Terribly, terribly expensive, and run by a man who refuses to be upfront about his fees. He wouldn't tell us how much the classes cost until our child had had a trial class AND he had come to our home to give us a lengthy presentation about the academy. He brought a martial arts uniform in our child's size with him and offered it to our son very manipulative. He then offered us a discount price of £300 for 6 months of classes, which is a reasonable price, but it emerged from the sales talk that we would actually have to pay based on our child's progress rather than pay for a set time period. So our child could complete the first grading in as little as 3 months, and then we would owe another big chunk of money if we wanted to continue. These fees were so top secret that the teacher refused to leave any printed copy of his rates with us. He pressured us to hand over the money on the spot. I later met neighbours who have paid him sums as big as £3k in advance. Our son is now in a normal martial arts class £35 a month. No sales pressure and no mystery. Rising Spirit claims to care about children and martial arts but really only cares about extracting huge fees. read more
