MasterH

ATA has a great curriculum, ITF has the history (in my opinion the real deal in TKD) but WTF has the money and the attention as the "olimpic sport" style. All have something, the best.......ITF. And this from a former ATA guy.

Survival is first, worry about the law after you can walk away.

Hey bud! Gumdo? Please go on. I really don't know much about it.

Only durring sparring. Its a distraction everywhere else. In my humble opinion.

One year contracts are standard, and in some states are all that can be enforced. I taught in a school in Oregon were we had 1, 3 and 5 year contracts, I could sell the 5 year but if they wanted out, all they had to do was finnish that first year and there was no way to enforce the rest of the "program". It may be the same way in other states, like Washington. The bigger schools and Orgs (ATA) use multi year contracts as a standard.

I've been told that. That's a Japanese weapon is it not? What if I wanted to stick with a Korean style?

Hey, Now that I've earned my 5th Dan (TKD), I thought it would be a good change in pace to start studying a weapon. Where should I start? Which would complement ITF style of TKD?

Where is the honor in smacking around some kid (no offence) There are other ways to learn, and teach. The way I deal with you young'ns is I tell would tell you that I will only push you, I hit as hard as I get hit, and step it up a notch. Does that make sense? You need to be able to learn while, you get smacked. As for the cheap shot, sound like the instructor already knows what's up. Why else would he ask him to "take it easy"?

Friend, No offence but your cousin was in jail, what do you expect. That's not the real world. Most in jail/prison are in there for a reason, are uneducated, ill-mannered and probably a bit scared. The first thing they/ I would do would look for some friends. Someone with something in common, and the most obvious would be race. I hope your cousin is out, I'll pray for him.

Goes with out saying. Honor.

Kind of reminds me of an intermediate level (Green Belt) male about 18 to 40 years old, got the guts - can throw a punch or kick, but has no control, don't cream him but take it easy.

Yea!

If you say so..........

Live and learn, you can take it easy but never let down your guard.

Yea, I like my belt as well. I earned it.

I agree. I study TKD. I have done TSD and Judo. Now I'm about to start Jujitsu. So yea. I totally agree. But there is nothing wrong with cross training to fill in the "gaps." But even then, there will still be "holes" somewhere in training. As long as one knows where and what these "holes" are, there shouldn't be a problem. Yup, and I'm even looking to start to "fill the gaps" with some crosstraining of my own. I'll be looking for a good weapons program as soon as I meet another goal.

As I said, there's good and bad. I don't do full contact. I did some back in "the day" but now I have no interest and my students, have little interest as well. Americans will watch some on TV but not practice it. But the Americans who do chose to practice it do very well, normaly.

It's all in the family my friend. Growing up we had a few scraps, but we're fairly even. should be fun, but I'm the big brother.

Not KKW, hu? 14 years of Karate though.......as long as I have my instructors signature on my rank certificates....all else is garbage.

In my opinion, there is no best MA. Every MA has its drawbacks, every MA has its advantages. My brother is studying kung fu. As soon as he gets his next sash we get to spar. He's also a TKD Chodan, so it should be interesting.

You're sport TKD, are you WTF?

I made my 5th degree a year ago last June. In the org I'm with now, run by an American citizen who trained in Korea. I've been with this man for over 20 years. We were also in this big American Association, and we left it for this reason as well as it was becoming about the money, a big chain of McDojo's (I hate that term, but if it fits......) Anyway, now that I've got this new rank, and title, it's not that big of a deal. My wife won't call me master, the only person I care to have call me master. I'll be dad to my kid, always. It was kind of nice when my instructor called me master for the first time but hey, it's all about having fun and passing it on to the next generation. FYI we have no high ranking koreans in our system, and it's not on purpose they train with us and seem not to like answering to a big white guy......they seem to move back to the WTF or ITF. And do just fine.

Thank you, I thought I was being over sensitive out it.

OK, here's something for you. A very large Association out of America that teaches Taekwondo (read between the lines and and you can figure out who ) has been brining over Korean black belts and setting them up in schools. They may come over as WTF 3rd Degrees but they bring them into the association as 4th degrees and with in 2 years passing them to 5th Degrees. The biggest problem I have with this is the white/black/asian american born instructor, in this association, is being held back, as they should due to both time in rank rules and the ability to do the teqs. I can tell you that the WTF style and the ITF styles are different, and this association was once a part of the ITF, so you would think thoes whom have already been studying the material would be passing at a more regular interval than someone who was brought in late in the game. Are the Koreans being fast tracked thru the system? And if so, is it racism?

I'll chime in on this one. I have never taken a kung fu class, but I have 20 years experiance with TKD. I have an ITF style background. The difference between the WTF style and ITF styles are the WTF is more "sport" not a bad thing at all. Much more foot teqs, tournements are very immportant, the WTF is the largest TKD org out there. The ITF is more of the traditional TKD, headed by General Choi until his death, they practice a full body "sine wave" (sp) the entire body learns to move into a teq. I relate more with the ITF style myself. Both styles have high kicks, but it matters on the instructor you find. I teach teq over high kicks, but that's just me.