why TKD is taking so bad by the people and other MA senseis

[Manny]

Today (sunday) I did a lot of personal things I can't during the laboral week and take some time to visit some amigo's dojos near by, first I went to a japanese dojo where iaido,aikido and karate are taught by some friends, I just pased and say hellow to all, then I went to a TKD dojang that was a little bussy. In this dojang the instructors (sambonin absent) were very bussy reviewing taeguks with the kids cause examination is two weeks ahead. I sat down and see the kids and then I just thought... TKD is a very nice and efective MA, why regular people and some other MA's say TKD is nothing but a good workout? why people think TKD is not a serius MA? could be misunderstanding, could be jaelus (envy) because TKD has such strong influence and it's one of the MA with most people around it and 190 countries doing it? don't really know.

TKD is so solid about MA as any other style of SD/fighting method, yes it uses more kicks than anything elese (from the point of view of non TKD people) but for example judo uses trows,locks and submitions and very few if any kicks or punches or aikido uses the force of the bad guy to trow him and usescvery few atemis or kicks.

We certainly focus on kicks, that's the way of our MA was made of, TKD is not the ultimate fighting MA but wich one is? Karate? HKD? Wushu?

Well I just stayed at the dojang and enjoyed for a few time what TKD is about. Maybe I have to focus in the positve thing of TKD and forget the bad things people says or thinks about it.

Manny

 

[JWLuiza]

Ok Manny, we get it. You love TKD.

Just realize people will have their opinions and will have different reasons for those opinions. You don't need to convert anyone, because in the end, it doesn't matter. Not all of it is jealousy (I would actually say very little comes from jealousy) and most of it probably comes from indoctrination into peoples styles and in-group out-group psychology.

I think there are legitimate critiques of ALL arts, but as I get further along, it just becomes the same. I'm looking at Wing Chung and Kempo videos and seeing where those drills and ideas fit easily into what I do.

Most important question: Are you having fun? Everything else is arguing on the internet...and we know how that goes.

 

[Omar B]

Manny, why are you letting other people's opinions on what you do affect you so much? Move on and keep tapping your toes man, everyone's gonna have ideas on just about every topic and the great part is that those ideas don't line up. If we all though the same on every topic nothing would get done, differing ideas make the world go 'round, we would all sit around talking about how good Sex And The City is.

 

[Drac]

. Maybe I have to focus in the positve thing of TKD and forget the bad things people says or thinks about it

See you have found the correct answer..Who gives a flying **** what the opinions of the others are concerning your discipline..As long as you're happy and training hard ,IGNORE THEM!!

 

[JWLuiza]

Of course, I understand his urge to post....

 

[ralphmcpherson]

I know from a business perspective it has a lot to do with jelousy and envy. Tkd has become very popular and a lot of people who know nothing at all about ma's will just join a tkd club if they are looking to get started. So many people do it , it is an olympic sport etc and most people have a mate or family member that does it so naturally by default people pick up the phone book , look up tkd clubs and get started. I know I did this when i started , I had no idea what the difference was between karate , kung fu , tkd etc. All I did know was that any of my mates who had done a ma did tkd and Id seen it on tv (olympics) , so I just phoned up the closest tkd school and started. I know a lot of karate instructors in my area bag out tkd to anyone who will listen because they envy the fact that tkd clubs seem to have so many students.

 

[Bruno@MT]

The main gripe which makes some people dismiss TKD is sports TKD and the people who practise it. The people who compete and train under the the 'no fist strike' rules. The ones who keep their hands down their sides while sparring and who make TKD look like a twitch game.

Not making a judgement here. To each his own. I don't expect people to share each others preferences. But to answer the question as to why people sometimes dismiss TKD in its entirety: this probably has something to do with it.

 

[rlobrecht]

This is interesting. Our school actually has Karate on the marquee, because more people know what karate is than Tae Kwon Do, or call looking for a "karate" class.

 

[ralphmcpherson]

This is interesting. Our school actually has Karate on the marquee, because more people know what karate is than Tae Kwon Do, or call looking for a "karate" class.

