Brandon, I do see some good and valid reasons for the existence of an organization. To maintain and establish curriculum standards and to provide standards of certification is perfectly legitimate.
Now, here's a thought that would springboard from my comment about limiting dan ranks to fifth or sixth and would allow for the Olympic sport crowd to continue as they are:
Given how minimal the KKW curriculum is and that there isn't any new curriculum past fourth dan if I am not mistaken, I think that a major portion of the rank inflation and ego boosting could be done away with if they simply didn't have any rank higher than sixth dan. Anything above that could be posthumous. I disagree with awarding rank for promoting the art or doing wonderful things for the art. Awards and recognition should be given for such things, but not rank. Rank should be based on skill, time in grade, and above third, the ability to teach.
Here's how I see it: fourth dan is needed to sign dan certs. So unless one specifically wants to teach and/or run a school, there is little need for a fourth. Fifth dan would be required fo promote to fourth, so make fifth dan applicants go to Korea, take the instructors course, and take a full test on the Kukkiwon curriculum. It isn't as if there's that much, so the test should have very high standards. In fact, it should be as tough as the hachidan test in kendo (only 2% pass that out of between one and two thousand applicants per year).
Make the grandmaster of the Kukkiwon sixth dan, with all administrators who make policy on taekwondo being fifth. And also, only the grandmaster of the kukkiwon gets to be call grandmaster.
The physical blackbelts and poom beltsmust come directly from the Kukkiwon. Yudanja receive a black belt, gold stitching and all, along with a white KKW dobok with black collar. KKW schools cannot hand them out, and if the practitioner is under fifteen, the KKW sends them a black/red poom belt and poom dobok. That will eliminate the kiddie blackbelts. Require the child to take a comprehensive test at fifteen of the material for each and every poom rank that they wish to convert to a dan. The material is pretty much all forms anyway, so it isn't like a second or third poom student is being asked to that much. But mainly, make it an adult level test for a dan rank. Break the same number and size of board, spar adult opponents, etc. Then the KKW dans will be of much higher average quality.
Lastly, make self defense and hand techniques a more prominent part of the curriculum and creat a Kukkiwon style of sparring that allows for more hand techniques, sweeps and takedowns.
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Now for the olympic/sport aspect:
Take away USAT's ability to send in dan apps. Competitions should not be rank related at all. It should be gender, weight class, and record. Period. Install a competition rating like fencing, U, then E through A ratings. U is unrated, which if you've never competed is what you are. E-A is based on both your win/loss ration and the number of bouts you've fought and whom you've fought. A perfect record with only ten bouts against E rated fencers is not an A rating. Ratings are not permanent, but go up and down depending on how the athlete is performing, how many bouts they fight in a year, and the ratings of who they fight.
The WTF could easily install such a system and then USAT would have ZERO influence over belt rankings in the Kukkiwon.
The Kukkiwon should make a provision for a school to register as a sport only school to accomodate such schools. They should allow no rankings to sport only schools aside from that of athlete. Sport only schools should be required to wear a belt comprised of their nation's colors with their nation's flag on one end and the WTF logo at the other with ATHLETE above the flag and the logo at each end.
Lastly, call it either Taekwondo Kickboxing or Korean Kickboxing. But call it kickboxing because really, that is what WTF style is.
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Doing these changes will maintain the integrity of the kyu/dan system and provide an outlet for the existing athletic structure. Existing dans over sixth could keep their ranks, but no new ranks over 6th can be given out. When the current holders of 7th+ dan holders die off, the problem of inflated dans goes away and those guys get to be posthumous high dan legends.
Thoughts?
Daniel
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