TKD sport/competition: take the good with the bad.

[Daniel Sullivan]

Jeez.

Is there this much drama in other martial arts? If there is, I sure have not seen it. Taekwondo seems to have all of the succession issues, splits and history fabrications of every other martial art mixed with national interest and all of the issues of a major sport and olympic corruption added in. Sometimes, the drama seems unrelenting.

Numerous threads about about how the negative aspects of USAT, the olympics, and other taekwondo organizations. Then there are arguements about taekwondo being five thousand years old or only about sixty.

Anytime sport and competition become a part of your school's curriculum, you are grafting on all of the baggage that goes with it: parents screaming at the refs, refs who make bad calls, poor judging, corrupt judging, whatever.

Take it all the way to the olympics and those issues are magnified and have national interest and corporate greed added to them. Oh, yes. You also get the IOC.

If you do not want the baggage that goes with sport/competition, then stay away from it and run a traditional school that focuses on SD and tradition. Yes, this will cost you students and money. But it will also spare you the headaches that are peculiar to sport/competition.

If the sport thing is your thing, then unfortunately, the baggage that goes with it is part and parcel. Nothing wrong with sport/competition; I think that it is a good thing. Competition wins enhance a school's and a taekwondoin's reputation, competing builds character strengthens the taekwondoin. And medals and trophies are wonderful icing on the cake.

But with all of the good comes the hassles as well. If sport is where your school is at, do what you love, minimize the hassles to the greatest degree possible and grin and bear it when the hassles cannot be avoided. Not much else to be done, really.

Daniel

 

[ATC]

Jeez.

Is there this much drama in other martial arts? If there is, I sure have not seen it. Taekwondo seems to have all of the succession issues, splits and history fabrications of every other martial art mixed with national interest and all of the issues of a major sport and olympic corruption added in. Sometimes, the drama seems unrelenting.

Numerous threads about about how the negative aspects of USAT, the olympics, and other taekwondo organizations. Then there are arguements about taekwondo being five thousand years old or only about sixty.

Anytime sport and competition become a part of your school's curriculum, you are grafting on all of the baggage that goes with it: parents screaming at the refs, refs who make bad calls, poor judging, corrupt judging, whatever.

Take it all the way to the olympics and those issues are magnified and have national interest and corporate greed added to them. Oh, yes. You also get the IOC.

If you do not want the baggage that goes with sport/competition, then stay away from it and run a traditional school that focuses on SD and tradition. Yes, this will cost you students and money. But it will also spare you the headaches that are peculiar to sport/competition.

If the sport thing is your thing, then unfortunately, the baggage that goes with it is part and parcel. Nothing wrong with sport/competition; I think that it is a good thing. Competition wins enhance a school's and a taekwondoin's reputation, competing builds character strengthens the taekwondoin. And medals and trophies are wonderful icing on the cake.

But with all of the good comes the hassles as well. If sport is where your school is at, do what you love, minimize the hassles to the greatest degree possible and grin and bear it when the hassles cannot be avoided. Not much else to be done, really.

Daniel

Hello Daniel Sir, I understand your point but cannot agree with it. If your point is the attitude taken for anything else then the USA would still be a British colony. Just because something is a hassle does not mean that you should just accept it. If that were the case then where would we really be as a society? Change comes from challenging the establishment not complacency.

 

[terryl965]

Daniel very good post ou are right you must take the good with the bad. TKD has alot of problems within itself, starting with the beginnings and General Choi. I know we do thesport for those wanting it and also the traditional side, my problem is not with the sport but the powers to be greed, self center and arrogant people believing they are god. All anybody wants in any sport is fair competition and thaat seem to bethe problem. I believe when the eletric hogus come about it will solve alot of this and will level out the playing field for alot of athletes. I do not care about winning or losing but in the fairness forall competitors,hell we or should I say myown son knew he got beat a few years ago and to his credit hewalked over he told the ref. that the othe person really won the match and gave the gold to him. To me that is what TKD is aboutfriendship and doing the right thing at all times.

 

[Daniel Sullivan]

Hello Daniel Sir, I understand your point but cannot agree with it. If your point is the attitude taken for anything else then the USA would still be a British colony. Just because something is a hassle does not mean that you should just accept it. If that were the case then where would we really be as a society? Change comes from challenging the establishment not complacency.

Certainly, I do not think that all hassles should automatically be accepted.

I see (and not just here) where a lot of people get frustrated about the hassles and that frustration often overwhelms them and robs them of the joy of the sport aspect of the art.

Most definitely, if there is a legitimate issue, members should work towards a resolution.

Some hassles are unavoidable and are simply the nature of organized competition. No other organized competition has been able to successfully rid themselves of these bugaboos, so it is unlikely that Taekwondo orgs will be able to either. Those are the ones that one may as well simply accept.

Others, such as the recent change in selection process, weird monkeying with rules, or politically motivated changes, are top down decisions that are not automatically part and parcel with sport and competition and should be examined.

Daniel