WTF vs ITF vs WIF, does club affiliation matter???

[Dekan]

Most of the TKD world seems to be affiliated with WTF or ITF.

 

There is this other affiliation WIF: http://www.ildokwan.net/

 

1) Does affiliation of a club really matter???

 

2) Are there any pros or cons to WIF vs the two other longer established affiliations?!?!?!?

[ZeRo]

im a ITFer.

 

i dont think that it matters toooo much but it does depend on what you will learn and how you will spar.

[karatekid1975]

We are with the WTF. I don't think the assn's matter or the style. It's the person training in that style that really matters.

[koreantiger81]

I think there is a great advantage to being part of the W.T.F. The W.T.F gives a lot of freedom on what you can teach. They have guidelines and requirements to get your black-belt; however, these guidelines are very minimal. They require you to know how to spar, and learn the tae gueks.

 

I've been to W.T.F schools, where they don't even practice full contact sparring. They also include weapons, throws, and hap ki do techniques into their system. The school is more like a hap ki do school, but advertised as a W.T.F school.

 

although i am not an advocate of the W.TF, I believe it would be great to take advantage of the W.T.F because of their minimal requirements and their world-wide reputation. Therefore, I could open up a school with the W.T.F, teach tae geuks, and then teach whatever i want. Why not???

 

(now, i don't know how strict I.T.F requirements are. Does anyone know?)

[KickChick]

Unlike most of the other martial arts, TKD is made up of many clubs, associations unions, organizations... and politics. Yes there are two "factions" of Tae Kwon Do which is the World Tae Kwon Do Federation, and the International Tae Kwon Do Federation. The WTF was born and based in South Korea, in Kukkiwon (Seoul), while the ITF was born from North Korea and is now based in Canada (still I believe).

 

One the many differences between these 2 factions is in the structure of the politics. The International Olympic Committee recognizes the World Tae Kwon Do Federation as the governing body for Tae Kwon Do. To this end, the WTF has established a headquarters or national governing body, for each country. These nations which are part of this hierarchy are called Member Nations.

 

In the United States, for example, we have the United States Tae Kwon Do Union (USTU). Each member organization further designates chartered organizations (schools only, not individuals) - in the case of the United States, for example, each state has a chartered member organization, while other countries (being smaller in populations) do not get so elaborate.

 

Nations are then geographically clustered under another hierarchy, of which there are four: Asian Tae Kwon Do Union - ATU (48 member nations), African Tae Kwon Do Union - AFTU (30 member nations), European Tae Kwon Do Union - ETU (47 member nations), and Pan American Tae Kwon Do Union - PATU (42 member nations).

 

So when a school indicates that they are an official WTF member school, what they are really saying is that they are a school member of the state they reside in, and, so the state is a member of the USTU, who is a governing member body of the WTF.

 

In the International Tae Kwon Do Federation, there are similar structures, but they are simpler, and there is no Olympic connections. Here, schools belong to a region (rather than a state), and the region belongs to the governing body (e.g., in the United States, it's the United States Tae Kwon Do Federation, a.k.a. USTF). You will find less emphasis on the "sport" of TKD ... and in most cases a more "traditional" -style of TKD.

 

The ITF-schools concentrate on the forms developed by General Choi, while the WTF concentrate on the Palgwe's. Later the WTF abandoned the Palgwe's and started concentrating on Taeguks. The WTF emphasizes sparring. This is the reason why a lot of people call (WTF) Taekwondo a martial sport.

 

Then of course there are others which refuse to be entangled in the politics such as the ITU International Tae Kwon Do Union (which our school is a member of) ot the International TaeKwon- Do Association (ITA). Again, I'm sure there are many many more.

 

The benefits of being a member of one of these "organizations" is that they supply your school with present information to instructors and students and offer instructor training and rank certification.

[Dekan]

And there is apparently a third faction as origionally posted called WIF: http://www.ildokwan.net/

[ZR440]

What about the ATA?

[KickChick]

... just like I said, "there are many many more" we could be here all day just listing them all !!

 

Now TKD has "leagues" forming such as the WTL whose events are WTF and USTU sanctioned.

[John G]

Just to add to the confusion:

 

ITF has split to form three groups commonly known but not officially known as:

 

ITF-V

 

Based in Vienna under the presidency of Mr. Russell MacLellan

 

http://www.itf-generalchoi.com/

 

This was the original ITF before the split

 

ITF-C

 

Based in Canada under the presidency of Master Choi Jung Hwa (General Choi’s son)

 

http://www.itf-admin.com

 

ITF-NK

 

Also based in Vienna (different location to ITF-V) under the presidency (as per General Choi’s last wishes) of Mr Chang Ung (IOC Member, North Korea, hence ITF-NK)

 

http://www.internationaltaekwon-dofederation.com/

 

This group will merge ITF & WTF as per General Choi’s Last wishes via the IOC (Olympic Games).

 

Then we have the USTF which split from the ITF-NK several months ago.

 

As KickChick said "there are many many more we could be here all day just listing them all !!"

[KickChick]

Thanks John for the clarification ... I haven't been able to keep up with the news surrounding the ITF (although I try!) ... although our school is not a member of ITF we are "ITF-oriented" so-to-say....