Membership · May 10, 2026

What it costs to train with us, down to the dollar

Martial arts pricing has a reputation, and some of it is earned. Long contracts with cancellation clauses, surprise testing fees, belt packages, "black belt club" upsells, the works. If you have shopped around for a martial arts school, you have probably encountered the phone call where they will not tell you the price until you come in for a tour.

We find all of that a little exhausting, so let us just put our numbers on the table, because we think transparency is a form of respect, and because a not-for-profit dojo has nothing to hide anyway.

The monthly fee

Adults train for $125 a month. Students in K-12 train for $75, and so do college and university students from any South Florida school with a student ID. That covers all of it, every general class and open practice we hold, every week: Wednesday evenings, Saturday afternoons, and the Sunday morning members' practice.

Do the honest math with us. An adult attending both weekly general classes trains eight to nine times a month, which works out to around fourteen dollars a class, with the Sunday practices on top for free. Compare that to almost any structured activity in Miami, a yoga studio, a personal trainer, a golf hobby, and iaido starts to look like one of the more affordable obsessions available.

There is no contract. Fees are month to month, there is nothing to sign and nothing to cancel, and if life takes you away for a season, work, travel, a new baby, you simply come back when you can. People do, all the time, and they are welcomed back like family, because that is what they are. Families training together get a discount too, so if you and your kid, or you and your spouse, want to share an art, ask us about that. Few things make us happier than families on the floor together.

The annual federation fee

Every member registers with the All United States Kendo Federation, which costs about $100 a year. That is not our fee and we do not keep it. Here is what it actually buys you, because it is worth understanding.

First, insurance coverage for your training. Second, and more meaningfully, membership in the national body that governs iaido rank in this country. When you test for a rank at our dojo, you are testing under AUSKF standards, judged by certified examiners, and the rank you earn is recognized nationally and in Japan. It is a real credential in a worldwide system, not a certificate we print in the back room. Third, it opens the door to seminars and events where you can train with senior teachers from around the country and beyond.

We think that legitimacy is worth every penny, and it is a big part of what separates a traditional dojo from a strip-mall studio with its own in-house belt factory.

Gear, honestly

For your first class, sweatpants. Really. And for a while after that, honestly.

As you continue, you will eventually want the traditional uniform, the keikogi and hakama, and you will work with a wooden sword called a bokuto at first. Later, when your fundamentals are ready, comes an iaito, a specially made unsharpened practice sword. Much later, for senior practitioners, some choose a shinken, a real blade, but that is a distant conversation and nobody should be thinking about it in year one.

Here is our promise on equipment: there is no rush and no markup. We will guide you honestly about what to buy, when to buy it, and more importantly what not to buy. The internet is full of beautiful, expensive, wrong choices, swords with the wrong balance, the wrong length, the wrong everything, sold to beginners who did not yet know what questions to ask. Ask us first. Beginners do not need expensive equipment. They need consistent practice and decent knees, and we can help with both.

Where the money goes

We are a not-for-profit dojo, and this is the part we would put in bold letters if bold letters were not a little loud for our taste. Fees keep the lights on and the floor cared for at our home in the Japan Cultural Center. Our instructors teach because teaching is part of the art, the way it has been passed on for centuries, and you will never get a sales pitch from any of them.

Nobody here earns a commission when you sign up. Nobody's paycheck depends on talking you into a bigger package, because there are no packages. That single fact changes the feel of a school more than anything else we could tell you. When you ask a question about whether you are ready to test, or whether you need new equipment, the answer you get is a teacher's honest opinion, not a revenue strategy.

The real cost

Now for the honest part that has nothing to do with money.

The true price of iaido is showing up. On Wednesday nights when the couch argues otherwise. On Saturday afternoons when Miami offers you a beach instead. Most weeks, for years. There is no way to buy progress in this art, no premium tier, no shortcut package, and we find that genuinely beautiful. The wealthiest beginner and the brokest college student stand on the same floor, and the art only asks them the same single question: did you practice?

That is also where all the value is. Everything iaido gives you, the calm, the posture, the focus, the community, the slow accumulation of skill that nobody can take away, comes from the showing up, not from the paying.

If the numbers work for you, come take your free first class. We will be happy to see you, and your wallet can stay in your gym bag where it belongs.

Thinking about visiting? Book a free trial class and come meet us.