Martial Arts: Public Service Announcement

I was talking to my wife last night and she was telling me some things about her Tae Kwon Do school that have been troubling her. To be truthful they would trouble me as well. It seems that they are pushing her toward her next belt test. This in itself is not such a big deal. One of the things a good instructor will do is push you to achieve. Sometimes this pace will exceed your comfort level and that is just part of the experience. We have to reach faster and further than we might not otherwise think we are capable of. That said, this was not the case in the case of this Tae Kwon Do school. It seems that this school has used this belt test to attempt to sell my wife on a series of private lessons to get ready for the test.

I am a fan of the private lesson, I think you can learn a good deal from one on one time. That said, I think this should be something that is up to the student to decide if they need or not. I think this is especially true when there is a big charge for it. The hard sell is on at my wife's school in a big way, I find the test fees to be quite inflated and they want to nickel and dime their students for all sorts of little things throughout the year. The yearly training fee is small but they operate their business in such an aggressive format to make more money on top of the training fees that it leaves you with a bad taste in your mouth.

With this example on my mind, I thought it might be a decent time to give you some general information on the financial side of martial arts schools and what makes a good and bad school.

1. Contracts: It seems that most schools operate on some sort of contract and this is not all bad. From the school's point of view this is done for financial security. If they have a guarantee of x number of students then the school can be more financially secure to deliver lessons to their students. It can actually be a positive and at a professional school I wouldn't balk at it. That said there can be an ugly side to contracts. I would say never sign a contract that is more than a year long.

Life changes and signing multiple year contracts is generally not in your favor. Most schools won't ask you to as there is a body of law out there that suggests that they are not truly free to sell you lessons beyond your ability to take them. Anyone who is interested can e-mail me and I can give them more information on this, of course this is general and differs from state to state. I would shy away from things like "black belt clubs" or "black belt programs". These are usually designed to get alot of money out of the student at once. I would not enter into this type of thing at any school until I had been at a school for more than a year. The danger that exists in this is two fold.

First, a school might take your money and then forget about you. The quality of your training might actually diminish after you enter into such a program. I would say please take a year to learn the ins and outs of the school and the instructor before entering into such a program. Second, there is a conflict of interest that occurs with these types of programs. The deal is you don't have to pay again until you receive your black belt. Wow! what a great deal, all my training is taken care of until then. This puts the integrity of the instructor into play. Will you be pushed to reach a goal before you are ready. In disreputable schools you might just be pushed to black belt in a year or two without actually having the knowledge and competence necessary for the rank. Additionally, the financial motivation of the instructor makes it so that the instructor is has a vested interest in your success and as such can't be an impartial evaluator. There is always an argument that when you pay for lessons at all this is the case. I feel it becomes more exaggerated with these types of programs where there is a pay once situation and there are no future payments until an arbitrary line is passed by the student that should be based on merit.

In short, I would watch the contract length and would not sign a contract based on arbitrary demarcation lines, like black belt. I also would not sign any extended contracts beyond one year before I was completely comfortable with the school and the instructor.

2. Fees

Miscellaneous fees sometimes get added onto students that are sometimes just a fee for the sake of charging a fee. I have always found this infuriating. If you want more money for lessons just raise the tuition and be honest about it. My wife's school falls into this type of school which wants to sell you dvds, patches, books, manuals and so forth that might be helpful but not necessary to your training. They pitch this stuff ad nauseum until the student capitulates. This is generally not expensive but it all adds to the cost of training, $20 here and $30 there it all adds up. Then test fees get added on top of it along with mandatory tournament participation and seminars. It becomes mind boggling.

This is really a second reason for not signing a long term contract at the beginning of your training. If the atmosphere in a school is a hard sell you won't know that right away. You will need to time to determine if this is the case or not. It is not a problem for a school to promote itself through tournaments and seminars but they really should not be mandatory. Your training should be complete without them and they are not they you are not getting what you are paying for with your tuition. I will cast my school in a juxtaposition from my wife's. I have never heard my Sensei require anyone to buy anything beyond a uniform and a cup. He will announce seminars but there is no hard sell in anyway shape or form. Finally, the tests are no charge, free that is. I like this. I feel that this allows the instructor to be fair with you on a test and if you are not up to speed then you deserve to fail.

So this is my public service announcement. Please examine the financial side of your martial arts training to the same degree you would the type of training itself. The instructor might me a great teacher but if the professionalism of the school is suspect you might lose out.

The short list:

• Watch the contracts for length
• Be careful about signing a contract for more than one year
• Know your instructor before signing any long term deal
• Be mindful of schools that engage in the hard sell
• Watch for the nickel and dime fees
• Enjoy your training, that is the point after all