US Armed Forces

[FranciscoNegron]

I’ll eventually get the book just to read about its history, but I’m wondering if the Armed Forces TKD program have a rank system? Or if you already have to have a WT black belt to join.

 

[J. Pickard]

I’ll eventually get the book just to read about its history, but I’m wondering if the Armed Forces TKD program have a rank system? Or if you already have to have a WT black belt to join.

Which armed forces? And just for the sake of pedantry, there is no such thing as a WT black belt. WT doesn't certify rank, they only govern the Olympic sport.

 

[Bill Mattocks]

I’ll eventually get the book just to read about its history, but I’m wondering if the Armed Forces TKD program have a rank system? Or if you already have to have a WT black belt to join.

I haven't been on active duty in over 40 years, but I do have friends who are still serving and I'm not aware of any official martial arts programs aside from various combatives, like the Marine Corps MCMAP program. Can you describe what Armed Forces TKD program you're talking about?

 

[FranciscoNegron]

Here’s the link for the book I was talking about. I’ll assume it’s talking about all branches and their various TKD programs. I tried Googling and I think one site I came across said to compete, you had to hold Kukkiwon certification. As I said, I’ll eventually get the book because it looks like a good read.

Martial Arts | Tae Kwon Do, One Team, One Fight, One Family,

The U.S. Armed Forces in general and the U.S. Army in particular, are known worldwide for being an all-volunteer military force, for its war-fighting ability, for accepting all who serve regardless of background to include race / ethnicity, creed, color, religion, gender and sexual orientation.

www.armedforcestaekwondohistory.com

 

[J. Pickard]

Here’s the link for the book I was talking about. I’ll assume it’s talking about all branches and their various TKD programs. I tried Googling and I think one site I came across said to compete, you had to hold Kukkiwon certification. As I said, I’ll eventually get the book because it looks like a good read.

Martial Arts | Tae Kwon Do, One Team, One Fight, One Family,

The U.S. Armed Forces in general and the U.S. Army in particular, are known worldwide for being an all-volunteer military force, for its war-fighting ability, for accepting all who serve regardless of background to include race / ethnicity, creed, color, religion, gender and sexual orientation.

www.armedforcestaekwondohistory.com

It looks like the book is a sort of biography/info book of a military competition team. I would imagine this is a traveling tournament team made up of military personnel similar to the military bjj team and karate teams.

 

[Bill Mattocks]

It looks like the book is a sort of biography/info book of a military competition team. I would imagine this is a traveling tournament team made up of military personnel similar to the military bjj team and karate teams.

That makes more sense. There's often a boxing and wrestling team. It doesn't make it a program in a service-wide sense.

 

[FranciscoNegron]

I’m a civilian so granted, I never looked into this stuff in detail although I know about combatives and McMap. I was thinking it was something along the lines of the old school servicemen training Tang Soo Do in Korea.

 

[Gwai Lo Dan]

It looks like the book is a sort of biography/info book of a military competition team. I would imagine this is a traveling tournament team made up of military personnel similar to the military bjj team and karate teams.

Interestingly in Canada, the national WT TKD association is made up of the provincial associations, PLUS the Canadian Armed Forces Association.

So the Canadian Armed Forces have their own distinct category in the national association.

Also, in having a quick look before posting, I found this article on the Forces recruiting high-performance TKD athletes, "THE CAF HIGH-PERFORMANCE SPORTS PROGRAMME: A GAME PLAN FOR CAF RECRUITING

https://www.cfc.forces.gc.ca/259/290/308/305/birgentzlen.pdf

"CAF high-performance Taekwondo athletes who joined the Reserves between 2016 –
2019 echoed this finding. Interviews conducted with these athletes revealed that when
they were approached by the CAF Taekwondo high-performance coach to join the CAF
Reserves, they were not aware of the part-time employment opportunities in the military
nor could they articulate the diverse nature of CAF roles or its operating environments. "



I would think the base clubs would be open to everyone, so as to encourage physical fitness in the ranks and to draw the largest pool possible for talent. But I don't actually know - just guessing.

 

[HighKick]

I’ll eventually get the book just to read about its history, but I’m wondering if the Armed Forces TKD program have a rank system? Or if you already have to have a WT black belt to join.

They compete in and under WT guidelines. Therefore, they would have to be belted in KKW TKD.

 

[Bill Mattocks]

I’m a civilian so granted, I never looked into this stuff in detail although I know about combatives and McMap. I was thinking it was something along the lines of the old school servicemen training Tang Soo Do in Korea.

Many military personnel train in martial arts whilst stationed overseas (and in the US as well). Isshinryu, the style I train in, was taught in Okinawa to US Marines by the founder, Tatsuo Shimabuku. For many years, it was known informally as the "Marine Corps Karate," which wasn't strictly true. I know quite a few veterans who also trained in various Korean arts whilst stationed there, and some who trained in martial arts in the Philippines, before the US closed all its bases there.

