My decision, opinions?

[GreenDragon]

Hi all,

 

New guy here. I am unhappy with my current dojo (Shuri Ryu) and am strongly considering switching to a Tang Soo Do dojang. The classes at the dojo are very unstructured and many days I don't even break a sweat. Part of my interest in martial arts is to get at least some kind of a work-out while attending. I tested for my white belt the other day and the head instructor (who is good at structuring the class and is an excellent teacher, but is only teaching once a week) pointed out a whole heck of a lot of things whong with the technique I had been taught by the other instructor. Although he did give me the whte belt, I was ultimately discouraged by the fact that he had to re-teach us so many of the basics.

 

So I visit this dojang. The head instructor was trained in Korea and teaches every class, 5 nights a week, if I think I can make it that often. The first half of every class is some stretching and warm up followed by what appeared to be some fairly intense drilling, everyone in the class looked very tired. I had to leave and didn't get to see the second half of class, but he said depending on the night, it may be self defense, forms, etc. So far I like the sound of it and now that I am healed from a leg injury suffered at the dojo during some unstructured experimentation with techniques beyond our level I think I will want to switch. Sound like a good idea? Tang Soo Do good stuff?

 

It is a J. Kim TSD dojang (Master Jino Kim, the son of Song-Ki Kim). Is that a good thing? Is this J. Kim someone any of you have heard of?

 

Apparently the usual Saturday belt testing in the middle of this month at the Tang Soo Do dojang has been moved to Monday to accomodate a "special" guest all the way from Korea. The newsletter said he was grandmaster Song-Ki Kim. Is this person an important figure in Tang Soo Do? Would it be worth it to leave work early to attend and meet him even though I am sure I would not be testing?

 

GreenDragon

Edited April 2, 2003 by GreenDragon

[ninjanurse]

Sounds to me like you should change dojangs, however, make sure you visit more than once and take a few classes (if they'll let you) before you decide. If you are not happy and the school is not meeting your goals, why should you stay?

 

TSD is a great system, I'm sure KarateKid1975 would be happy to tout it's plus's-she is vey passionate about it! I myself have studied it and in fact TSD is the style that made me passionate for martial arts. I say go for it!

 

[SBN Doug]

I don't knoe enough about TSD to know anything about the grandmasters. However, I can tell you that TSD is a very good MA to learn. However, as you'll see all around the boards, it's the instructor that's most important. If he seems to run a tight ship, and is encouraging and respectful, then I'd say go for it.

[BKJ1216]

If you want to get a good workout you should do kickboxing. I went to a local dojo and they have a kickboxing thing. I did it as part of my tril class for them and that thing works up a sweat.

[karatekid1975]

Yes, Heidi is right. I love TSD. My TSD instructor was also awsome. Of course the instruction you get has nothing to do with the style. The Shuri Ryu place is simply a McDojo. The style itself isn't bad. I heard good things about it, actually.

 

As far a TSD goes, yes if you are taught it right, it is very much a workout. My TSD dojang had a good balance of kicking drills, forms, technique drills, self defense, sparring, step sparring, and even just plan fun stuff. Like doing what the students wanted to do. I always picked flying kick drills He always made the class tough, but fun.

 

As far as Song-Ki Kim goes, I found a website. Is this the school you are talking about? http://www.jkim.com/school_his.html Pretty cool website, also. It looks good to me. I say go for it

[GreenDragon]

Yeah, I thought about kickboxing...in my area there are two flavors, cardio-kickboxing and Mauy Thai. The cardio version does not interest me because I would not be learning any self defense (it would be a good suppliment to a MA program, but on it's own it's not much more than an aerobics class). The Mauy Thai is way across town and is quite expensive. The Muay Thai place is "interesting". They are the only place in town progressive enough to teach all the "hot" MAs like Muay Thai and Krav Maga, but they are also progressive enough to charge $100 USD per month ($90 if you sign a 1 year contract and only *insert sarcasm* $80 if you sign a two year cotract). Doesn't sound like the school for me.

 

Well, I don't want to hi-jack my own thread by getting it off topic...

 

GreenDragon

[GreenDragon]

Laurie,

 

Yup that's the one. So many Kims, S.K. Kim, J. Kim, C.S. Kim. Kim must be to Korea as Smith is to America.

 

GreenDragon

[niel0092]

The school looks ok. I'd follow the advice of others here and try another class or two to be sure.

 

Love the Brak quote by the way. "Thank you magic toenail, I salute you!"

[GreenDragon]

They have this thing where I can pay $29 and come an unlimited amount of time for two weeks to see if I like it. I think that is what I will do. A trial period I guess, comes with a free uniform...a lotta good that does me if I decide I don't like it. I'm already going to have a useless gi from the McDojo. But this really does look like the one.

 

GreenDragon

 

_____________________________________________________

 

One minute, I was a happy space pirate, looting and pillaging, and then POOF! I'm as dumb as a door nail.

[Ryan]

From the looks of it, you found a good school. I would definitely take advantage of that trial period. Heck, a uniform costs more than that anyway. If nothing else, I would get away from your current dojo.