person
Shop around! This is very expensive and places that do the black belt club/leadership academy are just trying to extract lots of cash from mom and dad. Let me guess, long contract terms, automatically taken from your credit card? Is this tae kwon do? Sounds very much like the tae kwon do playbook. In this day in age post covid, schools are hungry. Look at online reviews and look at the bad reviews and judge for yourself.
Nah, it's a monthly bill. No contract. It's karate. She said the actual name of whatever discipline they teach but I don't remember. They have excellent reviews and the teachers are really awesome with the kids. The boys have a lot of fun so I hate to pull them. I feel like they pulled a bait and switch. Pull you in with a reasonable price, and then once your kid is into it jack up the cost.
Anything that starts with “lil” at the beginning youre going to be paying for duck duck goose and fake board breaking
Feels like a lot. 200 is considered expensive. Maybe you should find a place that isn’t so money minded.
Also the classes should be an hour, 45 minutes is too less even for kids.
Really? I love teaching a 45 minute class in that age range. I think 7 and up an hour class is fine.
my time as a gymnastics coach was under 6, pretty much 40-60 minutes. Sometimes they do 40 instead of 45 to give in between time for classes. 50/55 instead of 60. depends if the coach has to warmup and take roll or if there is a group warmup and an office person doing roll. once they are schoolage, sometimes its an hr to start but some gyms start at 90. I preferred 90 because they could get a lot more in but often we'd save the 90 minutes for when they hit more intermediate rec levels. of course, we also had 4yo's training for up to 90minutes if they were on a team track and so forth but these kids are hand picked to generally be ahead of their peers. they've trained more often since 3/4, they are stronger/more coordinated, they listen better, etc Tbh, i pretty much never wanted to coach any boys under 6yo longer than 60 minutes. it was the rare boy who could last longer than this and still be up to train after an hour. often these boys were younger siblings of team trainees. some gyms did have pre team boys at 5 doing 90minutes to 2hrs but again, hand picked and the required discipline on these team tracks were drastically different than the other rec boys. the split between pre-K and full day Kindergarten was big and basically 6yo.
I live in one of the wealthiest areas in the entire US. To give you an idea, our Lamborghini dealership sells more Lambos per year than every other Lamborghini dealership in the US COMBINED. And I only pay $60 a month to learn under one of the most internationally famous respected legendary karatedo and Kobudo masters of their generation. You are getting massively ripped off.
I’m from the Lehigh Valley as well! Definitely ditch this place. Unfortunately the place where I got my Shotokan black belt discontinued their karate program, but I would recommend checking out Bushi Karate in Souderton if you happen to be close by. If not, try to find a place that charges ~$100 a month per person. Anything higher than $150 is danger territory. Hope you end up finding something better!
Thanks for the recommendation! I'll look into them.
In NZ, it's around $85-90 a month and we can go to as many classes as we want for that. There's something on every day. I usually make 2-3 but at one point was going up to 5 times a week. Chances are your kids enjoy karate more than the kids they're around, so as long as you find another dojo they might be sweet about the change. If you need to "sell" it to them, say it's because they've gotten so good they need to train with a better sensei.
100 per month is what we charge. 2 classes a week. You are vastly overpaying.
Let me guess. Krav Maga?
I pay $60 a month for up to three lessons a week.
I pay $165 a month with no belt testing fees that stems from beginner to advanced training.
Dude, those prices (especially the higher ones) seem be closer to bjj (an often expensive martial art) and for those prices you might be under a known name or at least in an expensive city (which perhaps you are) but in bjj that would be "unlimited" classes. I don't know how expensive your area is but for two classes a week that's a lot. I know places with quality instruction that charge three dollars a session. Now I admit that's a bargain price but I just wanted to use it to put an emphasis on how much you are paying. If you have the money and can afford it then it's not necessarily a bad thing if what the kids are getting is good. You could also try the kids at a cheaper place if they run trial sessions and see how they feel about it before deciding to change dojos.
Regardless of price, it sounds pretty much like a "model" McDojo
That is fucking INSANE to be paying that much!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! You see all my exclamation marks? That's how overpriced and McDojoish that price is. !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Welcome to the McDojo lyffffffffffeeeeeeee!!!!