These types of training are generally purely voluntary on the part of the service members, and usually at their own cost and done outside of normal working hours.

There are some exceptions. Historically, when Tatsuo Shimabuki was teaching Isshinryu to Marines on Okinawa, the local base Special Services funded students, so he was paid directly by the military for each student from the base. However, even this was a local base thing; not a service-wide 'official' kind of thing. No doubt some local commander had discretionary funds to spend on military morale and health programs and chose this.

I mention all of this because it's very common these days to see seminars and books touted by people who claim to have 'trained Special Forces' or similar claims; they make it seem as though they were approved at the highest levels of the military or that they enjoyed some official status, when really what most likely happened is that they taught a seminar on base at the invitation of some local commander, who paid for it out of discretionary funds; it is cool and all, but it's hardly an official endorsement.

Outside of combatives taught BY the military, there's no 'official' program in martial arts that I'm aware of.

 

[FranciscoNegron]

Many military personnel train in martial arts whilst stationed overseas (and in the US as well). Isshinryu, the style I train in, was taught in Okinawa to US Marines by the founder, Tatsuo Shimabuku. For many years, it was known informally as the "Marine Corps Karate," which wasn't strictly true. I know quite a few veterans who also trained in various Korean arts whilst stationed there, and some who trained in martial arts in the Philippines, before the US closed all its bases there.

These types of training are generally purely voluntary on the part of the service members, and usually at their own cost and done outside of normal working hours.

There are some exceptions. Historically, when Tatsuo Shimabuki was teaching Isshinryu to Marines on Okinawa, the local base Special Services funded students, so he was paid directly by the military for each student from the base. However, even this was a local base thing; not a service-wide 'official' kind of thing. No doubt some local commander had discretionary funds to spend on military morale and health programs and chose this.

I mention all of this because it's very common these days to see seminars and books touted by people who claim to have 'trained Special Forces' or similar claims; they make it seem as though they were approved at the highest levels of the military or that they enjoyed some official status, when really what most likely happened is that they taught a seminar on base at the invitation of some local commander, who paid for it out of discretionary funds; it is cool and all, but it's hardly an official endorsement.

Outside of combatives taught BY the military, there's no 'official' program in martial arts that I'm aware of.

Ah, okay, that makes perfect sense now. You hear stories about Chuck Norris, Joe Lewis, etc training in Asia, but that was something that wasn’t an official program or something that was exclusively developed by the service branches. Yes, the touting by some individuals claiming to have ‘trained special forces’ is overkill. BTW, I have the utmost respect for our servicemen and vets, so I say thank you for your service.

 

[OutcastSix]

I’ll eventually get the book just to read about its history, but I’m wondering if the Armed Forces TKD program have a rank system? Or if you already have to have a WT black belt to join.

From reviewing the responses to this thread, it appears you found your answers.

The Department of Defense (DoD) as a member of the Conseil International du Sport Militaire (CISM) affords the opportunity for Servicemembers to compete in roughly 24 category sports.

Each Service, e.g. Army, Air Force, Navy, Marine Corps, Coast Guard and now Space Force, maintains their own policy and level of program maturity and team development that meet the overall eligibility requirements specifically for CISM participation.

Specifically for eligibility for CISM taekwondo, all athletes must have a valid black belt certificate issued through the Kukkiwon (KKW) meet all eligibility requirements of World Taekwondo (WT), U.S. Armed Forces Sports, and CISM. All athletes must be in good standing with WT, USA Taekwondo, CISM, U.S. Armed Forces Sports, and the United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA). And all athletes must possess a WT Global Athlete License (GAL) for competition in the World Military Championship.

I'm a retired Marine so my knowledge is a bit dated/seasoned and believe that the Army has the most developed Service taekwondo program via their Army World Class Athlete Program (WCAP).

I don't think things have changed much but essentially if you have a KKW dan# and on active duty, you could apply to compete for a team slot if the chain of command approved but there is no official Service sports program to apply and develop from 10th gup to 1st dan. As most mentioned at least for the Army and the Marine Corps, their official, non-sports martial programs consist of combatives and the MCMAP in order to develop warfighting skill and not sports development.

The great majority of Servicemembers train during their off-duty time across the spectrum of martial arts, e.g. wrestling, boxing, karate, judo, taekwondo, BJJ, muy thai, etc. based on their availability to programs where assigned on the globe.

I recall getting our liberty brief as a Marine prior to arriving in Thailand and specifically being told that no one was authorized to get into a Thai boxing match or mess with any of the indigenous snakes while in port but there was always one or two... LOL.