where is everybody?

[sinthetik_mistik]

cool thanks for letting me know about the Korean titles. to be honest i googled it because i keep forgetting it lol. i partied too hard in my early-mid twenties and it messed up my short term memory. I still can't count to ten in Korean... which we always do when doing pushups or jumping jacks or whatever.

tell me what you think about this... every 6 weeks maybe a little more comes belt testing time, and you don't get to decide whether or not you test, it is mandatory, and it costs 60$. this kind of made me feel like Grandmaster Chung is just out for the money. That would make me sad as i have a lot of respect for the guy. sparring gear at the school costs 350$ which is a huge rip off (i can get it off the internet for 140$) but you are required to buy it from the school. Now i can understand that they need money, and can even deal with paying for the super over price sparring gear, but the being forced to test every time testing time comes just bothers me... maybe all martial arts schools do that? i don't know. cause i want to master the techniques as i go along, so once i do get my black belt, it won't be a half *** blackbelt... what i mean by half *** blackbelt is people who memorize the forms and get flexible but don't properly master the moves. this is one of my gripes with being forced to test every time testing time comes... i want to move up the ranks when i am well and ready, but maybe all martial arts schools are like that i don't know

 

[Dirty Dog]

cool thanks for letting me know about the Korean titles. to be honest i googled it because i keep forgetting it lol. i partied too hard in my early-mid twenties and it messed up my short term memory. I still can't count to ten in Korean... which we always do when doing pushups or jumping jacks or whatever.

There are at least three ways to count in Korean...

tell me what you think about this... every 6 weeks maybe a little more comes belt testing time, and you don't get to decide whether or not you test, it is mandatory, and it costs 60$. this kind of made me feel like Grandmaster Chung is just out for the money. That would make me sad as i have a lot of respect for the guy. sparring gear at the school costs 350$ which is a huge rip off (i can get it off the internet for 140$) but you are required to buy it from the school. Now i can understand that they need money, and can even deal with paying for the super over price sparring gear, but the being forced to test every time testing time comes just bothers me... maybe all martial arts schools do that? i don't know. cause i want to master the techniques as i go along, so once i do get my black belt, it won't be a half *** blackbelt... what i mean by half *** blackbelt is people who memorize the forms and get flexible but don't properly master the moves. this is one of my gripes with being forced to test every time testing time comes... i want to move up the ranks when i am well and ready, but maybe all martial arts schools are like that i don't know

Commercial schools have to pay the rent. That's reality.
Personally, I am opposed to pretty much everything you mention, but our school isn't commercial. That makes a huge difference.
So you're required to test. Does everybody pass? If you can fail (and do) do you have to pay again for the same test in another six weeks?

I teach in a YMCA-based school. It's not commercial, so our realities are not the same as those of your school.
Here's how it works in our school.
Promotional exams are offered once a month, but only if we have people who are ready to promote.
We don't really have tests. We "test" students by watching their day to day performance. If they're performing at the level of the next rank, then it's time to promote.
If, on test day, a student is unable to perform to standard, their promotion is "pending", until such time as they meet the standard. If they get nervous and blow a form, we just let them do it over. I've never seen anybody unable to meet the standard on a do-over. The "pending" promotions have pretty much entirely been because of a failed break. So they keep trying, and when they succeed, they get promoted.
We do not do baby black belts. The youngest we've awarded was a few months shy of her 18th birthday, and she'd been with the program since she was 6.
Average time to 1st Dan is 6-8 years.
The schools Master will sell people a dobak for like $20. On the other hand, growing students have given more than one dobak back, and they're passed on. Money is a real issue for many of our students. Sparring gear is mostly bought online, and we have a few sets of "loaner" stuff.

