ninjanurse Posted June 22, 2003 Share Posted June 22, 2003 I know, I know....nobody's ever heard of them outside of that school as far as I can tell. Very nice forms though! "A Black Belt is only the beginning."Heidi-A student of the artsTae Kwon Do,Shotokan,Ju Jitsu,Modern Arnishttp://the100info.tumblr.com/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sk0t Posted June 23, 2003 Share Posted June 23, 2003 I think that anyone who has answered this post exept for one person who feels the same way) has missed something in their martial arts training...anyone who was trained with only one instructor or at only one school is missing something. You are all biased... ITF is no better than WTF and WTF is no better than ITF...they are all TKD no matter how you wanna look at it... Can a Chinese person speak English...(sure if he learned it)...it works the same way with the martial arts. WTF people can teach a traditional style...if that is what they wanna teach... ITF can spar with full contact and with the rules denoted by the WTF and USTU if they so choose. So this whole argument means that the martial arts are becoming an "I am better than you" type of deal..and that disgusts me... I wish we could just go back to the days when it wasnt "my style or your style"... Then the martial arts will mean something again... sk0t"I shall not be judged by what style I know, but how I apply that style againsts yours..." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John G Posted June 23, 2003 Share Posted June 23, 2003 Any martial artist who believes that their martial art is better than anyone else’s is just fooling themselves. I think the whole ITF Vs WTF thing comes about from the political influences exerted from both federations on instructors. There are concerted efforts by 2 of the 3 ITF’s to come to some form of agreement with the WTF in amalgamating both federations. Will the egos of grand masters / masters from both sides allow this to happen? Is money, power, status an influencing factor holding back the amalgamation? Who knows? General Choi made some consolatory inroads with establishment of rank recognition up to 4th Dan between federations. That is to say if you hold a 2nd Dan ranking in WTF you will be recognised as a 2nd Dan in ITF. Of course, if you want to progress forward to your next Dan you will have to learn everything ITF up to that rank before being promoted. The same goes for ITF to WTF students. To answer which is the best, that depends on what you want out of it and who your instructor is. I have seen several ITF schools heavily tournament orientated and others purely martial arts based. Thanks to the internet and members from this forum I now know that WTF is much the same. .. John G Jarrett III Dan, ITF Taekwon-Do Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nathanjusko Posted June 23, 2003 Share Posted June 23, 2003 In response to thugTKD's comment: I think that anyone who has answered this post exept for one person who feels the same way) has missed something in their martial arts training...anyone who was trained with only one instructor or at only one school is missing something. You are all biased... Just a suggestion, whenever you are about to preach being open-minded to a certain subject do not begin your statement with saying "anyone who has answered this post except for one person who feels the same way has missed something in their MA training." That is basically saying anyone who feels differently than me and this one guy are wrong, just as you are about to approach a comment to being open-minded in your training. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Icetuete Posted June 23, 2003 Share Posted June 23, 2003 as for thugtkd: i think the thread is not about what actually IS better, but what the differences are and which of them u like better and why. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MichiganTKD Posted February 9, 2004 Share Posted February 9, 2004 Our Organization is Kukkiwon-WTF affiliated, but we teach in the traditional way. Our forms set is Palgue forms for gup ranks, and then WTF black belt forms for Dan ranks. We do have some member schools that teach tournament oriented sparring to black belts who are interested, but traditional technique is still emphasized for everyone else. The tournament fighters are younger (18-23) and have their own practice sessions. I read a good point made by someone else: Your best bet for finding a WTF school that still teaches traditional technique is to find one that still is affiliated with a particular Kwan (CDK, MDK, CMK, JDK etc.). They will still have ties to the original school and teach traditional technique. The ones who gave up kwan affiliation are much more likely to be sport oriented. We practice Chung Do Kwan. My Dan certificates were issued by the Chung Do Kwan and Kukkiwon. Our basic kicking, form, one step etc. is pretty traditional, meaning we focus on accuracy, power, speed, stopping power. We do not focus on points. So we are still there. You just have to look. My opinion-Welcome to it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Saint Posted February 24, 2004 Share Posted February 24, 2004 well, I train under ITF, I feel it is a better style for defence and will always feel that way. I'm not sure on how effictive WTF can be. I have fought in several tournaments that were WTF stlye and I noticed that some (not all) wtf fighters fought with their guard down. This is a bad thing, if you are trying to defend yourself on the streets. We always train to protect your face and head. Sometimes I think that WTF is Sport TKD and ITF is Common Sense TKD............but that's just my opinion and could be argued till we're all blue in the face. Each style thou, gets people off the couch to exercise and communicate with other people. "Pain is the best instructor, but no one wants to go to his class." Choi, Hong Hi ITF Founder Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John G Posted February 25, 2004 Share Posted February 25, 2004 well, I train under ITF, I feel it is a better style for defence and will always feel that way. I'm not sure on how effictive WTF can be. I have fought in several tournaments that were WTF stlye and I noticed that some (not all) wtf fighters fought with their guard down. This is a bad thing, if you are trying to defend yourself on the streets. We always train to protect your face and head. Sometimes I think that WTF is Sport TKD and ITF is Common Sense TKD............but that's just my opinion and could be argued till we're all blue in the face. Each style thou, gets people off the couch to exercise and communicate with other people. The Saint, with the greatest of respect you can see from my tag line I also train in ITF Taekwon-do, and can state from experience that tournament sparring regardless of federation (ITF/WTF) is only a game of tag, and doesn’t necessarily reflect the self-defence aspects of each organisation. As you know common misconceptions about our art are sometimes based by those who critique our art based upon what they see at a tournament. The same could be said for WTF clubs. Respectfully, John G Jarrett John G Jarrett III Dan, ITF Taekwon-Do Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Saint Posted February 26, 2004 Share Posted February 26, 2004 with respect to the last post I cannot form an opion on how WTF fighters train in their dojos. However, tournaments should reflect hard training through basics and good technic. Habits are hard to break, if you train with your guard up, good chances you will fight with yuor guard up. If you get into a bad habit of keeping hands down to protect your ribs and chest it leaves the guard dropped. I'm sure there are many WTF fighters out there that train with their guard up and punch to the face. However I have yet to meet one in the region I train. "Pain is the best instructor, but no one wants to go to his class." Choi, Hong Hi ITF Founder Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John G Posted February 27, 2004 Share Posted February 27, 2004 with respect to the last post I cannot form an opion on how WTF fighters train in their dojos. However, tournaments should reflect hard training through basics and good technic. Habits are hard to break, if you train with your guard up, good chances you will fight with yuor guard up. If you get into a bad habit of keeping hands down to protect your ribs and chest it leaves the guard dropped. I'm sure there are many WTF fighters out there that train with their guard up and punch to the face. However I have yet to meet one in the region I train. If all we did was tournament spar, practitioners from both codes (ITF/WTF) would be in trouble. Bad habits can form from an over reliance on just sparing technique, as you rightly point out. Just think, out of the 3200+ techniques taught in ITF, one would only use a handful (or should I say legful) during tournament sparing. This is probably one of the reasons why General Choi and Master Choi never taught sparing technique at IIS courses (well at least none of the ones I attended). Respectfully, John G Jarrett III Dan, ITF Taekwon-Do Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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