How much do you pay to train?

[pesilat]

Originally posted by spook mma
wow!!! i feel like im getting raped now hearing about your stories! im at $109 a month. at first i thought that was really expensive, but the more places that i talk to in chicago, i hear thats about average (maybe slightly above by $10 or so). do any of you guys know of anywhere cheap to get muay thai or jkd training in chicago?

I would guess that's probably about right for Chicago.

I don't know their prices (and, in fact, it may be your current school) but have you checked Degerberg Academy?

Mike

 

[spook mma]

Originally posted by pesilat
I would guess that's probably about right for Chicago.

I don't know their prices (and, in fact, it may be your current school) but have you checked Degerberg Academy?

Mike

lol, yeah, thats my school. to be honest, im very satisfied with the teaching i get there. just wish it was cheaper tho

btw, how do you know about Degerberg?

 

[pesilat]

Originally posted by spook mma
lol, yeah, thats my school. to be honest, im very satisfied with the teaching i get there. just wish it was cheaper tho

btw, how do you know about Degerberg?

LOL. Well, my instructor has known Fred for a long time. And a couple of friends of mine have known Fred for a long time. I've been to Degerberg's school a couple of times but never met Fred in person.

In the circles I run in (primarily Kali and Silat, though, peripherally, JKD), Degerberg Academy is kind of legendary because it's one of the few that's managed to be very successful from the business side of things while maintaining high quality instruction. It's rare to find both together.

Mike

 

[spook mma]

Originally posted by pesilat
LOL. Well, my instructor has known Fred for a long time. And a couple of friends of mine have known Fred for a long time. I've been to Degerberg's school a couple of times but never met Fred in person.

In the circles I run in (primarily Kali and Silat, though, peripherally, JKD), Degerberg Academy is kind of legendary because it's one of the few that's managed to be very successful from the business side of things while maintaining high quality instruction. It's rare to find both together.

Mike

yeah, i just recently started training and by pure fate Degerberg happened to be the first (and only school) that i visited. i thought the instructors were great and Mr. Degerberg's credentials seemed very legit. not to mention what other students thought about the school when i asked them outside of class. on top of that, they offered muay thai. i had the pleasure of meeting Mr. Degerberg this past weekend and he was very passionate when advising us 'lowly' yellow and white belts :asian: just curious tho, would you know if the Degerberg Blend would be considered a jkd concepts curriculum? i havent heard anyone make those claims, but the philosophy behind it sounds very jkd. also, Mr. Degerberg has had some training under Dan Inosanto and Larry Hartsell, so just a lil curious.

 

[pesilat]

Originally posted by spook mma
yeah, i just recently started training and by pure fate Degerberg happened to be the first (and only school) that i visited. i thought the instructors were great and Mr. Degerberg's credentials seemed very legit. not to mention what other students thought about the school when i asked them outside of class. on top of that, they offered muay thai. i had the pleasure of meeting Mr. Degerberg this past weekend and he was very passionate when advising us 'lowly' yellow and white belts :asian: just curious tho, would you know if the Degerberg Blend would be considered a jkd concepts curriculum? i havent heard anyone make those claims, but the philosophy behind it sounds very jkd. also, Mr. Degerberg has had some training under Dan Inosanto and Larry Hartsell, so just a lil curious.

Well, my guess (and it's purely a guess, don't quote me on it) would be that, yes, the Degerberg Blend could be considered Fred's expression of JKD. I'm sure he has reasons not to use the term (assuming that's even the way he views the subject). If that's the case, it may just be to avoid the politics inherent in claiming "JKD." But I could be completely wrong.

Taking a tangent, I got an e-mail earlier tonight from Ron Balicki that he's going to be teaching a seminar in June at Degerberg. I won't be able to make it, but if you haven't made plans for it yet, I'd highly recommend it. Ron is a great guy and a very good instructor.

I'm sure we'll be able to meet in person at some point since Chicago's not all that far from me and I do make it up there on occasion.

And, if we're going to continue this particular discussion, we should probably take it to PM to avoid completely hijacking this thread

Mike

 

[tarabos]

Originally posted by spook mma
wow!!! i feel like im getting raped now hearing about your stories! im at $109 a month. at first i thought that was really expensive, but the more places that i talk to in chicago, i hear thats about average (maybe slightly above by $10 or so). do any of you guys know of anywhere cheap to get muay thai or jkd training in chicago?

maybe i can make you feel better. i know an instructor in Delaware that charges a whopping $120 a month no matter what type of class you want to take (he offers serveral since he has different instructors for them) or how many days a week it is. one of the styles is only taught 2-3 times a week, yet he still charges 120 for it. shame too, because it was a class being taught by a couple of old friends of mine and i really wanted to take it, but i just couldn't justify getting robbed like that. apparantley i'm not the only one who agrees, they have only two or three students in the class now.