 

[sinthetik_mistik]

There are at least three ways to count in Korean...
I don't even care so much about the money... its the principle. they want more money? i'll give them more money, i love my dojang have been going for around half a year. Grandmaster Chung has a dojang here in Atlanta and one in Miami. but yeah if they need more money that's fine i can pay... just not in the context of them not allowing me to not take a test when i'm not ready. I've gotten to the point where i can deliver some pretty potent kicks, and my flexibility has marginally increased. my weak spot is memorizing the forms, and my other weak spot is my stamina, i'm not in terrible shape but i do have mild asthma, and i have a gut too, not a huge gut, but a gut nevertheless
Interesting what you said about baby black belts. I sparred with a black belt well under half my age, and i won! to me that is an example of a half *** black belt. if i sparred against, say, my instructor Cesar, i would be laying on my back before i even knew what happened.
your school sounds great, and i love the picture of you breaking all those cement blocks... that's very impressive. average first dan at my school is more like 2 years... maybe 3. anyways thanks for your input and happy kicking!


Commercial schools have to pay the rent. That's reality.
Personally, I am opposed to pretty much everything you mention, but our school isn't commercial. That makes a huge difference.
So you're required to test. Does everybody pass? If you can fail (and do) do you have to pay again for the same test in another six weeks?

I teach in a YMCA-based school. It's not commercial, so our realities are not the same as those of your school.
Here's how it works in our school.
Promotional exams are offered once a month, but only if we have people who are ready to promote.
We don't really have tests. We "test" students by watching their day to day performance. If they're performing at the level of the next rank, then it's time to promote.
If, on test day, a student is unable to perform to standard, their promotion is "pending", until such time as they meet the standard. If they get nervous and blow a form, we just let them do it over. I've never seen anybody unable to meet the standard on a do-over. The "pending" promotions have pretty much entirely been because of a failed break. So they keep trying, and when they succeed, they get promoted.
We do not do baby black belts. The youngest we've awarded was a few months shy of her 18th birthday, and she'd been with the program since she was 6.
Average time to 1st Dan is 6-8 years.
The schools Master will sell people a dobak for like $20. On the other hand, growing students have given more than one dobak back, and they're passed on. Money is a real issue for many of our students. Sparring gear is mostly bought online, and we have a few sets of "loaner" stuff.

 

[sinthetik_mistik]

I don't even care so much about the money... its the principle. they want more money? i'll give them more money, i love my dojang have been going for around half a year. Grandmaster Chung has a dojang here in Atlanta and one in Miami. but yeah if they need more money that's fine i can pay... just not in the context of them not allowing me to not take a test when i'm not ready. I've gotten to the point where i can deliver some pretty potent kicks, and my flexibility has marginally increased. my weak spot is memorizing the forms, and my other weak spot is my stamina, i'm not in terrible shape but i do have mild asthma, and i have a gut too, not a huge gut, but a gut nevertheless
Interesting what you said about baby black belts. I sparred with a black belt well under half my age, and i won! to me that is an example of a half *** black belt. if i sparred against, say, my instructor Cesar, i would be laying on my back before i even knew what happened.
your school sounds great, and i love the picture of you breaking all those cement blocks... that's very impressive. average first dan at my school is more like 2 years... maybe 3. anyways thanks for your input and happy kicking!

 

[sinthetik_mistik]

So you're required to test. Does everybody pass? If you can fail (and do) do you have to pay again for the same test in another six weeks?

People usually pass... as far as having to pay twice, i'm actually not sure. i skipped out on at least one testing day, but am scared to do it again because I'm a little scared of Grandmaster Chung. He's kind of funny sometimes too because he always goes "Hellooooo?" in a thick Korean accent. he's basically a character. interesting you said anger has no place in the Dojang. i got kind of offended when he basically disrespected me while we were doing nunchuck practice, until Master Yu stepped in and started helping me, (Master Yu is way nicer than Grandmaster Chung) i was thinking if Chung did that **** to me again i'd throw the nunchucks at him and storm out of the dojang. but i'm prob not gonna do that

 

[TrueJim]

There are at least three ways to count in Korean...

I know of the traditional Korean (hanah, dool, set...) and the sino-Korean (il, ee, sam...). What's the third way?

