1 yr 60monthly
Mon-Fri 7:00pm-8:30pm
Sunday 4:00pm-5:30pm
I would consider what i pay is fair , i used to pay 100monthly for Muay Thai at the very first gym i went to and was open only 3days a week. Until i found another Thai gym which charged me 50monthly for 5days a week and became my home 
money and wing chun
hi all i also think that location has a lot to do with this as well in sydney rent is higher than melbroune, so i can understand, people chargeing a lot more. One of the reasons though i left ,y first teacher was he not showing up for class once in a while and when he did he just read the racing guide and craped on about horses , if you go to class you should be getting what you pay for peace russellsherry
Another way to look at it:
Hour Week Month Year
Rent $25 $250 $1,000 $12,000
Advertising $25 $100 $1,200
Insurance $60 $600
Utilities $100 $1,200
Brochures $50 $600
Equipment $83.33 $1,000
Sum $1,393 $16,600
Monthy Fee #students
$20 70
$30 46
$40 35
$50 28
$60 23
$70 20
$80 17
$90 15
$100 14
The equipment costs as well as all the other costs could vary a lot. I didn’t include any amounts for wages $30/hour to $90/hour? Then there is one time equipment costs like wooden dummies, poles, knives, TV, VCR, instructional video tapes for students to watch, tea/coffee pot and supplies etc. Some places have a lot of stuff and others have basically nothing and teach out of a garage with advertising by word of mouth. A complete boxing gym with all the equipment and mats would be very expensive and those people would have to charge a lot more in order to survive.
In my Hung style club in Toronto there were maybe dozen students. Tuition was basically free. The club did maybe 5 or 6 lion dances a year which generated maybe $600-$800 each time. That money was used for equipment purchase and for free banquets for the students. A good lion may cost $1,000 and you have a couple of these. The lion dance drums are maybe the same. Then there are lots of kinds of weapons.
In our case we charge $20 month for 1 time a week and $40 for 2 times a week.
When I learned in 1982 I paid $48 / month for twice a week. When I learned in 1976, I paid $50 a month for one lesson a week. When I first joined Hung style in 1969, the fee was $15 a month and later nothing.
A lot of Taekwondo/Karate and other commercial schools charge from $50-$120 per month. One Wing Chun teacher in Vancouver has programs where he charges $5,000 / year. See: http://www.mastercarloslee.shawbiz.ca/courses.htm
There was a Kung Fu club here that charged $1,200 a year for the basic course. If you wanted to belong to the special inner circle club, that would be $1,200 a year more. Then if you wanted to learn the real killing techniques then that would be an additional $1,200 per year.
In some parts of Europe, by the time you finish the complete $15 year Wing Chun program, you have probably paid about $40,000 in learning fees.
If you count going to seminars or getting high quality masters over then that’s an additional cost. I think Gary Lam is $1,500 in USA dollars plus travel and hotel.
At one time we didn’t have enough people to hold a seminar but a couple of senior students wanted to have one. So the three of us paid $750 each for a seminar.
Even in the expensive case of $40,000, once anyone of those students who graduates decides to teach, then the money spent can easily be earned back.
I think Bruce Lee’s fee for the movie stars was $5,000 an hour. When asked: why so much?, he answered: how much is your life worth?
Some people complain about $50 a month while spending much more on smoking, drinking, movies, eating out etc.
I think the rate for a personal trainer is about $90-$120/hour.
My private lesson rate is $40 an hour unless the guy doesn’t have that much money or has been around for awhile in which case it’s $25 an hour.
When I learned the wooden dummy, that was a separate charge for $500.00. Now when I offer the dummy training for free, most people are not that interested.
A good quality teacher deserves whatever he charges.
If you give something away for free, then often it is not appreciated. Sometimes if you reduce the cost, then the student thinks : great, now I can go and train some martial arts at the other clubs as well.
If a teacher is not into getting rich, then a reasonable thing would be to figure out what income he needs to survive, add the costs on top of this and from that calculate the number of students needed and the monthly cost. The cheapest is to teach out of a garage. The next idea is to teach for a recreation centre who may pay $15 / hour or in some cases split the income on a percentage basis with the teacher. The high end is a luxury gym with all kinds of trainers, special programs, a spa, massage facility, showers, and lots of masters running around-- there is no limit. The cost per year for this might be $40,000 which is equivalent to the amount paid by high class executives to join a fancy golf club.
Ray
How true. It’s a bit strange to me how people flock to medicore martial arts schools, but I guess it makes sense in world where fast food is so popular. If you could figure out to teach martial arts in a drive-thru you could make a fortune. 
In fact they rarely charge enough. Why is that? I think it’s because they are passionate about the art, and the money is in a distant second place.
YC-If you count going to seminars or getting high quality masters over then that’s an additional cost. I think Gary Lam is $1,500 in USA dollars plus travel and hotel
nope that’s more my lower [small group] rate , Gary will cost a bit more , reason beyond skill is simple he makes more just staying home
when you make X amount on classes on privates every weekend [when most seminars happen]
you have to work in the fact that you will be losing that much when you travel
and my case is different i don’t do the class thing only Private Semi private so i’m more on the expensive side :eek: