the wonders of TKD

[TLH3rdDan]

interesting story i felt like sharing with the people on this board.. just the other day in talking with one of my former students who is also a close friend and whom i had trained to the point of brown belt... informed me he was taking tae kwon do at a school near his appartment apon futher questioning i found the guy was a 5th dan and a member of the ITF and had a nice size school and several black belts under him as students... then to my astonishment he informed me that he had signed up for classes told the instructor nothing of his previous training which most of it he had forgot due to the fact he had not been in a class in almost 4 years, well he went to his new class as a white belt and by the end of the night after sparring everyone in the school and beating all of them in point style matches he walked out with a red belt. any one else find this entertaining and revealing about the wonderful world of the mcdojo

 

[arnisador]

No comment!

 

[TLH3rdDan]

lol typical response ive gotten from some of my friends in town here

 

[fist of fury]

Have they posted thier sign outside that reads"Over 3 million backbelts awarded this year."

 

[TLH3rdDan]

no actually i think David Deaton has the rights to that sign here in nashville

 

[Klondike93]

Not surprised. ITF fighters aren't very good at point fighting. Some are ok at continious fighting, but not many. I came up through the ITF ranks before moving to Kenpo and I would love to spar with some of my old classmates now. :rofl:


:asian:

Chuck

 

[white dragon]

I would have thouhgt ITF would have been great at point sparring as I thought was all they did? Seem sto be what they do over here.

But also you must question a club that will just award someone a belt after one training session!

 

[Klondike93]

The ITF does a "semi-continous" point fighting.

2 minute round with no stoppage to call points, the points are kept by 4 judges and a center ref. The one with the most points gets to move on.

Interesting though that here in the US, you can't really hit that hard, but if you fight elseware, they knock the snot out of you!

:boxing:


:asian:


Chuck

 

[white dragon]

Are you sure you're not confussing ITF with WTF? The way things are set out over here is WTF is continuous sparring, you're award points but you don't stop. It's also full contact. ITF is point sparring and only semi-contact.

 

[brianbarton]

Reading through this thread a lots of others, their seems to be a lot of chat saying how certain classes just award gradings/belts whenever they like, and instructers are just after keeping students and getting as much money from them as possible.

I have only ever attended one class and just wanted to stick up for ITF Taekwon-Do.

I have been training in ITF Taekwon-Do for a year and am just about to go for my 7th Kup grading. My instructor is really professional and never pushes us to buy any equipment or promotional items. And if we do want to buy anything the prices are actually really cheap.

It is a shame that we only hear the bad stuff. Is anyone else happy with their instructer and organisation.

ALSO: Could someone please explain exactly what a McDojo is?

 

[white dragon]

As far as the Mcdojo thing goes they only really seem to in America, sorry not meaning to offend anyone it's just I haven't really run into anyone that has been trained by a so called blackbelt that's only done it for 4 weeks or so forth. Go and have a look in the main martial art thread of the forum to see some of the mcdojo horror stories!

I would just like to say that I'm more than happy with my club. Well I'm the club secretary, that's true so I guess I'd have to be! We have an amazing 4th Dan instructor, with a list of qualifications to his name. He gives proper attention to eveyone, no matter what rank and will always explain the purpose of techniques, different variations and how they can be applied, giving people a real sense of understanding which I have seen lacking from other teachers.

As for ordering stuff, we sell it to the students at whole sale price, no profit is made, and we even pay the P&P, can't say fairer than that can you? Our only requirement is that if someone wants to grade they have to pay £9 (the club pays another £9 towards the grading) and pay £6.50 (again the club pays half) for their personal insurance with the AMA. I know some clubs offer gradings for free, but then we only charge £1 for a two hour session, which you REALLY can't beat

Sorry to go on, I just wanted to show that tkd does indeed have some good schools

All the best
Liam Cullen
- Student of Master Mike Winship

 

[arnisador]

Originally posted by brianbarton

I have only ever attended one class and just wanted to stick up for ITF Taekwon-Do.

Unfortunately TKD is associated in many peoples' minds with "masters" with unrealistically high belt levels for their ages, very yound black belts, and large and impersonal franchises that seem more about making money than teaching the arts (McDojos, like McDonalds). I think everyone realizes that like any stereotype it certainly can't be fully correct but alas the image sticks.

Another issue is whether TKD is a martial art or a martial sport. Some people don't like the sport aspect of the martial arts being played up so strongly.

Please don't be put off by the negativity! People like you talking about the positives are what will help change it. There are plenty of other arts that have had McDojos associated with them also.

 

[white dragon]

I personally don't like people refering to TKD as a martial SPORT, rather than art, as it seems to devalue what is being taught. It all comes down to how it's taught, what's kept in and what isn't. You could well enter a class that only teaches Olympic style sparring. Still useful, but not amazingly practicle.

Don't forget taekwondo started as a means of people protecting themselves, so it had to be practicule and... and.... why is it when I read the post I come up with a great response to it, but when I go to type it up I completely forget what I wanted to say?

But anyway, don't worry about the negativity, if you don't know what a mcdojo is then you're more than likely not in one. In which case.... hazzah!

 

[deadhand31]

Originally posted by arnisador



Unfortunately TKD is associated in many peoples' minds with "masters" with unrealistically high belt levels for their ages, very yound black belts, and large and impersonal franchises that seem more about making money than teaching the arts (McDojos, like McDonalds). I think everyone realizes that like any stereotype it certainly can't be fully correct but alas the image sticks.

I suppose I can understand why that image sticks. I suppose some of those things can be seen in my school. There are three age groups in my school; Little dragons (4-8), Red Dragons (8-13), and Adults (14 and up). Usually, little dragons don't get black belts. It usually happens at the Red Dragon level. Red dragons are also able to make 1st degree.

We have a general timeframe that is adhered to. We tend to make black in around 2 and a half to 3 years, and 1st degree at least a year after that. 2nd degree waits an additional 2-3 years, and 4-5 years after that for 3rd. After that, I'm not sure how it goes.

Alot of the really advanced stuff doesn't happen until we're black. That's when we learn weapons, the advanced techniques, and new forms. It's kind of an incentive to stick around, because that's when the real learning begins.

 

[thaiboxer]

Originally posted by white dragon

"As far as the Mcdojo thing goes they only really seem to in America"

nah there in australia too.

 

[thaiboxer]

Originally posted by white dragon

I personally don't like people refering to TKD as a martial SPORT, rather than art, as it seems to devalue what is being taught. It all comes down to how it's taught, what's kept in and what isn't. You could well enter a class that only teaches Olympic style sparring. Still useful, but not amazingly practicle.

Don't forget taekwondo started as a means of people protecting themselves, so it had to be practicule and... and.... why is it when I read the post I come up with a great response to it, but when I go to type it up I completely forget what I wanted to say?

But anyway, don't worry about the negativity, if you don't know what a mcdojo is then you're more than likely not in one. In which case.... hazzah!

dont worry about what other people think big fella. If you know you can defend yourself who cares.

 

[white dragon]

mind you, I say that but I haven't really seen many schools in this country enough to judge. Also I don't think there was ever really much of a martial arts boom over here as there was in places like Amerca so there was less opertunity to make money out of it. Just a theory.

"dont worry about what other people think big fella. If you know you can defend yourself who cares."

- indeed I think that goes fro whatever your style is, as long as it WORKS for you then don't worry what anyone else says. Very rarely are you going to mugged on the street by master of kung fu!

 

[thaiboxer]

Originally posted by white dragon

mind you, I say that but I haven't really seen many schools in this country enough to judge. Also I don't think there was ever really much of a martial arts boom over here as there was in places like Amerca so there was less opertunity to make money out of it. Just a theory.

"dont worry about what other people think big fella. If you know you can defend yourself who cares."

- indeed I think that goes fro whatever your style is, as long as it WORKS for you then don't worry what anyone else says. Very rarely are you going to mugged on the street by master of kung fu!

yeah thats right , hey im a green belt now, yipeee

 

[Cthulhu]

Originally posted by white dragon

mind you, I say that but I haven't really seen many schools in this country enough to judge. Also I don't think there was ever really much of a martial arts boom over here as there was in places like Amerca so there was less opertunity to make money out of it. Just a theory.

"dont worry about what other people think big fella. If you know you can defend yourself who cares."

- indeed I think that goes fro whatever your style is, as long as it WORKS for you then don't worry what anyone else says. Very rarely are you going to mugged on the street by master of kung fu!

Do you think the censoring of martial arts movies in the UK contributed to the lack of a 'martial arts boom' over there?

I guess another factor could be that many of the Asian teachers immigrated to the Americas rather than the UK. Actually, that'd probably be the most significant factor.

Cthulhu

 

[white dragon]

I must admit I'm a little too young to really know about just how much the censorship of movies played on people being interested in martial arts over here. Wacthing DVDs these days though it seems it's you guys that have movies cut. Watching Drive with the directors commentry on he points out all the stuff that was cut out of the american version, so much that the story was even altered. I don't know how true that is of everything now martial arts wise, I guess it depends on who's putting the film out.

I don't think there's any real censorship on martial arts these days. I believe the fact that a lot of the Asia teachers went to America plays the largest factor in the popularity of the arts over there.