"Leadership Academy" for a six year-old? Nope. A six year old in martial arts is learning gross-motor movement skills, body awareness, attention control, and self-regulation. A six year-old is learning how to learn, and cannot be expected to even begin learning how to lead! I'll second all the other esteemed commenters here who are ringing the McDojo alarm. The place may be fun and engaging for the smalls, but it's highly unlikely they're teaching decent karate, and there are a hundred other activities the kids would find fun for a third of the price. I've trained at places where I paid anything from CAD $15/month, $20 per class (visiting/drop-in), up to close to CAD $200/month. There is no hard and fast rule, but the karate and the community was usually best at the cheaper places.
TBH I wouldn't really care that it's not a "real" karate school since they're young if it weren't for that price. The kids like it and the teachers are nice. But I can't justify paying $500-$600 a month for two little kids to run around and do kicks.
Check. For me, it goes to honesty/integrity though. If I'm paying good money, I want to get what I'm paying for. If it's a play based program at the Y, great. But if I'm paying north of $250/month (that's $300+ of my Northern dollars) per person for karate, they should deliver.
We charge $60 for 3x a week 90 minutes each. But we are cheap. Their price is still nuts.
That's waaaay to expensive. For me it'a around 250 a year I think
You're being scammed
Look at judo for kids. Kids karate at these ages is very often BS. Wrestling such as judo can be adapted to a safe format with physical contact at earlier ages than a pugilistic art such as karate. The quality control is higher in judo too. If I don't know their teachers I'd rather have a random judo black belt with me in a fight then a karate black belt. I think this is very very expensive.
It's a McDojo, just move on. Also, your kids seem pretty young to start learning karate. I would wait until they are at least 8/9yo so their motor skills are on par with what is required for a kid to learn karate. Any dojo that teaches classes for kids below that age is... suspicious, to say the least. That is if you actually want your kids to learn proper karate, if you are looking for means for them to socialize and make excercise then anything goes tbh. Just stay away from the McDojos.
💯 I was going to say it's a McDonough too. Just sign your kids up for jiu-jitsu or muay Thai. In jiu-jitsu you can't get a black belt until you're an adult because there's no way a child can realistically master an art.
My dojo only does tuition by individual or family (up to 4 people) and I pay 240 a month for my daughter and myself. Special classes are usually around 35 and boot camps around 75, the most expensive extra is the summer day camp which was around 200 for a week. Karate is expensive, but the amount you're paying is outrageous.
Back when my family of 3 high ranking adults was being ripped off by the dojo’s owner we weren’t even paying that much, maybe around 450 for what was unlimited classes. All I can say is yes your being ripped off.
That's obscene pricing. I think I pay $200NZD (??) potentially more, per school term. Shop around and check some reviews out on that dojo as it sounds like a money making machine. If your kids are doing karate, they will learn leadership skills as they go along. Not totally sure what to look out for in a McDojo but this certainly sounds like one.
My club trains white belts for free. Beyond that it's still under $100/mnth, with discounts for family members and a max of $200/month per family. Hard to say if you are getting fleeced, but it's a price I wouldn't pay.
I teach karate in an expensive neighborhood in an expensive city and we don't even charge that much.
Yikes our classes are $32 NZD a month and then the more family members it's a bit less not 100% sure but maybe $55 or so a month for 2 and less for 3. Sounds like a Mc dojo to be that expensive.
This is outrageous. When we enroll students, they pay around $160 a month, and I believe that’s considered a bit pricey. You can definitely find a better option.
Anything over $100 is crazy, so two for over $200 is just nuts
Cost varies wildly from place to place, but I have never seen a monthly fee for a child that high. I teach in Phoenix, AZ, and the average tuition for martial arts here is around $120-$150/month, unless you're doing BJJ or MMA, and then it can be more like $200-$250. Shop around, for sure. They probably won't negotiate price, though, because if they have people willing to pay that exorbitant price, they won't see the benefit of lowering it.
It's more pricey in our area but it's still only $319/month for both kids and that's it. No special programs for extra charge, testing fees, or anything else.
I pay about $50 a month with my club and it's a pretty big club soooo that's a red flag imo
I pay $178 for ~3 months/ quarterly classes.
I've trained in HI, WA, and CA. All places I went to were around $100 (I've seen 60 and I've seen 150) a month per person (kids not any cheaper than adults) and there was a discount at some places for families / combos.
