Best possilble

[terryl965]

Well since you looked what is the best possible way for TKD to get back on track with being the Art of old?

Who would you like to see in charge of the KKW?

What organization would you like to head up the US TKD efforts?

And if you really do not care why? I mean we all need a way to preserve the Art we love so much?

 

[granfire]

Interesting idea.

But frankly, I have the impression the TKD was all about egos from the beginning. The Man with the biggest ego and the most muscle got to unify most of the kwans, but not really.

Every time egos clash we are blessed with another organization claiming to be the keeper of the art.

We have poomse, hyong and what else, not even the terminology is unified.

I like the organization I am with, though as of late they have made it hard to stick by them.

 

[terryl965]

Interesting idea.

But frankly, I have the impression the TKD was all about egos from the beginning. The Man with the biggest ego and the most muscle got to unify most of the kwans, but not really.

Every time egos clash we are blessed with another organization claiming to be the keeper of the art.

We have poomse, hyong and what else, not even the terminology is unified.

I like the organization I am with, though as of late they have made it hard to stick by them.

What is the best thing about your organization and what makes it that good to you?

 

[YoungMan]

Well since you looked what is the best possible way for TKD to get back on track with being the Art of old?


Who would you like to see in charge of the KKW?


What organization would you like to head up the US TKD efforts?


And if you really do not care why? I mean we all need a way to preserve the Art we love so much?

Rejuvenate the Kwans but encourage them to cooperate. Let them handle their own Dan testing. I'd prefer Chung Do Kwan certification anyway. Hard to be excited about KKW certification, especially under Un Yong Kim, when it was pretty much given to anybody.

Woon Kyu Uhm, about 30 years younger.

With the exception of my Instructor, there is, frankly, no U.S. organization I trust.

I do care. Look backward to look forward. Quit thinking that Olympic participation is the ultimate goal. It's not. If you have something valuable to offer, the Olympics shouldn't matter. Keep the World TKD Championships though.

 

[WMKS Shogun]

I think we need to look at Tae Kwon Do like many look at karate: There is not just one style (ryu) of karate, there are many that make up the whole. Thus by allowing each style of Tae Kwon Do (KKW, ITF/Ch'ang Hon, Song Ahm/ATA, ITA) to be a part of the whole without pushing anyone away. Also, if feels like the KKW and the WTF are bedding together, which is why KKW style practitioners get the rep that they are only sport and little art.

As far as the other questions go, I really do not know. I am not much for politics within martial arts.

 

[foot2face]

Well since you looked what is the best possible way for TKD to get back on track with being the Art of old?

It seem to me that the sport drives the art. Most point to the impractical nature of Olympic-style TKD and the huge impact it has had on TKD training as the source for many of the problems plaguing TKD today. We will never be able to do away with Olympic-style but perhaps we can develop a new competitive sport that will better reflect a more practical use of TKD. A type of competition that would need to rely on the harder, realistic fighting/SD oriented training of old. A sport that will value and make use of all of the components of TKD and in that way helping to preserve the art.

Who would you like to see in charge of the KKW?

:idea: ...My master.:asian:

I mean we all need a way to preserve the Art we love so much?

This is were I think an other major problem lays. TKD represents different things to different people. The TKD that I wish to preserve may be different than the TKD other wish to preserve.

 

[dancingalone]

It seem to me that the sport drives the art. Most point to the impractical nature of Olympic-style TKD and the huge impact it has had on TKD training as the source for many of the problems plaguing TKD today. We will never be able to do away with Olympic-style but perhaps we can develop a new competitive sport that will better reflect a more practical use of TKD. A type of competition that would need to rely on the harder, realistic fighting/SD oriented training of old. A sport that will value and make use of all of the components of TKD and in that way helping to preserve the art.

A lot of the new disdain for TKD comes from MMA enthusiasts. Having a UFC champion who has strong TKD roots would go a far ways to quelling that.

 

[exile]

Well since you looked what is the best possible way for TKD to get back on track with being the Art of old?

Who would you like to see in charge of the KKW?

What organization would you like to head up the US TKD efforts?

And if you really do not care why? I mean we all need a way to preserve the Art we love so much?

Rejuvenate the Kwans but encourage them to cooperate. Let them handle their own Dan testing. I'd prefer Chung Do Kwan certification anyway. Hard to be excited about KKW certification, especially under Un Yong Kim, when it was pretty much given to anybody.

Woon Kyu Uhm, about 30 years younger.

With the exception of my Instructor, there is, frankly, no U.S. organization I trust.

I do care. Look backward to look forward. Quit thinking that Olympic participation is the ultimate goal. It's not. If you have something valuable to offer, the Olympics shouldn't matter. Keep the World TKD Championships though.

I think we need to look at Tae Kwon Do like many look at karate: There is not just one style (ryu) of karate, there are many that make up the whole. Thus by allowing each style of Tae Kwon Do (KKW, ITF/Ch'ang Hon, Song Ahm/ATA, ITA) to be a part of the whole without pushing anyone away. Also, if feels like the KKW and the WTF are bedding together, which is why KKW style practitioners get the rep that they are only sport and little art.

As far as the other questions go, I really do not know. I am not much for politics within martial arts.

It seem to me that the sport drives the art. Most point to the impractical nature of Olympic-style TKD and the huge impact it has had on TKD training as the source for many of the problems plaguing TKD today. We will never be able to do away with Olympic-style but perhaps we can develop a new competitive sport that will better reflect a more practical use of TKD. A type of competition that would need to rely on the harder, realistic fighting/SD oriented training of old. A sport that will value and make use of all of the components of TKD and in that way helping to preserve the art.

This is were I think an other major problem lays. TKD represents different things to different people. The TKD that I wish to preserve may be different than the TKD other wish to preserve.

Great responses, guys!

My quick take (before my wireless connection evaporates completely):

(i) revive the practical SD ethic of the art, rediscover how to 'mine' the hyungs for practical useful apps, and—especially important—put strong emphasis on realistic training: what happens in street attacks, and what are you going to haul out of the locker to deal with them when they happen? OK, let's see you do it. Incorporate stuff from people like Geoff Thompson, Peyton Quinn, Peter Consterdine and other high-level karatekas (Consterdine is an eighth-dan in Shotokan, I think) who also have years—decades, among 'em all—of experience as club doormen/bouncers/security enforcers.
People who know and respect the art, particularly because they understand how effective TMAs can be when trained for down-and-dirty SD use. The guys who built 'traditional karate', contrary to some of their press agents, were no saints, not in the least, and the technique set they left us as their legacy shows that.

(ii) I wouldn't bother too much with the KKW; I really want to see loose federations of dojangs as the 'active ingredient', organizationally speaking, in TKD, just as it is in karate. WMKS Shogun's post speaks specifically to this point. To hell with top-down control—again, I know I'm repeating what I've said before on other threads, but I still think it's true: a lot of the fetishes and parochialisms which that sectarian factional rivalry in TKD feeds on represent a specifically Korean obsession. Do we really have reason to care that this group just does the Chang Hon hyungs, this group does the Taegeuks, these guys here do both and some of us total go-it-aloners do the Pinan katas, the Palgwes and a bunch of Okinawan kata, some so old/obscure that everyone just assumes they're from China? Some of us peg our art at the early 1950s, some at the late 1960, some at the low-to-middle-digit 2000s... as WMKS says, why can we not simply recognize that these are all TKD, all valid, but just different styles and emphases?

(iii) Organization to run US TKD? That's easy: the British Combat Association!