TL;DR: The most disrespectful interaction I've ever had while trying to get involved in a new activity. When going to Praxis in person to try and follow up on an intro lesson I had taken on the previous week, the owner told me to leave the gym and refused to talk to me.
Personal detailed story:
I signed up online for an intro lesson at Praxis for Jan 2nd. I was informed that intro lessons are on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Upon arrival, I saw a larger class taking place alongside a separate intro class, which appeared to be the norm. The lesson with Akira was great, and Larry, the owner, stopped by to say hi and mentioned that I would receive follow-up material by email. On Jan 4th, I attempted to contact the school through their online forms but received no response. I showed up for the next intro class regardless, and Larry said I could join without any issues. He added that he couldn't talk at the moment because he was teaching the class. This interaction with him lasted about 30 seconds. The lesson with Josh was great.
I tried to contact the school (the official contact seems to be the owner's phone) again by email, text message, and phone a few times, but to no avail. I bought a Gi since I had developed an interest in the sport and decided to show up for the next class regardless. When I arrived, Larry was busy, so I changed into the Gi and spoke to the intro instructor. I waited without going onto the mat. Larry approached me, seemingly annoyed, and said, "You need to wear a t-shirt under the Gi in this gym" (I had never worn a Gi in my life and no one had informed me of this rule). He continued, "Enrollment is closed. You can't just come in whenever you feel like it. You're not training today. Change back into regular clothes." The tone seemed a bit unnecessary, but I complied and changed back into street clothes. I then decided to wait and talk to Larry (to see if I could sign up for a different cohort/start date) or to understand how to sign up since the intro-class instructor mentioned that Larry might have some time after the other class finished warming up. However, Larry saw me standing there with the instructor, waved goodbye, and pointed at the door, saying, "I won't talk to you. Goodbye. I'm teaching a lesson. Leave the gym.".
Honestly, I can't tell what annoyed him so much, and I feel like my interactions with everyone else at the gym were very positive. The instructors for the intro lessons (who are colored belts) were all very friendly. If the problem was simply that the class was full, it could have been easily handled with a polite explanation, such as, "Hey, the classes are unfortunately full, and it doesn't seem like we'll have space in the near future. <Insert optional instructions on waitlist here>."
Overall review:
Despite my own bad experience with the owner, the students I talked to there seemed happy with the place, and the intro-class instructors were particularly nice and encouraging. If you don't get very unlucky getting arbitrarily selected as dislikable by the owner and don't mind this happening to some people, it's probably a decent place to train. I take selective respect as the reason for the 1 star review.
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Posted 2 years ago
