Student's interest in their lineage

[Kong Soo Do]

What is your experience as far as your students being interested in their lineage? Or, if you're a student now, do you have any interest in your lineage. Things such as what your original Kwan may have been, who taught who going back to the founder etc.

For those that may be interested, what have you been able to provide them?

Thanks

 

[Dirty Dog]

I'm a student interested in our lineage. We are a Moo Duk Kwan school, so I know we go back to GM Hwang Kee. I know our lineage back to GM Bobby Kim, but I do not know the lineage beyond him. I hope to be able to ask him about it someday.

 

[texas_rebel_1980]

i am a student, brand new. i study chung do kwan tae kwon do and i know it was started by grandmaster won kuk lee. thats about all i know. i would love to know who my instructor has studied under and so forth all the way back to GM Won Kuk Lee. thats something i will have to ask him when we are sitting around between classes.

 

[IcemanSK]

It's a lot more important to me now, as an instructor, than it was to me as a teenaged gup student. We are Chung Do Kwan. I make sure that my students know our lineage (specifically, the names of Instructor's instructor's instructor....that type of thing). They seem to have a vague interest in it, now. How many teens care about such things?

 

[ralphmcpherson]

Generally, Ive found most students where I train dont ask at all about their lineage, not necessarilly because they dont care, but because they dont really delve that deep into the whole history side of things, they are really just there to train. I am similar, there have been times my instructor has told me things about our GM's history and I find it quite interesting, but I dont go seeking out that information. For me personally, its because Im more interested in what is happening 'now' rather than what happenend 50 years ago, and Im there to train and get as good as I can and I dont really see the history helping me achieve my goals. That may change with time, but for now its just all about the training for me.

 

[tshadowchaser]

I was lucky I was always told who was who in my instructors lineage, that is up to a point After my instructor , his instructor, and his instructor I never learned much of the lineage. I''m not sure my first TKD instructor knew past that point.
In studying after that first school most of the instructors would give their background and lineage at times durring class but sometimes you realy had to be paying attention to hear some of it

 

[Earl Weiss]

i am a student, brand new. i study chung do kwan tae kwon do and i know it was started by grandmaster won kuk lee. thats about all i know. i would love to know who my instructor has studied under and so forth all the way back to GM Won Kuk Lee. thats something i will have to ask him when we are sitting around between classes.

What patterns do you or will you be learning?

 

[Earl Weiss]

It's a lot more important to me now, as an instructor, than it was to me as a teenaged gup student. We are Chung Do Kwan. I make sure that my students know our lineage (specifically, the names of Instructor's instructor's instructor....that type of thing). They seem to have a vague interest in it, now. How many teens care about such things?

What patterns are you doing?

 

[oftheherd1]

When I studied Tae Kwan Do, I don't recall ever being told what our exact lineage was. If anything, it was jusf that Tae Kwan Do and martial arts in Korea were very old. But since that was some 45 years ago, I could be wrong. But my recollection is that we were just more interested in learning as much as we could about the Tae Kwan Do being taught to us.

In Hapkido, I remember talking to my GM about it and being told about GM Choi. He didn't try to make it more ancient than that.

 

[miguksaram]

I feel for the most part that very few students, when they first start out care about where the forms or concept of their art came from. They are more focused on techniques and getting width in their knowledge. As they grow and mature most begin to want to add depth to their knowledge base and that is when lineage comes into play.

The school I am in know requires you to know your lineage for your black belt examination.

 

[SahBumNimRush]

I feel for the most part that very few students, when they first start out care about where the forms or concept of their art came from. They are more focused on techniques and getting width in their knowledge. As they grow and mature most begin to want to add depth to their knowledge base and that is when lineage comes into play.

The school I am in know requires you to know your lineage for your black belt examination.

In my experience, I agree with miguksaram, in that new students are not concerned with history and lineage. We are Moo Duk Kwan Taekwondo, and our KJN is Sok Ho KANG, who trained under Hwang Kee. However, I do know that he joined the MDK already having vast experience in the martial arts, and that he is very guarded about his past beyond the MDK. Our KJN is listed in MDK family tree along side Kyung Won AHN and Ki Whang KIM near the top as joining the MDK, while others are not worded that way.

 

[IcemanSK]

What patterns are you doing?

We do the Tae Geuk & Yudanja poomsae plus some of the Karate katas (Bassai Dai, Yun Bi) the my instructor learned back in the day.

