Some background: the school that my son and I train in is run by a 44-year old Korean man, a Kukkiwon 7th dan who started studying taekwondo in 1979. I think he does a nice job of mixing traditional practices with more modern practices that appeal to suburban kids taking taekwondo.
Is it important that Kup grades and Poom/Dan grades wear a different kind of uniform where you train?
Where we train, generally yes. Kup grades get solid-white uniforms; you're not allowed to wear those once you have a poom/dan grade; then you have to wear the black trim.
One exception though is the various "team" uniforms: Demo Team, and Leadership Team. For those special uniforms, the kup and poom/dan uniforms are identical. (We have a few kup in both teams, but they're mostly poom/dan in those teams.) You're allowed to wear those uniforms to any class. I tend to wear my Leadership Team uniform 99% of the time because it's red and black, meaning it doesn't show as much dirt -- I save my dress whites for the ceremonies, so they stay nice looking.
Another exception is tee-shirts. On hot days you're allowed to wear either a school-issued tee (with the school's logo on it) or a tee from a tournament that you competed in (it's a nice little perk that encourages people to compete in tournaments).
What are your views on the wearing of fancy custom doboks?
What an interesting question. I think at my school, if you had really good taekwondo, people would think it was cool. If you have really bad taekwondo, people would think you were a poser. Two of our instructors are former K-Tigers and they have a couple fancy uniforms in the closet, but nobody thinks it odd when they wear them -- they can do standing backflips and jump over the moon, so who's gonna say anything?
What are your views on belt embroidery and bars at various grades?
Personally, I would rather see a fancy belt than a fancy uniform. At our school, we tend to stitch a lot of things onto the belt to show various accomplishments. Personally, I find that kind of cool. It's like: your uniform is just your uniform, but your belt is your biography.
What are your views on the use of electrical tape to denote grade steps?
Especially when you're working with kids, I think it's super-important to do this. Kids are energized by the sense of constant progress...it's the same trick video games use to keep kids coming back. It's very motivational.
What about badges and printed logos /designs?
I would say essentially all the schools in my area put the school logo on the back of the uniform. I was just at the HK Lee tournament this past Saturday, and there were over a thousand competitors. I was very glad that each school had their own logo, because it made it really easy to find my schoolmates. Our school also puts the school name on the pant leg, which again at tournaments is super useful.
If it weren't for tournaments, I might think that all these logos and such were silly, but given the fact that we try to attend a lot of tournaments, I find the logos super-practical from a tournament standpoint. I assume our coaches find it useful too, since it makes it easy to find our athletes during the tournament (we usually have a couple dozen in a tournament, so that logos really help).
Is there a limit, and how does 'pimp my uniform' fit with the tenets of Taekwondo?
Thankfully, I don't think I've ever seen an overly-pimped uniform in person, but I've seen photos of overly pimped uniforms. I don't like the way they look, but that may be because I'm just not used to them. Some people might consider our uniforms overly-pimped though:
- National flags on the Kup uniforms
- School logos on the back
- School name on the pant leg
- Embroidered belts
I'll reiterate though that I find those last three things to be practical, not pimpy. The school logos and names on the uniform are actually
really really really useful
if you're at a tournament. (Otherwise I could take 'em or leave em.) The embroidered belts let you know at a glance who's accomplished what, which is useful when you're breaking into groups to work on things.
What makes a practical and popular club dobok?
At our school, all the kids want the black uniforms, which means they either need to join the Demo Team (black with yellow trim) or the Leadership Team (black with red trim). Neither team requires extra fees, but both require extra classes. I think half the kids join the teams just to get the uniforms!
So...black uniforms. Everybody loves the black uniforms. That having been said, at our school you may not attend a promotion test or ceremony in anything but your dress-whites.
