United Tae Kwon Do Academy

My kid goes here, they’re really nice to him.
You do have to sign up a year at a time, and it’s either $ 150 a month for 3x a week or more ($ 170 per month) PLUS a 3-​year commitment for unlimited per week.

When we first moved to Chapel Hill 2 years ago, we decided that my 8-​year old daughter should take a martial art. We ended up choosing Tae Kwon Do although we went with a different school. I took martial arts as a teenager so I was relatively familiar with the beginning (white and yellow belt) instruction so it was fairly easy for me to see if my daughter knew the material or not. In addition, I work from home but live in a downtown area where there are not many children so we decided to take advantage of the other school’s afterschool program. After a full year at the other school, and several very frank and honest conversations with the instructor, I concluded that, while they are very good with children, in my opinion, they were no more than a belt factory. It seemed like every 2 months was bonus time for the family owned business so while the owner’s wife sported her Louis Vuitton bags, the children were graduated to the next belt despite many of them obviously not knowing the material in their testing.
I proceeded to look for another school and had heard of UTA in the past. I went to visit the school and I had a frank conversation with the office manager and the head instructor in an effort to vet this school better, share my previous experience and explore their philosophy in regards to testing, belt promotions, etc. Needless to say, based on their answers, I enrolled my daughter in their afterschool and TKD programs. They’ve been nice, friendly and have taken due diligence ensuring that my daughter was prepared and ready to test prior to allowing her to do so.
Yes, they have «events» as another reviewer put it but that’s OK with me. They have extra-​curricular activities as well (like Parent’s Night Out) but nobody is required to participate. Yes, they tell the kids about upcoming events at the end of class but many times that’s the only way the parents know about the activities. I like my daughter having social activities. Of course they cost extra money. This is a business. The activities cost money for them to put on.
Overall, I have been pleased to date with their afterschool program as well as the Tae Kwon Do instruction that my daughter has been receiving. Remember, she doesn’t NEED afterschool care. My primary goal was to ensure that our daughter received a solid TKD education and not be advanced faster than she should be.
UTA has not let me down so far.

This has taken me a while to post, but I wanted to share our story. To cut to the chase, we do NOT recommend UTA.
We (my wife and I) entered into a one-​year Member Contract with UTA (United Taekwondo Academy) in February, 2012 for our 10-​year-​old son. (Spoiler alert: Don’t sign one-​year contracts with a martial arts school!) The UTA representative gave the sales pitch and we signed the agreement (without really paying much attention to the fine print on the back, of course). We payed $ 1485, or $ 135/​mo. on our Visa card. Our son needed, as far as we were concerned, the discipline of a martial art, the consistency of multiple weekly classes and the benefit of consistent physical exercise. And for the first couple of months, that’s what we got at UTA. Enthusiastic instructors, high energy classes (if not strong in the technique department), school picnics.
But as soon as the spring got into full swing, it was clear that the emphasis at UTA was on the business of bringing kids into the school, charging them fees for everything, and going to TKD contests!
Beyond that, the administration — for all their apparent good intentions — was woeful. On three different occasions over the summer, there were classes scheduled that did not occur — and given that we live about 25 minutes from the school, was a serious inconvenience among other things. On one of those occasions, my wife made sure to call the UTA office on the morning of the scheduled class. Although the office manager assured her there was a class, the class had, in fact been cancelled! I dropped our 10 year-​old off and left as he entered the school.
As it turned out, of course, there was no class — cancelled at the last minute. But, also of course, the most alarming thing of all was that no provision was made for his safety by the instructor or by the office! Our 10 year-​old went out the door, and the office closed a short time later — without a teacher or any member of the office staff making sure that he had a parent or guardian to take him home, or that he had some other arrangement. Someone in the office certainly could have called me right then on the cell phone listed for me. But our son was left to fend for himself until I came to pick him up 2 hours later.
Although we have since worked on his options in such situations (like insisting that he use the office phone to call us at the outset), the incident was one that could have been tragic — and, in our estimation, UTA certainly failed in their responsibility to act as loco parentis. Our pediatrician actually advised a lawsuit, but as to the law: no harm, no foul. Needless to say, however, UTA lost our confidence in them to watch our child, let alone engage with him in a contact sport.
And although we appreciate the loyalty and spirit of the school, during tournament season (s), Saturday classes are often cancelled so that the students can support their school at tournaments and such. We were certainly never warned that this would be the norm — though given our child’s school and sports schedule, Saturdays are the best option for him and one of the reasons we signed in the first place.
Honestly, we have all simply soured on UTA. We really do not want any more difficulty or meetings with administration — and they certainly offered that to assuage us. We have also had a number of email exchanges with the administration, from early in the summer when we complained about lack of communication involving schedule changes. Eventually we had to go to court — we lost, given that we certainly signed the agreement that says UTA has sole discretion about when they offer classes, how they offer them, and when they cancel them. We just wanted solid, consistent martial arts lessons for our children with staff and instructors we trust when we signed — but there was nothing in the fine print about that.
At this point, we have no more faith in UTA; before we pulled him from the school, he cried at the mention of going to class, and our dealings with UTA’s administration have been frustrating at best.
So, to make a long story short, beware. They do have some things to offer, but there are a lot of other schools that do it with more organizational integrity.

Tae Kwon Do, Inc… otherwise known as United Tae Kwon Do has been more than a disappointment — it’s been disastrous! My children had shown some interest in Tae Kwon Do and so my husband took them for a lesson. My kids had taken a few lessons years ago at this place and we thought it would be a good place to start (United TKD was previously under a different ownership). When my husband took my kids for the first time in several years, the owner/​manager convinced my husband (who is not from this country) to sign a three year contract that cost about $ 260 a month. For. The. Next. Three. Years. Over the last 2+ years that we have had this «special membership» my kids have attended 3 – 5 lessons. And if we are late with a payment, the management goes ballistic. Apparently there is no way to get out of the contract, so each lesson (assuming they have taken 5) has cost $ 640. They will absolutely not let us out of this contract, even though we are really struggling to make ends meet. And on top of their unreasonableness, a TKD lesson at United consists of 10 – 15 minutes of warm up, 20 minutes of team exercises, and only about 10 minutes of real TKD practice, then another 10 minutes of cool down and add to that several minutes of the kids sitting in line listening to upcoming events, etc. Time practicing the sport is at an absolute minimum. And I am comparing this to a TKD school that my son attended in Raleigh when he was younger. The one bright spot is that Shay, one of the black belt teachers, is an awesome guy. But did I mention that lower belts get taught by more advanced students rather than actual instructors that are paid to teach? This is unfair both to the new students and the more advanced students who should be receiving their own instruction. Although these are not tennis lessons, this operation is truly a racket.