YoungMan

Got my nose broken once by our Grandmaster's son during testing sparring. He did a verrry fast high roundhouse kick, close range. Could not get my hands up in time. Also broke my wrist doing patio block breaking. Was trying 5 two-inchers, and succeeded in breaking four. Other than those, no serious injuries to report.

Newsflash: America is a capitalist society, run by the dollar. Anything other than basic necessities (food, shelter, clothing) you're on your own. Unfair? Maybe. But a fact of life. Martial arts training isn't free in the Orient either.

Of course they should. It has already been determined they can do the technique. Now, one of their responsibilities as black belt is to fine tune it so that they have control.

I don't even agree with teaching martial arts for a living. Teaching martial as a living means your number one perogative is getting people to sign up and keep practicing. You will always have a few hard core students that want the tough practice, but most of your students will look at it as recreation, exercise, and self defense. As a result, you will have to water down the curriculum to meet their needs. If you teach on the side, making money but not as a main source of income, you are not dependent on getting new students. As a result, you don't have to compromise the integrity of what you teach to keep people interested. One of our Instructors does teach for a living. His number one concern is getting new classes started and getting students. When enrollment drops, as it does during the summer, his income suffers. Even our Grandmaster doesn't teach for a living. He owns several businesses as his main source of income. He told us several times not to teach for a living. The money is just too unpredictable.

You'd think, but not always. Some black belts simply do not have enough control in their high kicks to warrant being allowed to use them in sparring, for whatever reason. And as far as I know, the WTF does not allow head punching. Maybe they were debating it, but I don't believe they decided to allow them. If they did, our Senior Instructors would have said something.

We don't. Students are expected to exercise extreme caution and self control when executing head kicks. In fact, we've had students get penalized for excessively hard head contact. Some black belts are not allowed to do high kicks during free sparring at all against some students because it is recognized they have a lot of power in their head kicks. High kicks, whether in class ir tournaments, are expected to land lightly, not take the guy's head off. We reserve full power high kicks for form, basic kicking, and bag work. We don't allow takedowns and sweeps during free fighting because (a) the chance of injury is great and (b) they are not allowed in WTF sparring. Now demos and self defense are another story. Our demo team shows those techniques all the time. But they are also black belts and specially trained.

Exactly. You are offering a service and knowledge worthy of compensation. I would be suspicious of anyone who doesn't charge anything for their services and receives no compensation. How good could it be? You know the old adage "You get what you pay for"? You pay me for my skills and knowledge, and in return you get a training facility, gear, access to high level Instruction, visits from special guests with impeccable credentials, and special training opportunities. Sounds fair to me.

We follow WTF rules, and do not allow full contact until after black belt. But it also depends on the student. Some students are not ready for full contact even after black belt. We do not allow face punches, sweeps, takedowns, leg kicks etc. for the simple reason that our main concern is safety. We don't want students getting hurt. We have taught these techniques as part of self defense, and we have Insructors well versed in them. But we don't believe in using them during free fighting for the simple reason we don't want students getting hurt. And any Instructor who allows them simply to allow them is, in my opinion, irresponsible. Yeah, I know Thai boxing allows them. And how long is the average career of a Thai boxer?

What is wrong about charging to teach people a skill they don't have? You think education is free? America is a world away from the Orient, and we believe in compensating people for their skills and knowledge. Now granted, there is a difference between charging a reasonable rate and charging what you can get away with. Just because people will pay $100 a month doesn't mean you should charge that much, unless you have rent that necessitates this. But people should be given things they can't get anywhere else: top notch instruction, 24 hour access, excellent equipment etc. Everyone should have access to higher education. Is college free? No, because college is a privilege to be worked for. Martial arts and self defense training are privileges, not rights. One of our Instructors teaches TKD to kids with severe social and family problems. He doesn't charge them, the agency he works for pays him per session. They still believe in compensating him for his skills and knowledge.

And how early in the training does this full contact begin? After students have had quite a bit of practice, or from Day One?

I generally practice as part of my overall workout program, so I more often than not don't wear one. However, if I go to a class I wear one of my doboks.

And it just proves my point. Sport TKD fighters always bow to each other before a match, as do, I'm assuming, sport karate fighters. They are not engaging in traditional martial arts, yet retain the traditional Oriental act of bowing to the opponent as a sign of respect. Americans somehow find this distasteful, yet trash talking is okay. The fact that MMA fighter train techniques borrowed from Oriental fighting arts but don't practice the act of bowing as a physical sign of respect is one more way we have Americanized Asian fighting styles by removing the philosophical underpinnings that support them. The fact that they are sports is irrelevant. Judo is largely a sport, yet judoka still bow to each other.