 

[TrueJim]

tell me what you think about this... every 6 weeks maybe a little more comes belt testing time, and you don't get to decide whether or not you test, it is mandatory, and it costs 60$. this kind of made me feel like Grandmaster Chung is just out for the money. That would make me sad as i have a lot of respect for the guy. sparring gear at the school costs 350$ which is a huge rip off (i can get it off the internet for 140$) but you are required to buy it from the school. Now i can understand that they need money, and can even deal with paying for the super over price sparring gear, but the being forced to test every time testing time comes just bothers me... maybe all martial arts schools do that? i don't know. cause i want to master the techniques as i go along, so once i do get my black belt, it won't be a half *** blackbelt... what i mean by half *** blackbelt is people who memorize the forms and get flexible but don't properly master the moves. this is one of my gripes with being forced to test every time testing time comes... i want to move up the ranks when i am well and ready, but maybe all martial arts schools are like that i don't know

I normally try not to be too opinionated in forums, but...

My son and I do go to a commercial school, and I have to say from my point of view this sounds cra-a-a-azz-a-a-ay!

• The $60 color-belt testing fee sounds high, but that's not the disturbing part. I know at my school, the testing fee in-part cover's the school's cost for the new belts they give you, the trophies they hand out, incidental items for the award ceremony, etc. (The next day after testing, at the award ceremony, they give out trophies for things like best poomsae, best breaking, etc. And then we have a potluck, so they're buying a bunch of paper plates and stuff. Yum!) So maybe your school is using some of that $60 to cover some testing costs, so okay. But...
  
  
• Testing is mandatory? I know we're supposed to be open-minded about how other schools do things, but that makes no sense to me. Like you say...how can a school force somebody to test when the person doesn't feel ready yet? I know in my case I often took an extra month or more to make sure my son and I were both confident in our abilities before we opted to test.
  
  
• You can't wear non-school sparring gear? Our school is a Kukkiwon/WTF-style school...any WTF-approved sparring gear is allowed in class. Why would it not be? It's the same gear you're going to wear to the next tournament, so of course you want the students in the sparring gear they like best.
  
  
• I don't have any complaint with schools marking-up the cost of items to cover their own costs. It is a business after all. (My school doesn't really do that per se, they mostly just round-up the prices so they're not dealing with small dollars and cents. But I can see why some schools would add 20% of whatever to cover holding costs and whatnot.) But more than doubling the price of gear makes no sense to me.

Anyway, I'm not trying to rag on your school. Just providing some information: the school my son and I attend is as commercial as they come. It's in a big (but pretty) shopping center with after-school and summer-camp programs, etc...all the trappings of "McDojos" that some people dislike (though I personally wouldn't describe it as a McDojo.) The stuff you're describing doesn't sound typical of any of the schools in our area (we parents often compare notes on local dojangs, so I do have some notion of how the other local dojangs operate too.)

Pretty shopping center, our school is behind your left shoulder in this shot

By the way...a sabumnim with a temper...I have to agree with that prior comment too. I know we're all human, and that some teachers are more short-tempered than others, but personally I think somebody with a bad temper is probably ill-suited to teaching anything in general, and martial arts in particular.

 

[Gwai Lo Dan]

A few thoughts. I was at a school with somewhat mandatory testing - you could delay but not forever. The stated reason was for continuous improvement, and you mention perhaps money as another reason. The 3rd big reason I see is consistency amongst belts; a person who is far better than others for his belt may be demotivating to other students.

In terms of equipment, I would guess one of the reason for needing to buy at the school is to ensure that it is WTF-style. Personally, I'd rather a rule that the equipment must say WTF on it, or be purchased at the school. (The difference between the two is that a school may purchase WTF-style from a knock-off manufacturer).

 

[Dirty Dog]

I don't even care so much about the money... its the principle. they want more money? i'll give them more money, i love my dojang have been going for around half a year. Grandmaster Chung has a dojang here in Atlanta and one in Miami. but yeah if they need more money that's fine i can pay...

