Anyone ever heard of Tiger Schulmann?

Just wanted any info you have on the guy! Thanks a lot

I don't know much about him, but I actually met him for like 5 seconds when I was younger when he was in his convertable. I was passing out flyers and he told me who he was. He started blabbing about his school and stuff. I didn't care much since I was representing my cousin's TKD place. He's pretty well known by my friends for his cool shotokan karate commercials(that's about all they know ). He seems pretty cool. I was surprised when I saw that he had a muay thai branch. They're pretty good fighters, and when I saw a tournament on TV the croud was all over them. I know this won't help, but since you brought him up I just wanted to share this.

Hold on.

I know of one of his schools in Cherry Hill NJ. I visited that school before I joined my TSD school. I wasn't impressed by it. I watched two classes (and I didn't know anything about martial arts or what to look for, and they still didn't impress me).

 

I went to a tourny in August (mixed-style tourny) and his students were in it. There were 4 or 5 of them. Only one placed (first place in breaking), the rest sucked. I don't mean to sound like I'm putting them down, but They were trying outragous stuff, like a color belt trying to break three bricks ...... The guy who won on their team only broke boards with a 540, superman (running, jumping, and flying through the air and hitting the board with your fist) and a flash kick. He was good. But the rest of them were trying stuff that they were not ready for. They got their butts wooped in sparring by my school and a TKD school.

 

I'm not saying all his schools are like that (I hope not), but that one wasn't too good.

 

_________________

 

Laurie S.

 

Yellow belt/green stripe TKD

 

(formally 5th gup blue belt TSD)

 

[ This Message was edited by: karatekid1975 on 2002-04-21 22:45 ]

The class I'm attending now was set up nicely.

 

First he gives you 5, 1/2 hour private lessons to test your skills and to teach you a little to show you what the class is about...then after that 5 lessons, you chose whether or not to join or stop.

 

I joined.

Yeah. I could rant on for a while here, but I'd just end up all stressed out. Tiger Schulmann's karate is potentially a good school. The problem is that they have 1 thing in mind over all else. Getting as much money from their students in as short a period of time, and not allowing any refunds etc if you don't cancel within the first 30 days. The beginner class is a scam. You sign up for 100 lessons for around 1300 bucks. These are beginner only. Each beginner class is EXACTLY the same class, every class. jumping jacks, toe touches, jab punch, cross punch, jab-cross-hook combinations, kicking of 3 different types on pads, self defense move how to get out of a choke and wrist grab, and that's it. EXACTLY the same class for all 100 classes. You could get the same thing from a 20 dollar tae-bo tape. After about 30-50 classes into this, they'll approach you and offer you the multi-thousand dollar plan for 250 more classes, even though you have 70-50 classes left on beginner. You're stuck taking this tae-bo like class unless you submit to this crazy sales tactic. There is no advancement beyond absolute bottom of the barrel karate unless you commit (with no refunds possible) to 3 years, and about 4 grand worth of lessons. On top of that, they make you pay at least 230 a month until you're finished, with no other low payment options available. They want this so they can get as much of your money as possible before you try and quit. Apparently the new york district attorney won a case against them. It was centered around franchise fees which I won't debate here, but he tacked the following onto the bottom, and it's absolutely true. Tiger schulmanns eventually appealed and won the franchise thing, but the part about the lessons still stands totally true to this day and should be illegal.

 

Spitzer also found that the school engaged in "bait and switch" sales tactics to entice consumers into signing up for karate classes. Students paid an initial fee of $1,500 for 150 classes. However, high pressure sales tactics were used to induce students who had not completed the 150 classes to sign a second contract for intermediate classes, which cost $3,525 for 250 sessions. Refunds were not given for unused classes and students could not advance to the next level of instruction without signing the more expensive contract. Thus, students were being charged $5,000 for 400 classes.

The only thing I know about Tiger is that he has won several knockdown karate tourneys and he has created his own hybrid style of MA. He is reputed as being one bad individual and he is in very good condition. He suposedly makes his students go through extreme physical conditioning drills and even more intense training the higher they go up in rank. Black belt magazine di an article on him and his school.