taekwondo bashing; agree or disagree?

Question

who is tired of everybody bashing taekwondo all the time??? sure its not an overall martial art and some of the techniques arent practical but some of you people make it sound as if EVERY technique in taekwondo is useless and going to do more damage to you than to your opponent. also, apparently according to the bashers taekwondo is the only martial art that has mcdojos. EVERY martial art has mcdojos, it's just that it's the most popular in the u.s. so of course there are more mcdojos than any other martial art there are more legitimate schools too!

almost all of you had really good answers; i cant decide. I'll leave it up to the vote.

Answer 1

Those who spend their time deriding traditional disciplines that have been around far longer than they have walked the earth, and will continue long after they have left; who use broad sweeping generalizations and unfounded accusations are really not worth bothering about.

Anyone with any real time in the martial arts. Anyone with any real experience in working with and exchanging knowledge, information, and friendship with students of other disciplines. Anyone with any sense of the respect and courtesy martial artists have for each other personally and for each others arts professionally would never engage in such petty, inaccurate, and childish banter.

All the major disciplines provide positive, worthwhile, and effective lessons to all who participate. While there are undoubtedly bad instructors, bad schools, and bad associations for a myriad of diverse reasons that we all know only too well, to paint all practitioners of an entire discipline with the same brush is evidently childlike.

I learned defensive combat techniques from the British Army, and came to TaeKwon-Do as a result of my existing knowledge, recognizing it's benefits and value. I studied HapMoosaKi-Do to supplement it and strengthen some of the weaknesses in my own knowledge and skill sets. I know TaeKwon-Do is effective. I know the skills I have taught my students has saved at least three or four of them in physical encounters.

Don't take time to worry about those who over generalize and are over negative about everything and anything but their exalted discipline. They really are not worth the effort on a forum such as this, as you cannot debate them sensibly in this format. I know, it's tough, but the higher road and the more useful tactic is to ignore them and respond only to those who are truly seeking information, insight, and knowledge. Those who we can actually help, guide, or motivate.


Ken C
9th Dan HapMoosaKi-Do
8th Dan TaeKwon-Do
7th Dan YongChul-Do

Answer 2

I have to agree that all the style bashing is counter productive to everyone in general in this forum first of all. All styles have some aspects and techniques that are useful-even TKD.

Secondly, some of the people that run the various organizations, of which there are mainly three are responsible for the bad decisions, and policies that they made twenty-five years ago to spread TKD throughout the world and make it into a huge money making vehicle for some by lowering promotion standards and giving out black belts like Halloween candy along with those that follow them-not everyone does and I think more and more are seeing the errors of those decisions and changing. That all takes time however and you will have some that were products of it themselves out there for another ten or twenty years teaching, promoting, and conducting business.

Thirdly-you are absolutely right in that there have been other styles that have had McDjos prop up or encouraged them just like TKD did. It does not make them any different or any better even though they have not done it as effectively or to the extent that TKD did. It also is not just the styles though it is also the martial arts management and marketing companies. I sign up with a company and they make me qualified to teach a certain martial art after a few seminars and watching some video tapes that they sold me just because that style is more marketable or brings in more students or dollars. Be real-but yet some schools and instructors do. Martial arts was never originally intended to be a huge money making vehicle that would give you an income beyond what a good college education would and a good paying job. It's just that some people have made it into that at the expense of their art and unsuspecting students.

Answer 3

Yes, I have to agree that the stereo type bashing should stop. TKD is not the only styles that have Mcdojos. I'm sure you can check out any city local to find other styles that sell martial arts like children playgroups too.

Martial arts is no longer an essential survival skills, thus the emphasis on the practical applications have waned with modernization.

The point is, since no one is really using it to survive (at least not all the time), it is a sport. Which is why this is a sport category on Yahoo. And it is opened to all age, size and races. Which means there will be people who love it as it is and other people who just want a black belt.

Mcdojo is like Mcdonalds. We all know the stuff is not healthy but most people still goes there anyway. It is just business and cents to these operators. If you are a martial art aficionado like myself, you know better than to join a 2 year black belt fast food course.

And I try not to bash any other styles if I can help it. Usually, people who are training in such Mcdojos are inwardly embarassed. Just ask them for a demonstration or friendly sparring and help them see they been sold a useless "feel good" package.

