Is Tae Kwon Do useful

[IcemanSK]

Alright I have to ask. What is Sarky????

I'd be willing to bet she meant "Snarky." But I might be wrong. Might be one of those British terms.:ultracool

 

[dancingalone]

Wow, this must get the prize for the oldest thread resurrection, if the OP stuck at it he'd be at least a 3rd Dan by now! It's 8 years old in case someone thought I was being sarky.

So this is a mcdojang thread? :angel:

 

[Tez3]

British term. sarky = sarcastic. I don't need to explain more do I lol?

 

[terryl965]

British term. sarky = sarcastic. I don't need to explain more do I lol?

YES YES YOU DO and remember some of us have that very high I.Q..:rofl:

 

[Tez3]

YES YES YOU DO and remember some of us have that very high I.Q..:rofl:

Just remember sarky is my middle name :ultracool

 

[Gorilla]

British term. sarky = sarcastic. I don't need to explain more do I lol?

Nope...I have always been fascinated by the divide in our common language.

 

[UncleDuke]

Good point!

The sad part is, TKD can be good, but they caught up in too much protocol, and chain of command that they forget to focus on what the students need, want.:asian:

Another problem I see in Taekwondo, perhaps other arts as well is de-emphasis on physical conditioning. I've been looking at photo galleries and a lot of the instructors look like they're headed for the sumo ring. Back in the day (1970's) I remember being at a tournament and hearing a judo instructor say, as he pointed at GM Moo Yong Yun and his students, "karate man, thin like chopstick," nowadays it'd be "wide, like tree stump" I remember being told that a technique wasn't 'yours' until you could do it with no more thought than tieing your shoelaces. That requires training and lots of it. The kind of training that rots a uniform off of you every six months or so. I'm okay with 'family karate' schools but...don't claim you're selling the student a Ferrari when it is in fact a Geo.

 

[UncleDuke]

Thank you all for your 2 cents about the situation but I believe my Master stinks period.
I'm sure Tae Kwon is a great art but it was misrepresented to me from the start.
My master does'nt care about the student since he has a contract that he uses to lock you in for 1 year.
I just got promoted in Tae Kwon but I was not taught the basics by the master to pass.
He assigned a black belt to teach me the tenants of Tae Kwon and the counting system in Korean and he got frustrated and told me to fake it because he did'nt know himself.
I told the master and he shrugged it off and said look online.
I taught myself and when I passed I told him off some..
The students from the other schools knew the game but I was the only one from my school and I was behind.
What is a real dojang and master supposed to be like?
I was given a 20 minute class once and then told to go home because I did'nt need to know anymore.

Any martial arts school worth attending will NOT tie you to a contract. I paid $30/month, a lifetime ago now and was told by GM Yun that it was two-way street...as long as I tried as hard as I could and gave it my all he would allow me to sign up for another month. I got my money's worth several times over as he led by example, that man had to have had hydraulic assist on his arms, had a standing bet that he could do more pushups than any of us.

 

[UncleDuke]

If this is how you practice self defence, I sincerely hope you never have to confront anyone other than your newspaper delivery boy.

You gonna end up on the floor with your teeth spilling all over the place. And that is if you are lucky.

A grandmaster may have the ability to manage the escalation of use of force effectively. Please don't assume you have such capability to assess threat level that precisely.

Fighting as in self defence is as real and dangerous as it gets. If you can't avoid the confrontation, then your ONLY choice is to end the fight decisively ASAP !! You play around and you will end up dead!!

Worked as a bouncer in a bar catering to oil rig workers and the like in the early '80's. Head bouncer was probably 5'7" and 150 dripping wet. Past master at using chairs, beer pitchers, pool cues and whatever was handy. I tried escalation of force just once. Dropped an out of control patron with a roundhouse to the midsection and he just picked himself up off the floor and told me I'd have to do better than that. Lucky for me that my 5'7" boss clubbed him flat with a chair to the back. If someone wants to rob or hurt you I personally believe that you have to give it your all as you may not get a chance to escalate the level of force used.

 

[UncleDuke]

Okay, here is my take on the self defense aspects of TKD. Please realize that Modern Arnis is my primary art, and I started TKD on a bet.

For real "personal self defense" you have to use your hands!
Look at police training, 40 hours of basic hand to hand training at the recruit level, not one kick is thrown. Why, because when you take one foot off the floor, you only have left. Makes for lousy balance.

As a fairly new student to TKD, but a long time student of Martial Art, I have stayed in the classes for the overall physical conditioning. I have lost 25 pounds since starting. The classes are grueling. I have more flexibility then I have in years, and my feet are finally reaching the target with speed and power. The main benefit that TKD has given me is endurance. And I feel that this is crucial in any confrontation. If necessary I can RUN, and keep going.

I was told by my first Sensei: There is someone out there that is bigger, stronger, faster, and better trained. Don't be afraid to run.

Just my opinions.:asian:

No matter who you are there is someone better, somedays everything is on and the body and mind work together as they should. On other days you have trouble tieing your shoes. Best defense I ever learned is the Nike...run if you can.

 

[Gorilla]

I find the "is TKD question useful" an often asked question. Many say no! I would say that it is useful. Benny "the Jet" Urquidez states that he has a TKD(1 of 9 black belts) black belt and that back kick and many of his head kicks are if not TKD kicks they are certainly TKD inspired. Bruce Lee is said to have trained in TKD! I think that TKD is a strong fighting system if applied correctly by a strong practitioner.

