Premier martial arts?

Has anyone taken classes through "premier martial arts". They have given my 11 year old son a free trial( 3 private lessons) and he wants to join..which is Ok with me...but....they will not discuss the price of the lessons until he finishes his trial. this gives me the feeling that they are pretty expensive. Does anyone know their average prices??? We are on a bit of a tight budget as i am in college right now, and their are other schools...karate, aikido, TQD, american fighting systems...are any of these better.... ??/any advice would be helpful.

Premier martial arts?
It's never a good thing when a school is not willing to discuss information with you up front. Also, another red flag is if they insist you do a year contract. Year long contracts are okay if they are an option because you could get a discount. But if they MAKE you sign a year long contract, bad news.





But I agree with the poster above me. After he's finished his trial at that school, check out some other schools and have your son try those at as well. And watch the intructors and other students and compare them with the other dojos.





Whatever you do, don't rush and don't let them pressure you. I used to work at a Tae Kwon Do school and my boss would sort of school me on how to "pressure" the parents into joining right then and there. By the way, I left that place because I didn't agree.
Reply:I don't know this school. But I would suggest to you to look at several schools before making you final decision.
Reply:Premier is a franchise of individually operated martial arts schools, so I can't tell you about your specific school. So much depends on the charisma, communication skills, and technical excellence of the individual teaching the class.





I sold my school on the Upper East Side of Manhattan to a gentleman who later turned it into a Premier franchise. They don't teach the way I would, but their program is a good effort at teaching martial arts concepts and princples to people who wouldn't be hard-core martial artsists. That list includes, busy execs, people looking for aerobic workouts, children under twelve, young adults, etc.





In martial arts, you get out what you put in, and anyone can be good at anything--if they put the time and energy into the research and training that goes into the martial arts.





Once you choose a school and enrool, please don't make this common mistake: parents run their children down from one activity to another, 3-7 activities in a week, and wonder why "Junior" isn't good at any one of them. Heard of the saying, "Jack of all trades, master of none?"
Reply:Beware of any dojo that will not discuss prices up front.
Reply:Do not want....If they will not discuss the prices up front, it sounds pretty shady to me. Do not:





1) Sign any long term contracts. If for some reason your child loses interest or something interferes with his attending, you don't want to be paying for it.


2) Do not let him go to the school if they say in this many months he will be such and such a belt, or if they garuntee a Black Belt within a certian amount of time. Belts should be earned at a students own pace. Some are going to advance quicker than others. 3 years should be the minimum for acheiving a Black Belt for an adult, with 4 to 5 being more realistic.


3) Check out some of the actual classes, and look for the following:





a) Does the instructor teach, or are there a bunch of lower ranks who instruct.


b) Watch how the students treat each other, because this will be a reflection on the main instructor.


c) Try to determine if what they teach is realistic. If you use your commen sense, you should be able to tell.


d) Are there a bunch of child black belts running around? I do not believe that Black Belts should be given/earned by anyone under 16. Being a Black Belt is as much mental as well as physical, and there is no way the average 10 year old can make a sound decision about most subjects(Thats why they cant vate at that age).


The number one reason I can see for being scepticle is that you already have a weird/bad feeling about this or you would not have asked this question. God gave us those feelings for a reason, and too often we disregard them.





Hope this helps.

flowers sympathy