Taekwondo Got Worse?

This week on Topic Tuesday I discuss:
1. Failing students on a belt test.
2. What kinds of techniques do you do in Taekwondo?
3. Was Taekwondo a better fighting art in the old days?
Are you dying for more Taekwondo content? Don't forget to checkout my website www.tkdguide.com

[@NOYFB982]

Belt tests are confirmation, not the actual test. Those parents were right. Students should never be publicly tested until they’re ready. It’s simple and fair. However, there are schools or instructors that pass students that perform so badly that something failed in the system. Passing students who are obviously not ready diminishes the success of those whose are, and will eventually drive those prepared students away.

[@tkdguide]

Agreed

[@omarkhan2778]

Thank you so much, your detailed answer to my question added a lot more clarity to my understanding & has helped me in my martial arts journey. After your narration, I find myself having more and more respect for Taekwondo and how & why it is practiced in a certain way. Would love to have you do videos on developing more power, speed and reach in kicking!

[@yonker-roggewedding7229]

I very much enjoyed this video. Also its pretty cool that as I was watching I thought to myself, "Man it sure would be cool to hear about how the Taekwondo kicks have changed over the years, wonder if he'll do a video on that?" Then boom! It turns out there will be a video on that. As a potential future topic, it could be interesting to hear about how different Taekwondo organizations developed. WT, ITF, ATA, Not to mention independent schools. Im sure there are all kinds of different ways the art changed in those different organizations because of different competition rules and different areas of focus.

[@mikeandlisabanjofiddle8280]

Thank you Sir. I agree very much with your views. Taekwondo at our dojang is largely influenced by our instructors experience as a 7th Dan Taekwondo holder as well as Dan rankings in Hapkido and Gumdo and some lower belt rankings in karate. We practice Kukkiwon style tkd but our testing consists of that and a bit more. I realized long ago that our tkd that we are learning is based on our GM’s interpretation of what he has studied. This is not to say we are any more or less capable than others but it gives a very traditional sense to our practice while in reality it is a “modern interpretation” and I enjoy it. I believe we are all better off for practicing what we can versus doing nothing. Thanks again. Mike

[@GLASSGHOSTHUNTERS]

Unless someone is ready to test (ie: They have passed the pre-requisite for testing which is based on their current belt standards) they cannot test. Even if they have met all the requirements for the testing, they can still fail testing if their performance on testing day doesn't meet the standards of the syllabus. We've also been striping the belts when markers are met (Both forms learned and able to be performed with competence, Hapkido techniques memorized and able to perform them without long pauses and so forth) and that does help us keep track of who's been screened to test and who needs more work and time. What hurts us are the parents that did Taekwon-Do as kids and have convinced their own kids, who are now our students, that they can earn their black belt in a year. I'm sure there are places that tell people that, but those places will never be us. In 4 years of running my studio, our highest belt is a Red Belt and he had a few years experience before he came to me. It still took him 2 and a half years to teach Red Belt. He'll need at least another year to make Black Belt.

[@tkdguide]

Agreed, the fastest I have had someone get to black belt is five years, though they could do it in four. One year is crazy….

[@joshpck]

Fantastic video

[@aarontart]

Do you have a brand or style of sparring gear and other equipment that your prefer/recommend to your students or like use yourself?

[@Precisionist_Antifier]

Hey, consider adding background music that fits the theme of your videos, these may have great content but lack the audio aspect. Btw I think you should try to focus on short-form content more cause' the algorithm tends to make shorts more popular

[@MaharlikaAWA]

Adding background music is a horrible idea. This isn't tiktok for ADD.

[@Precisionist_Antifier]

@@MaharlikaAWA Oh it's not TikTok but to gain more view-time that what you must do unfortunately, the algorithm is shit nowadays

[@TimRHillard]

How large are your adult classes? What age are they?

[@MaharlikaAWA]

He probably doesn't have an actual adult class. Just 13 year olds.

[@antoniostrina82]

Not a bad idea a video on the history of TKD, despite the debate about it's evolved/involved. Muay Thai and English boxe are famous because they bring the practicioner directly into the physical fight. Despite that, every martial art is effective, depending of the practicioner. As Jesse Encamp said, Shotokan is the sports karate, devolved by Funakoshi father and son.

