Parker’s Self Defense

Parkers Self Defense has a wide range of martial arts to offer … They attend top of the line competitions and provide great instructions to students of all ages!

My 5 year old attends classes twice a week at Parker’s. He loves it! The classes are engaging and age appropriate. The instructors do a phenomenal job of wrangling a group of energetic 3 – 5 year olds while still teaching them skills. I love that they teach the kids self defense tactics without scaring them. My son loves the games they play while learning the basic moves. You can tell this is a labor of love for the owner! He’s always patient and enthusiastic.

***Warning: DO NOT GET INVOLVED with Parker’s Self Defense!!!***
My child attended for quite some time and we allowed her to go because she really wanted to be a «part of something,» and did not play any other sports. Parker’s DOES allow you to do that (his sons help teach class, Patrick H above is also a teacher).
***BUT***, once your child «in the system,» you are asked to be a member of the «black sash club» and told that you would receive special benefits and be an «upperclassman.» That «status» means absolutely nothing. Her hours for training were regularly changed or cancelled (as are classes for other students, because this studio is essentially run by one person, unlike most other area studios). As a parent, you are THEN asked to sign another contract (the terms of the first contract was release from contract within 30 days, which is standard) stating that you have a six month contract, with AUTORENEWALS.
After that you are trapped:
–If your child is not seeing benefits from the class you are trapped.
–If your child gets bad grades and needs to focus on school, you are trapped.
–If Parker’s switches classes around or cancels, you are trapped.
–If they expand their business to do birthday parties and do not focus on their core business, you are trapped.
Likewise, there are huge consistency issues with the training and a regular call for «membership drives.»
Although the teacher and his sons are very nice people, being at Parker’s was not a good experience. My daughter did not see the promised benefits (self esteem, a safer feeling, self-​discipline, etc.) and I truly feel that doing business this way, is not a good business practice.