Dietrich’s Karate

Qualifies for no stars. A word to the wise, if you value integrity and honor know that Dietrich’s Karate does not. If you want to truly learn martial arts don’t be fooled by the fast talking Master of this Karate Dojo. His shady, underhanded, unethical and dishonorable business practices should be avoided. Dietrich’s karate is nothing but a «Belt Factory». A place where a fool and his/​her money are soon parted. Dietrich only cares about money. If you sign on with him you WILL regret it.

Our review of Dietrich’s is based on two + years of experience. Here are some observations:
The adult classes, taught by Mr. Scyoc, were great. They have the classes split by level so the newbies aren’t in there with the brown and black belts. I was never in a class that I thought was too big and there was a good camaraderie between students and teacher if you needed help with something.
Our daughter started as a Ninja just before turning 5. She had fun but we could tell pretty quickly that she needed more challenge than the Ninja class (basically the same games over and over again). We didn’t get any offer to move her up to Dragons and she remained a Ninja until she aged out at 6. Perhaps if we had pushed then we could have advanced her earlier but we thought that Master Dietrich would be doing that kind of evaluation and we trusted his judgement.
Our son started as a Ninja just before turning 3, which in hindsight was a bit young but we had signed up for a family plan so why not?! He was still a Ninja two years later working toward his black belt but was stalled (again, same games over and over again — how many times can you play «Dragon Tail»?). Other kids were «graduating» to Dragons (without earning black belts or aging out like was required of our daughter, they were just being moved up). We scheduled a meeting with Master D to discuss it and to question (whether) what the plan was for our son. I believe if we hadn’t asked, Master D would have been happy continuing to take our money and seeing very little progress out of our son. However, after our meeting, he did make some adjustments in the class and started giving our son more responsibility and I saw real improvement in our son over the last couple of months before his black belt test. So I was optimistic about the future until the weekend of the testing.
That testing weekend was our last experience at the dojo due to an «encounter» I had with Ms. Smith, the blonde lady referred to in other reviews here. We had issues with Ms. Smith the entire time we had been going to the dojo. I’m not sure why but both my husband and I had could sense it and I know we were not the only family to feel this way. It actually made the dojo a fairly uncomfortable place to be at times because you never knew if you were going to get happy Ms. Smith or grouchy Ms. Smith. She was very inconsistent in her personality and her enforcement of certain rules. What I noticed was that it wasn’t just inconsistent from time to time but from family to family. She corrected my kids for things that other kids were doing. I’m fine with the correction of the kids, that is part of what they are there for is to learn respect, etc. but it should be applied consistently and it should be communicated properly. Well, at the black belt testing, Ms. Smith corrected my kids for something that they weren’t even doing. So, I didn’t want to take it anymore and I said something to her about it. Her response was completely unprofessional. I went home and told my husband we were quitting. He convinced me to go back to the next day (my daughter had testing) and to try the «just ignore her» technique that we had tried so many times. Well, let’s just say she didn’t let it drop and was completely unprofessional and rude again. So, we told Master Dietrich we needed to meet and we walked out.
I mention scheduling a meeting as if that is an easy thing to do. During our experience at the dojo, we set up meetings for a variety of topics and arranged our schedules to meet theirs and still had several meetings cut short because Master Dietrich had double-​booked or was busy talking to other customers during our time, or just didn’t bother to show up on time… as if our time wasn’t as important.
Other issues involved poor management. Example, we ordered sparring gear when we first became gold belts even though we wouldn’t need it until the green belt. They joked «yeah, it takes that long»…Wrong. It took longer! We paid over $ 300 for gear and waited almost 5 months for it. My husband’s progress in class was stalled because he didn’t have his gear for months! That’s unacceptable. Another example is when my daughter was testing from Ninja to Dragon. It is a big deal to move up and they take the paperwork ahead of time to know who is testing. On the day of her test, they didn’t have the Dragon White Belt for her. Pretty disappointing to a 6 year old who had been taking classes for over a year!
Last comment is that after all our time at Dietrich’s, when it came time to leave due to the unprofessional behavior of HIS employee, he fought us on giving us our money back claiming he couldn’t give refunds (it’s HIS company) and that he sent things to his attorneys (there was no contract so not sure what he sent), etc. We had to get our credit card company involved to get our refund. Classy.
Be forewarned: It can be good but it can also be very bad. Be careful!

