Am I getting ripped off?

[klx110]

So based on your comments, I am not going to state that the school is ripping you off; however, if you are a Green Belt in Kenpo, that is a short distance from brown belt and if the school is not teaching you the techniques or Green Belt curriculum, then yes you are being held back. It is always better to be a small fish in a larger pond as you tend to learn more than a big fish in a small one. You are currently the academy's assistant instructor, but the detriment is you are not learning or meeting your own requirements. Without stating that the school is ripping you off, I would part ways with that academy and look elsewhere based on that alone. Additionally, I am sure that others may differ and that is ok, but at five years of training, if you trained for five years, you should have met your Shodan in Kenpo or been a lot closer to it by now.

Also, to the one who stated that it takes at least ten years for a black belt in kenpo, even if you received one technique a week, you should meet your black belt at 4.5 years, 5 years maybe. I have never heard of a person studying kenpo consistently and receiving their Shodan at ten years.

Thanks for the response. It's a shame the class has more respect for entry/beginner level members. It's just the teacher's style. He's very strict about people learning the basics before introducing more advanced material.

I would look for another school but there aren't any similar martial arts schools in the area. The nearest Kenpo school is over an hour or two away.

 

[chiquest]

I started training as a beginner at a Kenpo studio about 5 years ago. I was the first student to join when it opened and at the time were two full-time teachers and a master who would occasionally drop in to check on us and teach new material. Monthly membership has always been $100 and up until Covid we trained 3 days a week for an hour each session. I learned a lot the first 2 years being the only student in the class and having 2 teachers catch me up to advanced material in a short time. Since covid hit the studio has had some changes. We're down to only one teacher who only holds 2 class sessions per week (still charging $100/mo) for all skill levels, no divided classes since we don't have many students. I am now a green belt and there are currently 3 other students-one white belt, one orange and one purple. I've basically become the teacher's assistant by helping others students learn and progress to new levels. My main complaint is the class seems to move so slow and inefficient. Over the last several months we've had to backtrack and train basic material like kicking in front of the mirror, practicing blocking series, and basic white belt techniques. Students seem to come and go in a matter of weeks or months, with few staying long term. The only real training time I get is toward the end of class I train with the purple belt practicing techniques on each other. These days I rarely get to learn new material. I've tried talking the teacher into having separate class sessions for beginner and advanced and he just doesn't have the motivation. Also I run the class for about a week each month while the teacher is out on vacation or sick, ect. I've received on free month credit but not nearly enough to cover the classes I've taught. Been covering for at least the past 2 years.

So I'm asking what other people think about the situation? I've never been part of another program so I don't really know the standards. Just seems like they're quick to take my money and have me responsible for running the program.

As a Kenpo practitioner for the past 50 years, I have been continually disappointed in the way charlatans use the term "Kenpo". It seems that it is an invitation for swindlers to invent techniques, use the term "Kenpo" and open a business. It is doomed to fail eventually because there is not a solid legacy on which to base their efforts. There are vast differences in techniques from one of these "schools" to another because there is no consistency in their katas and formal sequences from one "school" to another. Apparently, that trend was started by a famous "Master" who said that Kenpo is a style of constant change...to justify his own complete re-invention of what he was taught by his teacher. It is natural for some slight modifications to occur to a few long-standing techniques by a seasoned Instructor with decades of experience, but not the wholesale creation of a previously non-existent system by someone who is not a true Martial Artist following the traditions of a historically established style.

 

[skribs]

Thanks for the response. It's a shame the class has more respect for entry/beginner level members. It's just the teacher's style. He's very strict about people learning the basics before introducing more advanced material.

I would look for another school but there aren't any similar martial arts schools in the area. The nearest Kenpo school is over an hour or two away.

What is the problem with other martial arts?

 

[skribs]

As a Kenpo practitioner for the past 50 years, I have been continually disappointed in the way charlatans use the term "Kenpo". It seems that it is an invitation for swindlers to invent techniques, use the term "Kenpo" and open a business. It is doomed to fail eventually because there is not a solid legacy on which to base their efforts. There are vast differences in techniques from one of these "schools" to another because there is no consistency in their katas and formal sequences from one "school" to another. Apparently, that trend was started by a famous "Master" who said that Kenpo is a style of constant change...to justify his own complete re-invention of what he was taught by his teacher. It is natural for some slight modifications to occur to a few long-standing techniques by a seasoned Instructor with decades of experience, but not the wholesale creation of a previously non-existent system by someone who is not a true Martial Artist following the traditions of a historically established style.

What does this have to do with the thread? Might be better to start your own thread on it in the kenpo forum.

 

[klx110]

What is the problem with other martial arts?

There's not much similar. Meaning my kenpo experience wouldn't get me very far in BJJ or Tae Kwon Doe.

 

[skribs]

There's not much similar. Meaning my kenpo experience wouldn't get me very far in BJJ or Tae Kwon Doe.

So? Start your journey in those. If you're not progressing kenpo, but you could progress in BJJ or TKD, then it makes more sense to do the later.

I would also bet there's more crossover than you think. There's been quite a few times in BJJ already where I've been able to draw parallels with things we do in TKD.

 

[MetalBoar]

There's not much similar. Meaning my kenpo experience wouldn't get me very far in BJJ or Tae Kwon Doe.

So? Start your journey in those. If you're not progressing kenpo, but you could progress in BJJ or TKD, then it makes more sense to do the later.

I would also bet there's more crossover than you think. There's been quite a few times in BJJ already where I've been able to draw parallels with things we do in TKD.

Yep, I agree with skribs. If there's a good TKD or BJJ school available, and your kenpo school has become dysfunctional and isn't going to change, I'd jump to one of those arts. But that's me. The question you have to ask yourself is - Do you want to do kenpo, even if the progress is slower than it should be, or do you want to be good at martial arts?

If you want to do kenpo and there's only one school available, there's your choice.

If you want to be good at martial arts, then either TKD or BJJ seem like great compliments to the skills you've already got with kenpo. BJJ will give you a solid ground game which, unless your school is a LOT different than the one I trained at, is pretty non-existent in kenpo. TKD will give you some great training for high kicks and kicking in general, which again, while kenpo does have kicks, in my experience they tend to be focused below the waist and don't get nearly the level of training that you'd get in TKD. If it were me I'd do BJJ, all things being equal, but they're both decent choices.

 

[kfman]

I would find another school.

 

[GojuTommy]

To know if you’re being ripped off we first need to know what they promised you’d get out of the class, and what you want to get out of it

As mentioned else where, green belt is meaningless to us, but you said you started training 5 years ago and that’s typical time to black belt for most legitimate schools.
Though taking into account 2 years of covid that’s definitely going to slow things down.

A lot of schools especially non-franchise/chain schools have more advanced students help with lower ranks.