Question: Do MMA fighters bow to each other before a match? I don't recall ever seeing the fighters bow to each other before starting. This, to me, is a problem. Again, it is indicative of MMA fighters who take the techniques of various styles but seem to disdain the philosophy that underlies martial arts. A quick glance at the fighters on Spike TV would seem to confirm this. You can't tell me they don't represent MMA fighting. If not, what do they represent?

Tae Kwon Do Chung Do Kwan-24 years Aikido-about two years. Aikido was disrupted by a combination of work and school. Other than maybe Kendo, those are the only two styles that interested me.

My Instructor used to teach like that, back in the old days when he first came to America from Korea. Keep in mind, for years he had only taught black belts, plus was on Korean Army TKD Team, his University TKD Team, in addition to being to being a Korean Nat'l fighting champion. His teaching style was, to say the least, intense. So what happened? He lost all his students except one. They simply couldn't handle that level of intensity as white belts. He had to go back and remember the way he'd been taught as a white belt in Korea and teach that way. The key is to keep the concentration level and discipline, but teach at a level white and color belts can understand.

Well said. A book should only be used to supplement what your Instructor teaches you, and then only at the black belt level. A book can't answer questions, give feedback or encouragement, point out strengths and weaknesses. It's just words on a page.

Requiring people to be Christians to be a member of a class is just as bad as teaching martial arts without philosophy. Accepting Christianity is a personal decision, and should never be used as a basis for admitting students. Having said that, I know several Instructors personally who are devout Christians and have no problems whatsoever practicing traditional Tae Kwon Do, including the philosophy. The philosophy of TKD is perfectly compatable with religion. Our Instructor lives and practices by TKD philosophy, and has never required his students to be of any religion. Anyone who thinks Tae Kwon Do and its philosophy is incompatable with Christianity should look at it again.

The ultimate purpose of a demo is to show what your style is capable of. Granted, it is entertainment to a certain extent, and most people are going to tune out if it is just showing basics and form. However, I also don't believe in going too far on the other extreme and doing things that have little to no practical application (backflips, gymnastics, fire breaks etc.) In other words, XMA. Extreme martial arts for the uninitiated. I am willing to compromise on the uniforms, as long we are not talking gold lame and sequins. If you are breaking boards, bricks, and patio blocks, you are demonstrating to people the inherent power of certain techniques in a way that is impractical for sparring. Know anyone that cares to stand still and allow you to break his ribs or jaw? Me neither.

Nine forms for Kukkiwon Tae Kwon Do to 1st Dan: White belt form, then two forms for each gup rank (low and high).

When I see a "Grandmaster" Instructor who looks like he is no older than 45, I seriously question how good he could be. I also read an article from a very well known TKD Instructor (American) who supposedly got his son promoted to 4th Dan at 17 years old and allowed him to judge. To me, that is outright fraud.

Think of it like this: The Muye Tobo Tonggi was written almost 250 years ago as a military manual describing the methods of armed and unarmed combat in Korea for soldiers. Do we still use combat methods from 250 years ago in America? While there are certainly principles we can use that still work, for the most part times change and ways of thinking change. The Muye is to modern TKD what the black powder musket was to modern guns-obsolete compared to them

Breaking bricks to demonstrate the power of a particular technique is not showing off. That's why it's called a "demonstration". Dousing bricks in lighter fluid and igniting them to be broken, when there is absolutely no reason for this, is showing off. Wearing a red, white, and blue uniform with stitched dragon on the back is showing off.

That's because Tae Kwon Do didn't exist when the Muye Tobo Tongi was written. What did exist was the precursors (subak, tae kyon) that eventually went into Tae Kwon Do later on. The section on empty hand fighting is actually pretty small. It was written for warriors, and warriors do not go into battle without weapons.

I think it is our free fighting/demo team that has incorporated Tae Kyon techniques into their routine, notably the jumping spin, circular, and leg sweeps. Ironically, people watch these and figure they must have just created them for the demos. I watch them and realize they are incorporating Tae Kyon, because they are similar to the Tae Kyon techniques I have seen. They are either watching Tae Kyon videos, or working out with people who know it on one of their trips to Korea.

Bruce Lee's way worked for him. It wouldn't work for 99% of students out there. They just are not at that level. And you need an Instructor guiding you to make sure things are being taught correctly. One person simply cannot do it alone.