Master Lowell's MMA, ASF International Greedy, Self Promoting, Unfair, Boring Melbourne, Florida

"master" lowell's place of business is one I would advise you not to do business with.  His monthly rate is very high, and whatever you do, DO NOT sign a contract.  It's nearly impossible to get out of.  

My kids trained with him for about 2 years.  He moved his dojo to a larger facility, and when he did, he offered a lot of people the chance to sign a 3 year contract with unlimited training time.  Now, the monthly rate per student is $100 per month.  Also, there were the every other month $60 belt fee for advancement.  He most always insisted on cash.  There were, I believe, 18 belts.  Stripes within belts, etc.  Just another way to get money in his pocket.  So, the costs for this training he provided were pretty steep, but that's not my biggest problem with this guy.

First, the classes he offered would contain students ranging in age from approx. 4 yrs to 14 years old.  Big problem.  Also, you might see a kid with severe emotional problems/issues in the same class.  Every time a new student would enroll, the entire class would have to start over with training.  It's pretty disheartening for a teenager to see a 4 year old with a  belt that is 10 levels higher than theirs.  Of course, his grade school kids had their black belts.   But, master lowell said that the student had earned his belt.  Translation, he had paid for his belt at $60 a pop.  A student did not even have to be present to earn his belt.  Many times, I saw him give a student's belt to his sibling who WAS present at the belt "ceremony".

My kids were pretty bored and dissatisfied with the classes themselves.  They always wanted to "spar", and didn't get to do that too often.  lowell made a big deal over someone getting their sparring gear, and it didn't come cheap at $200 each.  It's unfortunate that they didn't use it very often.  Many, many times, we would talk to lowell about how unhappy our kids were with the classes.  He would then allow the students to do more combat type activities for a little while, but then the classes would just revert back to "punching air" as someone put it.  

lowell always had great ideas:  black belt club, fight clubs, sparring nights, tournaments, etc.  But, they would never materialize.  He did often promote MMA fights that were held at a local bar/nightclub.  Yes, I said nightclub.  I do not go to bars.  I certainly was not going to allow my children to go there.

I tried to get out of my contract, because, frankly, I couldn't afford it.  Essentially, you are talking $260 a month for two kids.  Also, I became SO unhappy and disgruntled over the lack of true MIXED MARTIAL ARTS that I believed should be going on that I just left.  

I must have called and emailed this man, Jonathan Lowell, ten times.  I pleaded for help, begged for helped.  Told him my financial difficulties, told him that my kids were not happy there, etc.  He did not respond to ANY of my emails or phone calls.  Finally, after a couple of months, my husband finally went in to speak to him in person.  He said there was nothing he could do because his collection company was in charge of the contract.  Well, I had already sent them a letter stating my reason for breaking my contract.  They have told me that lowell himself said to go ahead and turn it over to a collection agency if I did not settle the contract.  By the way, there are only 2 ways to get out of this contract.  I guess you could say 3 if you died.  One is you can move 25 miles from the facility, two is that you provide a doctor's note saying you are completely disabled.  I believe those are the two reasons. 

I could go on and on here.  Bottom line is:  DO NOT PATRONIZE master lowell's mma.  You will be unhappy.

Oh, let me mention though, some of the highly inappropriate comments that this man left on his official Facebook page.  He called out a parent who had given him a bad review on some website, called the guy a "d****e".  I ask you:  is this appropriate for someone who teaches children?