Help them, don't bash them.

Answer 4

People who talk bad stuff about Taekwondo does not know what Taekwondo is. Taekwondo isn't just about fighting. It's an art. Most people don't understand that. Taekwondo came from Korea. If you really want to see how Taekwondo is being taught the correct way, then go to Korea and find out for yourself. Taekwondo builds character. Self-control. Confidence. Respect. Discipline. But almost all the people out there think that martial arts = fighting. they always have to relate it to street fighting, or UFC, or MMA. You can't compare and contrast Taekwondo to Muay Thai. They are both a whole different ball game. Different rules, different techniques. People just don't understand what Martial Art really is. Just cuz they see videos on youtube on how Taekwondo sucks, doesn't mean they have to right to criticize it. There are different things you can do in Taekwondo. It's not all about fighting. There is a Demonstration team, there are tkd schools that only train how to spar, there are schools that teach you to use nunchucks. There are also schools that focus mainly on building attitude for younger kids. Yes taekwondo is an olympic sport and no it is not weak. It's just the way taekwondo is. If a person that does taekwondo were to fight someone from Judo relying on Taekwondo rules, who do u think will win? Think about it. Vice versa too. If they were to fight relying on Judo rules. Who would win then? A lot of people don't think about that stuff. If the people out there criticize Taekwondo, you obviously don't know the art of Taekwondo and other martial arts.

Answer 5

Well I think this is mentioned many times before, but its not that TKD is a bad art, it's just that overall the way it is trained is not as strong other arts are

you can't argue that since TKD has been accepted as Olympic sport it has gone away from Budo and become more of a sport or a show art, sometimes to the extreme point like in XMA. Now it's not bad that there is an art out there that can be fun and showoffish and at the same time support your martial art style, but if you want to be a "martial artist" and not just use that as a fashion statement you can't possible have TKD as your only style

It is just lacking alot in practicality, I think it creates a good base for childeren to go on to other martial arts, but doing it on its own is really restricting yourself and i can't see anyone who truly wants to be a great FIGHTER doing only TKD

This is in general, Im sure there are one or two schools that are still staying to the old style of TKD, but they are too few so people just generalize, if you are part of a good school then you know that all that stuff people say does not reflect on you in any way

Answer 6

Tae Kwan Do is one of the best martial arts around however it unfortunately has the highest amount of mcdojo's if you get into a legit school be happy and role with it

on another note i find people seem to bash almost all martial arts so dont worry about it as long as you are getting benifits from training in it thats all that matters

on another nother note i do think the World Tae Kwan Do Federation should look at the clubs it affiliates with on a regular basis whats the point of having standards (which it does have) when they dont enforce them (they dont enforce **** the greedy beggars)

Answer 7

I'm tired of style-bashing period. I'm willing to bet the bashing is 95 percent done by non-practitioners, thought - people who think watching enough fights will somehow make them experts over time.
There are some styles that wouldn't particularly interest me to study, but I don't go around telling people they shouldn't be studying it. If they find something in it, more power to them.
It should be a requirement, before declaring a style better than another, to have had at least three years continuous practice in BOTH, so that one had actually experienced the styles, rather than just watched people professing to represent the style fight, or parroted comments read on other Internet sites. If this was strictly adhered to, I bet you style-bashing would disappear entirely.

Answer 8

Bashing another style doesn't change a person's mind about their opinon of TKD. It serves no purpose other than making the basher feel good for a moment. The time is better spent practicing material from the style you prefer.

Answer 9

Agree

Answer 10

I agree, whole heartedly. For those that like to bash TKD because of its influence in XMA, I will point out one Daniel Sterling. He has a 3rd Dan in TKD (I actually tested with him for that belt), and a 23+ time world champ in creative forms (both empty handed and weaponed, usually kama). He has become famous for all the flashy flipping kicks found in XMA and has been trained by Mike Chatt. However, when we sparred in our test, he used absolutely 0 "flashy" kicks. In fact, I don't think he kicked me any higher than my solar plexus. I'm not claiming to be a great sparring partner, but he has tons of power and great control of his body. I would not want to meet him in a dark alley.