Reviews of Karate For Kids & Adults

The instructors are good and actually seem to care about the kids and the program actually seems pretty good too. However what they won't tell you is when they lock you into your 6-month contract is that between 2-4 months in they will publicly "invite" your child to the "master club". They will meet with you and say how great your child is doing but warn you that if you don't "upgrade" to the master club your child will be bored.

Then you get the surprise that this will cost you another couple of hundred dollars upfront, plus increase your monthly membership by $20-40/month (20%+). Oh, and it will be another 9-month contract. And if you don't now you get to explain to your child why they don't get to join the master class.

After talking to other parents we then learned that at some point in that 9-month contract the child will then probably be invited into the "leadership" program, add another few hundred dollars and jump the monthly price up to $200. I can only guess how long that contract is, probably 12 months.

Even at $130-150/month (for 2 one-half hour lessons a week), I would give this program at least 4 stars if they were open and honest with parents about what costs to expect and probably 5 if they didn't require 6-9-12 month contracts for small children (as young as 3 or 4). I was okay with the initial contract, but I can't believe they would rather lose a current customer then allow children to go month-to-month after an initial 6 months (and over $600 for those 6 months). We would have even paid the full fee for the "master club" to upgrade within our current contract.

I am very sad that I let my daughter get attached to these people because there is no way they are getting us into another contract. I can't take any more of their surprises.