That was very much the case here also , particularly back in the 80's , but I feel things are really starting to change now. A friend of mine is a school teacher and recently went to a seminar on extra curricular activites for kids. The seminar focused heavily on how tkd was an excellent activity for young kids both physically and mentally and through sparring teaches them to apply knowledge they have learnt. The friend of mine (being a black belt tkd) asked them why they sugest tkd over karate or kung fu and they said they recommend any martial art but they just say tkd because they know there are more clubs out there and its an olympic sport and is very popular and most people recognise the name. Another example of this is Ive noticed at the school hall where I train. We have a karate club that runs out of the same hall and start after we finish. They advertise heavily and do demos etc and yet can only muster up 6 or 7 students and they hate the fact that my instructor does no advertising and up until recently didnt even have an up to date website and yet we have 30-50 students regularly and most of them just wander in off the street when they hear a tkd club operates out of the hall. Im certainly not saying one art is better than another but I just think tkd is a bit of a buzz word at the moment and with the flashy kicks etc it has become a bit of a fad.

 

[Manny]

I know from a business perspective it has a lot to do with jelousy and envy. Tkd has become very popular and a lot of people who know nothing at all about ma's will just join a tkd club if they are looking to get started. So many people do it , it is an olympic sport etc and most people have a mate or family member that does it so naturally by default people pick up the phone book , look up tkd clubs and get started. I know I did this when i started , I had no idea what the difference was between karate , kung fu , tkd etc. All I did know was that any of my mates who had done a ma did tkd and Id seen it on tv (olympics) , so I just phoned up the closest tkd school and started. I know a lot of karate instructors in my area bag out tkd to anyone who will listen because they envy the fact that tkd clubs seem to have so many students.

The only thing I can say I came to TKD for the exactly way you did, a cousing of mine started in TKD a girlfriend was a blue belt in TKD and took me to her dojang, in those days I tought TKD was Karate and I felt in love with the Korean Karate and believe it or not that was back in 1983 and even in those days Korean Karate had more students than the average Japanese Karate dojo.

Today in my city there are more TKD dojnags than anyother MA dojo and as you said most of the dojangs are crowded (be MacDojang or not) and it's a nice bussiness.

Manny

 

[Daniel Sullivan]

Today (sunday) I did a lot of personal things I can't during the laboral week and take some time to visit some amigo's dojos near by, first I went to a Japanese dojo where iaido, aikido and karate are taught by some friends, I just passed and say hello to all, then I went to a TKD dojang that was a little busy. In this dojang the instructors (sambonin absent) were very busy reviewing taeguks with the kids cause examination is two weeks ahead. I sat down and see the kids and then I just thought... TKD is a very nice and effective MA, why regular people and some other MA's say TKD is nothing but a good workout?

Because of the way that it is taught in many schools, particularly larger commercial schools.

Why people think TKD is not a serius MA? could be misunderstanding, could be jaelus (envy) because TKD has such strong influence and it's one of the MA with most people around it and 190 countries doing it? don't really know.

A combination of reasons to be sure. Much has to do with how it is promoted more as a sport by the largest organization and due to the fact that the WTF sport taekwondo really is a different item altogether from actual taekwondo. Rampant commercialization and rank inflation don't help either. This is not unique to taekwondo, by the way.

TKD is so solid about MA as any other style of SD/fighting method, yes it uses more kicks than anything elese (from the point of view of non TKD people) but for example judo uses trows,locks and submitions and very few if any kicks or punches or aikido uses the force of the bad guy to trow him and usescvery few atemis or kicks.

Aikido takes a lot of guff, sometimes more than TKD. Judo probably has its own set of PR issues too, though I am not familiar with them. Largely though, neither judo nor aikido have suffered the degree of rampant commercialization that taekwondo has.

We certainly focus on kicks, that's the way of our MA was made of, TKD is not the ultimate fighting MA but wich one is? Karate? HKD? Wushu?

None of them. They all have their strong points and weak points.

