Karate School? plz help I'm new to this!?

Question

I think I have found a good karate school, but I wanted to get opinions from people with more experience than me. I'm only 14 and I've never done martial arts so I'm not really sure how to tell if a school is good. The one I found is very focused on sparring and you have to get reports from school and home saying your are respectful and have good academics before you can test for a belt. the testing fees are as follows.

High White $15, Gold $39, High Gold $39, Orange $39, High Orange $39, Green $59, High Green $59, Purple $59, High Purple $59, Blue $59, High Blue $59, Red $79, Low Brown $79, Brown $79, High Brown $79, Conditional Black $99, First Degree Black $200, Second Degree Black $500, Third Degree Black $500.

Are these prices reasonable? From the sounds of this school would you attend, why or why not?

Oh, and they are REALLY persistant to enforce respect. They have all these rules for speaking with instructors and speeches you say before starting class and when you end.

Here's their website.
http://www.abkarateonline.com/index.html

Answer 1

When I went to martial arts training they were very much against charging you for your belt. THey did not want the monetary pull to make them considor you for promotion if you were not ready. The prices sound reasonable if you are to be charged..... just look at the higher ranks, watch them spar and do katas and if they seem VERY good then go with it. If they seem sloppy and as if they do not know what they are doing then go onto the next school. Oh, and respect in any system is NUMBER ONE!!!!!! Ush!

Answer 2

It is very expensive for me and i think it is unreasonable. But i maybe wrong because I live in Indonesia and the prices overseas can vary. In Indonesia, most martial arts schools are cheaper than that.
The school is actually good because it focuses on sparring, so that you can measure how good your Karate skills are. However what is the type of sparring? The best type is the one without any protectors, it represents your fighting ability the most, and the worst sparring is the one with so many rules, e.g no punch or kick to the head, no grapples, no knee and elbow strikes.
Finally, the quality of the school depends mostly on the instructor, is the instructor a Japanese Karateka? Or just some guy saying he has the 9th Degree Black Belt and he is still under 40 yrs (this indicates he is self promoted thus also indicates the school is a McDojo)

Answer 3

I was hoping as I read your question that you had found a good school.
You were right to ask here for advise.
As one answerer already mentioned "Way Too Many" belts!
Not to start a big deal but "old school"
American Karate,or Kenpo,or whatever,goes like this:(with some variation)White-yellow-orange
-blue-green-brown-black-1st-2nd-etc.
You would see degrees of brown and green stripe now and again but nothing I have ever seen can equal what you wrote in your question.
I can not speak on the instruction,I don't even know the style.But dividing up the ranks as they do is a "Red Flag"
and I am getting a bad vibe about this school.
You can expect respect to be the top of the list at any "good" school.
Take a pass on schools that have kids running all over and doing horseplay instead of training,stretching, or cleaning up.
Check out schools that have been in town for ten or twenty years and see what they have to offer.
Let us know what you find and we will do our best to lend some advise.
Ref:
In the old days the white belt was simply dyed to a new color. This repeated dying process dictates the type of belt color and the order of the colors!. The standard belt color system is white, yellow, green, brown, and black. In some Karate school and styles, the color order is white, yellow, orange, green, blue, brown, black.
karate belt colors

Due to the dying process, it is practical to increasingly use darker colors. All of this came about shortly after the second world war, when Japan was a very poor country, and dying the belts to a new color was a cheap way to have a visible, simple and effective ranking system.

The dying of the belts became part of the Karate tradition and was also adapted in other countries. In Australia, Sensei Terry Lyon of Lyon-Karate.com reports that in the early 70s, Australian Karate students also dyed their belts to their new color.
http://www.all-karate.com/125/history-of-karate-belt-colors

