Differences between Soo Bahk Do and Tang Soo Do

[d16turbohonda]

Thanks. I do like my instructer and dont feel that i could find anyone better for ME. I'm going to stick to him as my instructer. ok thanks again for your help.

[nyiaca]

I posted before about moving from Soo Bahk to TSD (because I moved geographically--and no I'm not that happy with the move b/c there is no one on earth who was the martial artist that my old Sa Ba Nim was in demonstration and knowledge--but my current Sa Ba NIM is very good.)

My Current Sa Ba Nim informed me that our federation of TSD separted from Soo Bahk Do when Grandmaster Hwang Kee announced he was going to appoint his son the new Grandmaster insted of basing it on seniorty.

Does anyone else know about this?

[JaseP]

I'll bite...

There were a lot of ticked off Masters when KJN Hwang Kee turned operations over to HC Hwang due to the seniority issue. However, it was well known that this was going to occur for many years (hence the split early on creating the World Tang Soo Do, International Tang Soo Do, et al.). When it finally came to pass, many Masters who were on the fence finally jumped ship rather than stay with an organization who many felt was too concerned with propriety and economics (read - money for the people in power) than being concerned with the promotion of the art...

This was not something that was foreign to the Moo Duk Kwan. There was a significant factor of economics and control involved in the whole refusal to participate in the TaeKwonDo unification of the 40s, 50s and 60s... Coincidentally, or fortuitously (depending how you look on it), keeping seperate from the TaeKwonDo unification was something that many were inclined to do anyway, since there was a notable decline in the standards associated with going with the standards the younger generation of TaeKwonDo Masters who were in charge of the administration of that movement were promoting at the time (1960s standards)...

Ramifications of the TaeKwonDo unification continue to this day,... such as critizism that it promotes sport as opposed to art, quick promotion schdules to Dan ranks,... sliding scale as to who is considered Ko Dan Ja (senior Dan holder or Masters,... 5th Dan as opposed to the traditional 4th Dan)... etc. Tang Soo Do resisted these tendencies,... but at the same time, the motivations were also money and power related. If the money and power related motivations ceased, there wouldn't be any concerns as to the US Soo Bahk Do Moo Duk Kwan. However, Dan promotions continued to get more expensive,... restrictions on the activities of Masters got more pronounced, and seniority got less concerned with how seasoned the Masters were who were in charge... all the while, intellectual propertly issues were raised (a bad mistake, since they are still based on very tenuous grounds, legally speaking)... All of that contributed towards the current trend of USSBDMDK hierarchy leaving the organization and striking out on their own.