I think "true" TKD is a myth. As is "true" karate, or "true" Jujitsu or any other system.
They are what you make them, and all cover a range. More often then not the people that claim "True ____" are simply trying to put themselves above everyone else and bipass the critizism of there system by saying it only applys to everyone else.
What is "true" football? American Football? Canadian? Rugby? Soccer? Any of the countless other variations that existed but didn't get standardized from the same time period or before?
Andrewwhich of the posts are you referring to? The original post from Terry doesn't refer to `true TKD' anywhere:
terryl said:I would love to hear everyone opinion about traditional TKD before the Kukkiwon and before the sport aspect came into play. How much was really influenced by Okinawa Karate and how much was influenced by Japanese Karate.
Master Southwick brought up some great points about the Poomsae having Japanese Patterns to them and even using Japanese wording for the patterns themself.
What do all you feel about this and does it show a lack of respect towards the Okinawa and Japanese roots from the Koreans towards there initial training.
Just thought I would see what everyone has to say.
And I can't find any other post in the thread which refers to `true TKD'. Terry's question was about the origins of TKD, its historical roots in Okinawan-based arts and Korean (and other) attitudes towards those roots, which is a separate question. I agree, the notion `true [fill in MA style here]' is basically whatever you want it to be, but the issue here seems quite a bit different...