Help! My schools a McDojang!!!

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white dragon

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Sadly the school I've been training at for the last two years is a McDojo/Dojang. But the sad thing is, it wasn't for the previous two years. I train at a univeristy club, and this year the instructors have been replaced by those that seem to sum up all the reasons people hate Taekwondo.

For ages now I've been defending taekwondo against attacks over on the TKD forum of this site, but now I can see exactly where people get thier views from. Now why am I writing about this, well because I value your opinions and would like to know what your view would be in my situation. I've been on the committee for the club for the past two years and the club has been getting bigger anf bigger. Over the summer break though our chair person took it upon herself to get rid of the instructors and apoint new ones. the reason for this? Well because when the previsou instructors came to teach at the club (two years ago, when I started also) she didn't have anything to say she was a blackbelt. She also claimed not have trained for about 7 years, which was when she took her grading. Seeing that she blatently wasn't up to blackbelt standard my instructor gave her an honoury blackbelt status, on the condition that she take a grading to authenticate her belt by the end of the year. Anyway the first year ended and she was still not up to standard to grade, so she skipped the grading. The second year ended, still not up to the standard. My instructor told her that if she didn't take the grading and pass within the next 8 weeks that he would take the belt off her. And rather than grade she just decided to kick the instructor out. Without consulting the rest of the committee I should add.

Anyway, so we come back to be told the man that has dedicated his time to training us to a high standard, forming a club that I would was proud to be a member of has been kicked out. And the new guys gave a demonstration. And they're worse than most of the green belts in the class, and seeing as they guy claims to be a 5th Dan it's shocking.

Anyway to cut a long story short the university are sick with us and can see there's a split in the club between those of us that want our old instructor back and those that seem to prefer the new guys. What they've decided to do now is to hold a vote with just the members of the club (not the committee) and get them to vote for who they'd prefer. The problem is the new members haven't met our old instructor so won't have a clue whod' they'd prefer.

the club is so shocking that I no longer want to train there and after all the time and effort I put into it over the past two years this is very upsetting. And if the new instructors stay I'm just going to walk out.

I just wondered if anyone here had ever gone through anything similar or what your views on the situation are, am I being childish in walking away?
 

jfarnsworth

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Not childish at all. I wish I could explain some of the problems that were encountered with my "first" instructor. Too many things to list. My advice is find another style/instructor. This might be your opportunity to find another system that you may mesh with extremely well. I spent 5 yrs. training TKD in the beginning. Now I'm going on 8.5 in Kenpo. I am extremely happy about making the switch and wouldn't have wanted it otherwise. The TKD gave me a good back ground to excel with my experiences in kenpo. No looking back time only moves forward. Post back and let us know what you did.
 
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white dragon

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The thing is I want to stick with TKD, or at least what I believe TKD should be, which to some might actually be closer to Kempo with more dynamic kicks (from what I read of Kempo) the only other class around me that I'd be interested in taking is Kali, but that would cost me a fortune!

Thanks for the advice though, it's certainly something I'll take into consideration!
 
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white dragon

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this is actually the first idea I had, and for whatever reason the university won't allow there to be 2 taekwondo clubs on campus. Karate had the same problem when people became unhappy with the instructor there.
 

Nightingale

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so call it a "martial arts club" and every so often, invite a grappling instructor or something to do a seminar. Just don't say its TKD. Most people wouldn't know the difference.
 
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white dragon

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That's true, it's something I talked about with other people that are unhappy. This was where we left off actually before the prospect of having a club vote was introduced, we got stuck with the name though. We wanted something that sounded different enough from TKD for it to be allowed to go through, but didn't want people to see the name and think we were a cheap copy of the original club. Any ideas?
 

Marginal

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TKD has a lotta names. Might just want to use the name of one of the kwans that were brought together to make TKD in the first place. Something like Oh Do Kwan...
 
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TkdWarrior

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that's indeed a sad status...
if u wanna ask for name then i think mariginal gave u good idea...
u hav lots of names to choose from just add "Do" in end to make it sound like Korean :D :p
-TkdWarrior-
 

The 14th Style

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Originally posted by white dragon

That's true, it's something I talked about with other people that are unhappy. This was where we left off actually before the prospect of having a club vote was introduced, we got stuck with the name though. We wanted something that sounded different enough from TKD for it to be allowed to go through, but didn't want people to see the name and think we were a cheap copy of the original club. Any ideas?