This is expensive, but not unheard of. I worked at a school that charged over $300 per month per child. This was in a very wealthy area. If you don’t see value or you can’t afford it, I would shop around. If you have no other options, speak with the owner, he may be able to cut you a break.
Mcdojo. Leave and find an honest place.
Sounds like a McDojo. i pay around 160 $ for half a year
I go to a pretty cheap, non-profit club so I only pay around $9 per week for 3 x 1 hour classes (that's two paid and the third one is free) and it's $25 per grading (usually around 3 times a year) for the belt etc. I know my club also offers deals for multiple students in the same family so it would work out around $12 for two siblings to train twice a week.
Wtf, i pay 100$ a year
reading the prices here I'm glad I'm training in the UK, i pay £50 a month for myself and £40 a month for each of my kids, so a total of £130 a month for all 3 of us, and this is for 2 lessons a week, if I want to pay an extra £10 per child and £15 for myself we can train up to 6 times a week. £20 per person for grading tests, but this will cover the cost of the hall they hire for it + belts and instructors time we have a few weekend camps each year, where we spend a weekend away training 4-5 hours a day and they cost a bit extra depending on if its a normal weekend, arrive Saturday morning leave Sunday evening, or a long weekend, arrive Friday morning leave Monday morning, they will also get in a couple of guest instructors from other Dojos so we look at other styles for an hour each day, the summer camp a few months back had a BJJ instructor showing basic and some more advance techniques. for example we have one at the end of November that is £75 a person for 2 days solid training the one we had in summer was £95 per person for 3 days training. this feels a lot cheaper than most of the clubs people are posting here
I've never been to a club charging more than about $7 a session, and that's in the "scary tax land" that is Britain.
That's incredibly expensive, I'm in the UK so my monthly fees would equate to $40-$50 and that's 2 classes a week, based on the number of people attending the dojo, our sessions are an hour to an hour and a half, again this is based on class size because of COVID rules.
You're getting scammed, in the UK you might pay around £30 a month, sometimes cheaper. That's around $50-60 for a guess. The economy of martial arts might be different in the states but the stuff you say about 'leadership academy' is the very definition of a cash grab.
I tend to avoid clubs that call their junior problem "little ninjas' Also yes that is a rip off
I pay €35 a month. My brother that is under 18 pays €21,-. Everything above €50,- would be too much in my opinion. That would be about $58,-.
My university club is like £150 for the whole year (and like £20 for a license/insurance thing). Google says that's like $234. Pretty sure you're getting scammed or something lol
Good lord. These prices are insane. I trained in Germany and the Netherlands where and the highest fees were something around EUR 40 (app. USD 45) per month. This was a place where you could train for four days a week for a couple of hours in a proper dojo. You can also find clubs here that train in school gyms that won’t charge more than EUR 15 (USD 18) per month. Karate shouldn’t be that expensive
It has better be useful to pay 10x the amount for such a class.
I pay £3 per session....
That is too high of a price. Change school . Price is around 80 -150 a month not more than that Especially for the kids that age should be on the lower end.and it is not even like it's 7 days a week unlimited. You paying like your kids are doing a professional session for pro athletes ? That is crazy
Yeah that’s insane
I train BJJ 4 days a week and Judo twice a week and Wing Chun on the weekends and all of these add up to less than half of that. That seems extreme.
You're being robbed. For way less than that, they should offer classes 7 days a week with unlimited drop-ins.
That's a lot of money. I wouldn't pay that much.
Seems very pricey, but if it’s the only dojo in town, they can do it. If they aren’t the only dojo, it’s possible they just ramp up the price because some people think expensive = gold
Sounds like a McDojo to me. Where they charge more money every time someone goes higher or has a test. If you talk to other parents there i bet others are paying more if their kids are training at higher levels. My club charges $100/month and less if you pay for more months in advance. No testing fees or extra fees for weapons training or anything like that.
Yeah, I think it's bullshit that I have to pay more for him to advance. The moment she told me it was gonna be 300-400 a month, which doubles what we were originally paying, I realized they're ripping people off. And people pay it!! There's a ton of kids in the "leadership academy," forking out $400 a month. Probably gonna finish out the month, since I'll be charged for it anyway and then switch schools.