Well I just stayed at the dojang and enjoyed for a few time what TKD is about. Maybe I have to focus in the positve thing of TKD and forget the bad things people says or thinks about it.

Right on!!

Daniel

 

[Manny]

I know another MA students or teachers vist this TKD forum for that matter I want to apologyze if my words (jaelosy or envy) wrere not good ones, I didn't want hurt somebody feelings. I am very plural about MA in fact I've training some other MA besides TKD and I higly respect any other MA like Japanes Karate or Wushu or Judo or Aikido, etc,etc,etc.

TKD is no perfect it's a nice MA and nice Sport as any other can be, yes it's true it's worldwide recognized and has so many students, but that's all.

My respect foe every one and God bless MA.

Manny

 

[Daniel Sullivan]

I think that it is very important for people to understand that there is no specific 'thing' called taekwondo, aikido, judo, or karate. These are just terms to identify training methods and fighting approaches, either specifically or in general.

Taekwondo is a Korean approach to training to fight via striking offensively and defensively with the arms/hands and legs/feet, and a small selection of grapple techniques, as well as power generation for said strikes.

Sport taekwondo is a Korean approach to athletic competition between people who have trained in taekwondo or similar striking arts.

I train primarily in hapkido because the approach and training method is one that suits me quite well, not because there is some deadly silver bullet called hapkido that I had to acquire.

All of which is why I don't take discussions regarding which art is best, better, or deadlier than other arts very seriously.

Daniel

 

[Manny]

I think that it is very important for people to understand that there is no specific 'thing' called taekwondo, aikido, judo, or karate. These are just terms to identify training methods and fighting approaches, either specifically or in general.

Taekwondo is a Korean approach to training to fight via striking offensively and defensively with the arms/hands and legs/feet, and a small selection of grapple techniques, as well as power generation for said strikes.

Sport taekwondo is a Korean approach to athletic competition between people who have trained in taekwondo or similar striking arts.

I train primarily in hapkido because the approach and training method is one that suits me quite well, not because there is some deadly silver bullet called hapkido that I had to acquire.

All of which is why I don't take discussions regarding which art is best, better, or deadlier than other arts very seriously.

Daniel

Thank you Daniel, you seem to be a very cleaver man, I higly respect all the good things you have posted, you deserve all my respect.

Manny

 

[ralphmcpherson]

The only thing I can say I came to TKD for the exactly way you did, a cousing of mine started in TKD a girlfriend was a blue belt in TKD and took me to her dojang, in those days I tought TKD was Karate and I felt in love with the Korean Karate and believe it or not that was back in 1983 and even in those days Korean Karate had more students than the average Japanese Karate dojo.

Today in my city there are more TKD dojnags than anyother MA dojo and as you said most of the dojangs are crowded (be MacDojang or not) and it's a nice bussiness.

Manny

I think from a business/sellabilty perspective tkd fits the mould perfectly. Everyone knows about tkd and recognises the name but it doesnt sound as generic as "karate", it seems to have a bit more stigma to potential clients. In my city also there are almost twice as many tkd dojangs than any other ma. I also know a lot of people profiting (rightly and wrongly) big time out of the huge numbers of people wanting to learn it. All the tkd classes in my area are packed to the rafters. Envy and jelousy do stem a lot from this.

 

[JWLuiza]

This is also probably regional. The TKD schools here in Pittsburgh are outnumbered by a plethora of different TSD organization. I also see just as many karate and kung fu schools with similar enrollments. I guess it just dpends on who got there first in the area.

 

[ATC]

This is also probably regional. The TKD schools here in Pittsburgh are outnumbered by a plethora of different TSD organization. I also see just as many karate and kung fu schools with similar enrollments. I guess it just dpends on who got there first in the area.

Not to get off track but "Hey you are from my home town"!!!:erg:. Born and raised in the Burgh before moving out to Sunny CA. Sorry about all that snow this year.

 

[JWLuiza]

Eh. I'll get over it. I could've chosen UMiami instead.... Oops.