MTabone,
Yes, you are attacking TKD, Crap TKD!
For this I applaud you! I attack Crap TKD too, when given the opportunity. We are allies against poorly taught MA. I will say that errant organizations and schools do not change the definition of the correct traditional schools art. That is where you are being mislead by your limited resource study. I say limited because the TKD schools I compete and affiliate with DO NOT fit your studys archetype. For every argument/study for, a counter can be made against. I have been down this road before. If I were to use the contacts I frequent as a base for a scientific study, the data would skew in my favor. That in itself does not mean it is representative of the whole. I have seen good TKD (yes, hands up even) on video from outside my contact realm and I have seen what you describe too. And noooo.....I assure you I am learning and teaching AUTHENTIC TKD. My Korean Grandmaster is 60 something and 9th Dan. He is Moo Duk Kwan of origin. As you are probably aware, the Moo Duk Kwan split in two when the major Kwans merged to form TKD back in the 1950's. The kicking techniques were taken along to TKD that were a part of the Moo Duk Kwan curriculum. Funny thing, the kicks were in large part THE SAME from the OTHER Kwans. So, the remaining structure of the Moo Duk Kwan, that came to represent the remainder of Tang Soo Do, from Hwang Kee, apparently did not have the market cornered on correct kicking technique and a patent. Read the prior three sentences and feel like my long lost cousin, not a victim of identity theft! As far as patents go, didn't the Okinawans and Chinese come after you TSD guys like this, years ago, waving a fake patent too? Just how many of these are floating around?
Now, looking at the modern day turn of events where we have the two divergent extremes in TKD martial quality.
Consider this, Ten-Twenty years in the future, I am bitten by marketing genious and I distribute en masse a more sporting mass appeal version of Tang Soo Do. It represents the art of Tang Soo Do that you presently practice only in small part. According to your logic then because of the upstart TSD version I marketed AFTER yours existed, yours could no longer be called REAL Tang Soo Do. I will repeat my prior statement, ERRANT ORGANIZATIONS AND SCHOOLS DO NOT CHANGE THE DEFINITION OF THE CORRECT TRADITIONAL SCHOOLS ART. I can appreciate your disgust with the "art being lost in sport" situation. A good part of the Judo of today does not resemble the Judo of Jigoro Kano's era very well. If Jigoro were alive today, (he would be very old), would you tell him that what he was practicing was NOT REAL JUDO?
I see poopy Karate, TKD, TSD, Judo, etc. schools, as well as good, in close to the SAME RATIO. Out of those four Martial Arts, hands down, there are WAY more TKD schools in existance ergo you will see more poopy TKD schools than poopy TSD schools, etc.
My GM periodically talks about how people mix up their points of reference in Martial Arts due to bias. The purpose it serves ultimately is not their own.
Thanks for the fun,
white belt