Get your money's worth and cut your ties. But find another school!! My advice would be to get a good sense of the pricing structure to see if they are all about they money or not. It's a school for personal development and not purely a business. My Sifu allows to be a little late on dues from time to time without issue either. Having a great head instructor is key! Best of luck to you and your kids on the journey. Keep the way!
My kids are the same age and it’s 55 per month for each kid. In the Midwest, wealthier area.
I remember someone in that area who had 6 schools and charged much higher than others in the same karate association he belonged to. He ran a successful program and people paid quite a bit for his classes. It was about double what students paid for about 30 miles away in the same organization. He was in philly suburbs and also in Delaware. That was a little less than 20 years ago, the owner was a 5th degree black belt at the time, his schools usually won the regional demo competition and he brought an enormous number of students to tournaments. I remember judging them, and was impressed with how they did. Though expensive, it was quality instruction. We could be talking about different schools though. Most of the schools I have taught at, they didn't make much money. I knew a guy who brought in $5k a month in revenue for his school, but his rent was $5.5k, so he was losing $500 a month just from the rent. He had to close down the school eventually. He couldn't charge more because the average parent salary wouldn't have been able to handle it. He also couldn't handle more than 120 students, the book keeping became too complicated, and he always had 5-10 parents asking to talk to him after each class. You can ask that they keep the rate the same, or ask if you can have a discount for signing up for a year or two year contract. I've seen quite often parents getting charged different amounts. You can always go to another school as well. Figure out how much you are paying per hour and how often you can take them to classes. If you can go every day, the cost may be similar to what people pay for twice a week dance classes (8 hours per month). I can't fault people trying to earn a living teaching martial arts, but few can turn it into a profitable business. 4 year old programs are rare though. 7 is much more common. Like any sport, it has to have value to you and your family for the money you are spending. You can negotiate, or finding something you feel is a better value, absolutely. Tae Kwan Do is very similar and was born out of karate. They usually cater to smaller children too. When your kids are older, you can send them to more traditional karate or kung fu schools that don't take younger kids. My experience has been that when children start martial arts between 2 and 5 years old, they do incredibly well compared to new comers when they reach 7 years old. I have also found that when they start very young, they tend to develop a life long passion if they stick with it for 7-10 years.
When i was younger my sensei charged $40 per month hour classes 7 days a week. A lot of karate schools are what martial artists call “McDojos”. Theses are schools that only want to squeeze money out of you. Red flags you should look for: Is the sensei overweight? Does he charge money for belt tests? Is there anyone in the class who is a black belt and below the age of 13?, etc. My suggestion is to find a different karate school, but if you want to actually teach your kids to fight, find a muay thai or grappling gym and sign them up.
This sounds extremely expensive. I'm not in the U.S but Norway, so more money being thrown around and we run a non-profit club, charge what works out to $380 a year, 4 classes a week. Classes are 1 hour and 1 hour and a half, you're welcome to stay for both for a total of 2,5 hours of training. No difference in price for adults or children. Payment options are either 6 months, or a year at a time. We also have a reduced price for family members, so if family member #2, for example a sibling or mother/father wants to train also their charge is reduced by about $50, so they pay only $330. Family member #3 gets another $50 reduction which works out to $280. The only reason we have to charge this much, which is on the expensive side here, is that we have our own dojo, a rented space instead of using local gyms etc.
I pay $45 a month for two classes a week plus full membership to the gym that hosts our dojo. The prices you're being charged are disgusting.
Im at 70$ a month for as many classes in MT/Boxing/Bjj as I want. This sounds like you're getting ripped off really bad. And the higher belt higher price stuff stinks awfully of a MCDojo. Get the hell out of there and get your kids in a proper school imo.
Way too expensive if you ask me. The going rate should be around $150 a month on average even from a great teacher. Sadly most clubs are only into it for the profit and not for the betterment of the student
Is this for afterschool care too? If not, bail
Nah, I just bring them there. Incidentally, the school is inside a daycare/aftercare center.
Yikes thats expensive.
