Young Champions

Canceled a class with 15 kids in it after the second week, after we bought a uniform and paid in full. They are just greedy. It’s a karate class, with no equipment. Just because there were not at least 20 kids in the class they cancel it just like that. Lame

The instructors and class sessions are not the issue here. My beef is the complete cluster bomb that occurs at the competition that could be resolved simply and cheaply with SIGNAGE to direct parents to helpful registration and trophies, and participants to their group’s staging area. This is our second event and both were the same frustrating disorganized mess. I guess your organization is too busy collecting registration ($ 30 per participant & $ 3 per spectator) & personalized trophy fees ($ 5 for a printed sticker) or selling merchandise to put systems in place

We were interested in the Karate program in Davis and we registered and paid in full for entire season, the first class was canceled which we were informed by a personal there when we got there. The second time we arrive before the class and wait around until 15 mins past the class start time, no one showed up and there was no email or person there telling us the class was canceled again. We called the day before the third class and was notified the entire season was canceled due to low enrollment.
It is ok to cancel but we think you should at least inform the families who enrolled for the entire season, so we don’t have to go there every Wednesday and figure if there is a class or not. And if we were never called the center, does that mean there is no refund for what we paid for? When we registered on site we leaved all information including email and phone number, it is a VERY BASIC CURTESY TO NOTIFY US THE ENTIRE SEASON IS CANCELED, it’s not like you do not have any of our contact info and can’t let us know, and didn’t even bother to have someone on site for the second class to let people know it is canceled, again.
I am very unhappy about the whole system and I will not recommend it.

#1, I never ever write reviews so this shows how great this is. My daughter has been attending young champions Van Nuys cheer for a little over a year. She loves it. She never wants to miss a class and now I can use keeping her from class as a punishment when she doesn’t do her chores. Coach Maria is the best! She loves her students and is very supportive.

The only star is for the local staff. (I’d actually give them four stars but the organization as a whole is so far below zero that it barely averages out to one star.)
Local staff was dedicated and sensei taught my sons great lessons not only about karate but also about bullying and respect.
But this organization is ALL about money. Don’t be fooled by the low weekly rate. That’s just the beginning. Every week the kids are «required» to buy some item that doesn’t come in until weeks later and is not even used. Example: a plastic clapper that could be purchased for $ 3 online. YCOA gave my son a flyer with a «special» selling the required clapper with a T-​shirt (you couldn’t buy the clapper alone) for $ 20. It didn’t arrive until the last week of classes and was never used. Every week YCOA is pimping something, and asks the children to sell overpriced junk to earn credits against these purchases.
Class size is ridiculous. There were probably 30 kids in my son’s white belt class. At $ 7 a pop, that’s over $ 200 for 45 minutes in a church basement. Sensei did a fabulous job of keeping all the kids busy, but there’s absolutely no individualized attention. You certainly get what you pay for.
When we talked to YCOA early about the fee structure, we were told that there were no fees charged for testing. A lie! My son not only had to pay for every class (including missed classes, whether they were made up or not) in order to test, but we also had to pay a $ 12 «testing» fee. When I objected, they told me it was for the cost of the belt, and that I could NOT get that elsewhere.
I calculated the cost for four months of class and, with all the extras, it came to well over $ 300. For that, my son could have joined a local gojo and attended as many classes as he wanted, with fewer students.
Unless money is not an object, avoid this place like the plague. It’s a huge rip-​off.

I am so disappointed in this organization for a month you have been taking La Crescentas Money we show up to practice to find you will no longer have class in La Crescenta? That is EXTREMELY UNPROFESSIONAL AND EXTREMELY UNETHICAL. You do realize that you have hurt the hearts of children that LOVE CHEER! I expect a FULL REFUND FOR THE PAYMENT OF THE CLASSES ALONG WITH MY REGISTRATION FEE. Extremely disappointed. After TEN SESSIONS I get no phone call nothing. I WILL BE CALLING TOMORROW. 3 times I called and asked and everytime reassured there would be class.

fucking horrible do not sign up your child. program has now been canceled after they make me buy the expensive ass uniform and pom poms. now cant get my money back. if you want to waste money and time please sign up your child. they have «competitions» but in reality its just another chance for them to take your money. you have to pay for your child to compete pay, for the extra uniforms needed for one day, and pay for the trophy.

