You're a 4th degree. You're an adult. So you should be capable of coming to your own conclusions about whether or not this is a waste of time.
I think you've been taking things from the other threads out of context or misunderstanding them. Perhaps on purpose to troll, or perhaps not. Let's address some of the points you're making:
Then you get, the tradition is so new and so varied that it basically has no tradition and is just garbage put out by each "master."
I don't see anyone in the recent threads calling it garbage or saying there's a problem with fake masters. I feel like you may be either A) trolling or B) bringing in remnants of past conversations that are coloring your opinion on what's going on here.
Specifically regarding tradition, the comments need to be placed in context. That context is either in response to:
- The idea that "this is how we've always done it".
- The idea that there is an "official" version of Taekwondo.
In those contexts, I argue that there isn't a tradition, because the "how we've always done it" isn't that long, and there are many different styles and lineages of Taekwondo that have their own official ways of doing things. It would be very different if we were talking about something like Shaolin Kung Fu, which dates back hundreds of years to the Shaolin monastery.
I wasn't saying that traditions don't exist or that they are garbage. I disagree with some of them, yes. But they certainly do exist and certainly have their place.
Having taken Taekwondo myself for 13 years, I find it basically a huge waste of time and I would have been better served spending my time and energy on good old western arts such as boxing and wrestling. I fall into this category myself where for over a decade I extolled the virtues of Taekwondo but now, not so much. I tend to steer people away from Taekwondo/Tang Soo Do. I do however find Taekwondo to be a great art for children.
Then be an adult and choose not to do TKD/TSD, and instead do boxing and wrestling.
But into adulthood it is kind of silly to see grown men jumping around doing acrobatic kicks.
So? It's fun.
I have met soooo many guys that either took Taekwondo as a child and want to get back into it and recapture their childhood vigor or those that never stopped taking it from childhood and do not know any better. What are the thoughts of those that have practiced Taekwondo up to at least a 1st or 2nd Dan? I stopped training at 4th Dan (Kukkiwon), 5th Dan (Local school). I have also wrestled since Elementary school and always thought the eastern arts had a leg up on me (pun Intended). But all these years later, my wrestling has served me better than Taekwondo ever has.
TKD (and other arts like it) have a very unique spot in martial arts, in that they meet the following criteria:
- They spar competitively
- with striking
- without much risk of CTE.
There are a lot of martial arts that really don't have a competition scene. For example, Shaolin Kung Fu. There might be people who go compete, or maybe a school that wants to prove "we spar", but I've never seen a worldwide sport organization like WT or IBJJF.
Grappling arts tend more often to have a competitive scene (except for Aikido and Hapkido). And you can go full force in those without as much risk of CTE as in knockout sports like boxing and MMA.
Where arts like TKD, TSD, and Karate fit in with the point sparring is that you can go as hard as you want on body shots, but head shots are severely controlled (if not outright banned), so you're still not in as much risk of CTE. In over a decade of TKD, I've been rocked less than in a few months of Muay Thai.