 

[Earl Weiss]

We do the Tae Geuk & Yudanja poomsae plus some of the Karate katas (Bassai Dai, Yun Bi) the my instructor learned back in the day.

>
It's a lot more important to me now, as an instructor, than it was to me as a teenaged gup student. We are Chung Do Kwan. I make sure that my students know our lineage (specifically, the names of Instructor's instructor's instructor....that type of thing). They seem to have a vague interest in it, now. How many teens care about such things? <<<

So, is the statement "we are Chung Do Kwan" simply a reference to some lineage as opposed to the system or style you practice. Perhaps a silly question since this is a lineage thread, but it peaks my curiosity since I have had people who were second or third gneration under what was a CDK connection say they are CDK TKD, but the system / styl they practiced had little or nothing to do with the CDK system.

For insance HU Lee was a founder fo the ATA and a CDK guy but I wouldn't expect ATA people to say we are CDK.

 

[miguksaram]

For insance HU Lee was a founder fo the ATA and a CDK guy but I wouldn't expect ATA people to say we are CDK.

Nor should they since GM Lee developed a whole new system that they studied from. They may claim roots in CDK but I doubt they would ever claim they are CDK.

Though I thought GM Lee was part of the ODK.

 

[Elmgrows]

For me, as a student, knowing our lineage is part of the culture of our dojang so I am surprised to hear that it isn't so at other schools.

 

[Tony49]

At our school, you are tested on your Lineage in the first three belts. But I am always surprised when I talk to others and they don't even know their instructors name. The usually say "We just called the Master, Sr., Sabunium etc...

 

[puunui]

So, is the statement "we are Chung Do Kwan" simply a reference to some lineage as opposed to the system or style you practice. Perhaps a silly question since this is a lineage thread, but it peaks my curiosity since I have had people who were second or third gneration under what was a CDK connection say they are CDK TKD, but the system / styl they practiced had little or nothing to do with the CDK system.

GM NAM Tae Hi always shows up to the Chung Do Kwan meetings in the United States. He is listed as an advisor to the US Taekwondo Chung Do Kwan Union, which is the official Chung Do Kwan organization in the US. The official Chung Do Kwan curriculum is the Kukkiwon curriculum.

 

[hungryninja]

My guess is that the majority of ATA are not aware of that fact. And some current and former ATA masters had different lineages prior to joining the ATA as well.

To answer the original question, I have always had an interest in my lineage, but as far as I know, none of my students expressed interest in their lineage.

>

For insance HU Lee was a founder fo the ATA and a CDK guy but I wouldn't expect ATA people to say we are CDK.

 

[David43515]

When I took Karate from American instructors lineage was always taught informally, but was part of our belt tests. When I trained chinese styles we didn`t have belts, so there was no test, but the lineage was usually mentioned from time to time, but it depended on the teacher whether it was considered important.Some of my teachers were American, and some were Chinese, but I remember one Korean. He Trained in Korea with a Chinese master for 17 years and lived in the man`s home for 12 years as a fulltime student (ie: was training to make teaching our style his sole fulltime profession.) He said that for the first 10 years or so of his training his teacher never taught him anything about lineage, and if he brought it up, the answer was always the same.

&quot;Will knowing who taught me and who taught them make you a better fighter?&quot;

It wasn`t until he was teaching full time on his own that his teacher began to teach him all the lineage of their style of Baguazhang.

 

[ralphmcpherson]

When I took Karate from American instructors lineage was always taught informally, but was part of our belt tests. When I trained chinese styles we didn`t have belts, so there was no test, but the lineage was usually mentioned from time to time, but it depended on the teacher whether it was considered important.Some of my teachers were American, and some were Chinese, but I remember one Korean. He Trained in Korea with a Chinese master for 17 years and lived in the man`s home for 12 years as a fulltime student (ie: was training to make teaching our style his sole fulltime profession.) He said that for the first 10 years or so of his training his teacher never taught him anything about lineage, and if he brought it up, the answer was always the same.

&quot;Will knowing who taught me and who taught them make you a better fighter?&quot;

It wasn`t until he was teaching full time on his own that his teacher began to teach him all the lineage of their style of Baguazhang.

I think thats how I feel. At this stage of my training I dont see how knowing who taught my GM will make me a better tkdist or fighter. Maybe in the years down the track that may change.