Thoughts on private lessons

[seninoniwashi]

honestly i'd be a little insulted if someone offered me $10 an hour. as a student, i've haggled class fees but never private lesson fees. it's kind of like telling the instructor that you don't think his time is worth very much.

Yeah, and that's the last thing I want to do is offend someone or make it seem like I'm begging for instruction or trying to lay down a guilt trip. It's just a matter of how much I can spend right now - times are hard and we're all trying to stretch the dollar - I think we're all feeling that one.

 

[Blindside]

Just to be the jerk in the forum, what's wrong with 10-15 dollars an hour for a lesson? Hell, I have to work all day long for 14 dollars an hour.

There is nothing wrong with it. I had one instructor who literally charged me a 16 oz. pepsi per 1.5 hours, I had another who charged me $5/hour. Its just a question of how much you value your time. Every hour that I spend at martial arts is an hour away from my family that I could be working and generating needed funds, I set my hourly rate at about OT rate from my day job.

My regular students standard fees include a weekly half-hour private that if you calculate it out, is much reduced from my normal private lesson fee.

 

[Blindside]

It’s not so much the technique itself that overwhelms me, it’s the fact that I’m practicing techniques and forms from higher belts when the middle belt techs and forms I’m not feeling comfortable with. I have no problems reviewing the techniques and re-learning them - I just feel like my attention should be elsewhere.

What you need to do is find some high school aged brown belt at one of the schools that would be happy to train you at $15/hour under the table. This would probably have to be from a school that doesn't normally offer privates, because otherwise they would be under-cutting themselves.

 

[championmarius]

I live on private training, both giving and getting. I've dropped some serious coin to spend a few hours absorbing info from some wonderful guys, I've also gotten away with a song or traded knowledge.

For what I teach, I just try to get enough to cover the gas to get to the student, and maybe put a few bucks in my pocket, and/or keep my MA supplies in good order. I go with 20 bucks for the first hour each session and then ten bucks each hour after.

Given how much time, and ultimately, money, I've invested in my MA journey, I might be giving what I got away, but I don't care.

Its not my primary income, just "movie money", or new video game cash. I like teaching what I know, thats my real reason for it. I just needed justification for driving all over Gods green acre to do it.

 

[RevIV]

Just to be the jerk in the forum, what's wrong with 10-15 dollars an hour for a lesson? Hell, I have to work all day long for 14 dollars an hour. At the height of my drilling carreer i was making 17, and that was a good company. So why are prices so expensive for hourly private lessons. Yes your getting one on one attention, but the same is true if you asked me to paint your house. You would ask, well, your just painting the outside why does it cost a thousand dollars? The answer cause that's what it costs, course you could buy the paint for 400 bucks rent a rig for 75 a day, get the masking machine which is about 30 bucks plus, the masking paper another 20-30 bucks a couple rolls of tape for maybe 15 and walla for roughly 5 to 600 bucks your painting your house. Course I could do it better, but you saved yourself 400 bucks. And it would only take me a day, where some one that doesn't do it all the time it might take you two. So when people start talking about 30 dollars per half hour, and 60 dollars an hour, or half hour, your talking a half a day or full days wage from somebodies pocket book for you to do an hours worth of work. How is that right? Just playing devils advocate. Here.

People who can afford it come to me those who cant go to the $10. an hour guy in his garage. I may be different then others on this forum but this is my only income, I live right outside of Boston Ma. and things are just damn epensive here. I grew up in Syracuse NY where you can get a really nice house for 100k, here you could not get a condemned house for 100k

 

[Kwanjang]

I teach several people private lessons exclusively. My rate is $75.00 per hour.

 

[RevIV]

nice on the $75.
See martial arts is an extra in peoples lives. Some may make there lives out of if, and if they do they do not mind paying for it. Think of what a personal trainer gets an hour, then if you upgrade to a strength trainer your getting like $150 an hour. I have dedicated the last 20 years of my life to martial arts and I think that deserves more money then someone who has been doing it for 4 years. People go to college to get more money, most people who want more money either continue in there education or perfect their trade,, either way they get more.

 

[MJS]

Something else to consider....who is teaching the lesson and is the art rare in a particular area? For example, some instructors offer a set fee, in addition to a block of lessons. At the Gracie academy, we see $80 for 30min with a purple belt, $100 with a brown, $150 with a black and a whopping $400 with a red. A friend of mine is a purple belt in BJJ under Roy Harris and charges $60 for an hour. In this case, the thing you're mainly paying for is the Gracie name, IMO. I can get a damn good lesson with my friend and he's about a 10-15 min drive from my house.

Now, if someone opened a school and taught something that was limited in your area, well, he could probably get away with charging a bit more, due to that fact. Ex: AFAIK, there are no Kajukenbo schools in my area. So, if one opened, well, short of flying to another state......see what I mean?

