Hi guys,
First time posting. Please let me know if there is a better place or way to post this...
So, I have a five year old who is a very scrappy kid and has been getting into trouble for fighting at school. I was at the mall recently and saw this big kiosk with TKD information, magazines, etc. and kids decked out in black belts milling around. It got me to thinking that perhaps getting him involved in a martial art might be a great way to channel his energy. I spoke to one of the adults at the kiosk, a clearly overweight guy with all the regalia to indicate at least a 2nd or 3rd degree black belt, who didn't seem very helpful at all but was keen to let me know all about their holiday promotions and that they had locations in every major suburb of my city. Still interested, though, I took some literature and, thankfully, did some research when I got home. I think by now most of you have guessed that this was an ATA franchise. I'm not trying to put down the association at large, but as far as what I saw from the particular franchise that has the monopoly in my area, I was glad I took the time to do the research.
Now, I said all that to say this: TKD is near to my heart because I spent several years training in this art when I was a kid and as such would prefer it be the art I start my kid in. When I was training I knew nothing about different styles, schools, associations, etc. It was just Tae Kwon Do to me. I had an excellent experience and would love to try to capture as close an experience for my kid as I can. So, I'm hoping that maybe if I can provide some of my anecdotal memories as well as the website for the school I went to, maybe you guys can point me in the right direction?
This was the school I went to: Memphis Kims Martial arts - Taekwondo and Judo / Memphis, TN
Master Kim was an exceptional leader and I was extremely fond of him. Based on what I can gather from the website I must have been studying Kukkiwon/WTF style at the core, although some things I remember don't seem to add up. Granted, this was the early to mid 90's, but here's what I remember: Mainly, the belt system was different as I recall. I was one stripe away from black belt when I quit (by then I had become a petulant teenager and failed to see the value in it anymore. I have regretted quitting pretty much my entire life since). The way I remember, there was red belt, then 1st stripe, 2nd stripe, then brown belt, then 1st stripe then 2nd stripe then black belt. I may have the order of the colors backwards, but I was ranked whichever belt before black with 1st stripe when I quit. I should also add that it took me somewhere in the area of 3, maybe 4 years to reach this rank.
I also remember, to the best of my memory, we did full contact sparring. This also seems to deviate from Kukkiwon norms as far as I can tell. We had only head pads, gloves and feet pads. I remember this vividly because I often got paired up with a kid twice my size and I would always go home sore and bruised because he would really wail on me. Also, almost everything we learned directly related to the art we learned the Korean names or words for; English was not used for sparring, forms, call and response during drills or anything of any symbolic or formal nature.
It may also just be a fact that back then it was a "different time", but I remember at least once or twice when Master Kim had to use the dreaded bamboo sword to paddle a kid in front of the class who just would not stop acting up and get his **** together, but we respected him to death and didn't fear him at all. It was definitely tough, but I feel like it was a genuine experience and I would rather impart a similarly genuine experience for my kid, rather than the sterile, suburbanite, "after-school-activity" that the ATA franchise around here seems to offer.
So, my questions are: First and foremost, given the anecdotal info I've given and the information from the website, can anyone here more knowledgeable than myself suggest a school in the Raleigh-Durham, NC area that would be a similar match for my child? I know it sounds like asking strangers to do homework for me, but the fact is I just don't have enough inside knowledge to know what to look for to find the best school out of the non-ATA options available here.
Secondly, I know it's been at least 20 years since I practiced, but do schools generally keep records of students and rankings, etc? I don't presume that I could just call and request a transcript or whatever then walk into a random dojo and wave it around now, at 34 years of age, and be like "Hey, I'm a red belt first stripe, let's get that black belt!" ....but, I sure would love to have some kind of documentation from that period of my life and the effort and time I put into it, if nothing else at least for my own satisfaction and so I can show my son that I was a TKD kid, too, once upon a time.
Sorry for the insanely long post, but I appreciate whatever input you guys can offer. Sincerely.
