Well, if I practiced Japanese or Okinawan karate, I would definitely keep it in mind. But since I don't....
There's more than just that—in the first issue, Stuart has an article on self-defense applications of TKD hyungs, and Peter Consterdine, one of the BCA stalwarts, has a nice essay on personal security and what it really demands which applies across-the-board, I think.
Maybe someday someone will start a Taekwondo magazine that is informative, well written, and doesn't glorify select instructors who pay to be on the cover. You can always hope.
The problem is that such a magazine will have a hard time paying for itself—advertising is what keeps the MA industry (as vs. the MA community) rolling, and the free pulicity/paid-up ad tradeoff is going to be a cliche amongst those who see their path to wealth as the commercialization of the MAs. It
can work, but the nature of the market has to be understood by all concerned...
The reason
Jissen can work is because it's been put together by a bunch of guys who have a kind of captive audience for their products: people interested in hard-core MAs for self-defense apps, not feel-good/you-can-do-it!! fuzziness, who will buy books by experiences applied-MA types like Consterdine, Abernethy, Mulholland and others with years of practical knowledge as doormen/bouncers/personal protection ops under their belt. These guys earn their livelihoods from their books, their DVDs and their seminar fees.
I think of it as being like Apple vs. Microsoft, or Stone Brewing vs. Budweiser: much smaller market share, but within that market, they
rule. The boutique/artisan brewing industry and Apple, after some shaky startup years, look like world-beaters now, and I think that the same will happen with the serious applied CQ SD martial arts part of the business.
Meanwhile, it's definitely the case that
Jissen is a venue for the KMAs, as much as the O/J/CMAs. I think in the UK (as elsewhere), their movement to a practical, applied SD approach to TKD has been slower off the mark than with karate and various Chinese styles—blame the sport-niche marketing of TKD for that—but it's gaining traction there too. Stuart can probably tell us more about that... hint, hint, hint...
