Everyone always brings up money, but money is not the only reason to include all kinds of people.
There are so many things in your post that I agree with. Let's start with this one. Do you remember those old Calgon television commercials? The wife asks at the end of the ad, "Ancient Chinese secret huh!?" I feel like so many people (at least here in the US) - raised on old episodes of the Kung Fu television series and great old Bruce Lee movies (not to detract any from either of those two awesome things!) - want to treat martial arts like it's some
Ancient Chinese secret. The perception seems to be that when
money intersects with the martial art, the martial art is somehow diminished.
Look, I know there are tons of unscrupulous McDojos out there that seem to be in it
only for the money, but there are also plenty of "scrupulous" schools too that do happen to make a pretty good income and also happen to teach a lot of kids. I don't think there's anything wrong with either of those things. If taekwondo is a -
do - a path, a way of life - then it seems to me that part of that way of life ought to be about being success in
all aspects of your life: sport, business, family, community, etc. That's what makes it a -
do. There's no shame in running a
prosperous school, as long as you're teaching good taekwondo.
So I don't think taekwondo is inclusive because that's what makes money. I think taekwondo is inclusive because (a) General Choi practically gave his entire life over to making taekwondo be popular worldwide, and (b) following that, the KTA/Kukkiwon/WTF likewise continued to strive to make taekwondo be a popular, inclusive, worldwide activity.
Example: para-taekwondo is now going to be included in the 2020 Paralympics. I don't think the WTF made that happen because it's a money-maker. I think the WTF made that happen because they
really really really want taekwondo to be inclusive. Likewise ITF promotes its own brand of special-needs taekwondo for disabled athletes. Again...inclusive. I don't think the ITF is doing that to make money.
(
Para-Taekwondo - Taekwondo Wiki)
That having been said, I have seen individual MMA, MT, BJJ schools with special needs programs. So being
inclusive isn't unique to just taekwondo...but my sense is it's a lot more commonplace in taekwondo, especially since it's promoted at the very highest levels of the art.
Korea views taekwondo as a cultural product. One of the missions of Kukkiwon is to spread Korean culture. I'm guessing that taekwondo is or was the only thing many people know about Korea.
And that's another great point. From the standpoint of Korea, so much of their cultural heritage was almost wiped-out by the 1910-1945 occupation. If the occupation had gone on for a couple more decades (like, imagine if it had started in 1890), one wonders if there would be much uniquely Korean culture left anywhere in the world at all. Then on top of that, during the last half of the century, you have Communism in the north, and autocracies in the south (until 1988) -- let's face it, during the 20th Century, traditional Korean culture took a real hammering! So now Korea makes a huge effort to both renew their traditions and export those traditions to the world - and who can blame them? If my traditional culture had been almost wiped-out, I'd probably put a lot of energy into restoring it too. And I'd spread seeds of that culture as far and wide as I could, to make sure it never dies out again!
Example: the Kukkiwon (and I believe the Taekwondowon as well) is ultimately sponsored by the Korean government's
Ministry for Culture, Sports, and Tourism. The word
culture is even in the name!
(
Welcome to the website of the Ministry of Culture Sports and Tourism of the Republic of Korea.)
As for the MT students looking like martial artists, I think that's great. But I'm betting that a far higher percentage of MT students "look" like martial artists before they ever step foot into a MT school than the average person walking into a dojang for the first time.
And you make another great point! I too am inclined to believe that people who are drawn to arts like Muay Thai are probably going to be folks who are primarily interested in the
combat aspects of the art, and there's nothing wrong with that! As you say, they're probably more fit to begin with. I'd wager that Muay Thai as an art probably places less emphasis on being inclusive. I don't know that Muay Thai schools or associations put a lot of effort into para-athletes, special needs athletes, older athletes, very young athletes, etc. Maybe they do, I don't know. Taekwondo though certainly does. So it stands to reason that the "average" taekwondo athlete may be
less athletic than the "average" Muay Thai athlete -- but that's what comes with being inclusive.
I would agree that the average MT student is tougher than the average TKD student. I don't think TKD needs to apologize for being inclusive of everyone. There are plenty of tough guys in taekwondo, but there's room for everyone else, too.
At the school my son and I attend, all the instructors are Korean, and they're all Kukkiwon trained. I'm constantly struck by how much they
don't treat taekwondo like it's Calgon's
Ancient Chinese secret, or like any of us are likely to be a bar-fight any time soon. (Personally, 54 years and counting...still never been in a bar fight.) Our instructors treat taekwondo like something we do because it's fun, it makes us healthy, it improves our flexibility, agility, balance, coordination, endurance, etc....and oh by the way if you do it well you can hit people with it
really really really hard.
That mindset is definitely very
inclusive I think, and as you say, personally...I don't think taekwondo needs to apologize for being inclusive.
I think it's great that there's a pretty good martial art out there that really anybody can enjoy: young or old, able-bodied or otherwise, already fit or just on-the-path...that's what the
-do part means, I think.