First time posting. Please let me know if there is a better place or way to post this...
So, I have a five year old who is a very scrappy kid and has been getting into trouble for fighting at school. I was at the mall recently and saw this big kiosk with TKD information, magazines, etc. and kids decked out in black belts milling around. It got me to thinking that perhaps getting him involved in a martial art might be a great way to channel his energy. I spoke to one of the adults at the kiosk, a clearly overweight guy with all the regalia to indicate at least a 2nd or 3rd degree black belt, who didn't seem very helpful at all but was keen to let me know all about their holiday promotions and that they had locations in every major suburb of my city. Still interested, though, I took some literature and, thankfully, did some research when I got home. I think by now most of you have guessed that this was an ATA franchise. I'm not trying to put down the association at large, but as far as what I saw from the particular franchise that has the monopoly in my area, I was glad I took the time to do the research.
Now, I said all that to say this: TKD is near to my heart because I spent several years training in this art when I was a kid and as such would prefer it be the art I start my kid in. When I was training I knew nothing about different styles, schools, associations, etc. It was just Tae Kwon Do to me. I had an excellent experience and would love to try to capture as close an experience for my kid as I can. So, I'm hoping that maybe if I can provide some of my anecdotal memories as well as the website for the school I went to, maybe you guys can point me in the right direction?
This was the school I went to: Memphis Kims Martial arts - Taekwondo and Judo / Memphis, TN
Master Kim was an exceptional leader and I was extremely fond of him. Based on what I can gather from the website I must have been studying Kukkiwon/WTF style at the core, although some things I remember don't seem to add up. Granted, this was the early to mid 90's, but here's what I remember: Mainly, the belt system was different as I recall. I was one stripe away from black belt when I quit (by then I had become a petulant teenager and failed to see the value in it anymore. I have regretted quitting pretty much my entire life since). The way I remember, there was red belt, then 1st stripe, 2nd stripe, then brown belt, then 1st stripe then 2nd stripe then black belt. I may have the order of the colors backwards, but I was ranked whichever belt before black with 1st stripe when I quit. I should also add that it took me somewhere in the area of 3, maybe 4 years to reach this rank.
I also remember, to the best of my memory, we did full contact sparring. This also seems to deviate from Kukkiwon norms as far as I can tell. We had only head pads, gloves and feet pads. I remember this vividly because I often got paired up with a kid twice my size and I would always go home sore and bruised because he would really wail on me. Also, almost everything we learned directly related to the art we learned the Korean names or words for; English was not used for sparring, forms, call and response during drills or anything of any symbolic or formal nature.
It may also just be a fact that back then it was a "different time", but I remember at least once or twice when Master Kim had to use the dreaded bamboo sword to paddle a kid in front of the class who just would not stop acting up and get his **** together, but we respected him to death and didn't fear him at all. It was definitely tough, but I feel like it was a genuine experience and I would rather impart a similarly genuine experience for my kid, rather than the sterile, suburbanite, "after-school-activity" that the ATA franchise around here seems to offer.
So, my questions are: First and foremost, given the anecdotal info I've given and the information from the website, can anyone here more knowledgeable than myself suggest a school in the Raleigh-Durham, NC area that would be a similar match for my child? I know it sounds like asking strangers to do homework for me, but the fact is I just don't have enough inside knowledge to know what to look for to find the best school out of the non-ATA options available here.
Secondly, I know it's been at least 20 years since I practiced, but do schools generally keep records of students and rankings, etc? I don't presume that I could just call and request a transcript or whatever then walk into a random dojo and wave it around now, at 34 years of age, and be like "Hey, I'm a red belt first stripe, let's get that black belt!" ....but, I sure would love to have some kind of documentation from that period of my life and the effort and time I put into it, if nothing else at least for my own satisfaction and so I can show my son that I was a TKD kid, too, once upon a time.
Sorry for the insanely long post, but I appreciate whatever input you guys can offer. Sincerely.