[@MaharlikaAWA]

Bro it's cool you had the integrity to fail students. That doesn't happen much as instructors pass everyone for the money, but yes you are also correct to make sure your students will pass the test before having them test. You are however wrong about Taekwondo not being a killing art. Your history is a bit skewed. The Karate that influenced Koreans who trained in martial arts was Japanese Karate, but yes you could say Okinawan Karate also slightly influenced it. All martial arts were created for the intent of combat and self defense even if they have a sport tagged onto them. Shotokan Karate of the time also had a lot of self defense about actual fighting and many of the males who trained in Japan fought in the Sino Japanese War and WW2. If you read any early Karate and Taekwondo book there is much talk about self defense and actual fighting. So while Shotokan may have had a sport and tournaments going on the intention was to know how to actually fight, and tournaments were just a side activity for training. The environment of Korea at the time Taekwondo was invented was just a few years after a war and about 10 years after WW2. There was a lot of gangs in Korea, street fights and wild stuff going on between Taekwondo kwons as well. It also made its way through the military and focused on the intention to kill enemies in hand to hand combat which occurred in the Vietnam War. Before the word Taekwondo was used it was Karate and used in the Korean War. This is written about in A Killing Art. The sportification came later and while techniques were not taken out of the martial art, the emphasis on tournament rules superseded the killing and self defense aspect. Many instructors forgot a lot of moves or just didn't teach them to their students as much. This is why many people in the 1990s had absolutely no clue why poomsae existed or what the interpretations of the moves meant in application. Like I said, old Taekwondo and Karate books show such applications. Taekwondo itself didn't just magically lose techniques or turn it into a sport. That is the emphasis on what most people trained for nowadays and they're the ones who have forgotten such older techniques or don't care about teaching that part of it. So in that way Taekwondo has been weakened and has been sportified. The old grandmasters will tell you that Taekwondo was actually rough in the old days and the environment was pretty dark because of poverty and things. Through the 80s and 90s while sports were being emphasized, at least in America the idea of actual fighting and self defense existed and sports were a small percentage of the martial art. Taekwondo also has a Kung Fu influence and also some Taekwondo masters had a history in boxing, and some of the Japanese styles were similar to kuokushin with leg kicks etc. None of the techniques of Taekwondo have been lost. They just are not really practiced. A few masters are re-emphasizing the hand to hand combat nature of Taekwondo. So there was a golden age of Taekwondo. But it wasn't golden because it was a sad and oppressive time. Martial arts styles always progress and adapt so saying Taekwondo is only desperate or cannot be like Muay Thai in stand up fighting this is also wrong. It can and it depends on the instructor. If you like Ian Abernathy then you know he promoted Karate as original MMA as if it can actually be used in actual fighting and MMA. If this is true then Taekwondo can also and is also the same. To me it seems like you are defensive about your lack of ability in actual hand to hand combat and are making excuses for your emphasis on tournament sport stuff and just teaching kids to be good people and stuff. If you view Taekwondo specifically as an Olympic sport and the entire purpose of training is a game then then of course you would say somehow Taekwondo in that style is more refined and better than it was in the old days. I have to disagree and think that even as a sport, the current Olympic sport has actually degraded Taekwondo sport and made it worse. You just grew up training under instructors who were lacking in the full system of Taekwondo and you also didn't do research on your own and just accept it as what you learned. This is why you think Taekwondo isn't that good for self defense. So if you prefer the traditional Karate or Muay Thai and Tang Soo Do why don't you teach it or pursue that instead? I would hate learning from a teacher who doesn't fully love and embrace the martial art he is teaching me and tells me there are other styles that are just way better. When you say that you seem to be communicating that Taekwondo isn't great and is low quality compared to the other styles.

[@pablorivera7722]

Well said, l could not have said it better myself. I studied under Master Chong Koo Lee, Taekwondo, Tang Soo Do and Hapkido in the 80's for over 10 years and even then he was disgusted with the direction that Taekwondo was going. He taught from the Chang Moo Kwan style and actually trained the ROK ARMY in Korea. There was a reason the special forces in Korea trained in Taekwondo. It certainly wasn't because it was a fairy tale inferior art. The notion that it wasn't a deadly art is absurd. This gentleman on here believes that Taekwondo of yesterday could not hold water to Muay Thai, but the current Taekwondo can? I beg to differ. The utter disrespect for the founding fathers and their techniques is appalling. Easy to come on here and talk trash behind a keyboard I know, but I see this stuff and it drives me bonkers. I take offense with this guy brushing off traditional, hard style (deadly) techniques as an Atlantis myth. Bro, please educate yourself before you spew B.S. You're a 5th degree black belt with a school? I weep for the future of taekwondo.

[@tkdguide]

My response: kzbin.info/www/bejne/j6uXmKqrpK90mLc

[@kenirawadi4689]

He is not really wrong. I did shotokan for many years and now traditional TKD. Although I sometimes could survive street fights, few times I got injured when my opponets have some skills. And I think this is his point. Muay Thai and BBJ teach you to be an badass. TKD and Karate teach you to survive or at least increase your survival chance.

[@kenirawadi4689]

​@@pablorivera7722I think he said, TKD has its own place now. He did not say the TKD now can beat Muay Thai. His point is, if one really want to train hard and become a badass in fighting why not just train Muay Thai where you learn to hit hard and get hit hard. Karate and TKD are designed to have limited type of contact in order to avoid injury and damage. So in the nutshell, these are two different pathways. Do you want to be able to damage others by basically damaging yourself, or you want to find a middle ground where you can somehow able protect yourself without experiencing serious damage to your own body.