“Integrity. Respect. Self-Control.”

Hearing my boys chant these words along with a crowd of about twenty other kids, I knew we could be onto something good here.  I then watched them work their way through a series of calisthenics, punches, kicks, and jumps for the next hour.  This was only their first Taekwondo class, but both boys were drenched in sweat by the time the class was over.  Even more important, both boys were smiling and asking  when they could come back.

How We Got Here

A friend of mine who has a black belt in Karate had been trying to convince me to get my kids into Martial Arts for several years.  He said that the discipline component for children can be truly life changing, and that participating in martial arts gives kids confidence and helps immensely with self-control.  He also said that the way that martial arts are taught works well even for kids that haven’t had success in sports or don’t have the best coordination.

I agreed with all of this, of course, and knew that my boys would likely take to the sport if given the opportunity.  The problem was that I knew that these programs were expensive, and finances were very tight for my family.  The cheapest option that I could find was to sign both my boys and myself up for the Taekwondo program at the local YMCA.

I had a little bit of history with Taekwondo myself.  Like many people who became infatuated with the story of Daniel LaRusso in the mid-1980’s,  I had briefly tried the sport as a child.  There was only one dojo in the small town where I lived, and I distinctly remember the sensei constantly punishing us with push-ups every time we spoke out of turn or used improper form.  It only took a month or two before I drifted back to other less-punishing sports, but I was excited to join in with my kids as they jumped into this new activity.

We all really enjoyed it at the start, and I was saddened when the boys started to lose interest after the focus drifted away from learning techniques, and into learning the standard “forms”.  Forms are patterns of movement that must be memorized and done correctly in order to climb rank (they get progressively more difficult).  The problem with the YMCA class was that they only met once per week, and the class was held in a large gymnasium.  The instructors were very kind, but they were rarely able to provide one-on-one instruction, and the discipline aspects of martial arts were lost completely in the big room.

The Dojo Down the Street

Fast forward to a the present with our financial situation improved, the weather cold and terrible, and the kids bored out of their minds.  We decided to go ahead and sign the boys up for the two week trial program up at a dojo about five minutes from my house.  The cost for this program was $25/kid, and it included a free basic uniform.  You could tell right away that the place was a large operation, but it seemed to be well run.  It was very clean inside, the equipment was all in good condition, and more importantly- everyone seemed to be in good spirits.

They instructor was a forty-something Korean man who had clearly been doing this for a long time.  He was likable and serious at the same time, and it was very impressive the way his demeanor just demanded respect.  While there was no doubt who was in charge at all times, there were a variety of younger black-belts who helped out during each class.

Over the course of the four sessions that my boys were allowed to attend in their “trial” period, they were already showing improvement.  Where they were loose and sloppy at the beginning, after a few classes they were already starting to show technique improvements. After four sessions, I was called into the back office to review the pricing options.

Big Money

I knew from the beginning that whatever price I was told, it was likely to going to be staggering.  The owner pulled out a piece of paper that provided two different options:

•  12 months, $145/month + $50 registration fee.  2 sessions p/week. ($1790 total p/child)
• 24 months, $145/month + $50 registration fee.  unlimited sessions p/week. ($3530 total p/child)

Since I had two boys, my actual cost would be double!  In addition, there would be a non-refundable “testing fee” of $50, several times each year when my boys where ready to try and level up to the next belt.  Wowza!  It was even worse than I thought.

Being the frugal bargainer that I am, I immediately started to try and negotiate.  I told him that I wasn’t ready to commit thousands of dollars after four classes, and my boys would need more time to before deciding if they would commit to this long term.  He responded by pulling out another piece of paper with a “3-month option”:

• 3 months, $145/month + $50 registration fee.  2 sessions p/week ($485 total p/child)

Decision Time

Even this amount was more than I was wanting to pay, so I continued to grimace and walked outside of the dojo for a bit to call my wife.  We talked about it for a few minutes, double-checked our finances, and attempted to google the price of some competitor dojos around town.  In the end, we agreed that we should go ahead and sign up for the 3 month plan, to give our boys the chance to have some success with the sport.  It would have been an epic disappointment for both of them if we told them that we just couldn’t afford it, so we decided to move forward and make it work.

Still angling for a discount, I walked back in the office and asked the owner if we could get a sibling discount.  He told me that he would do that, but only if we signed up for the 12-month or 24-month plans.  I then pulled one of my favorite negotiating tactics and asked he needed help with his website.  I told him that I was great with WordPress, could help them get some videos online, and could even help them with SEO .  This definitely got his attention, but he (smartly) told me that he couldn’t work out an arrangement like that until we were in a position to make a longer term commitment with the boys.

Since that time, the boys have been going twice per week and have continued to improve.  They should be testing for their yellow belts any day now, and are both still excited to go up there and basically get their butts kicked.  To answer a common question, “does Taekwondo cost too much?”, the answer is yes.  But if you can afford it without going into debt or jeopardizing your savings goals, it is totally worth it.