ralphmcpherson
Senior Master
Im really starting to think it may be a cultural thing. I can only speak on behalf of my local area but we have 3 very large (in excess of 3000 students) tkd clubs in my proximity that basically have a monopoly on the area. All 3 of these clubs are non-kukkiwon, old style, self defence related tkd clubs. We do have olympic style clubs around the place but even if you combined all their students they would still have far less students than 'the big three'. It is only from reading on forums such as these that I am even aware of all the negatives associated with tkd. It appears that 'old school' tkd clubs are on the decline in America. There really is a huge market for traditional tkd and Im surprised more people dont take advantage of this.I can only speak for the Brits (which isn't saying they are better than anyone, I'm only speaking from my own experience) but the TKD people I know tend to be what you'd call old school. There still isn't the huge drive for money making on a large scale though it is here, schools with contracts etc and will possibly get bigger though being a small place we may never have schools where they have a thousand students. Most of the MMA fighters I know that come from TKD seem to be 'non sport' TKD, my friend's club where I sometimes train is hard core sparring and self defence type TKD. Perhaps more akin to karate? he trains children and adults separately which I enjoy, tbh I hate mixed adult and childrens classes, I think it does no good to teach them all the same and at the same time.
The various TKD people I meet on martial arts seminars around the country, which are open to all styles, seem well able to hold their own in the self defence sections and certainly have a good knowledge of techniques. I haven't met any 6 year old blackbelts either though I know they are around, they are usually the subject of media articles. A lot of the senior TKD black belts are very much pre Olympic TKD though, perhaps they keep the 'tough' TKD alive?