Reviews of West-Wind Karate School

I, too, had a bad experience at West Wind Karate. During the 3 years I was there, my sibling and I were harassed by the instructors who acted like bullies. If you didn't want to participate in their tournament, they put you on a public "wimp" list. These so-called instructors wasted my parents' money at this place. We learned a few things but at the expense of being bullied. It was such odd behavior towards my brother and I, then 11 to 14 years old.

One instructor in particular had it in for my sibling and I (for reasons I still do not understand). He jumped on our shoulders during a group class to correct our stance; he made things especially difficult for me and my sibling when there were group exercises (e. g. raising a wood bar higher for my sibling and I so that we had to jump high to get over it). Once during our private class (for which my parents paid EXTRA $), we were left in the room on our knees for the entire session. The instructor came back a few minutes before the end time and did something lame with us and called it a day.

My sibling eventually got sick of the harassment and dropped out. I stayed because I'm the headstrong one and I wanted to learn karate, dammit! . ..So there I was, leaving one of my karate classes one day and as I was making my way around the mat to leave, I spotted the instructor and I stopped and bowed, as we were instructed to do always. Once the walkway cleared, I proceeded towards the door when suddenly I was snatched and slammed onto the concrete walkway by the instructor and he yelled "You bow when you see an instructor!!!" I was stunned. I couldn't speak right away. Someone in the group class, feet away from me, spoke up and said "She did bow. You just didn't see her. " I walked away with back pain and left with my dad who was waiting right outside. I said nothing. I was 13.

So many more stories but limited space here. STAY AWAY.

This place is a total cult. The instructors act more like used car salesmen than teachers. They teach with three piece suits under their gi's, and they drive around in a fleet of escalades. They have incredibly shady business tactics, and will prey on you to squeeze as much as they can from you. They only participate in tournament against their own schools (they have three locations) so you never get a real gauge for how effective their teaching actually is. I was also enrolled in their academic school when it was open, and the place was a joke. When it closed I had to spend years catching up on basic things I would have learned in public school, and it crippled me in highschool. I'm not sure if their teachers were even accredited. They would openly strongarm students who were thinking about leaving and I even overheard them talking aboht "paying a visit" to a former instructor who left to go to college. This place is horrible, and it is truly unfortunate because some of the instructors are genuinely good people who are just too naive to see the true corruption of this place. Please don't make the mistake my parents did, and stay far away from this place.