 

[KenpoDave]

It’s not so much the technique itself that overwhelms me, it’s the fact that I’m practicing techniques and forms from higher belts when the middle belt techs and forms I’m not feeling comfortable with. I have no problems reviewing the techniques and re-learning them - I just feel like my attention should be elsewhere.

Have you learned the stuff in the middle?

 

[John Bishop]

It's all relative to what you and others think your teaching is worth. I've willingly given away hundreds of hours of private lessons over the years. One particular person got 2 hours of privates with me every friday for 6 months. And I drove out to his dojo to do it. Enjoyed his company, and discussions. And we took turns buying lunch after each session. I'm sure he would have been happy to give me privates in his system if I had asked.
And then there was the school owner that refused to pay me anything less then $150.00 a hour for the 6 hours of privates he had.

 

[RevIV]

It's all relative to what you and others think your teaching is worth. I've willingly given away hundreds of hours of private lessons over the years. One particular person got 2 hours of privates with me every friday for 6 months. And I drove out to his dojo to do it. Enjoyed his company, and discussions. And we took turns buying lunch after each session. I'm sure he would have been happy to give me privates in his system if I had asked.
And then there was the school owner that refused to pay me anything less then $150.00 a hour for the 6 hours of privates he had.

There are no black and whites and I do the same thing. I have not paid my teacher a penny since I was 14 for lessons. I do treat him well when he is here and when he helps me with testing or seminars I give him as much as I can. Same goes for some of my students and friends some pay some do not. Some get twice as many privates for the same price.

 

[SteffenBerg]

During my American Kenpo days we got one private per week in addition to the group classes. I always like that format. You got to learn and review the curriculum during the private lesson, then get to "train" during the regular classes. I think it's key to train in a group setting (even if it's a small group of three or four individuals) since everybody moves differently, hence your timing and distancing will be different with every person.

Even now, most of my learning is done privately, but I train in a group setting to work on what I've learned.

Just my 2 cents.

Stef

 

[jarrod]

Just to be the jerk in the forum, what's wrong with 10-15 dollars an hour for a lesson? Hell, I have to work all day long for 14 dollars an hour.

not being a jerk at all, never hurts to have a devil's advocate.

At the height of my drilling carreer i was making 17, and that was a good company. So why are prices so expensive for hourly private lessons. Yes your getting one on one attention, but the same is true if you asked me to paint your house.

if i were doing 6-8 consecutive hours a day of private instruction i would consider $10 an hr. but a 1 hour lesson isn't really 1 hr, there is time driving to the gym, setting up & cleaning the mats, etc. plus i've found that if you don't charge a little more people don't take it seriously. i used to teach for free but got tired of people not showing up. started charging & suddenly had dedicated students.

You would ask, well, your just painting the outside why does it cost a thousand dollars? The answer cause that's what it costs, course you could buy the paint for 400 bucks rent a rig for 75 a day, get the masking machine which is about 30 bucks plus, the masking paper another 20-30 bucks a couple rolls of tape for maybe 15 and walla for roughly 5 to 600 bucks your painting your house. Course I could do it better, but you saved yourself 400 bucks. And it would only take me a day, where some one that doesn't do it all the time it might take you two. So when people start talking about 30 dollars per half hour, and 60 dollars an hour, or half hour, your talking a half a day or full days wage from somebodies pocket book for you to do an hours worth of work. How is that right? Just playing devils
advocate. Here.

teaching is one of 3 jobs i have so it needs to be worth my while to miss out on sleep/wife time/my own training/whatever. then there is the fact that i have 15 years experience in martial arts which cost me thousands of dollars to acquire. plus i have the ability to communicate principles & concepts better than most. not intending to brag, but i have more knowledge than most instructors in the area as well as the ability to teach. so i charge $30 an hour for private instruction & if someone doesn't think it's a good deal they don't have to hire me. it's the beauty of the free market.

all the best!

jf

 

[seninoniwashi]

During my American Kenpo days we got one private per week in addition to the group classes. I always like that format. You got to learn and review the curriculum during the private lesson, then get to "train" during the regular classes. I think it's key to train in a group setting (even if it's a small group of three or four individuals) since everybody moves differently, hence your timing and distancing will be different with every person.

Even now, most of my learning is done privately, but I train in a group setting to work on what I've learned.

Just my 2 cents.

Stef

That's a real good idea! Unfortunately I haven't come across a place that will do that. It's typically $20 additional to the monthly fee per class. I would take that approach if I was to have a school of my own, I think the students would feel more engaged. I have been to a few schools where the instructors barely know your name. It seems like some places privates are the only way to get ahead.

 

[kosho]

I charge $30.00 for 1 hour. If you pay for 10 all at once I charge $200.00
so thats $20.00 per class and you have 1 year to use them up from the date paid for. If you are a current student. If not I charge the $30.00 for 45 min. for just my Private students. The avg. time frame that a student use's the private class in about 6 weeks. then they get 10 more. for the $200.00 price tag.
My self I have paid 30, 50 and 100 for a 1 hour class before...

Kosho