Thoughts on ATA schools?

[wingedMonkey]

Well, you are correct about that, ATA is extremely into money but the style is the best taekwondo style i've seen in my life. (my opinion) I've practiced ITF and WTF which are somewhat similar. I still use their stuff as reference though.

[YoungMan]

Keep in mind, there are good and bad Instructors and methods of teaching in every organization. There are many Instructors in Kukkiwon TKD I would never go to.

[wingedMonkey]

Well, yea i'm not talking about the instructors, i'm literally talking about the styles even though TKD styles seem more in harmony than karate styles are or even kungfu. Tkd styles seem to have more in common than not, thats why i use references from all the tkd styles, but ATA has certain things that make it pretty awesome, like kicking with the ball of your foot instead of instep, practicing punching from boxing more, and now including ground fighting.

[YoungMan]

With the exception of groundfighting, we practiced all that and we aren't ATA. We didn't practice groundfighting, because Tae Kwon Do is a stand up strking style, although learning how to fall and knowing how to kick and execute TKD technique from the ground is useful as well. But incorporating groundfighting just because it's popular or MMA fighters do it is unwise and degrades TKD to just doing what is currently popular.

I have seen my Instructor show students how to protect themselves while on the ground, but never worked extensively on it.

As far as using the ball of the foot for kicking, except for free fighting we kick like that.

I think overall ATA has degraded into a moneymaking operation more concerned with publicity than producing high quality students.

[wingedMonkey]

well the whole point of having ground fighting is to make yourself well rounded, not because its popular in MMA. If you look back into the original Taekkyun that spawned TKD and many other Korean martial arts, it had locks, takedowns, grappling, as well as stand up fighting.

[bushido_man96]

But incorporating groundfighting just because it's popular or MMA fighters do it is unwise and degrades TKD to just doing what is currently popular.

I don't think it has anything to do with being popular but everything to do with being effective. All any striker had to do was watch UFC 1 to realize this. Some TKD guys looked at this and said, "Hey, we have a great systme for striking and kicking. But look what happens if we get taken down by a good wrestler. We need to do something about this." So, they decided to intergrate some ground fighting into the system. I don't think there is anything wrong with trying to get better.

[wingedMonkey]

Hey guys, I recently have seen that my school IS giving people, that haven't gone to class for the whole time they need to, their next belts...its really making me mad, but in the end i think, hey they are only hurting themselves... I actually saw one of these students finally go to sparring class one day and they compeletely sucked! I was like..yup, i'm glad i make my belt actually mean something..

[bushido_man96]

Hey guys, I recently have seen that my school IS giving people, that haven't gone to class for the whole time they need to, their next belts...its really making me mad, but in the end i think, hey they are only hurting themselves... I actually saw one of these students finally go to sparring class one day and they compeletely sucked! I was like..yup, i'm glad i make my belt actually mean something..

Hopefully the instructor realizes this, and doesn't make a habit out of it. Otherwise, he is not helping the situation any.

I like your attitude toward your rank, by the way!

[wingedMonkey]

Hopefully the instructor realizes this, and doesn't make a habit out of it. Otherwise, he is not helping the situation any.

I like your attitude toward your rank, by the way!

Thanks , and I just read what I wrote, sorry for sounding pretty mean. I do that, sometimes my brain just goes off on a rant without thinking about it until later. But yea, I hope they don't make a habit out of this or someone is eventually going to get hurt. Either by a person thinking they are successful in defending themselves, or they'll go to a blackbelt tournament eventually (where blackbelts are understood to not hold back much on their hits) and will get pummled.

[ninjanurse]

They are definitely doing the student a dis-service...not to mention spoiling the fruit of their own tree.