Kids Martial Arts – Costs?

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Little Ralphy

Little Ralphy

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Took my 4 year old to a Martial Arts Club last night. They advertise a Little Leaders Program, and help to develop confidence, self-discipline etc. Reward booklets which is similar to the reward chart system we already do at home and all that kind of thing.


It all sounded great and they gave him a little demonstration of the physical bits that he could do etc. Then the last part of their presentation was almost like a time share sales pitch!


It would normally cost about £700 for 6 months but if you pay today it’ll be discounted and include these extras etc. Turns out it still comes to about £600 for 6 months, 2 half hour session per week, but he’d get all the kit and equipment etc. included in that.


Does this seem excessive to anyone else or is this about normal for kid’s classes these days? He only turned 4 about 2 months ago (went to his first game against Swansea and loved it).
 

My lad did Tae Kwon Do from a similar age until about age 14. Paid per session, a licence was about £50 a year. Initial kit is a few quid but it's always on eBay due to kids starting and quoting after a few months. If he goes EVERY session, you get all the kit and licences etc it's probably OK and it would keep him locked in. it's a bit cheeky though and that would put me off the club
 

Family Martial Arts the place was. To be fair it was all quite well done for kids that age, they teach them martial arts and also stranger, dog, fire safety etc and encourage confidence and self discipline etc. Once they get past those six months they move to more advanced techniques of MMA. I liked the club until it seemed very much like a sales pitch. Obviously it seems massively expensive as well.

If they did pay per session I'd be all over it. Just worried about shelling out so much and him not liking it or it not doing what they say it does. Plus we have two more kids younger so it'll get expensive real fast.
 
malcson said:
My lad did Tae Kwon Do from a similar age until about age 14. Paid per session, a licence was about £50 a year. Initial kit is a few quid but it's always on eBay due to kids starting and quoting after a few months. If he goes EVERY session, you get all the kit and licences etc it's probably OK and it would keep him locked in. it's a bit cheeky though and that would put me off the club
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Sports direct do cheapish kit as well.I thought it'd be like you said, join the club pay per session, source kit myself. That's what I alwsay used to do when I was a younger.
 
Expensive. If you're in Liverpool, get into Shotokan Karate and pay per week. Sessions are normally 1-2 hours each and the kid can then do whatever number a week he needs. Sessions of half an hour do not even allow them to warm up tbh.......
 

I Live in Garston, so Widnes Thai boxing is my closest gym, yeah Kids from 4 years mate.
They have a gym in Bootle aswell I think...
I looked at that Family martial arts centre in Speke, complete rip off! Its like a franchise scheme and they tie you in
 
I'd swerve that tbh - laying £600 down for something you don't know if your lad will even like? It's also extremely steep - something like £25 per hour (even with kit included) is not right for teaching little kids martial arts, seen as it's basically just supervised play fighting at that age.

Appreciate that the guys running clubs like these need to make a living, but 6 months payment in advance is ridic. 6 weeks in advance would be reasonable and I'm sure you could find another club that was more sensible.
 
i cannot say it strongly enough,find a place you can pay weekly. If your kid changes their mind after a few weeks and doesn't like it any more which kids do, fma will still demand payment.

my kid was there for four years and did well. But its overpriced, sales oriented and i wouldn't recommend the place to anyone
 
Cheers for the advice, I'm heavily leaning towards swerving it now, and exploring alternatives. As people have said, paying that much upfront is crazy considering how young the kids are, and for 30 min classes, how do they warm up etc?

@chango If you don't mind me asking, 4 years is a long time, does it do what they say it does? Did your lad get a lot from it? How come he left?
 
No worries, my lad got to black belt and it developed his balance and flexibility, and gave confidence.

It was hard sell all the way for the full four years, you had to buy their equipment too which was expensive and overpriced. Oh and there was a fee to pay to move up a belt...no fee, no graduation to new belt, regardless of ability, which I thought was disgusting considering its kids.

but the boy enjoyed it and wanted to complete the course. In that time I saw nothing remarkable about their training methods compared to other gyms.

The stranger /dog/fire stuff you can teach yourself.

The cost was scandalous and we were pleased to take the opportunity to get out.

By the time he finished my lad had started to show interest in playing football so it naturally finished.

Last year we were at speke retail park and the guy/bell who runs it was there flyering. He said hello to me and the Mrs, but didn't seem to recognise my boy, despite having taught him for four years.

Just say no.
 

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