Cathy,

I trained in the Seattle area. I'm glad you didn't experience some of the things I did. I too have heard the rationale behind the long contracts, and also the denigration of other martial arts traditions (the "punch and kick school" line is prevalent in all their sales pitches). It sounds like you took those arguments to heart. Having spent much of my professional life in Sales, I know a sales pitch when I see one. I ended my OYD affiliation about 6 months ago, and have been investigating other martial arts traditions, and I'm finding that there are great schools out there, with gifted, dedicated instructors, who teach more depth, for less money, and with no draconion contracts.

That being said, the differences in our experiences could also be attributed to the times we studied. When I started a year and a half ago, GM Kim and many of the higher belts started getting out of prison. About that time new seminars began to be offered that were in the 1K-2K range (when you factored in fees, equipment, followups etc). Every lesson ended with the instructors pushing the next Sae Gae Moo Do seminar. Then International training came in, and new, longer contracts, plus you had to pay the differential to get yourself switched over to the International plan. So if you were 4th section, because you were now behind a 4th section in the international program, you had to pay an additional $400 to be brought up to that level.

On several occasions, I had the head instructor of my school ask me to make my monthly installment early so that he could get me into the next set of Pal Gae. No payment, no movement.

When international training came out in force, the quality of instruction for the national program plummeted. for 4 months I recieved no additional sets of Pal Gae or Tai Chi Chung, even though I was praised for my obvious progress with what I had been practicing. It used to be every couple of weeks I was recieving new movement, but no more. I was pulled out of class several times to hear long pitches from regionals on why International training was so much better than the national system I was on (which when I joined up 4months prior was billed as the greatest thing since sliced bread). Every month I was asked when I would upgrade to INTL training. It got that I dreaded to meet with the head instructor/regional in the office, because I knew the high pressure pitch was coming.

On the whole contract issue, What if you were in school for 6 months, and lost your job? Based on the contract, you would have no legal recourse for getting out of it. I'm glad you had flexible instructors, but if someone wants out, and determines that after 6 months the moo is not for them, why would you want to keep someone tied in, other than to bilk them for the rest of the contract.