It's a fact of life that most people, when comparing schools, will just look at the monthly fee. Just as car manufacturers advertise the "base" price for a stripped down model. Or airlines advertise the cheapest fare, while adding on fees for checked baggage, carryon baggage, and the in-flight movie.
It's all part and parcel of running a commercial school.

just not in the context of them not allowing me to not take a test when i'm not ready. I've gotten to the point where i can deliver some pretty potent kicks, and my flexibility has marginally increased. my weak spot is memorizing the forms, and my other weak spot is my stamina, i'm not in terrible shape but i do have mild asthma, and i have a gut too, not a huge gut, but a gut nevertheless

While I am philosophically opposed to mandatory testing, it's also true that your instructor is a better judge of your readiness to test than you are. We don't expect an 8th geup to kick like a 3rd geup. If you're having trouble learning forms, re-consider how you're learning them. Too many people just try to memorize them as a series of movements. While that may work for some, it does not work for me. I learn forms by envisioning an attacker. WHY I'm doing this movement is, to my mind, as important as the movement itself.

Interesting what you said about baby black belts. I sparred with a black belt well under half my age, and i won! to me that is an example of a half *** black belt. if i sparred against, say, my instructor Cesar, i would be laying on my back before i even knew what happened.

Why? There's no benefit to pummeling a student. All that teaches them is that sparring means getting their butt kicked. When sparring with a junior, it's the seniors role to fight at the level of the junior. In short, if I am sparring a 9th geup, and the make proper use of the techniques they've been taught, they will hit me. Nor do they need to worry that I'm going to attack them with techniques they've never been taught.

People usually pass... as far as having to pay twice, i'm actually not sure. i skipped out on at least one testing day, but am scared to do it again because I'm a little scared of Grandmaster Chung. He's kind of funny sometimes too because he always goes "Hellooooo?" in a thick Korean accent. he's basically a character. interesting you said anger has no place in the Dojang. i got kind of offended when he basically disrespected me while we were doing nunchuck practice, until Master Yu stepped in and started helping me, (Master Yu is way nicer than Grandmaster Chung) i was thinking if Chung did that **** to me again i'd throw the nunchucks at him and storm out of the dojang. but i'm prob not gonna do that

I always wonder why people study Chinese weapons in a Korean MA school. Never makes sense to me...

I know of the traditional Korean (hanah, dool, set...) and the sino-Korean (il, ee, sam...). What's the third way?

Ordinals, of course. Cheotjae (first), dujae (second) etc.

 

[TrueJim]

I always wonder why people study Chinese weapons in a Korean MA school. Never makes sense to me...

I've always found it a bit odd too. I know this is going to sound crazy, but when you think about it, it seems to me the only weapons that might be called a taekwondo weapon specifically is a bayonet...in the sense that bayonet training was (as I understand it) a big part of the hand-to-hand combat training that Korean soldiers were given after World War II. And then if you want to broaden things a bit to include traditional Korean weapons in general: the bow, the spear, and the sword come to mind...certainly not nunchucks.

But then when you look at what weapons are actually taught in taekwondo schools that teach weapons: things like nunchucks, eskrima, kama, sai, jitte...I'm not seeing anything particularly taekwondo-ish or Korean-ish about those? You might as well teach blowguns and bolas.

Here's something else odd: because some taekwondo schools do teach weapons, I felt obliged to create a weapons page on the wiki, not expecting it to get much traffic, and yet it's consistently one of the most-viewed pages on the wiki:

Ordinals, of course. Cheotjae (first), dujae (second) etc.

D'oh!

 

[Dirty Dog]

I've always found it a bit odd too. I know this is going to sound crazy, but when you think about it, it seems to me the only weapons that might be called a taekwondo weapon specifically is a bayonet...in the sense that bayonet training was (as I understand it) a big part of the hand-to-hand combat training that Korean soldiers were given after World War II. And then if you want to broaden things a bit to include traditional Korean weapons in general: the bow, the spear, and the sword come to mind...certainly not nunchucks.

