Itf or Wtf

[karatekid1975]

I have to agree with Sub. My school is WTF affiliated. But we do Tae Kwon Do Moo Duk Kwan ( similar to TSD). We are NOT a sport school. BUT we do have a class that offers "sport sparring" for those who are interested in that stuff. But my school is mostly self defense.

[nathanjusko]

Here are some pros of ITF training:

 

(1)Traditional viewpoint (can be either pro or con based on your viewpoint)

 

(2)More applicable self-defense style training (WTF emphasizes using back leg techniques, which would get you decimated in a street fight)

 

(3)Rules of sparring depend on school (WTF has specific rules and points for each kick, punch, etc. , whilst ITF merely uses sparring as a way to practice techniques, not a sport)

 

pros of WTF training:

 

(1)Athletic Viewpoint (modern society rewards athletes more than martial artists and viewing it as a sport will certainly help you fit in with other peers)

 

(2)Extremely good cardio workout (WTF sparring is very athletically demanding on the particpant, with back legs kicks and fast constant moving)

 

(3)Olympic Hope (WTF sparring is the sparring of the Olympic games, while ITF is not the ruling olympic body, so you can always impress the ladies by claiming to train for the Olympics)

[ninjanurse]

I like your list of pro's, especially the last one !!! I guess that I have been fortunate to train at a WTF affiliated school that trained with an ITF "mindset", developed well balanced fighters, and only encouraged Olympic Style sparring if you were interested in pursing it. And I never heard a word about ITF v WTF, etc...which goes to show you that schools can exist without getting wrapped up in the politics of things.

 

[niel0092]

You know, the only time I really heard of any ITF/WTF animosity was when I joined this page and the ITFers started to make a big deal of it all.

 

I think I'm going to take my own advice here, leave the political "mine is better than your bs" behind, and just go train.

 

Good luck in your training no matter what organization or style you are from.

[hobbitbob]

My major objection to WTF TKD lies in their tendancy to spar with their hands down at their sides,and completely ignore anything otehr than "slappy" kicks.

 

Having said that, let me say that I hold Kukkiwon Dan ranking, however, I trained with a group that did martial arts, not olympic sport!

[Bailey]

in my tkd class, we generally focus on techniques and its quite similar to my old shotokan karate class, we also do semi contact sparring, sometimes with competition rules and sometimes just free sparring (much more fun) it is a wtf class but here isnt much pressure put on people to train for competitions. my main question is which style does the palgue patterns and which one does the taeguk patterns? ive heard differently from different people and now im just confused we do the taeguk ones at my class (sam jang il jang etc)

 

(i havent been doing tkd for very long so if this is a really dumb question then please forgive me )

[hobbitbob]

The Palgues were initially the WTF's answer to the ITF's Chang Hon set. In the early 1970s the Tae-yuckys were designed, most likely to make TKD less "Karate-like." As for who uses what, that is a wonderful question. Theoretically, any WTF school should use the Tae-awfuls, but many do not. The Dojang I trained at used the Chang-Hons for the gup ranks, and the standard WTF Dan kata for the black belts. A friend of mine runs a TKD school where he uses the Palgues and the Chang Hons, and offers WTF certification. My understanding is that Kukiwon really only cares about black belt forms, and that lower belt forms used are negotiable. I could be wrong.

[Icetuete]

could we say it, in a very very simple way, that WTF training makes u a good tournament fighter and ITF makes u better at self-defense and mental values?

 

its not my opinion, i was just wondering how we could bring this into a more simple shape.

[ninjanurse]

My old WTF school did Palgwes for gups. The only "official" BB form was Koryo, the rest were Choo Mu's. My new WTF school does all taegeuks and traditional TKD BB forms. Go figure?

 

[hobbitbob]

Choo who's?