Reviews of Sung Lee Taekwondo

My child has been at this school for more than ten years. He has completed every program offered and not only learn taekwondo but also life lessons that help him outside the dojang and in school. Like being truthful, respectful, honest, disciplined, have integrity and be fair to everyone. Sunglee taekwondo offers programs that help kids learn the value of being good kids and citizens in addition to teaching them taekwondo. It is a traditional Taekwondo school and instructors go an extra mile to keep students safe during class. The tests for promotion are conducted with utmost seriousness.

During CoVid the school provided regular online lesson and kept the kids engaged. When they returned to class, everyone was provided with a mask made of surgical material free of cost. They followed all AHS protocols for the kids to be safe. It was remarkable effort when other dojangs were shutting down and unable to offer classes.

The instructors are awesome. They are also training a second line of instructors from among the black belt students. To pass each level they have to meet a stringent set of criteria.

Along with the regular curriculum, the school has Hawarang classes for selected group of (talented and committed) students, has a demo team, requires students to learn how to be a referee, has three tournaments each year to introduce kids to a friendly competitive environment.

I am really disappointed by some of the recent reviews below. They are malicious and untruthful and attack instructors who provide a safe and respectful environment for learning martial arts. I request the owners of the site to remove these reviews.

I am really surprised to see the behaviour of one of the instructors with her students. It is so unprofessional and embarrassing for parents who are watching from behind the glass windows. How will it look if grandmaster or Noah allowed one of the girl students to climb on their shoulders, or hug them in full view, etc.

Noah is a good instructor, but struggles to handle a huge class one after other for every day of the week. I hope they pay him well for all his commitment to the dojang.

Once you filter out the stupid things that go on, it’s a good place.

The instruction at the school has really gone down. They have one instructor - Noah. The other instructor Raxle is very poorly trained (if trained at all!) and does not know how to train in any organized way. Yelling and shouting is commonly seen in class along with finger pointing. No appreciation of cultures. She seems to be in charge of instructor training and is making young teenagers in charge of classes. Probably students who follow her around and are her favourites.

Last test, the students did not get to break wooden boards. Something my child was looking forward to. The school can’t be so poor so as not to afford wooden boards. They charge a huge fee for classes and separately for promotion tests.

The school does have a good program for kids for overall development and not just taekwondo. But it is going down as a gym. I am looking for an alternative.

Unfortunately, the reviews posted earlier are true. The gym has bad discipline. The new lady instructor has brought in favouritism and nepotism to the gym. She has broken every rule and good practice and promotes her friends and relatives. Students without meeting the requirements move ahead if they follow her. She herself does not know how to teach and yells and screams at students. Scares them.

Do not sign long-term contract with the gym and follow the progress of your child carefully. Bring poor behaviour and lack of discipline to the attention of the people on the front desk.

This place is trash the instructors there are mean, if you are late to class they will get very mad and maybe they will give you push ups. I started going to the main gym location and before 1 month I quit. The people there are very annoying like the black belts that are helpers including the instructors.

I do not recommend this place

This Place sucks The instructors there are very mean, like if you are late they will get mad at you and they might give you push ups. Everyone in Sung lee are very annoying like the students are super annoying including the Helpers ( Black belts ) and instructors.

I don’t recommend going there.

The atmosphere is good, truly familiar and enjoyable

However the prices are insane (tournaments, and referee training are vital if you want your black belt and you have to pay for them)

Go for it if you have the money, I wish you luck!

I have been at Sung Lee Taekwondo Main Gym for 3 years. They have taught me a lot of self defense and to learn a lot of new skills. I have gained a ton of confidence since I have started here and I am hoping by next summer to earn my black belt. The instructors expect us to work hard but they are also patient with us as we learn. It is not all work as there are fun days as well with movie nights, camp weeks and other fun events.

You are treated as family and not just a member. Great instructors who take the time to teach every student with patience and respect.

My daughter has been going to Sung Lee Taekwondo's St. Albert location for over 5 years now. She has achieved the level blackbelt. The quality of instructors in St. Albert is excellent and the Solo family go above and beyond just being their "teacher". We have formed strong friendships with this family and others that go there. There is just the right amount of strictness and discipline where all the kids have amazing respect for Greg Sir. He is so great with the little ones! It is an honour to have Greg Sir teach my child.

We love Sung Lee Taekwondo and recommend this gym to anyone who is thinking of putting their child in a family based martial art.

This place is garbage is doesn't care about the students, michelle scares children! she shouldn't be working in this place her teaching ethic is non existent! The old master left in 2018 so to all those ignorant people saying he's there, He is gone! he resigned people! noah is a moron and doesn't care about any of the children, the prices are insane! they constantly go up and these people pressure you into going to tournaments because there's a $50 cost! it's a dirty horrid money pit please don't bring your children here!

