I hear some schools are now in the $175-200+ range. I believe the idea of high tuition came from Stephen Oliver, an instructor in the Denver, Colorado area. He feels that you charge for the value of your services, and if you value what you offer, then you should charge accordingly. I hear he makes a ton of money.
omg! a 4 year in training 3rd dan came in yesterday...
- Thread starter msmitht
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I hear some schools are now in the $175-200+ range. I believe the idea of high tuition came from Stephen Oliver, an instructor in the Denver, Colorado area. He feels that you charge for the value of your services, and if you value what you offer, then you should charge accordingly. I hear he makes a ton of money.
dancingalone
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My sister pays $150 a month for her two kids. Belt exams (every 3 months like clockwork) are $60, and they have lots of tournaments and other related expenses. She spends $500 a month on average on taekwondo easily.
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dancingalone
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There might be something to that theory. One of the most successful schools in the area is also the most expensive one.
ralphmcpherson
Senior Master
Its the way it works with most things. A top tennis coach aint cheap.
dancingalone
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You're right about that. I take a few lessons every year from Aussie great John Newcombe. He's not cheap, but he's worth it.
ralphmcpherson
Senior Master
I just signed my 6 year old son up for soccer and thats very expensive compared to tkd. My daughter gets private lessons for ice skating and thats very expensive. I suppose the difference is that in some things its one on one coaching so the rates can be significantly higher. My instructor has 50 students just in the class I attend. Fifty students paying $50 a month, and thats just one of his classes. He makes very good money from teaching tkd. He makes about $8000 a month from tkd for 6 hours work a week. He lives on a 300 acre farm, enjoys life, gets to spend plenty of time with his family and works minimal hours for good money. All grading fees go to the GM, so everyone's happy. And thats just charging $50 a month.
Does he understand the modern game, or is he a no spin, flat shot kind of guy? The thing that I would want to learn from him is how to serve. My serve sucks.
ralphmcpherson
Senior Master
He was captain of our davis cup team until about 2000 I think, so I assume he has a good grasp of the modern game. Your serve couldnt possibly be worse than mine
Gwai Lo Dan
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Uhmm....you got me thinking...Jim Kelly (the black guy in Enter the Dragon) became a tennis coach. I guess tennis pays more than martial arts!
Seems to me that my tuition at one point was in the neighbourhood of $150 a month. At the time I was a member of the top-end competition club we fielded, and with that, advanced classes and demo training counted we trained in the neighborhood of 12hrs a week over 5 nights. I'd consider the school probably the best in the area.
I pay around $50 now, no competition support and 2 nights a week, roughly 2h each under the same school.
Archtkd
3rd Black Belt
High? Depends on where you are. $50 -- $75 per hour can be considered a normal fee for personal classes in some areas.
Maybe we are not making an apples to apples comparison. What's the Australian dollar worth? One reason the average schools charge $100 plus is real estate prices. Prior to the recession the average commercial rental rate space at shopping centers -- where the bulk of Taekwondo schools tend to be located in surburban St. Louis -- was anywhere from $18-$28 per square foot triple net. If you have a small 1,500 square foot dojang that's $2,250- 3,500 in rent per month. Remember triple net does not cover real estate taxes and other lease related costs. Do the math to see how many students you need to cover rent alone, in a tiny school with limited capacity.
Emma
Yellow Belt
AU$1 is worth US$1.014 right now.
I'm not sure about the metro areas, but in my area most martial arts schools run out of community halls and similar type places, so wouldn't have anywhere near the overheads that places in America seem to have.
dancingalone
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I suspect so, but I don't know from personal experience. Whenever he works with me, I always ask for lessons on the serve, volley, and midcourt/front court games since that's what he was famous for.
He has plenty of other coaches working at his tennis ranch who work with juniors. I'm sure they can teach the current style of play even if he can't.
Archtkd
3rd Black Belt
Interesting. In my neck of the woods, and I'd think in most of the urban and suburban U.S., the bulk martial arts schools are located in commercial spaces, and often -- and unfortunately -- categorized as retail businesses. By the way, school owners often have bear the costs of improving the space for their studios.
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ralphmcpherson
Senior Master
Thats probably the big difference. Most clubs I know of over here train in school halls. The govt has built pretty large, modern halls in the schools that didnt previously have one. So now almost all classes run through our club utilize these halls. They are large, have plenty of seating, have good air flow or air con and probably cost around $100-$150 a month for 1 and a half hours 2 nights a week. That must be why the costs are so low for training as I would imagine the overheads of having your own premises would be much higher than renting a school hall.
golfermatt
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Backing up from the business of Dojangs to earlier posts: I see that much focus is placed on the amount of time in years to achieve a BB. I would love to hear a greater breakdown from contributors. When you say 4-5years is sufficient, is that two one hour classes per week?
Furthermore, if a student commits 10+ hours per week, they should advance at a greater pace, right? Does an instructor stick with strict time guidelines then?
It strikes me that the role of the instructor is a huge issue here. Evaluating the skills of one's students seems to be especially paramount. What may take one student 4-5years may take a more gifted or more committed student less time. An instructor would have to evaluate this, attaching a generic time line does not seem to be dynamic enough.
Furthermore, if a student commits 10+ hours per week, they should advance at a greater pace, right? Does an instructor stick with strict time guidelines then?
It strikes me that the role of the instructor is a huge issue here. Evaluating the skills of one's students seems to be especially paramount. What may take one student 4-5years may take a more gifted or more committed student less time. An instructor would have to evaluate this, attaching a generic time line does not seem to be dynamic enough.
Dragons TKD
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It took me 1.5 years to get my black belt and another 6 months to get first dan. That's only because I was allowed to double test some color belts. I trained 6 days a week, 2-3 hours a day. I only missed about 15 classes total in that time due to family vacations. Also, I was competing at least once a month.