Answer 4

We pulled out last year for many of the same reasons. I was appalled at the nutrition (they supplied a "healthy" snack - swiss rolls), the mindless repetition, the fact that the kids weren't allowed to be kids, the way some kids were allowed to dress, etc.. I have a 12, 10, 7, and 5 yo. and really enjoyed last year. One of the best pieces of advice I got was to take it easy the first year so the child can decompress from the way they are taught to learn in school. If you can, help them follow some of their own interests and they begin to learn for the sake of learning. Even my 7 yo is a voracious reader. I love the Oak Meadow curriculum, especially the way they integrate social studies and language arts. It is a Waldorf based curriculum which suits our family very well. I have found some of the books at used curriculum sales and once I got lucky at a library sale, but even if you pay full price, it is totally worth it. I buy for the oldest child, then just lighten up the assignments as we go down i.e., if it calls for a 2 page paper, 12yo does a 2 pg. paper, 10 yo does at least one page, 7 yo is writing 2 -3 sentences, and will be expected to do a paragraph by next spring, 5 yo draws a picture.... We also liked the Modern Curriculum Press for math workbooks and we do a lot of reading on the side. We always gather round the table for tea and snack and a few chapters at bedtime. I use the Oak Meadow science, but we supplement that a LOT at our house. My kids seem to listen very well, but there is occasional dissent in the ranks, but everyone has a bad day once in awhile. We do activities as well and I would prefer to minimize that so we travel less, but we live in a very rural area, so we have to deal. We do music lessons for all four, one takes extra lessons, two are in a band that performs at local festivals, there is historic reenactment, soccer for 3, aikido, one took a computer class last year and built himself a computer from junked parts. We also spend a lot of time outdoors, we have farm chores, and love to hike and camp. The part I encourage you to be cautious of is being misled into thinking that all the rules and guards and cameras are there to keep you "safe". Your school system may very well be bad, but you give your kids a foundation and morals, and they will shine if you let them. Try to remember when you were in Jr. high. I am 40 and there were drugs everywhere. Kids started smoking pot at 3rd grade, there were lewd and lascivious remarks everywhere. It seemed a miserable time because everyone was a slave to their hormones and running around all the time. I don't smoke pot, or drink, and am married to the father of our children, but I think it was because I had some of the greatest parents in the world. Good luck with your decision!

Answer 5

Those prices sound about right if you want to continuously get ripped off.

I can't see how it is justified to charge all these fees for promotion.

How much extra work is involved to do testing? This is a shame and only happens in the USA!

When a student is ready according to whether or not I feel the level of achievement has been attained, I award the rank.

The student's real test has been all the time put in working hard to learn and excel.

I looked this up for you. You can look for yourself, but I saw about three schools you should check out before you sing up for this mcdojo...

I included the link with all the schools in your area including theses...

East Valley MA,

Meng's Wing Chun

Dipalma's Team USA

Also the Aikido and the White Crane school look good.

http://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&um=1&ie=UTF-8&q=martial+arts&near=Gilbert,+AZ+85296&fb=1&view=text&sa=X&oi=local_group&resnum=1&ct=more-results&cd=1

Answer 6

Wow! That particular school has wayyy to many grades! high white? low brown? sounds like different types of bread.

it sounds like the club are more interested in generating revenue that anything else. my karate club charges $40 a grading, with the only requirement to enter being is that the sensei thinks you are up for it and have deserved it. Then 3 hours of hell later, you progress up. Mine goes white, yellow, orange, green, blue, purple, brown, brown, conditional black, black+, there are 10 ranks at kyu, and 10 at dan.

that school probably uses the 'need good grades at school' to entice your folks into thinking 'well, if it makes him work hard at school i'll cough up the dough...'

any karate club you go to will have respectfor the sensei, and japanese sayings at the start and end of class

Answer 7

I like the respect aspect of it. I think that's vital. You might want to find out if the sensei carries liability insurance as accidents sometimes happen. The prices don't sound too bad. Can you tell me what the difference in look is between Orange and High Orange? That sounds interesting.

Answer 8

sounds like some bull to me. reports from school?wtf?and wats with the speeches before and after class?also u shouldnt have to pay to test for a belt unless its private time with the instructor and even then it shouldnt cost that much.honestly there are really no good karate schools anymore, learn mma or muay thai

Answer 9

YUP its a really good school and the prices are very reasonable, some schools charge like $50 every month

Answer 10

hmm prices are a little pricy but still in the range of reasonable. Do you think you could give us a website?