Am I Right?

[MoxisPilot]

Dunno if this belongs here, but it seems pretty sucky to me.

I've been waiting -forever- for the base to get in some sort of martial arts program, and I FINALLY saw a poster advertising it.

However, there was this:

14 sessions every Tuesday from 4:30 -7:00, at $125 an hour or $100 for 45 minutes.

Do that math.

It comes out to more than $4,000 for this thing.

WTF? Misprint?

Do Tae Kwon Do classes REALLY cost that much?

Or is this "fifth-degree blackbelt" instructor pulling one over on us?

I smell a racket.

[Sparky]

Is this an advanced program for special elite students, or a beginner's program? Makes a world of difference.

[scruff]

Unless there's some missing decimal points in that poster, or he's the only teacher in your state, I would seriously suggest shopping around.

[Geek King]

Unless there's some missing decimal points in that poster, or he's the only teacher in your state, I would seriously suggest shopping around.

QFT. Check around the town you're stationed near. Unless you're stationed in the middle of nowhere (and you might be**), the is usually something.


**My roommate's dad was stationed in the midwest USA, but was so far from a town that it was considered overseas duty. I've heard that has since changed, though.

[Andara Bledin]

I would ask the place for clarification.

There's a possibility that the price is for the full 14 sessions (either 1 hour per or 45 minutes per), and it's just a very poorly written notice.

Actually, the notice is poorly written even if the price is for each hour or 45-minute session.

^-.-^

[MoxisPilot]

1. This class is for anyone interested. Beginners, etc.

2. We're in Naples, so I'm sure there are other teachers - however, finding on who teaches in English can be tricky.

3. This is being offered by the base, which is the part boggling my mind. If they really are charging that much, who do they think will attend? No one can afford that right now.

[LillFilly]

Heck, I was taking Kenpo, 2-classes a week whatever time I wanted to come in for 1-hour, $60 a month with uniform.

I hope that sign's a misprint!

[scruff]

the nearest school to me, (admittedly it is a kids club, up to 18 years old), is doing classes for £5 each, so that's what, $10 a class, roughly?
First class is free and they throw in a suit.

[Luna Baby]

If these are "private lessons", specifically, one-on-one, with the instructor, that price is about right. Our instructor is a 5th degree and charges about that price for private lessons. However, "regular" student classes where you train as a group, run about $85 per month, kids train 3 days a week and adults 2 days a week. Uniforms are additional. The $85/month does not include specialty classes like the Black Belt club (kids who show exceptional motivation), SWAT/STORM team, XMA, ju jitsu, etc.

I would call to see what the cost includes specifically. It could be a good deal, or it could be a horrible deal.

[MaggieTheCat]

My boyfriend takes Tai Chi lessons. They're $100 per hour, but it's not private lessons, so that's divided by all the students who attend. So, if there are 10 people in attendance, each pays $10. Usually there are even more students per lesson than that, plus his place of employment pays for part of it, so he pays something like $50 for ten weeks worth of lessons (one less a week.) Maybe that's what the actual price is, and it's just not worded very well.

[PepperElf]

100 for 45 minutes?
WTF?

The dojo i use to go to is closed but... omg they never charged THAT much. I loved that place too.

Granted these are the prices from 1995 but...

Adults, full time status: $39 a month (i think)
Students, full time: $32 a month
Children (under 16), full time: $29 a month
8 lessons a month: $21

Lessons were daily...
Monday - Friday, two lessons a night back to back (one hour each).
Saturday morning one lesson (1.5 hours)
Sunday morning (half hour of advanced sparring & one hour of lesson)


Full time members could to to as many lessons as they wanted - every single lesson if they could physically stand it. the only exceptions were that Friday night second lesson was for brown & black belts only, and the Sunday advanced sparring was for Adult greenbelts and higher only.

Observation allowed at all lessons.
and no contracts. (so if you can't afford one month you just don't go)

and it closed, not because of the cheap prices, but because the head teacher quit to tend to his mother (cancer)

so after experiencing that... 100 for 45 minutes?
Hell no.

[MoxisPilot]

I honestly think they're really charging what I think they're charging, and it'll either fold because no one will pay that much or it'll do well because the people who will blow all their money on it don't know better.

What bothers me most is they charge for martial arts, but Yoga, personal training, Pilates, and other special exercise classes are free.

It's just a total WTF kinda thing.

[Andara Bledin]

I still say to ask, explicitly, what those prices include.

If the other stuff is all free, then I think (even more than before) that those prices are for the entire 14-lesson run, and not per session.

^-.-^

[Yurimaru]

Luna Baby has it about right for today's prices - that's about what my dojo charges. And if the lessons are one-on-one, it could be up to $125 or so per hour, but not for a group. There's no way an instructor could give a student the attention they deserve for $125 per hour, if there's, say, forty students. Even an elite program shouldn't be that much.

Sounds like a certain 5th Dan was reading his "Martial Arts Success" magazine and taking the moneymaking articles much to seriously...

[MoxisPilot]

Sounds like a certain 5th Dan was reading his "Martial Arts Success" magazine and taking the moneymaking articles much to seriously...

...THIS wouldn't surprise me.