The place was great until the old instructor master Kwak resigned at the end of August 2018. Then we got Noah sir. Master Kwak was an all around great instructor and Noah sir is a great person with a great personality but lacks basic teaching skills. The price is ridiculous and if you’re not in the leadership or hwrang program the black belt test is 600+$. If you manage to make it to the test of 2 dan it will cost 800 bucks and the uniform 100. So why not join leadership and then join hwrang? When you join leadership they well add 3 years to your contract and the fee monthly will increase. Same goes for hwrang. They also raised the price of ”mandatory" tournaments. Did I mention that you can only sign for years at a time and not month to month? Well now you know. I’m a former black belt student and my friends and I used to love this place but we're all dropping out 1 by 1. Noah sir has no teaching qualities and treats adults like kids. The place used to be much more serious but now it is a mc dojo. You are better off going to Hong park or spirit taekwando. Thank you for taking the time to read this😁

The taekwondo taught by this school is very tradional. A lot of parents sign their kids up expecting Taekwondo to be like children’s swimming lessons, something with minimal effort, and no other skills to be gained. Taekwondo isn’t like that. Traditional Taekwondo teaches you so much more than just how to punch or kick. You can learn discipline, perseverance, patience and gain self confidence, along with how to defend yourself.

For better or for worse though, you have to work for this. You can’t just show up to class, with no regard to discipline and rules of taekwondo, and expect to learn all of this. How to bow, when to bow, how to behave when a higher belt is instructing you - all of this is something you’re taught early on. It may seem strict to some, but if you don’t have the discipline or willingness to learn, taekwondo simply isn’t for you.

Basically, know what you’re getting into. Taekwondo is for people who are serious about learning and doing the best they can. If you or your kids can’t do that, stick to other extracurriculars.

Our son attended Sunglee for 4 years. Had a great family relationship with school and other parents. We all became family. Our circumstances in our family that changed our lives the contract had to be terminated. Six months after the contract was terminated I received a civil coy notice and being sued for the remainder of the contract balance.

This is the ONLY martial art school in St. Albert with contracts there is no month to month at this school. Contracts for a leadership program are 4 years. Either was family situations change.

They don’t care how things change it is more about the money then learning a sport. Take it from a parent whom loved this school to now being sued over a child membership.

Stay away from the contract there r other amazing schools without the long term commitment

This school is great! But i hate when people say mean comments that make no sence! Example:"I will not pay for a school that will TORCHURE my children. " Again makes no sence! One its not the schools fault your childs acts silly and two its not the schools fault if we children get pushups. This school is trying to teach manners into children and its doing great! Because we get pushups for acting silly it makes us learn to act with manners. Not fooling around when important things are happening. I understand if you dont have enough money to pay but if your complaning that your child is being torchured or not taught very well thats not true! If that is true it does not mean you make a mean comment. Instead just write a reveiw of your childs experience in the gym and move on.

This place is basically a money pit. If you are bit conscious about the cost. This place will not fit your bill in my opinion. One promotion test will cost you about 45 dollars as a white belt, and it goes up in price by 15 dollars each time. Tournaments are even worse . Each event will cost you about 50 dollars and they pressure you so much to go to them. To summarize, this place costs way to much and please be careful about the cost of any martial arts studios. Thank you for your time. 😀

This instructor is very fond of punishment and one time she made my whole class do 240 push-ups just for not getting our sparing gear on in time, she scared me for life please do not send your self or your child or grand child to her so she can scar them as I was, Her Name is Michelle Heyden please she is an unqualified Black belt instructor thank you.

I have not taken any classes at this dojo due to a debilitating injury. I myself am an ex-closecircuit fighter, 2x mixed-martial arts champion in Buduthai & Nimpo & 3x golden-gloves boxing champion. I have watched Michelle's Tue. evening open class at Millwoods Town Center after work quite a few times & know a good instructor when I see one. ..More dojos need excellent instructors like Michelle, & I have been to see many dojos in my time where so-called black-belt insructors have no clue on how to teach, yet alone any proper skill, making their class look more like a Micky Mouse dance course. ..Michelle & her helpers are caring with all the age groups, from elderly adults to little children. ..I always see one young lady helper usually watching & jumping in to help students with proper stances & techniques & usually takes care of & plays with 2 young boys, which is always a good thing to see😃I also see Michelle's other black-belt helpers assisting her with students during classes. ..Overall, they are excellent, knowledgeable, caring, dedicated, & very family oriented. ..Keep up the exquisite work!!!😎-B-

Sung Lee Taekwando is a very excellent martial arts school. Since the 80's Grandmaster Sung Lee has been teaching taekwando in Edmonton, with an extensive background of competitive sparring in the WTF during the 80's, 90's, and teaching the ways of traditional martial arts. The main instructor at the main gym, master woo Jin kwak has been to nationals, pan am, Olympic trials, and was part of the Albertas men's adult team. There are some past students, who have opened up other gyms, or became other instructors for other gyms in Alberta throughout the years. The staff are hard working dedicated people, who put in 100% effort everyday to teach students the ways of taekwando, physically and mentally. Even though Sung Lee isn't competitive anymore, they emphasize more on traditional training, and are great at teaching, with great instructors, who put their heart into martial arts. If you want good physical, mental training, life skills, join Sung Lee!

