MasterH

Well, it went great! We'll be paying rent $10-15/hour, but after we reach X ammount of students who sign up with the B&G club we get free rent. Win - Win! I will need to get my own insurance and will be going thru a billing company for monthly due collections but we look like we may start offering classes some time in Febuary. The athletic director, of the B&G club, will be getting me in the public school system. We should get loads of students from that.......I'm pumped! -Adam

They could do that, but you didn't disclaim that Black Belt mag is just so so. They ususally have one good article, lots of ads, and lots of the same stuff from month to month. I personally pick it up once in a while, but wouldn't subscribe as most of the stuff is the same month after month. I meant google the question at hand. I guess that didn't come across in my poorly worded post - my bad. -Adam

Isn't that we we are all offering here, opinions? Shinobi187 offered his opinion, and I strongly disagree with his contention, so I offered mine. Of course, but I'm talking about taking students from each org and putting them in a style neither has trained in. Yes sir, this is a place to offer opinions. And I thank you for yours, as I thank S-187 for his. And the ATA offers olympic style sparring as sort of an Protech semminar series, so it's out there for them. But what I was saying was you can't compare the two in your style be that you are more the ATA style than the WTF style. Have a good morning, sir.

Black Belt........google it, see what comes up. -Adam

By the way he did say "any ATA school"...............sounds like a chalenge.

Shinobi187, I have to disagree. Among my students I have several former WTF students and several former ATA students. In my opinion the former ATA students arrive as superior martial artists. They seem to be more well rounded and tend to be better at sparring. I'm not saying that the WTF students are not good, I've just been pleasantly surprised by the ATA students. I don't dissagree, but that's an opinion. Put an averave ATA student in a WTF tourney and they wouldn't go three rounds. Put a WTF student in an ATA national event and they would not last. Apples and Oranges...........

Yes I do, I don't think my tone comes thru the "keyboard translation" the way I like. All I'm saying is, I know what I know. I'm an insider on the outside of the ATA. I've been around the block, and ATA students measure up well against anyone. I won't lie, I'm not a WTF fan in general, and I tend to lean on the side of the ITF, but it comes down to the indivisual and what they put into their art. Now do I have trust in an 9 y/o instructor - no. Do I respect a 9 y/o with a black belt, sure why not? Am I going to give a 9 y/o a black belt, they'd have to earn it like anyone else. This is where the Jr. Black Belts come in...........but that's another thread. -Adam Hi WW

I'll go to my parents school next week, I'll fill you in on what I find. -Adam

Cool.

Hi WW! -Adam

KK'75, So do you normaly give a max score in the ring, or is it an over all score. Meaning if the scale goes up to 10, do you give at least one 10 per ring? -ADam

Step one, open a club................then Email me. We'll talk. -Adam

Yea, I'm with you.......I don't mind seeing a 13 y/o with Dan status but how would you judge that? It's more than physical it's mental and 6-7-8 y/o's just don't have it. -Adam

KK'75, How do you judge forms? How many judges do you use? What scale do you use? -Adam

RFB, I'm sure you will. My uncle is Master Jerry Brown, I thought I caught him. He's a 7th Dan with the Colorado USTF group under GM Chuck Scherif (sp). TSD, I just faced off with one of thoes bad boys in Reno last month.......kicked my tail! Bigtime! It was fun. -Adam

Agreed. Standardization within the style is highly desireable. I've visited non-ATA schools and watch them do forms. What is called Chon-ji or To-san in one school bore little resemblence to what was being taught in another. The forms you mentioned Chon-Ji, Do-San are ITF forms. You have a number of orgs using thoes as their basic curriculem. Some use it with the Sine-Wave (ITF, USTF) others don't (Taekwondo America, HTF) So, to standardize thoes forms we would all need to learn the SW or drop the SW. I, for one, would love to learn it. But I'm afraid most would not.....and the ITF "pureist" would not want to drop it......stalemate.

Quite honestly, I hate juging the students I work with.........I only see the flaws, so I'm much harder on them. I can sit there and actually start a mental list "we need to work on that , and that, and that.........."

The average age of this group is in the high school range. So that's what MA is to them. I remember when I was in high school, you just accept it, that's there opinion, share your opinion, then move on.

RF_Brown........is this Master Brown by chance? And no the HTF does not practice the sine-wave, but I wish we did. -Adam

Well, politics suck! that I have some issues with, but it's just politics. I really do not like where the org has been going.........but I'm starting to see changes. And it's good changes. Will I ever be in the ATA again, I don't know. As long as my instructor stays out, I will. When he passes away, I still don't know. Time will tell. MasterH- Yes, they did ease the requirements for 5th degree, you can get quite a bit of velvet by judging at Nationals, doing regional camps, etc etc. If you're on the ATA mailing list, there was a message a while back showing all the changes, if not I can get you a copy. Aodhan Our mutual friend, David L, sent it to me. I am on the mailing list and I was the one making the big stink, I'm still fighting for my mom. That's one of the changes I was talking about, it's a very good thing. -Adam

I don't recognize the name. Where is he? He was originaly from Louisinina, moved to Seattle worked out with GM Pierce and dropped out of the ATA about the same time as GMP. But he went over to Taekwondo America and had a club in Kirkland WA. He was my wifes original instructor. He gave up the club to me, and moved away. I just havn't heard from him in years. He would be a 5th or 6th by now if he kept up his training.

I think we need to make the comparison between "Bad Judges" and "Bad Calls". Bad Judge - purposefull act that compromises the event. IE - All of his students seem to score high on forms while everyone else scores low. Or not paying attention to what is happening in a ring. Bad Call - an accidental call that can not be taken back. I raise the wrong color flag, or give 2 points instead of 1, or make an incorect judgement call on wether or not a kick or punch scores. I've made numerous bad calls, and I have a horrible poker face - so you can tell. Bad Judges I've met a couple but normaly we put them in a position where they can do no harm, time keeping, score keeping, trophey runner - whatever. It's funny how everyone who looses a match seems to have had a "Bad Judge". I don't think I've ever had a bad judge. I guess I've been lucky.

I teach strictly ITF till Black Belt then we do a mixed WTF - ITF batch of forms. I would say we do lean heavily on the ITF side.

Recheduled for Friday afternoon. But from my phone conversations, it's just a matter of settling on a dollar figure - and him making sure I know what I'm doing. I'm in. I'll update everyone Friday night. -Adam

I am with Taekwondo America - https://www.taekwondoamerica.org . Hey! Do you know Gary Bunker? By chance........