Dawn Barnes’ Karate Kids

This place is awesome! We have been brining our 5 year old son for almost a year now and every single sensei here are awesome. I love the fact that they teach respect and «courtesy» «looking of the eyes» when talking to another person. Our son is a very sensitive child and we do not teach tough love. The discipline and the teachings that the sensei’s teach are great. Their methods are awesome! My son started with sensei Mauri and has learned so much from here that I am eternally grateful for the whole staff here. I noticed a big change when my son was encountered with a bully at a local playground and when my son took the «action» stance the bully walked away. I love this place!

Really happy with our experience here so far in the couple of months we have joined. Currently running in the Tiger Tots class and having the flexibility to attend any of the classes at any of the locations is a plus. I feel it allows us to not be beholden to be at the class at a specific time and not punish the kids by not being able to attend a week.
The facility is nice and clean. Sensei’s are all great with the kids and teach them respect. Place has free wifi, some healthy snacks for sale and a few toys for the little kids to play with while waiting. Parking has not been a problem on the weekends, but they do have some valet guy there for the busy times.

For the free trial I specifically asked for a time slot when the class is small. My husband took our 3.5 yr old twins to the Friday time slot they gave us. There was no one to give us any basic orientation. The female instructor at first acted like she couldn’t be bothered. The twins got intimidated and didn’t want to go in. The instructor finally warmed up and came and checked with the boys several times if they were ready to go in. Finally they went in towards the end of the class. The instructor pointed to a kid leading the class and said that it took her 4 trial classes to come in the class and now she’s the leader of the class. We were encouraged so I took the boys yesterday to the 2^nd trial they offered. This time a 7 ft tall male instructor Josh. The boys were thrown when they didnt see the same female instructor and the height of Josh intimidated them as he would talk down to them and never once did he come down to their level. He told them that they had to bow or else they wouldn’t be let in. Since the boys were never given any prior instructions they stared up at the guy and then looked down and immediately held on to me for dear life. So I gently talked to them and showed them how to do their hands and bow. The jerk kept repeating himself talking over me and told the boys that they had to listen to him instead of me. I bit my tongue and ignored him. So finally the boys turned to him and made their bow. They were let in the class just 1 inch inside the door. Then the jerk told the boys they had to bow again and say this word which even I couldn’t make out. So I encouraged the boys to repeat after the idiot. And again he completely disses me in front of my scared boys from way up his 7 ft frame. So finally he said if you don’t say the word that means you are not going to follow my instructions so you can’t be in here. Then he pushed my boys out of the class an inch to the outside just enough so he can close the door on all outer faces. So I sat there with the boys on the floor and watched and kept talking up the class. The nice receptionists came to help me too. So the boys got their confidence up again and agreed to go inside and try again. They stood their in their bow stance but almighty josh wouldn’t give us the time of day. Even when the receptionist, their own staff, tried to get the guys attention, he just continued to ignore. It was an all glass wall and door, to say he went out of his way to ignore us would be an understatement. 10 min till end of class I finally woke up and figured the rudeness and humiliation is enough. I told the boys we had to go home. They cried because they didnt understand why they weren’t allowed in even when they were ready. The receptionist was embarrassed by the whole thing. She offered yet another free trial. It was all I can do not to cause a scene in front of every one there n ripped Mr Josh a new one. I told the receptionist that the whole thing was a horrible experience made by Josh who didn’t have the kindness or patience for my kids nor did he have the sense to come down to their level to talk to them never mind dissing me in front of my own kids. Wow they did a great job building my boys self esteem. Josh clearly doesn’t like his job and doesnt even have the sense to even try to pretend to the people who otherwise fund his paychecks. Who suffers in the end? The very paying children whose to benefit from this. I’m 5 ft 5 and what I felt like doing was giving him a round house kick and drop him to the ground.

We did not have a positive experience here at all. I will preface this review by stating that we are a very nurturing family and we do not practice tough love or threatening behaviors so maybe karate in general is simply not a good fit for our son. He was interested though and so we signed him up for a trial class. We were greated by a friendly woman who instructed our 3 year old to go take off his shoes unassisted. She then handed his an attendance card and when he took it she insisted he say «thank you», even though he had no clue what she was giving him. It all sort of spiraled out of control from there. They sansei greeted my son by getting down on his level and introducing himself, followed by the statement: Just listen to me and we won’t have any problems. I observed that the methods of the sansei are to gain respect and discipline by intimidation. Again, I understand that karate is a very disciplined practice so maybe it’s just too much to expect a class to be fun, compassionate, and kid-​friendly for a 3 year old. Needless to say, my son was completely overwhelmed and in tears within the first 15 minutes. I would not recommend this class for anyone who has a sensitive child or for those who follow more compassionate philosophies of raising their children. I can imagine this would be a very good class for those adhering to a more structured and disciplined philosophy.

I have 2 sons that are Karate Kids! This is a great program for learning respect, disipline, focus, patience and most important listening skills. My older son is 4 and has a speach delay, this program has helped him tremendously. The staff as really worked hard at helping him learn to maintain eye contact, teaching him how to ask for things properly and in the process made him a more confident kid. My other son is 3 and even though he just started this program 2 months ago, he is showing huge improvement in his listening skills. They have fun too!

Great experience for youngsters who like to run and jump, and also could use a little discipline. Our guy really likes the obstacle course run, which combines music, an obstaclecourse and basic karate moves.
Not sure where the cost came form on the other review. We pay much less.

I took my twins in for a trial class and to find out more about their program. The Sensei was very good, the facility was very nice and the kids really liked it. The reason I give only 3 stars is it is VERY expensive. The cost for me to sign up two kids is about $ 600 for the first month and then $ 400 a month after that. Ouch! They only give a 10% break on the second kid and don’t offer any programs to stagger payments so it can be a little more manageable. Too bad. I would have liked to make it work.