1. Martial arts business, I teach as a hobby and have a real job to make money. While there are good martial arts studios that are businesses I can name very few.
2. Children should never have a black belt, I have a student who started at 4 who is now 11 and he does not wear a black belt. His body is not ready for adult style training which is required for a black belt.
3. Bashing the style is wrong but the comercialism of some schools (not all and not just TKD all poor comercial styles) is shameful!
You know what, Possum said it perfectly really and is well respected as a TKD practitioner.
The style taught properly is a great style to learn but the fact that the style sold out and went so commercialized and now gives children blackbelts is absolutely ridiculous. I would say that no less than 90% of TKD academies are teaching complete and utter rubbish. Any place giving a child under 16 a black belt is not worth training in my eyes. I studied since i was a very young child and still didnt get my black belt until i was an adult
I had a friend here who answered a newspaper ad... It said "are you sports minded and interested in a career in sports, do you want a company car and benefits" so he responded and got into the training centre. In that training centre he said there was no less than 150 people who spent 8 weeks training together learning TKD and then were awarded blackbelts and a certificate of blackbelt and then were each given a region to work in with a school of students. This is a 100% true story. That guy didnt last long because on a night out drinking he bragged to some maoris that he was a black belt and got in a fight and ended up with metal plates in his head in hospital.
There is nothing wrong with the style itself but it is the way it sold out and the way non-experienced practitioners have begun taking over training. Then you look at competition TKD at the olympics and its just laughable to many people.
Ignorance does play a huge part. Take John for instance, big BJJ and MMA proponent. He's afraid to guess a percentage, the inference that it is so high it is embarrassing, but one thing is certain, 100 percent of the Gracie schools are McDojoj's. They have a bully proof program for kids, they have an online and dvd instructional program. If a school is following the style as decreed by the founders, they are automatic McDojo's as they offer the kid classes as well. While the BJJ founder was still alive, the art was becoming so watered down in a few short years from the time Royce won a competition, he attempted to distance his art from BJJ by distinguishing what the family did as different, and was GJJ. If the parent corporation is a McDojo, then the copycat industry (BJJ) has it's foundation in McDojoism.
GJJ'ers and BJJ'ers like to say no kid should have a blackbelt, yet Shea is proud of the fact she teaches 4 year old children choke techniques. As mentioned by someone here, some "seniors" can't fall, or get up. Are kids BB programs a cash cow for the schools that have them? Sure. Some are affronted by the fact they work hard to get a BB and the reputation that goes with one is deadly in self defense skills, so they find it insulting to share rank with a child they know is not deadly. The Gracies kids program is a cash cow as well, only they teach deadly techniques to 4 year olds, anyone that can't see the hypocrisy in that is blind, and teaching 4 yo's choke techniques is just plain irresponsible, only McTeachers could do such a thing, and the only place a McTeacher can work, is a McDojo.
I wouldn't worry too much what clowns from BJJ and MMA think, half of them think MMA is a style.
The high percentage of McDojo's, Little Dragon blackbelts as you mentioned yourself, high prices for low quality training.
So you think it is ok for a 13 year old to run around with a black belt? Well there is the essence of the problem. The fact that you think it's ok and justifiable is what is wrong with TKD.
I do not even dare to guess what percentage of TKD dojo's are McDojos's but one thing I find very interesting is this. Everyone who asks this question always say something like "I know there are a lot of McDojo's in TKD but my school is proof that there are good schools out there". Yeah....sure.
Dude, you're in a McDojo. Just accept it, leave the school and move on. What are you arguing for? I have come to look at it like this. TKD is an art reserved for people who know what a good dojo looks like. You do not know that. You would walk right into another McDojo and pay them as well.
AIAIAI! Well, here we go!
First off, as you mentioned, KID BLACKBELTS! One of my blackbelts started our style, I believe when he was somewhere inbetween 7-9, and trained earlier with his dad (whose a 3rd dan now). He didn't get blackbelt till he was 17. Thats 8-10 years of hard work.
In the old days, blackbelts were not given until you had 20-30 years in the art. So based off that, do you really think that kid blackbelts should exist?! Thats why the colored ranks were created for kids in BJJ!
Now, as for taekwondo, the flashy kicks are fancy. Too fancy and unrealistic in some cases. Which is why its seen as a sport. I do not consider sport oriented taekwondo a martial art any more than golf or tennis. Why? Because you guys kick with your hands at your waist! You almost always only do kicks, forgetting the powerful knees and elbows until its time to break some boards, and because they are not practiced enough, this often leads to injuries. Not to mention a majority of them are Mcdojo's, and you basically buy your belt, or earn it through tournaments.
All arts and combat sports have people that are saying negative things about them...Some is just criticism on certain things on certain schools, some others is bashing. A bit of constructive criticism on certain things on certain schools is just an opinion and is fine, heavily disrespecting and bashing a style, hm.... in my opinion at list, is not that good.
The ones that are disrespecting TKD, normally are saying that they disrespect it, due to their game (Olympic version style of sparring and sports competition) and due to the high rates of Mcdojos...
Now reality is, that Mcdojo is a term that is difficult to accurately define...
Mcdojos are considered schools that are giving to kids black belts...In my opinion rankings and belts are not that much of a part of martial skills anyway..There are mainly there just as a way to motivate students...
A martial skill can be passed in several ways...Many are calling mcdojos places that are passing martial skills in different ways than their own..Someone can pass a martial skill with both way A and way C. Way A can be mainly through human contact, heavy bag training and fitness training, way C can be mainly through conditioning, spirit, one to three step sparring and forms...No problem, how a martial skill is passed, just the practitioner to feel comfortable with the way that is passed and to improve.:)
Ignorance. Nothing more, nothing less.
Although, in defense of the ignoratti, there are some valid complaints:
we have a huge number of mcdojangs, which churn out:
...a huge number of black belts,
...a huge number of kid black belts,
...a huge number of belt factories,
...a huge number of seniors who don't know how to fall, or how to get up
and,
...many nickel-and-dime for things like weapons, clubs, tests, uniforms, patches, etc,
...many do non-taekwondo things like flips and acrobatics, weapons, and music to forms
We have a huge number of taekwondo-in who do not know anything about the style they practice:
...what does "taekwondo" mean,
...what is its recent history,
...they practice with things they call "bo staffs" or "nunchakus",
...they don't know what their forms are for,
...they don't know what a taekwondo student is called (it's "taekwondo-in")
...many do not know it's Korean
...many of those who do know, they can't place Korea on a map
Unfortunately, the many crap schools out there make the whole of us look bad. In the end, though - it's not the style, it's the culture.
I studied three styles of Taekwondo, ITF, ITA AND WTF. I'm currently in ITA Taekwondo. ITA TaeKwonDo and ITF TaeKwonDo are pretty much the same, except the sine wave is in ITF and ITA doesn't practice sine wave. WTF has their own forms. I have rankings in all three styles but ITA has levels between their belts. Yes I agree that's unusual and yes they are considered a martial business but isn't all martial art schools a business??? If your teaching that is your living, your business. I kinda agree with the levels because with the time and levels in the belt it sorta makes them a legit Green, blue red and officially a black belt. I see 10 11 12 and 13 year olds with black belts but they been in the style since they were little. So why do martial artist bash styles aren't we considered brothers/ sisters in the arts???
