There are some who have a strong passion for the art, wish to advance in the art, but have no interest in teaching. Or perhaps do not have the temperment for teaching.
No, they have just continued training, our GM will offer them their own class once 4th dan but they dont have to take it and many dont (we always maintain about 30 full-time instructors in each metro area). I think its usually because they would have to sacrafice their own training to some degree if they were to take up teaching. I actually spoke to a 6th dan in regards to this late last year at one of our club 'korean food' nights and he told me he started training at 16 (he is now 56) and has trained continuosly the whole time and instructing was something that never appealed to him largely because he has other commitments on his off nights from tkd, plus a couple of kids and all the usual priorities and felt the only way he could commit to teaching two nights a week would be if he sacrificed his training on those two nights.
Which highlights another difference between our systems. If a student at our school instructs but does not continue to actively train then they wont be promoted beyond 4th dan.
I can understand your logic behind this, and I respect why you would do it this way. On the other side of the coin, however, people do MA for different reasons. I started tkd with a good mate of mine, I run a large company for a living and he is a very good/passionate school teacher. We both did MA because we wanted a place to just 'get away from it all'. Years on now we have both discussed the prospects of instructing down the track. He has made the point that he teaches all day for a living and at a school which demands quite a lot of its teachers, he does tkd to get away from teaching and the last thing he wants to do with his 'hobby' is turn it into another teaching job. I can see the frustration in his face any time our instructor asks him to go and teach a bunch of child white belts their form, he teaches kids for a living and this is supposed to be where he can come to escape from work. I respect that, and I dont believe he should be under any obligation to have his own class down the track, he trains very hard and puts a lot of time into tkd out of class and is going to be a very good martial artist whether he instructs or not.. Me, however, I would love to become an instructor oneday when the time is right and I will be given that opportunity. Each to their own I guess, and I dont think me instructing is going to make me a better martial artist than him, we are just taking different routes on the martial journey.
