Virginia Martial Arts Center

This place is really great! The staff is friendly, knowledgeable and clearly very concerned for both the students' safety, and the enjoyment they get from the classes. They push the kids to excel in a way that develops the kids' own internal motivation, so the students only feel how much they want to be there. The facility is clean, orderly and safe, and all the equipment is clearly well-maintained. We really appreciated how welcomed we have felt ever since the first day we showed up. We only needed about 2 days of our free two-week trial before we knew we would be staying and committing for the long-term.

Fantastic Karate school, friendly and knowledgable staff. Great value for families and affordable.

My son is 5 and absolutely loves it here! Sensai Donna is absolutely amazing and very patient with the children. It’s a very family oriented place. I had checked out 3 other karate places and fell in love with this one. I highly recommend bringing your children here.

Regular karate courses: I can only speak to the novice course (yellow belt and under). I really like the regular courses and it's very well-organized and they even have some fun games and rec activities for the kids during class (mostly during the novice Monday and Wednesday 5pm classes from my experience). The senseis and leaders are great and we love the headmaster (hanshi). The elements of building confidence, community, support, discipline, exercise, and respect are what truly shine through at Western Branch Virginia Martial Arts Center. The parents are really great too and really help to build the structure and love that I see here in this dojo. They also host a lot of events, which are really cool for kids (regular bounce house gatherings and trunk-or-treat, for instance) and tournaments. Thank you for everything you do here for Western Branch! Day Camp: My family wasn't crazy about the karate summer camp. Although the price was reasonable and it was advertised as not being a daycare, I couldn't help but feel that it really was a different spin on daycare. For one thing, the age groups are too wide for the way that they handle the group of campers (yelling at an entire group of kids for bad behavior will probably be confusing to a kindergartener). Another issue is that the camp leaders have a hard time balancing discipline and fun with the arduous task of applying karate to a day camp. Even if your 7-year-old is die hard about karate, the camp doesn't really allow for accelerated learning or achievement in skill or belt advancement. It ended up not being fun for my son, so we won't be doing the camp again.

Had my grandson there. He did the last 5 weeks of summer camp till 12/17. He did manage to get 3 pieces of black tape while I watched a bunch of other kids start way after him and get moved up fast and not being any better or as good as him on the mat. I was told they help the kids do their homework but that never happened either. I guess they have their favorites. I’m very disappointed with the way they do thing I will never have any of my grandkids go there again or recommend anyone to try it