Be aware of this place, These people are absolute monsters to you, your child and your check book. Not only do they use physical exercise as a positive they also use it as a punishment. As promised last school year and the year before that (2011 – 2012) they promised to take children on weekly (i would have been okay with bi-​weekly) field trips to kid friendly place; sounds okay? well it happened once or twice in the first 5 months. Not to mention that they give out a bargaining chip such as free T-​shirts yet half the students there did not get one until 9 weeks in. The staff is not trained for any child care whats so ever and can be very insensitive towards some children’s needs. also the two main people are scam artists who do not care for your child, they only care for what is in your wallets. I would not suggest this place to ANYONE even my worse of enemies, People I know who have also had these problems have made the change to other Dojo/​karate schools and are living it up, I would suggest to look else where

Stay far away from this place. Someone should report them to the better business bureau. What a rip-​off!!!

We are skeptical of this place because of wavering on the price. At our initial interview, which he requested, Master Dietrich quoted us a price of $ 99/​month. Kinda expensive but we were willing to do it because he seemed so good.
The next day at our trial lesson, the blonde assistant told us that the price changed in the last day to $ 199/​month, which is crazy for a 4 year old kid. When we walked out at this outrageous price, he called back to say — just kidding that was a mistake, it is $ 99/​month. Yeah right dude, you got too greedy, you had us at $ 99 but not anymore.
Be careful here!

Wish I could give zero stars. Be careful of this place. At first glance appears to be great but after a while you realize it’s a rip off and Master Dietrich is just a very good salesman. I now know that PARKTAKES (
) offers Little Ninjas classes at a much cheaper rate. Depending on the type and location of the class you get 10 45-​minute lessons for $ 83.00 or 10 30-​minute lessons for $ 90, a real bargain.
We experienced a couple of problems with Master Dietrich. We went to a free lesson and my child loved it so we decided to sign up. That «free» lesson was taught by Master Dietrich and was the only good lesson he got. We attended a total of 3 lessons before we decided this was not the right place for us. The other two lessons were taught primarily by two «preteens» not by Master Dietrich. Master Dietrich was busy for most of my son’s classes giving private lessons to a teenager. The exercises the preteens had my son’s class performing were nothing more than «busy work». I was told by Master Dietrich he would be learning karate here and he was not.
The other problem we experienced was payment. I specifically told Master Dietrich I was not willing to obligate my 3 year old to an entire package of lessons, but I was willing to pay monthly as long as my son enjoyed the classes. Master Dietrich verbally agreed to this and asked his assistant to take my first month’s payment and have us sign paperwork. The assistant (a blond lady) supposedly could not find any paperwork but promised she would have everything ready for us to sign when we showed up next time. She said we owed $ 300.00 for the first month ($ 100 for 4 classes and a $ 100 registration fee). When I asked what the other $ 100 was for she said it was for the uniform (I later found out the uniforms are only $ 49.99).
She did not have our paperwork ready for us the next week. At our third lesson I went to her and asked about our paperwork. She handed me some papers and asked me to sign. I was surprised to see it was for a package of lessons. When I complained and explained that Master Dietrich and I had agreed I could pay monthly she said that’s not how it’s done here. I explained I would not obligate a 3 year old to a package of lessons, «he’s only three and too young to make that decision». At this point she because angry and stated «that’s your job as a parent, you decide what he does and when.» I stated I didn’t understand why she was becoming angry, that right now we were exploring different activities to see what my son liked and that I had no intention of signing a 3 year old up for a bundle of lessons. I asked to speak to Master Dietrich. Dietrich was unavailable but his assistant assured me she would have him call.
Needless to say he never called. We consider this a very expensive lessons learned.