Judo fees I've found in relation to other martial arts are always the cheapest. I think people perceive a cheap price equals an inferior art. These are people of course who have no clue on the differences of the different arts except from what they've heard from others. When we raised our prices because we were forced to, none of the current members complained and our new members actually increased. We charge $60 a month person which I think is the highest fees (for Judo) in the area.

I know demographics and socio-economic all play into this, but generally speaking......

Do you think that people think cheap price = cheap quality?

I have nothing to backup my opinion, but I think your question has substance to it. To me charging high prices goes hand-in-hand with the idea, "You get what you paid for." To me this is of course a myth, but time and time again when something, anything proves to be "cheap price = cheap quality," it further weaves the myth into our psyche. When that happens it no longer is matter if it is true or not. I can see where the leap to the conclusion of inferior art = cheap price can be made. I dare say that it's a leap usually made by the uninformed. Let me go further and say, those who do take the time, generally, will find how marvelous far the value of their dollar goes if they do invest in Judo.

Of course it's just my opinion.

Kurobi......

I think regrdless of whether the reality is true the perception is.

Also to charge higher fees does not have to mean that it is an absolute financial detriment to the students. The money raised through higher fees can go to assisting the competitive members to travel - thereby bringing the knowledge they gain back or any number of other things to channel that money back to those paying it.

This is win-win as you win the battle against the low cost = low quality perception, and the students benefit in that the extra money they pay is channelled back into them.

There is the other extreme where some are charging the earth for a rubbish product such as the McDojo's. Nevertheless if you give it away the punters do not appreciate what they are getting.

Clubs need fees to cover costs but sadly far too much seems to go to NGB and area divs etc with the club getting very little of what is brought in via class fees etc.

People want value. They don't care how much they pay, as long as they have the feeling that they get their money's worth.

Kids sports (baseball, football, basketball, etc) are generally inexpensive so that they can appeal to the masses and not exclude anyone. This is the kind of image judo has, and I fear that increases in fees will be looked on the same way as increases in gas prices -- more money for the same product is unfair gouging.

The answer is to find that balance where costs reflect real value to students. Higher fees should go along with longer hours, more professional instruction, better facilities, more training partners, etc. All of this can increase profits, as it does for your local McDojo.

Then I guess the question goes to how much is one hour of quality judo worth? My nieces in gymnastics who are 9 and 12 years old are paying $450 a month each. That works out to about $15 an hour for each of them. Our Judo classes work out to about $3 an hour. I guess that's cheap baby-sitting. I wonder if some parents look at it that way?

I wish Judo was cheap. Myself and other Judoka's spent quite a bit of money taking care of my Sensei. His Job is Judo and nothing else. During my younger years it almost felt like I had a permant dependant. Payed for Classes,Private Lessons, His meals on those class days, Drove him to Clinics he taught at, and still payed for the Clinic. I spent alot of money and really had no problem except when it came to promotions. They didn't happen, not even when I deserved them. I tryed to play the Sempai / Kohei thing like the Japanese and got Played, and I got to say that I didn't like it very much even though I did learn alot.

In my opinion I would like to keep Judo cheap and just drive up the value of learning.

Good Luck

I have aboslutely no doubt about it that some parents use Judo clubs etc as a cheap babysitting service!

I wouldn't be surprised if some parents are happy to have a night off without the kids. The real question is if we can help those kids love judo and benefit in the long run. We can't do much about those parents, but maybe the kids...

Besides, parents who use classes for babysitting do it at gymnastics more than judo.

They must be the richer parents.

Gymnastics is an interesting example. Note that most all of the gymnasts are young girls.

The gymnastics "craze" began with Nadia Comaneci and her perfect 10's at the Olympics. Suddenly it was seen as possible for (very) young ladies to excell at the highest level of sport.

Other girls sports have also seen huge surges in popularity especially since title nine. The obvious examples are Soccer, Softball and Basketball - all of which have also been given plenty of deserved media coverage at the Olympics. And btw each of these (USA) Olympic teams have out-shined their male counterparts... After their Olympic victories, parents rushed to get their daughters involved.

Bringing this back to Judo, I frankly think the US will see a Gold Medal in women's Judo before we see one on the men's side.

Maybe our dojos will soon be filled with young ladies all wanting to be the next_______(insert name of first women's Gold medalist here).


And we too will be able to charge 450.00/month.

I say charge it and see what happens? Maybe we can create the craze ourselves. I tryed a couple of BJJ classes and they were very expensive. The One thing that they did, was had me pay up front after the first 3 trial classes. Maybe that's the idea like they do in baseball or football. Pay up front for the full year or 6 months and maybe retention gets better and stays that way or otherwise the person paying would loss money by not going. This also creates room for charges for Clinics, Promotions and Guest Instructors.

Start small and make your way up.

Good Luck

I live in the Metro Atlanta area, and pay $85.00 per month for Judo tuition. Chun Kuk Do is also taught at the same dojo for the same price. The leat expensive BJJ school I have heard of charges 125.00/month for classes, but most of the larger ones are quite a bit more expensive than that.

With all that being said, I mostly agree with you that people think cheap price = cheap quality when it comes to martial arts. And I also think that most of those sentiments can be attributed to the ridiculous amount of marketing that certain martial arts get (i.e BJJ, MMA), combined with the near non-existent marketing that Judo gets in most parts of the U.S.

JeffBruner brings up an interesting point and maybe another thread. At our dojo it's the junior girls that are becoming my tough competitors. Having four state champs and one national champ, our juniors class is a 50-50 mix of boys to girls with the girls being the better shiai players.