I had my son join Tae kwon Do so that he can learn how to defend himself. After paying $139 a month and an additional $60 every 2 months (to pay for the belt test, which did not make sense, whether they learn the kata's or not they give them the belt so the parents are PAYING for the belts instead of the kids EARNING THEM) i quickly noticed that the kids are not learning self defense. When i questioned Master Jung about this his response was that Tae Kwon Do was not for self defense but that he teaches self confidence within a kid and how to make them feel good about themselves. Well for $139 a month i can pat my son on the back and tell him he is great but that is not going to help should he get in a fight.
The so called black belts looked as though they could not fight there way out of a paper bag. Making the kids FEEL GOOD is great but how are they going to feel when they find themselves in a place were they have to defend themselves and they get beat up! that burst of bubble will have the kids questioning everything else in there lives.
When i sent the email that my son will no longer attend his dojo, i still got charged the following month, even though my son had not attended. I also received an email that i will be charged an additional month as they had a two month cancel policy. So they charge me $279 for a kid who is not even attending the school.
Tae Kwon Do is a Korean martial art. It combines combat and self-defense techniques with sport and exercise. For a Master to tell me its NOT used for self defense but only for self confidence REALLY made my head spin. I took 2 years of karate in college and i learned more in my first month than my son did in the time he was at this school.
If you want your kid to FEEL all warm and snuggly inside this is the school for them, but if you want your kid to actually LEARN something about SELF-DEFENSE then i would look else were.
BYT when i asked about the 1980's trophy and if they actually do have sparring with other dojo's so that the kids can actually practice what they learned the master again said NO not really as that is not what they teach....REALLY!
Very unhappy mom read more