The traditional weapons of taekwondo are the hands. The feet. The elbows. The knees...
Taekwondo has never actually included any weapons training. Schools that do have added it from other arts.

Don't get me wrong. I enjoy weapons training. Sticks. Bladed weapons. Guns.
But I don't mistake that training for taekwondo.

 

[sinthetik_mistik]

I normally try not to be too opinionated in forums, but...

My son and I do go to a commercial school, and I have to say from my point of view this sounds cra-a-a-azz-a-a-ay!

• The $60 color-belt testing fee sounds high, but that's not the disturbing part. I know at my school, the testing fee in-part cover's the school's cost for the new belts they give you, the trophies they hand out, incidental items for the award ceremony, etc. (The next day after testing, at the award ceremony, they give out trophies for things like best poomsae, best breaking, etc. And then we have a potluck, so they're buying a bunch of paper plates and stuff. Yum!) So maybe your school is using some of that $60 to cover some testing costs, so okay. But...
  
  
• Testing is mandatory? I know we're supposed to be open-minded about how other schools do things, but that makes no sense to me. Like you say...how can a school force somebody to test when the person doesn't feel ready yet? I know in my case I often took an extra month or more to make sure my son and I were both confident in our abilities before we opted to test.
  
  
• You can't wear non-school sparring gear? Our school is a Kukkiwon/WTF-style school...any WTF-approved sparring gear is allowed in class. Why would it not be? It's the same gear you're going to wear to the next tournament, so of course you want the students in the sparring gear they like best.
  
  
• I don't have any complaint with schools marking-up the cost of items to cover their own costs. It is a business after all. (My school doesn't really do that per se, they mostly just round-up the prices so they're not dealing with small dollars and cents. But I can see why some schools would add 20% of whatever to cover holding costs and whatnot.) But more than doubling the price of gear makes no sense to me.

Anyway, I'm not trying to rag on your school. Just providing some information: the school my son and I attend is as commercial as they come. It's in a big (but pretty) shopping center with after-school and summer-camp programs, etc...all the trappings of "McDojos" that some people dislike (though I personally wouldn't describe it as a McDojo.) The stuff you're describing doesn't sound typical of any of the schools in our area (we parents often compare notes on local dojangs, so I do have some notion of how the other local dojangs operate too.)

Pretty shopping center, our school is behind your left shoulder in this shot

By the way...a sabumnim with a temper...I have to agree with that prior comment too. I know we're all human, and that some teachers are more short-tempered than others, but personally I think somebody with a bad temper is probably ill-suited to teaching anything in general, and martial arts in particular.

actually that was really helpful, thanks. I'm surprised that you don't have to buy sparring gear at your school. Isn't it crazy that testing is mandatory at our school? I don't know what to do... I have been training at this dojang for a little over half a year, and really don't feel like changing dojangs. I think the real culprit is Grandmaster Chung... i don't know what his deal is. When i first started training at this dojang, he told me to keep coming back. at the time i thought 'that's nice, he wants me to continue with my martial arts" now i'm wondering if he said that because he wants my money! Funny thing is, I trained at Shaolin Kung Fu before, and the master there also had a temper. i guess once these guys get so super advanced in their respective martial art, it goes to their head? now in light of that, I am *not* trying to say that all martial arts Masters or Grandmasters are egotistical with a temper. Actually, Shaolin Kung Fu was way worse then the Taekwondo school i am currently attending. there were a whole bunch of teachers there, one of them, while training me, told me he can beat my *** (which is true but still get a little modesty!) i got yelled at by another trainer because i wasn't learning fast enough, and I saw a fourth degree black belt making fun of a new student because he failed miserably at doing a proper horse stance (which takes a long time to master) i mean he was really making fun of him badly. i mean who's gonna say anything? the dude can beat some ***.

