Earl I have a couple of question for you......
1st thing why is it so important for you to be right with variation of poomsae's? Even the General said let all interpitation be that of the person performing... I have seen variation of almost every poomsae ever done and I do not pass judgement but I ask why this way instead of this and then see if it has any merit.
2nd thing as far as knowing the history of TKD do you include the Okunawa roots that was before the TKD era?
Last thing I have been doing TKD forever and have never seen one individual be on a journey like yours against TF, is this personal? do you know him? What type of TKD do you do the original ITF or a branch off? What kwan linage are you from?
You see so far I am not inpress with what you have said about this and for one starting to believe it is just some jelousy you have and need to find a way to be better than TF. I take poomsae apart and look for other ways to see hidden application. You say the General is always right so this means you have personally trained with him and if so you know how sometimes certain techs changed over the years, not saying anything bad just saying what is the truth. I do almost all of the poomsae's that have been introduce in the circle of TKD both ITF and the WTF and as well as the ATA's so what I saw was a man with great conviction going before a panel and doing the best possible job he could and that is what TKD is about not stopping or quitting but rallying to be the best at that moment. I hope you can see past your little window and see the big picture withen TKD.
1. I have no issue with people who knowingly perform a variation or interpretation on anything. It is those who mistakenly believe they are properly performing according to the intended structure that should be aware of their error lest they compound or perpetuate the error. It would be like someone thinking theyy are accurately perofrming a song when they are not. Unlike someone knowing the accurate performance and deciding to make a variation. I have been with stiudents who are ITF off shoots and sometimes they know it is a variation. Other times they are cueless. Can you rpovide a reference as to where I might find the statement you reference from Gneral Choi.
2. My point has nothing to do with TF asan individual . He follows the wishes of his seniors and instructors. This is proper. There is a question as whetehr the seniors made a knowing departure from the original.
3. General Choi was not infallable and I question why he chose to do some things a certain way. Reasoneable people can have a difference of opinion . That is fine. In fact there are errors in his books, which he acknowledged and issued technical corrections for in some instances. However, the directions and turns for this pattern have not been corrected or changed. So, if you claim to perform it and follow the pattern diagram, and do something else, there is an issue.
4. My lineage is thru an Cha Kyo, so originaly there was a stong Chung Do Kwan component. My Instructor left GM Han in 1972 or so aand from then we went thru the ITF. My frst instructor course with gneral Choi was in 1990. It was there i could see how many things were not clearly conveyed from person to person otr thru the books over time. I had also learned patterns from books and it was not an ideal situation.
I also explore alternate patter pplications. My favorite works are Bubiushi, works by Rick Clark, Stuart Anslow, Vince Morris and George Dilman along those lines.
4. The Okinawan roots of TKD thru the Shorin and Shaolin systems are set out in General Choi's books. Of course you also have those who feel Shorin was the Okinawan derivation of Shaolin.
Perhaps I have the big picture, perhaps not. Over 35 years in TKD in 4 countries besides the USA and with over 3 dozen different TKD instructors at seminars and camps gives some insight. Then there are the various Ju Jitsu and Hapkido Instructors whose classes i have taken and the pot Purri of other stuff such as Joe Lewis and Bill wallace, Dillman, Oyata, Vince Morris, Peyton Quinns RMCAT, PPCT classes . You can Google my name for my website and excerpts of my resume.