My child started at a taekwondo club a few months ago. It's a regional club with a few other branches. On one hand, my child likes the activity, the instructor has good control of the class and seems to know his stuff. They send a few kids to compete at national and inter-club levels, so they seem impressive at first glance - I'm not knocking the quality.
However, I am now planning to get my child to trial a couple of other martial arts clubs to see if there is a different one they would prefer, because there is a really slimy culture when it comes to money that I haven't experienced in any other kids' activities, and it feels a bit gross.
So, since we started, every week there is always some 'extra' the instructor is trying to sell, often directly to the kids. Yes you expect the belt gradings and competition costs, but it's also branded gear and extra sessions - he gives a little spiel to the kids - some as young as 5 - at the start while they are sitting down or while they are stretching - suggesting they ask for club branded hoodies for Christmas, things like that.
The line is always trotted out "you get out what you put in", but this is always about money, if you ask if there is anything that would be good to practice at home he will dodge the question and try and sell you his 1:1 sessions. There is a small group who compete and it feels like a lot of parents are led to believe that if they keep on spending money their child will get into this group, but obviously this can't be the case for the majority - the sceptic in me says that these kids are all long-limbed and athletic and could have been picked out the moment they first walked through the door!
And then there is the Facebook pestering- incessant - daily at least - posts and DMs asking you to buy this or that, come to this extra paid session, your child would really benefit - I can see how parents would feel pressured. I'm sure I can't be the only one who is sick of it but, as I said, I feel that a lot of parents are taken in by the marketing and the instructor is very charismatic.
I've been involved in smaller martial arts clubs (karate and kickboxing) myself a bit when I was younger, and the culture was nothing like this. They were clubs with a local, community feel, whereas this feels like each kid is a resource to be drained of as much money as their parents will part with. Actually the Facebook messages sometimes remind me of MLM pestering!
Recently, I suppose because I have taekwondo in my search history, I have been getting ads come up for a similar taekwondo academy in a neighbouring city. It has similar marketing, and a similar hefty tiered pricing structure depending on how many sessions you want your child to do per week. It made me wonder if this is a 'thing' in taekwondo. Has anyone else had this experience?