 

[sinthetik_mistik]

The traditional weapons of taekwondo are the hands. The feet. The elbows. The knees...
Taekwondo has never actually included any weapons training. Schools that do have added it from other arts.

Don't get me wrong. I enjoy weapons training. Sticks. Bladed weapons. Guns.
But I don't mistake that training for taekwondo.

your TKD school allows elbows and knees? mine doesn't. actually elbows i'm not positive about but i know that my dojang does not allow knees

 

[sinthetik_mistik]

While I am philosophically opposed to mandatory testing, it's also true that your instructor is a better judge of your readiness to test than you are. We don't expect an 8th geup to kick like a 3rd geup. If you're having trouble learning forms, re-consider how you're learning them. Too many people just try to memorize them as a series of movements. While that may work for some, it does not work for me. I learn forms by envisioning an attacker. WHY I'm doing this movement is, to my mind, as important as the movement itself.

that's actually great advice thanks. I'm gonna try that. i was just trying to study the moves through memorization. i'll try and do what you do, maybe that will make it easier for me.

Why? There's no benefit to pummeling a student. All that teaches them is that sparring means getting their butt kicked. When sparring with a junior, it's the seniors role to fight at the level of the junior. In short, if I am sparring a 9th geup, and the make proper use of the techniques they've been taught, they will hit me. Nor do they need to worry that I'm going to attack them with techniques they've never been taught.

I didn't actually pummel her. In fact, since i didn't have sparring gear, it was a no contact sparring. although at one point she started getting mad and started kicking me as hard as she could, and it didn't even hurt much. she wasn't too young... maybe 15-16... well thats pretty young. there were so many things that she, as a black belt, could have, should have done to evade my kicks and do a flying spin kick to the face! if she really is a black belt... in my opinion she is a half *** blackbelt. actually i haven't seen her in a while... she may have dropped out. but yeah i would never hit a 16 year old girl outside of sparring... even in full contact sparring, i'd feel uncomfortable striking a girl half my age, for one thing i don't believe in hitting women, and for another thing i don't believe in hitting teenagers

 

[Dirty Dog]

your TKD school allows elbows and knees? mine doesn't. actually elbows i'm not positive about but i know that my dojang does not allow knees

What's trained, and what's allowed in sparring, are two different things. Of course we train elbows and knees. But they're not allowed in sparring, generally.

 

[sinthetik_mistik]

What's trained, and what's allowed in sparring, are two different things. Of course we train elbows and knees. But they're not allowed in sparring, generally.

oh ok. yeah my school is dual purpose, to train students for competitions as well as training for self defense on the street

 

[TrueJim]

Taekwondo has never actually included any weapons training...

Let me make a case for bayonet:

1946 onward - As I understand it, when Choi Hong Hi taught martial arts in the military, he included bayonet training as part of the instruction. This first started in 1946 when he was a Lieutenant at Kwang Ju military base. I believe bayonet training remained part of his military curriculum through the mid-1950s. (For that part, I'm working from memory from things I've read...I don't have a reference at my fingertips, but I think it's true.)

1955 - Choi Hong Hi and Nam Tae Hi establish the Oh Do Kwan for training the 29th Infantry Division. Again, I believe bayonet training was still part of Choi's military curriculum at this point.

1957 - This is when General Choi started to promote the name taekwondo. He was still in charge of Oh Do Kwan at this time on both the civilian- and military-training side.

So arguably, Choi was calling what he taught taekwondo, and it included (at least on the military side) bayonet training. If I'm right about all that, then there was one kwan teaching something that it called taekwondo that included bayonet training as part of the curriculum.

I suppose the counter-argument to this would be that Choi didn't include bayonet techniques in any of his early writings, such as his Taekwondo Training Manual.

I mention this because as I was reading through taekwondo histories a while back I was struck by how often bayonet training was mentioned, and yet knife training (as one example) was never mentioned.