The gym there is equipped with poor instructors, many of them being teenagers who clearly have no teaching experience, and the main instructor is unintelligent and trains the students with poor teaching quality. My child was enrolled into the leadership program which is a 3 year program with a signed contract that you cannot get out of. All that these people care about is money. There is poor disciplinary skills, all of the teenagers do not know what they are teaching and I do not recommend this school to anyone. Though the place seems like a friendly environment, the instructors run the gym like it is a military base. They're very nice to you for your trial class, but as soon as you're hooked to the contract the children are treated horribly. I am pulling my child out as soon as this contract ends

I've been a student for years, and it's like a second home to me. The instructors are caring and knowledgeable and will push you to do your best if you let them!

My whole family has been enrolled at Sung Lee for the past 3 years and we truly enjoy it. We have learned so many useful skills such as personal self defence but mostly for our younger children it has taught them to be more respectful and disciplined. Sung Lee is not like your other Martial art schools, here you are made to feel like you are actually part of a family. The entire staff and other families are very close and support each other. We plan on being at Sung Lee for a very long time. It is not just a place to get a Blackbelt, it is a place to learn and make great lasting memories. If you have been thinking of joining I encourage you to try it out, you will not be disappointed.

The instructor is amazing. She teaches life skills and lessons that u will remember to the last breath. She is pretty firm but nice and funny. For people that think she is mean for giving push-ups out they r very wrong indeed. If your looking for a place to study tae kwon do must come here.

The instrotor moved an now the gym is useless the instrotor is lazy I would not recommend this place at all

My 3 kids have been going to Sung Lee Taekwondo's St. albert location for over 4 years now. My oldest has achieved his blackbelt and the other 2 are very close. The quality of instructors in St. Albert is excellent and the Solo family go above and beyond just being their "teacher". We have formed strong friendships with this family and others that go there. There is just the right amount of strictness and discipline where all the kids have amazing respect for Greg Sir. He is so great with the little ones!

We love Sung Lee Taekwondo and recommend this gym to anyone who is thinking of putting their child in a family based martial art.

To be honest this place was great until October 2014, things were going excellent and smoothly. Since November 2014, my life becomes a nightmare. New women instructors were assigned and they started to push hard on kids. My 11 years daughter was forced to do 20 push-ups just because she touched her hair? I looked at her face after the class and saw small veins were ruptured around her eyes. I spoke to the front desk lady politely and asked her to speak to the new instructor to reduce her toughness tone, " those are still kids and they are not adults working aat military", next class was worst she asked all the students to do about 80 push-ups in front of their parents ??

After a week my small 5 years old child started feeling sad and stress because her 13 or 14 years old instructor punished her by taking out a strip from her belt in order to force her to give the full attention. I raised my complaint to the manager who agreed that his instructors are lacking the skills to deal with children and he promised me that he will speak with the teachers, next day my elder ones was punished with 50 push-ups because they were absent !!

I found that I am not the only parent who is unhappy with the service; other parents have their concerns about the new teacher. No one in the management department care about the given complains and no one is doing anything to solve the problem. All what I want NOW is to STOP this service immediately. As a parent, I registered my kids in these classes to improve their quality of lives, but this is not happening. I am not going to pay them my money to torture my children!

The elirslie gym is a great and nice place to learn. The instrotor always patient, kind, humble, committed to teaching people teakwondo can be firm at times but she always gets over it. every class I have been in she has explained good values and virtues of life and teakwondo sung lee teakwondo takes in children as young as 4 the instrotor is always great with them she got her black belt when she was just 15. the panther cubs program is a great start for little ones in teakwondo I always leave every class with a smile kids are nice. would recommend for any one interested in learning teakwondo.

The elirslie gym is a great place to study and learn teakwondo. The instrotor is great and humble. She is great with younger kids. She teaches great values of life. I have been going to the elirslie gym for 1 year now and I have no idea of stopping

I've been at Ellersile Gym for 2 years now. The instructor is patient but hard. She doesn't take any bullcrap but instills life-skills in her students. Integrity, respect, and humility are all important aspects and are always taken very seriously. The instructor tries to push the students to become, overtime, better than her. Quality over quantity, speed and power are always important. Highly recommend!

All they care about is the money, they no longer have any respect for students and will try to squeeze every piece of cash out of you for you to get anything done. Not real martial arts, it is just a mockery of it. Don't get me wrong when I started out there it was great but ever since there were changes with everything even the switching of the main instructor and venue, it has grown to be the worst part of my life.

The Ellerslie Gym is a fantastic place to learn. The instructor instils an excellent work ethic in all students. She is patient, but firm. I appreciate the traditional teaching methods. Childrens' classes are full of fun and my child always leaves with a smile on her face. Her behaviour has improved dramatically at home since starting Tae Kwon Do at Sung Lee. I also take classes and love the challenge and fun atmosphere of the class. I would highly recommend this school to anyone considering learning Taekwondo.

I have been going there for 3 years and they do an excellent job at teaching you martial arts and other virtues such as patience, respect, and the power of the group.