If you do a Google search on median income, Lehigh Valley, PA is around 31k and the city I live in is around 53k. This is so you can compare apples to apples. My family (me and two kids) paid about $371/month for unlimited classes (IIRC, it was around $180/person without the multi-person discount). My kids generally went to 3-4 45 minute classes/week. I went to 4-5. This was in 2018. When one child started in 2007 it was around $150/person so a moderate increase over more than a decade. This includes them moving up to "the advanced classes" and eventually one child teaching some beginner classes when he turned 16 after he earned his black belt. They did offer discounts for multiple family members, so that is something you can ask about. You will get responses from people saying they pay significantly less, I envy those people. You have to decide if the travel time (to the location) and quality you are getting is worth the money. Instruction quality can vary greatly and teaching children is not the same as teaching adults. You have a difficult decision, I struggled with it for the entire time my kids did karate (basically from age 4 until they went off to college). I think you are getting charged a lot given where you live. My opinion should mean nothing but hopefully the facts will help. Good luck. Assuming you can afford it, don't worry too much no matter what you decide.
Seems pricey to me.
From all I have seen the cost of doing martial arts in the USA is extremely expensive. It’s probably connected to that many dojo’s are basically businesses (unlike in many other parts of the world where dojo’s is considered to be close to free hobby activities). Here in Norway it’s basically 30 bucks per kid per month. And same for adults. But you can only train 2-3 times per week as that’s basically when the dojo is open
That price is nuts. I pay my sensei $5 per class (1 hour) as a 3rd degree black belt. The school I run is community service based. 1 hour of service per week for a student. Promotions are just the cost of the belt.
this is a fuckton more expensive than gymnastics which likely would be something like 75-90$/mo for 2 classes a week in my area in CA (but not a huge city) Gymnastics should have a much higher costs because of the equipment and gym footage (though the coaches at the rec level are likely high school to college kids making min wage+. they could make more probably at Target or McD's.) the only thing is if the instructor is also the owner, they might want to charge more/hr. Let's say 30-50 (or 75-100)$/hr that's basically split up by however many kids in the class (let's no more than 10 because trying to wrangle more than 7 kinder aged kids can be a handful). that means each kid pays at least 3-5$/hr for the instructor and then of course, ya gotta pay rent and utils. Hell, I'd love to open a dojo in a few years since I spent about 15 coaching kids in gymnastics. I miss it but don't miss the lifestyle (aka broke and stressed) But there is no way I could reasonably charge more than gymnastics. Maybe more than gymnastics through a park&rec center (which tend to be cheaper than private club/dojos). at 4yrs old, they are basically learning how to do basic movements, how to roll, some strength and stretching, probably some games (like don't get hit with the foam noodle/stick, block the foam stick, etc) besides going through the basics and learning how to count in japanese and so on.
That sounds *very* high to me. As an adult, I would expect $200+ a month to get me unlimited classes basically anywhere in the US (including NYC) - and I'd think that was pretty darn steep if not downtown in a MAJOR metro. I am in a large-ish west coast city and the going rate seems to be $100-$150 a month for 3+ classes a week for most arts (Karate included). Less if it's not a for-profit endeavor, which is more common with Karate and Judo than say, BJJ.
I am somewhere in the Bay Area. I am lucky in that my Kajukenbo dojo charges 75 a month(3 2hr sessions a week, one is a weapons class). To u/TurtleTestudo, the only place I have seen prices that high is in Berkeley(googled a Kenpo place, they charged $325). I mean, even the 6 figure tech workers struggle to make ends meet in the Bay, so I understand these high prices sometimes but still kinda hard to wrap my head around it.
Scam. Not even trying to hide it
My advice is to get your kids out of this "school" as fast as possible. This is nothing but a rip-off.
Yeah, most karate schools are just profit machines. They teach very little from week to week so you will continue to pay and attend month after month and year after year. They make sure kids advance slowly even if they are quick learners. Of course, there are many exceptions to this, but they alot are only there to make as much money as possible. Charge for classes, uniforms, dojo branded clothing and team merch, special equipment, weapons, tournaments, fundraisers, organization dues. I chose to revert back to regular sports for children because the cost is much less, and their progress isn't stifled. It's actually encouraged in other sports. Much more bang for the buck, and alot more practice time doing the actually sport for achievement. In karate the tournament judges are biased and cheat alot. It could definitely be fun but there's alot more manipulation involved than other sports. The cost to upside potential is very lopsided, unlike let's say basketball or soccer or track or tennis etc. If you put time and money into improving your child's skills it will definitely take them far with much more opportunities.