Reasonable costs and expectations for martial arts training?

From what I’ve gathered as an average is somewhere around this…

$60—$120 a month.
Usually two times a week with options to do drop in classes at your leisure.
You purchase your own gear and uniform. This will range from $60—$500

The best Martial Art for a young man to study is whatever he feels drawn to like. Most teachers will allow you to drop in on a class or sit in on a class so that you can engage and ask questions and meet those whom have a relationship with the art and teacher. I know that some body types are better for certain things than others, yes Kung Fu was developed like this. What is he wanting out of it? All of these factors will make for what I think he would be best at or would be best for him. I am no expert but I have been training most of my life and I’ve engaged in many styles so I do have some experience with it. If you don’t mind finding out some insight to what he wants and let me know, I’d be happy to help.

He’s 6’2’’ built like a green bean and is interested in healthy physical activity. He stopped playing baseball four years ago and hasn’t been very active beyond walking dog and a little weight lifting here and there. He wants to get in shape and learn something beneficial at the same time. That’s all I know aside from his fondness for chop saki comedies and japanese anime/manga.

He would maybe enjoy TKD or even Karate. Both styles accommodate long torsos and reach.

What little I know is—TKD involves a lot of leg work. If he likes kicking and jumping, TKD would be perfect. My daughter’s scheduled to take TKD soon because of her impulse to use her legs for anything (soccer, ice skating, jumprope team, etc). I was also told that the mentality and philosophy of the martial art also influences the training. Because of this, I put my son in aikido because it’s a deflective martial art—they train you to wait to be attacked, then use the opponent’s attacks against them instead of going on the offense.

My seven year-old son attends taekwondo twice a week. He’s progressed through most of the color belts at this point.

Attendance is:
– twice a week (any of two time slots on any days Mon – Thu)
– unlimited makeups for missed sessions

Just going from memory, I think the pricing is something like $140 for just one month, $350 for three months, or $600 for six months pre-paid. Compared to many of the other schools in our area, we found the prices to be very competitive and reasonable.

Extra costs are:
– uniform: only like $25
– belt testing: $30 for each belt test, includes the new belt
– sparring: requires going a third day each week
– team: requires sparring + a fourth day each week

Our son hasn’t shown any desire to try sparring yet, so I’m not acquainted with those prices.