What about the Korean Martial arts alliance or Korean Martial arts club, or something like that? Just my two cents
Respectfully The 14th Style
 

Seig

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Originally posted by white dragon

Sadly the school I've been training at for the last two years is a McDojo/Dojang. But the sad thing is, it wasn't for the previous two years. I train at a univeristy club, and this year the instructors have been replaced by those that seem to sum up all the reasons people hate Taekwondo.

For ages now I've been defending taekwondo against attacks over on the TKD forum of this site, but now I can see exactly where people get thier views from. Now why am I writing about this, well because I value your opinions and would like to know what your view would be in my situation. I've been on the committee for the club for the past two years and the club has been getting bigger anf bigger. Over the summer break though our chair person took it upon herself to get rid of the instructors and apoint new ones. the reason for this? Well because when the previsou instructors came to teach at the club (two years ago, when I started also) she didn't have anything to say she was a blackbelt. She also claimed not have trained for about 7 years, which was when she took her grading. Seeing that she blatently wasn't up to blackbelt standard my instructor gave her an honoury blackbelt status, on the condition that she take a grading to authenticate her belt by the end of the year. Anyway the first year ended and she was still not up to standard to grade, so she skipped the grading. The second year ended, still not up to the standard. My instructor told her that if she didn't take the grading and pass within the next 8 weeks that he would take the belt off her. And rather than grade she just decided to kick the instructor out. Without consulting the rest of the committee I should add.

Anyway, so we come back to be told the man that has dedicated his time to training us to a high standard, forming a club that I would was proud to be a member of has been kicked out. And the new guys gave a demonstration. And they're worse than most of the green belts in the class, and seeing as they guy claims to be a 5th Dan it's shocking.

Anyway to cut a long story short the university are sick with us and can see there's a split in the club between those of us that want our old instructor back and those that seem to prefer the new guys. What they've decided to do now is to hold a vote with just the members of the club (not the committee) and get them to vote for who they'd prefer. The problem is the new members haven't met our old instructor so won't have a clue whod' they'd prefer.

the club is so shocking that I no longer want to train there and after all the time and effort I put into it over the past two years this is very upsetting. And if the new instructors stay I'm just going to walk out.

I just wondered if anyone here had ever gone through anything similar or what your views on the situation are, am I being childish in walking away?
Why do you not just seek the old instructor out and see if he will take you on as a student himself?
 

Bod

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Better still, introduce as many new members of the club to the old teacher. This is politics. You have to work hard to get your ideas across.
 

Aegis

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I'd say first of all have a vote to remove the chairperson from power. She had no right whatsoever to replace the instructor on her own and should be punished for doing so.

Secondly, take a vote on who to keep, but only those who have actually trained with both instructors should get a say. Otherwise there's no comparison, and therefore not a fair vote.

If this fails, start a new club, like other pople have already mentioned. The you could always do inter-club competitions and show who's better to everyone.....
 
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M

Master of Blades

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Hmmm sounds like those people need an *** kicking! Where abouts in the UK are you? I might be able to help :shrug:

:rofl: :shrug: :asian:
 
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white dragon

Guest
Sadly my university is all the way up north, wouldn't like to mention it by name, but it's on the side of the river tees, I'll let you work that one out. I'm from Hertfordshire myself though. A good **** kicking is in order, there's going to be a vote tonight, we've been asked to make a list of reaoons why we liked our old instructor, and the chairperson is doing alist in favour of the new instructors. I'll be sure to let you know how it goes. If anyone's interested I could post the reasons here to see what you guys think?
 

7starmantis

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Is the chair person not getting any reprocutions from making a group decision by herself?

7sm
 

tshadowchaser

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I agree first thing vote the chair person out. Then if need be invite the old instructor and the new ones to give a demo toeveryone or as had been said befor show the New ones that they are not that good.
How is the knowledge of the new instructors? Are they as knowledgeable as the old one? Are they running the club as a black belt factory or ae they teaching? Do the new instructors forfill the needs of the class?
 
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GouRonin

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Hire Jason Farnsworth to come to your school and twist this new guy's cap on right. He works on the cheap.

Woo hoo!
:D
 

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