 

[sinthetik_mistik]

Let me make a case for bayonet:

1946 onward - As I understand it, when Choi Hong Hi taught martial arts in the military, he included bayonet training as part of the instruction. This first started in 1946 when he was a Lieutenant at Kwang Ju military base. I believe bayonet training remained part of his military curriculum through the mid-1950s. (For that part, I'm working from memory from things I've read...I don't have a reference at my fingertips, but I think it's true.)

1955 - Choi Hong Hi and Nam Tae Hi establish the Oh Do Kwan for training the 29th Infantry Division. Again, I believe bayonet training was still part of Choi's military curriculum at this point.

1957 - This is when General Choi started to promote the name taekwondo. He was still in charge of Oh Do Kwan at this time on both the civilian- and military-training side.

So arguably, Choi was calling what he taught taekwondo, and it included (at least on the military side) bayonet training. If I'm right about all that, then there was one kwan teaching something that it called taekwondo that included bayonet training as part of the curriculum.

I suppose the counter-argument to this would be that Choi didn't include bayonet techniques in any of his early writings, such as his Taekwondo Training Manual.

I mention this because as I was reading through taekwondo histories a while back I was struck by how often bayonet training was mentioned, and yet knife training (as one example) was never mentioned.

I could have sworn that nunchucks are commonly used in Taekwondo... i might be wrong. my school does, and on the internet i have seen a lot of other TKD schools that do... maybe it's not an inherent part of TKD but i think a lot of TKD schools use nunchucks

 

[TrueJim]

I could have sworn that nunchucks are commonly used in Taekwondo... i might be wrong. my school does, and on the internet i have seen a lot of other TKD schools that do... maybe it's not an inherent part of TKD but i think a lot of TKD schools use nunchucks

I agree, a lot of taekwondo schools teach nunchucks, bo staff, etc.

When you look at General Choi's Encyclopedia though, you don't see any mention of using weapons, so for the ITF/Chang Hon-style I think it's fair to say that weapons training is not a formal part of the official curriculum. And then when you look at Kukkiwon's Taekwondo Textbook, again there's no mention of weapons training. So for the two biggest styles of taekwondo (ITF/Chang Hon and WTF/Kukkiwon) weapons-training is something that individual schools might add, but weapons aren't part of the formal curriculums (curricula).

I think for ATA-style, weapons are a formal part of the curriculum though. I know for Chuck Norris's Chun Kuk Do (which is related to Tang Soo Do, which is related to Taekwondo) weapons training is also a formal part of the curriculum (because they have actual bo-staff forms in the curriculum). And then there's a guy named Bok Man Kim who developed a taekwondo hybrid called Chun Kuhn Do that includes weapons training, including....(wait for it!)...bayonet training.

 

[sinthetik_mistik]

I agree, a lot of taekwondo schools teach nunchucks, bo staff, etc.

When you look at General Choi's Encyclopedia though, you don't see any mention of using weapons, so for the ITF/Chang Hon-style I think it's fair to say that weapons training is not a formal part of the official curriculum. And then when you look at Kukkiwon's Taekwondo Textbook, again there's no mention of weapons training. So for the two biggest styles of taekwondo (ITF/Chang Hon and WTF/Kukkiwon) weapons-training is something that individual schools might add, but weapons aren't part of the formal curriculums (curricula).

I think for ATA-style, weapons are a formal part of the curriculum though. I know for Chuck Norris's Chun Kuk Do (which is related to Tang Soo Do, which is related to Taekwondo) weapons training is also a formal part of the curriculum (because they have actual bo-staff forms in the curriculum). And then there's a guy named Bok Man Kim who developed a taekwondo hybrid called Chun Kuhn Do that includes weapons training, including....(wait for it!)...bayonet training.

cool, thanks for the info. speaking of bo-staffs, my TKD school teaches that as well actually. those are the only two weapons my school teaches i believe... nunchucks and bo staff. (i think nunchucks are more fun but that's just my opinion ) interesting that for American Taekwondo they inserted weapons into the curriculum.

speaking of nunchucks, this video is a must see!!!

https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=1152149304812145