I was going to address this more broadly in another thread and may yet, but a few words just jumped off the page. So it's time for part of the rant "Martial Arts is Nothing Special".
I was at a TKD school where students disrespect each other. One black belt was threatening to beat a lower belt up. I wasn't ease dropping, the black belt was raising his voice in the change room. This was happening while I was changing into my uniform. I fought with another black belt that was female she always tried to beat me up. She did get me once a round house to the face but luckily I was moving back and I was totally relaxed so it didn't hurt.
This is not "disrespect". This is a crime - menacing, terroristic threats or whatever they call it in your State. The black belt has the funny scrap of dark cloth because you believe he can fight better than you can. He's got more training. He's got more skill. He's psychologically prepared to use physical force. And if you believe the advertising crap he's capable of crippling or killing you if he so chooses.
You are paying a substantial amount of money to go there and sweat in funny costumes. And while you are running around in the Korean sweatsuit you
allow the business owner and his friends to tell you what to do. That does not include being the victim of a criminal.
Can you think of any other area in your life where an employee gets to bully and threaten the customers with deadly violence and expects them to stand still and take it? School? Riding the bus? Restaurants? Pottery class? Paying your water bill?
I didn't think so.
There
are select establishments where you can pay to have someone dress up in costumes and abuse you. But the cost per hour is a tad higher than you are paying per month. Everyone understands that it's the adult version of Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood of Make Believe. The skilled professionals' motto is "Safe, Sane and Consensual". And they'll even wear little leather bikinis if you ask them nicely.
What you have to remember here, and I can't stress it enough, is
Martial Arts is Nothing Special. You aren't in Basic Training where the Army owns you body and soul. You have decided to join a club with a bunch of other people and have fun learning something. Someone has decided that the financial and personal rewards he or she gets out of teaching this stuff make it worth the time to show up and stand in front of the customers for a few hours a week.
The package includes costumes, jargon, rituals, pep talks and team-building exercises that are supposed to help you learn more effectively. Well, not just that. It's also supposed to impress you with the teacher's Mystical Orientalness and deadly scholar-warrior coolness. You get a psychological lift out of being permitted to learn this awesome stuff and being part of the select group which knows the secret club handshake. Every organization from the Shriners to Pop Warner Football does this. The important thing is to recognize that it's just people clubbing together and not take it too darned seriously.
Sometimes people take it too darned seriously. In this case some schmo has decided that since he knows the extra-special super secret club handshake he can be a bully in ways which would get him smacked down or hauled in front of a judge in the real world. He's a little deeper into his fantasy world than you are which is why he does things like that and why you're having doubts about the whole thing. The guy who sat there and ate the crap raw is sort of in the middle.
I eventually decided to quit because I just felt that was bad attitude among students and I just didn't want to be there anymore. Unfortunately my father paid for a whole year.
I think it's best for beginner to pay month to month instead 1 year contract just in case someone wants to quit for whatever reason.
I don't know what the contract was, but if you want some of the money back, talk to the owner. Tell him why you are doing this. If necessary, be specific and explain exactly why you do not feel safe. He has a legal responsibility to exercise due care and diligence. If people are getting maliciously hurt he is the one who has to ride the pipe. If employees, unpaid employees no less, are creating a hostile and unsafe business environment you are doing him a favor by saying so, a favor which could save him a truckload of money if the behavior is allowed to go uncorrected.
He may well decide that his legal responsibilities and the possible damage to his reputation if it becomes public record in small claims court is worth more than the few hundred bucks you're paying for services not received.
)
If someone told me they wanted to kick my ***...I'd respond with a very strong voice...usually with a snicker and an evil grin saying something like "You can kick mine, but I can sue yours. How much ya worth?"