My first time going to my sons practice and I was told to get off my phone so freaking rude. The karate instructor couldn’t even tell me privately .he had to rudely say it in front of 30 ppl. I Was so embarrassed.
Obviously he has no class.

We signed our daughter up for cheer at the Elk Grove, CA location. We were very disappointed. On the first day, we were told the teacher had car problems and would be back the next week. The second week, we were told the teacher had an emergency. At the third week, we were told that the «substitute» for the first two weeks would be the teacher.
There were classes with no music. They would change the routine every week. They were allowing kids to sign up weeks into the program. It seemed disorganized and like there was no plan. Our daughter asked to stop going after 5 weeks.

Registered both of my sons for soccer at the Montebello location for fall 2014 and what a disappointment! Paid for registration and the 1^st class and the coach didn’t even introduce himself. 2^nd week of practice –coach was a no show. All of us parents thought it might be an emergency and the coach was not able to call us for whatever reason. 3^rd week– instructor was a no show again. By this time we were upset looking at the disappointment on the children’s face. Called the organization and was only able to leave a message that saturday so I decided to email as well. No call back or reply to my email. Tuesday I called Corporate (since they don’t seem to know how to return a call or reply to an email) to be notified that the class had been cancelled. I was never notified of this not by email or by phone and I know I was not the only parent that wasn’t notified because there were at least 6 other parents showing up to practice with their children. I was completely appalled and upset at the lack of professionalism both by the coach and the organization!!! They were not considerate of our time, energy and money. As of today i have not received a refund for the registration. I will NEVER allow my kids to part of this organization.
10÷27− (update)
I did receive a refund for the registration fee. And as far as an apology from the organization well the Unilocal reply was as far as it went. And the poor excuse that maybe because I registered online and that might have caused the miscommunication well that doesn’t sit well with me because besides registering online the 1^st day of practice I completed all the paperwork again so the coach had all our information. But thanks to that bad experience now my boys are part of the YMCA-​Montebello soccer league and they are loving it! They are organized, professional and truly care about the children!

This is not a good company. They don’t care about that teams aren’t in Orange County and have no regard for the lack of consistency of the coaches for teams down in SD. We were promised refunds and not every parent was given one, we found a coach we want to keep but the company refuses to let her stay. The competitions are always really far away for those of us that live in South SD so we never have the whole team show up which makes our routine have to change last minute. They just don’t care about teams/​locations that don’t win enough for their liking.

My 9 year old daughter attends Cheer at the Pico Rivera location. Coach Andrew is AWESOME! This is my daughters second session. She NEVER wanted to do anything active, so I «forced» her to go the first class and she’s loved it ever since. Coach Andrew makes all the girls feel equal and no one is better than the other. He has patience and teaches the girls how to have confidence. He is also very informative with the parents, emailing us, updating Facebook with announcements. Unlike the city park and rec cheer program, which is all about winning and competitiveness. My daughter needs to know that this is about having FUN FUN FUN! They also offer a scholarship program, which we are involved in. So it helps me afford to send my daughter to cheer. I highly recommend Young Champions!

We attend the Glendale karate location and have been since 2009. It has changed Sensei a lot more than we want and now it seems that this specific area is either orphaned or not being considered a profitable group because when we started going here it was fun, organized, focused on proper martial arts discipline, now it’s just boring, dead and undisciplined. We used to go to a lot of competition but has stopped because our Glendale chapter seems to be going down the drain fast. We miss Sensei Felipe. We’ve lost quite a number of involved families. The new Sensei we have is trying her best to get a good session going but she seems inexperienced, and unorganized. She reads a lot from the manual and the class is SLOW and undisciplined. We may have to move to another Sensei and we love Sensei Nate who we’ve had the chance of witnessing when he had to sub. Though the drive to Azusa is far and on week nights, we may just have to go. It is sad that the program in Glendale seems to be caving in. It feels like there’s a lot of politics involved… Oh well.

