How much do you pay to take a Taekwondo grading?
I recently met two Taekwondo students from the north of England. The subject of the cost of taking gradings in TKD cropped up and they told me at their club a KUP grade cost £45. On top of that, failing to pass the grading would result in having to pay the grading fee again.
By comparison, at my club a KUP grade test is £15. If you fail it, you can re-take it at no further cost. I don't know what our instructor charges for Hapkido gradings (another Korean Martial Art he teaches) but would be surprised if there was any difference.
The two Northerners told me they had achieved First KUP grade (red belt/black tag) in three years with their club - that'll be a topic for another post later...
So how much is the "right" amount to pay for a martial arts grading? Should it be dependant on what the club needs to charge in order to stay operational? A quick glance at the BTCB website didn't offer any kind of guide, but I'd say £45 sounds expensive.
By comparison, at my club a KUP grade test is £15. If you fail it, you can re-take it at no further cost. I don't know what our instructor charges for Hapkido gradings (another Korean Martial Art he teaches) but would be surprised if there was any difference.
The two Northerners told me they had achieved First KUP grade (red belt/black tag) in three years with their club - that'll be a topic for another post later...
So how much is the "right" amount to pay for a martial arts grading? Should it be dependant on what the club needs to charge in order to stay operational? A quick glance at the BTCB website didn't offer any kind of guide, but I'd say £45 sounds expensive.
Labels: martial arts grading
posted by Tomcat's Taekwondo at
18:09
4 Comments:
When I was growing up, grading fees would be about $20. My black belt grading was $50.
I currently run a non-commercial school so I don't charge anything for classes or gradings. Mind you I don't think this is quite right for everyone.
When we were going commercial, we were looking towards a grading fee of about $30-$45. But with this fee, we'd be taking the opportunity to provide 'coaching feedback'. This means the student's performance is tracked and documented and compared with previous performance. Report is then issued, along with pass or fail grade.
Colin
Hi Colin - always a pleasure having you visit me! If you mean US$ then that would be (very roughly) £10 to grade (and £25 for a DAN).
That seems very reasonable indeed. The £45 I mentioned would be somewhere near US$90 which is a lot of money particularly if you have yourself and your children training like I do ;)
You run your club non-commercially and charge nothing for a grading? That is truly admirable - you obviously have a very great love of Taekwondo!
Best - Andy
Oops! Fairly obviously you aren't talking US$ - you're talking AU$. Aussie Dollars are worth more of course, but the numbers above are still very roughly right ;)
Andy - I've been transitioning into a new company and lately I've had little time online. A few days ago I thought I should look at my blog and visit all the links I had on my side bar - yours being one of them. :-) If you want to see me more often, I guess you've got to get a facebook account.
When I was a student, training would be in Singapore dollars. So the gradings would be about US$12 and black belt grading would be about US$30. Cheap! Our class had 6-7 students to the one instructor - who happened to be the chief instructor at the time. From what I understand he was wanting us all to form a network of clubs in order for his association to prosper. It didn't really work out like that in the end though. Too bad.
As for me, yes, I now train non-commercially and charge nothing for gradings. I keep the group small and have a good relationship with them. This works out well for me and gives me the flexibility to call off training when I'm sick or traveling. By and large I'm happy that I am improving the quality of the training and my own knowledge. From what I have observed, other 'auxilliary' programs like women self defence really benefit from going commercial, but the martial arts benefit from just consistent syllabus development - and a variety of beginning and advanced students.
Colin
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