 

[karatekid1975]

I pay $75 a month. That's dirt cheap for the area my school is located. No test fees. They also offer family rates.

 

[Shinzu]

my shotokan school in NY was $70.

my first TSD in PA was $45

my second TSD in PA is $65, but now i swap dues for teaching classes on saturdays

 

[fist of fury]

It's normally $65 a month but my girlfriend also goes so instead of having her pay an additonal $65 also, he gave us the family plan so she only has to pay $30 a month. So total we pay$95 for 2 of us.

 

[DAC..florida]

My class cost me nothing because I teach, but normal price in our dojo is $40.00 a month for unlimited classes.:asian:

 

[tarabos]

going by this thread it's nice to see that a lot of people in the MA's aren't crooks. unfortunatley a lot are...

 

[Kenpo Yahoo]

Carlos Machado, of the world famous Machado Brothers (cousins to the Gracie family), just raised his rates. Anyone care to take a guess how much?

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$180/ month for unlimited classes. If you want a 1 hr. private lesson with the guy, it will run you $350. Hey, the people pay it. Anyway, most of the upper ranks are looking to jumpstart an MMA career, pretty rough crowd.

 

[Rob_Broad]

Currently I pay $60/month plus tax which comes to $64.20, which isn't too bad for 3 classes a week.

 

[Shinzu]

some of the prices mentioned here are way to expensive in my opinion. more so if you have a family like i do.

it becomes more than a way of life... it becomes a lifelong debt.

 

[Nightingale]

personally, I've always traded work for training.

when I was a kid, I'd come in early and vacuum the studio and wash windows, and pay what I could out of my babysitting money. (my parents hated martial arts...still do, so its always been "you want it, you pay for it") I think that made me a lot more serious about it, though. If I missed class or goofed off, it was MY dime.

Recently, I've done web work in exchange for my training.
(www.houseofamericankenpo.com)


However, what the schools I've been at typically charge:

first school:

$100 a month, or $260 for 3 months, or $500 for 6 months, or $900 for 12 months. Unlimited classes... you can go to as many as your belt level will permit...kids couldn't attend adult class, but adults were welcome in kids class (realistic dummies for the kids) .... once I got my brown, I was there for four classes a day! LOL. life? what life?

the schedule was this:
Mon/Wed: kids white belt, kids orange belt, adult white, adult orange
Tues/thurs: kids advanced (purple and up), kids sparring, adult adv., adult sparring
Friday: kids kata, adult kata

new school:

$80 a month flat. $21.99 start up fee, but that pays for uniform and intro private lessons. Four classes a week, one tuesday, wednesday, thursday, and saturday morning.

Schedule:

Monday: off
Tuesday/thursday: kids class, adult beginner, adult advanced
Wednesday: kids sparring, adult sparring
Saturday morning open workout, all ranks welcome.

I liked the format of the first school better, cause I could get a nice long 4 hour workout, but I like the instructors at the new school, plus the location. The first school was a 90 mile round trip for me, so I finally went looking elsewhere. I demoted myself to white belt when I switched schools (they told me I could keep brown, but the format was so different, and many of the techniques were slightly different, so I felt a little overwhelmed and decided to just start over) so I only attend beginner classes, and can't go to sparring, cause I have school that night.

 

[Cryozombie]

I pay 30.00 per month for 2 classes a week.

 

[tshadowchaser]

I pay nothing to study with my instructor, but I must drive 3 hours each way to do so.
My students pay thirty dollors a month bit most schools in the are pay 75 to 100 .

 

[Quick Sand]

I do my training in a university club. We only pay $100 (CDN) for 3 classes/week Sept. through April and 1 class/week over the summer. We have to buy our own uniform and we pay testing fees but they're pretty cheap too.

Unfortunately I'm not really impressed with my instruction right now. We're part of a larger organization and there are some wonderful instructors in the association but they guy that actually does my class isn't great. I just got my blue belt and I find him doing things incorrectly sometimes. I usually don't mention it because of my rank but it gets annoying. (Before anyone cuts my head off as being a know-it-all blue belt etc. We have a manual and I'm taking about things like teaching a slightly wrong move in a kata. Everything is directly in the manual for that stuff.) He's a 1st degree BB and doesn't really actively train these days and has not real interest in trying to get his 2nd dan any time soon. The next closest class from my association is like a 2 hour drive and I don't have a car so travelling to a different instructor isn't an option either. :shrug:

It's pretty annoying but I can't afford to go to a real dojang right now as a student. Hopefully when I graduate and become a real adult. . . .

 

[DannyE]

Here in New Orleans, the average monthly fee is $50.00. The better schools here, don't make you sign contracts.

Danny