Cost of martial arts lessons?

Question

i go to a jujitsu club with a lineage back to Sensei M.Kawaishi who thought that martial arts should be taught for as cheap as possible, thus my club charges £4/lesson for an adult. i was wondering how much do you pay for your lessons? are you forced to sign up for long term payments? are u told to buy your equipment thru the club or are you free to buy wherever you like? and does your club limit you to there club only, not allowing you to go to other lessons?

Answer 1

It depends on the school.  

My uncle opened a school a few years back and he had contracts, like the shihon.  

Only one school I attended didn't have contracts and charged little money and it was great.

Answer 2

The cost of any training is relative to situations and localities. If you are in an area where quality instruction is scarce then it will cost more. Also areas that tend to be wealthier the cost will usually be higher.

My dojo is available to me 6 days a week anytime they are open (11 am to 9 pm), included in the cost are two uniforms, one private lesson every week, as many group lessons as you wish to attend (they have 4 a week for each rank group and age group), and you can come in to use the equipment or just to practice alone or in pairs anytime you wish as long as you are not in the way of a class or lesson. There is usually room for you to work while a class or lesson is going on though. You can also work out at any of the sister dojos across the country. I visit many areas of California several times a year and I can attend local dojos there.

The cost though is pretty high at $115 a month. I do have to buy my sparring gear but as long as it's in good shape and meets their standards they don't care where I get the gear. Also tournaments are an added expense but they are purely optional as are some special events like when the Shaolin monks came to visit and give some instruction and a demonstration. Other dojos in the area cost about two thirds of that but offer no private lessons unless you wish to pay extra for them and they are not available to you when you do not have a class scheduled. One dojo in the area I could attend for as little as $45 a month but they only offer two possible group classes a week for me and I'd have to pay extra for private or smaller class instruction.

Answer 3

You can train at a YMCA or health club for $45 a month, or sometimes free with your membership.

You can go to a well respected school, such as the Gracie Academy, and pay up to $200 per month or more, depending on how much individual attention you need.

Most MMA schools are about $150 per month.  Most chain karate schools are about the same, but don't teach anything worth s***.

You can wrestle in high school for FREE and happily kick the c**p out of most traditional black belts afterward.

My point: It's not what you pay, it's how you train.  Japanese Jujitsu is a pretty good style, hopefully you have a good school.  Don't pay any attention to lineage though.  Who cares how good your teacher's teacher was?  How good is the teacher himself and how good can he make you?

Wrestle, box, and take up muai thai.  Add to your jujitsu with BJJ.  It doens't matter what you pay for it.  Do it for a year and you'll thank me afterwards.

Answer 4

Our karate lessons are £3.50 per lesson.

Our iaido and jo-do lessons cost £10 monthly.

These fees are just enough to cover the hall rental.

Our Senseis philosophy is to teach for 'love', not money.

We buy our own gear, whether it is from our instructors or other sources.  No obligations!

Wouldn't it be great if more teachers thought that way?

Answer 5

For my school it is $50 a month and thier are classes every doy of the week that you can go to.  You do not have to sign a contract.  They have equipment, but I did buy sparing gear and a knife.  You can go to what ever dojo you want to go to.

Here is the web site www.CMMATSD.com

Answer 6

I live in Manchester and the cost of a 2 hour Aikido class is £5.00 which I consider a bit expensive. They ask for an annual membership fee of £30.00. You can purchase your equipment or attend any other club at your own choice.

I really beleive the cost should be less expensive and feel more people would attend.

Answer 7

It depends on the school and the area. My first dojo (Tae Kwon Do) was 54.00 usd a month, unlimited classes, if you signed a six month contract the price dropped to 46.00 usd a month. They preferred you buy the gear through them, as we did alot of tournaments with specific regulations on gear.

My next dojo (Japanese Ju-Jitsu) was 58.00 usd a month, classes four times a week, Gi and equipment totaled 140.00 usd.

My last school (Tae Kwon Do)was 69.00 usd a month with a one year contract, month-by-month was 89.00 usd a month. You could get any Gi, any gear, classes every night.

As far as going to other clubs, I left my first dojo after starting the second, but both instructors said they were fine with me doing both. The first dojo wasn't. The third dojo was also fine with me taking lessons from both, my second Sensei actually encouraged me to.

It really depends on the school and the area. Good luck!

Answer 8

The dojo I go to is in a gymnastics academy. Cost is $80 a month (rather, 4 week session - $10 a lesson. I believe the drop-in rate is around $20 a lesson) with a $20 yearly insurance fee. 2 classes a week plus free seminars every month or two. It's getting to the point where the cost has risen and, with the change in instructors that's going on, the training itself is lacking a bit.

We can buy our equipment wherever we like, but our shidoshi has an AWMA wholesale account that he orders for us at cost.

As for training outside, this was an interesting thing. I trained with multiple groups for a time (it helped me grow early on), and was told that, while I would never be told not to go train with other people, I really didn't need to, and was strongly advised against it. I don't mean this to come across as threatening, but it was simply an insight -- be discriminating in your training. Like chess, you are free to play whomever you wish, but you only become smarter by beating a smarter opponent. So, I ended up choosing the one I considered the smartest and stuck with him.