Third Eye Martial Arts

My 8 year old son first enrolled at Third Eye in March of last year. Since then, there has been no looking back! He goes at least 4 times a week and some weeks will go every single day– sometimes even 2 classes per day. I attend a majority of the classes and have observed countless hours of training. The studio on West 8^th is large, spotlessly clean and well equipped– an excellent spot for my son to work on improving his mind and body. Over the last 15 months I have seen fantastic progress in my boy’s physical condition and skills. I attribute this largely to the staff who are extremely professional and great teachers… They are very supportive and make learning fun for the students, but also don’t put up with any nonsense. I can’t praise this school highly enough– I wouldn’t think of going anywhere else for my son to continue his quest for a black belt. A huge thumbs up to Master Saaditi and all of the talented Instructors and staff at Third Eye Martial Arts!

The representatives (and I believe the owner) of the studio came to our local elementary school and got the kids really jazzed up about breaking wooden boards with their hands and feet. They sent the kids home with an offer, and I quote; TWO free private introductory lessons, 1 month free Taekwondo lessons, free uniform (total value $ 280). We attended for the first free lesson, they dressed my child in a crisp, new, TaeKwonDo uniform, and did a 25 minute class of mostly kicking and punching at the instructor’s hands. After the class, we were escorted into the office where we were presented with ‘THE PLAN’. The instructor used every trick in the book reminiscent of the high pressures sales tactics of days gone by, using my child as the pawn. He instructed my child to tell me how much my child loved the class; «you really want to take lessons here right?» and reconfirmed the desire to take lessons over and over. He then sat us down, leaving my child in the room, opened a binder with the amounts written down, and proceeded to show us the sign up requirement in order to get the free month. In fact, one needed to commit to and pay for 6 months at $ 179 per month to get the free month, and also pay on top of that a $ 99 registration fee. I was highly annoyed and shared my opinion that I felt the faclility had been incredibly misleading by advertising one thing and then attempting to pressure us into something completely different. Our discussion was confrontational, and I found the owner to be coercive and dishonest. They preyed upon our school with their free demonstration, then offered something too good to be true, which was just that. They claim to teach respect and honour, but their business strategy is one of the most conniving styles I have personally experienced. I am so disappointed in how this entity has dishonoured the true spirit of Taekwondo, and when I most likely would have joined on some level after our free month, I am now determined to let everyone out there know about the very terrible and negative experience I had. I would not trust Third Eye Martial Arts to teach my children anything.