The first time I had ever seen TKD was in a parking lot outside of a college bar. A Korean Student got in a fight with one of the Local trouble makers he KO'd the guy with one kick. When I saw the guy at college a few days latter I asked him what was that Kung Fu he said TKD. When my kids started training I remembered that incident I wanted to see if I would recognize that kick when they trained. It was a spin hook. One of the most devastating kicks especially if it is used on the Untrained when you have allot of room. That is the only time I have every seen it used in real life situation. I think that if you miss with the Kick it is so intimidating that many people would take a step back and reconsider if they want to continue the fight.

 

[Gorilla]

I find the "is TKD useful" an often asked question. Many say no! I would say that it is useful. Benny "the Jet" Urquidez states that he has a TKD(1 of 9 black belts) black belt and that back kick and many of his head kicks are if not TKD kicks they are certainly TKD inspired. Bruce Lee is said to have trained in TKD! I think that TKD is a strong fighting system if applied correctly by a strong practitioner.

The first time I had ever saw TKD was in a parking lot outside of a college bar(1984). A Korean Student got in a fight with one of the Local trouble makers he KO'd the guy with one kick. When I saw the guy at college a few days latter I asked him what was that Kung Fu he said TKD. When my son started training(2001) I remembered that incident I wanted to see if I would recognize that kick when they trained. It was a spin hook. One of the most devastating kicks especially if it is used on the Untrained when you have allot of room. That is the only time I have every seen it used in real life situation. I think that if you miss with the Kick it is so intimidating that many people would take a step back and reconsider if they want to continue the fight.

 

[ralphmcpherson]

I think the thing I find the most frustrating is when people say "tkd cant work because its just all flashy kicks". Not only is there a lot of kicks that arent 'flashy', there is also a lot of hand techs in tkd also. Its funny you mention the spinning kick because when I was younger I saw a guy I went to school with being bullied by two kids. He just stood there and did a spinning hook kick, he was at least 6 feet from the other two guys and it was in no way intended to connect with them. Having seen the kick, however, the other 2 guys decided they didnt want to fight. I found out later that he had a black belt in tkd and did the kick for some shock value and it obviously worked. I have found that tkd is more than useful providing the practioner learns it with self defence in mind. It has powerful kicks, fast footwork, teaches lightning quick reflexes and fast hand techs as well as incorporating some hapkido style self defence moves and physical fitness and core strength is a big part of the curriculum. Anyone who says its useless either hasnt trained in tkd or trained at a very poor school and its unfair for the art of tkd to get a bad rap because of some bad schools. All martial arts have bad schools out there.

 

[terryl965]

What I find funny is the term is it useful, well a spoon is useful if you know how to properly use it for self defense. TKD is what you make of it when training and how well you can adapt it into a real life stituation. I know plenty of people that can do all the techs. in the school but when pressure they fold up like a little girl. That is with any martial arts though it is about the person not the art.

 

[jthomas1600]

I think the only way that TKD is not useful and can in fact be counter productive is if you try to use techniques that you have not mastered yet or are not appropriate for the situation you're in. I have a hard enough time trying to make good contact with a kick pad in the gym doing tornado kicks and spinning hook kicks....these kicks would only serve to put me in bad positions (off balance and with my back to my opponent) on the street. I'm pretty confident though in my round house kicks and side kicks and would definitely use those if the situation called for it. I think a lot comes down to knowing your strengths and weaknesses.

 

[wushuguy]

I think TKD can be useful if trained well, although there are a number of places that do improper or even harmful training/stretching.

TKD kicks or kicking in general, can be effective depending on the situation. Once while I was in CA, a thug walked up to me threateningly, and wanted to box. I looked at him, pants hanging low, so I know he couldn't dodge or run effectively for risk of dropping his pants completely, so I asked him to hold on a sec, and said if we box if kicking is allowed, and I did a quick crescent kick (I had quit TKD for about a year because I switched to Wing Chun, but I still retained the flexibility and some accuracy so I did the kick to show off...), he grumbled a bit and backed off to his friends.

People are inherently more afraid of being kicked in the head than punched. So I definitely think that high kicks even not aimed at a person, if done well enough, can be a good visual deterrent!

 

[Balrog]

I read in a "Illustrated Dict. of Special Forces" book this evening that all South Korean SF personnel must be TKD black belts--can anyone comment on that? Is it still so?

I went to Korea in 1991 for instructor certification. One of the perks of the trip was that we got to work out for a day with the ROK Tiger Division. I found out that all commissioned officers in the military were required to hold Black Belt rank. Don't know if that is still the case, but I would imagine so.

 

[Balrog]

Oops, hit enter too soon.

In response to the OP - Taekwondo is just a martial art. It's not the martial art that is important, it's the martial artist. Person A who is better trained in Taekwondo will usually beat Person B, who is less skilled in a different martial art. And vice versa.

 

[StudentCarl]

I signed up 2 months ago for Tae Kwon Do and I'm starting to doubt it's usefulness.

I love the name given by the OP, given the irony in his/her statement. To judge at two months is to judge the book by its cover. It sounds like the OP was hoping for immediate transformation, perhaps revealing other lessons s/he needed to learn.

Taekwondo trains the whole person: body, mind, emotion, and spirit. When the beginning student joins taekwondo, he/she awkwardly works to shape himself into a martial artist. There is a long, perhaps endless period of shaping yourself to taekwondo (hopefully less awkwardly as you go). Somewhere along the way, taekwondo becomes part of you--you learn your own natural affinity within the art. The pace of this is individual.

If you review first-hand reports from any discipline of professionals who survive crisis situations, you will repeatedly find, in many different wordings, "my training took over." Yes, taekwondo will give you that.

 

[Gorilla]

The funny thing about this thread is that it is a 8 year old thread. I wonder if the original poster is still in TKD and if his opinions have changed. I doubt we will ever know since he was a guest poster to begin with.