I am extremely upset with this company. My daugher went to two cheer classes and loved it. She was so excited about the competion. They told us we had to buy shoes and Pom poms. Fine, we bought them. There was a holiday this past week. Today, the coach’s facebook status mentioned the season being cancelled. Huh? No one from the team was notified. We all started calling them today and were all told that they DID call everyone. Nope! No one from the team was called. We wouldn’t have known if the coach didn’t mention it on facebook. Then, they told us that they would only refund the classes not taken, no registration fee, no pom poms or shoes or anything else we HAD to buy. They will only refund us with a cancelled check. (Front and back). My bank charges $ 14 to get a copy of the check. So, now I have to pay $ 14 for a refund? Total scam. I am very upset and so is the rest of the team! I hope they realize they burned their bridges in Simi Valley. I still want my full refund!

We attend Karate with Sensei Alex at the Downey Location. Although there are many students– Sensei Alex is great at targeting strengths and weaknesses of all his students– in order to build their skill levels.
He teaches the children to respect themselves, others, safety and to have confidence. My daughter is truly enjoying her experience! And I know she is learning and paying attention when she quotes Sensei’s lessons regarding respect and safety.

Van Nuys Division Coach Maria is great! She is taking the team again to Nationals in Las Vegas! My 2 daughters love cheer & they enjoy competition against other cities! Go HeartBreakers!

Head the warning folks the tournaments are run horribly
Our children joined Young Champions the end of 2013. They recently competed in the January 2014 Karate Tournament in Santa Ana CA. What a bad experience. The Sensei’s were all young and just stood around a talked the whole day. The main lady that was wearing a black sweatshirt that seemed to be running it (she was also announcing the winners) was incredible rude. Wow how dare she talk to people in the manner that she was talking to people. For example my daughter won 4^th place in an event and her comment was «well at least she tried». How rude, especially to a child. Also there was a strawberry blond lady with her hair pulled back in a pony tail and wearing a GI. She was also rude. Parents were told that they could come up and take pictures of their children while they were receiving their awards, at one point a parent asked a question about the specific award that was just handed out and she told them that parents could not be in that area and it was an award for 1 of 2 things but she didn’t know. So when asked if she could look it up and tell the parent the other lady chimed in and said this area is not for adults. Hello you have been announcing that parents can come up and take pictures right there (but apparently you can’t ask questions). Wow!!! Then there was some down time prior to one event and certain sensei’s were pulling their students out of the stands and practicing with only them. That is a disadvantage if you ask me, especially if there are other competitors that are in the stands that don’t have their sensei to practice with. If they are going to do that they should announce that all competitors are welcome down on the floor to practice and go over the next event. I am very unhappy with the way this event is run. I don’t think we will participate in another one. Now we can see why non of the other students in our city participated in this event.

We attend Nate’s karate class. He’s outstanding with the kids, teaching discipline and creating a fun environment. Highly recommend this program.

My 5 year old son joined karate this year for the 1^st time under Sinsei Nate. Nate is an excellent instructor and is great with the kids! He easily keeps them focused, in lined and happy to be there learning! We enjoy Nate’s class very much and highly recommend him!

A post received from another family that was involved in Young Champions:
«The 1^st. competition was unorganized and we were promised it would be better. I was out of town for the 2^nd. and was not about to send my kid without my husband and I there due to very interesting group of adults. I’m not surprised at all the the verbal fight broke out. It almost did the last time at the registration table. As for the class, there are too many student for one coach to deal with and need at least two assistance. Too many students without good listening skill and the parents are the worst.»