ATA you will find several really good reasons why you should avoid it as if it were the plague.
They are one of the worst organizations for bilking money out of students. They promote everyone that comes to class and pays. They have ridiculous crap for belt requirements. they can't fight. They shut themselves off from the rest of the martial arts community. They do not allow people from other styles to enter their tournaments. At one time they did. They stopped it because outsiders made them look like the scam they are.
A friend that is a truck driver knows another truck driver that was a very good 5th degree black belt in one of the styles of Taekwondo. ATA recruited him to open new schools for them. His job was to move to new areas and locate a good building for a school. He supervised the build-out of the school and opened it. He was good and easily signed many new students on contracts they could not get out of. As soon as the school was taking in enough money to pay the bills, the ATA would sell the school and franchise to someone that would take it over and run it. Then the guy that started it would move to another area and start up another school for the ATA. After a while he became upset at how the ATA was franchising their schools. He saw many new owners come in that were terrible martial artists. But the students were stuck with them because of the contract. One time a couple bought the school franchise. They were both below black belt when they bought the franchise. Yet the ATA put black belts on them and that was that.
This is but a small sample of what is wrong with the ATA... Want to see more? Just research ATA ripoffs on Google. Many people that have been cheated or burned by the ATA.
Bottom line is this.... If you go and sign up at an ATA school, you deserve what you get. You have been warned!
EDIT: No Keyboard Warrior, I was not talking bad about Taekwondo. I was talking about the ATA and the crap they call Taekwondo, but is for from it. Before you try to say I'm saying something I'm not, perhaps you ought to read the question and my answer more carefully.
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The ATA is a mcdojo, and belt mill.
They give out black belts to eight year olds. The belts are given out for a certain amount of time as long as you show up and pay your tuition.
Its just a scam.
In a true martial arts school a black belt is nerver guaranteed. You have to earn it with integrity. knowledge, respect for others and the art. It takes a lot of commitment and maturity. The ata goes against what the martial arts are really about.
For starters, they have a belt system that includes camoflauge. They also have blue-green with red stripe, white-brown with camo stripe, so on so forth. That means they are a belt mill. Giving belts to keep your money flowing, without teaching true TKD.
Their style is made up. They teach "Songham TKD" there are over 75 styles of TKD, and the only time you'll hear of Songham is when ATA is mentioned.
They teach weapons (foam bats) to beginners.
Their class consists of running in circles, leap frog, yes leap frog, and I was in the adult class, kicking a bag, going through "forms" with a foam baseball bat, and best of all, the 18 year old instructor wouldn't let me have water.
ATA is notorius for being a mcdojang. They are the fast food equivalent of martial arts, and they teach zero self defense.
They almost worship someone they call the "eternal grandmaster." Not lying.
Trust me, ATA is daycare for adults trying to lose weight, and kids who need a place to burn off energy.
They give black belts to little kids.
They have black belt high school students teaching.
They are a franchise, which means they are the walmart of martial arts.
The instructor was rude to the kids, threatening to throw them out by their heads.
After I left the cult of the eternal grandmaster, I met a man from Korea who taught me real Taekwondo. The difference was incredible.
When TKD went with the mainstream and entered the Olymics I feel like the art lost it's head. TKD was not originally what many pecieve it as today. With this main stream attention you gey a. Lot of off shoots and peeps who want to take advantage of the attention. The real TKD oranizations did no damage control.
I was one who got in real TKD. It is very saddening to see. Instructor I used to know switched to
teaching this Olympic style to keep their dojang open. Peeps see flying 360 side kicks and want to learn it. While TKD I learned seems to dying more and more.
I love real, traditional TKD but sadly it isn't what peeps see as TKD
Oh, examples you want? Here goes:
Here's an example of a world champion:
I have ever fought with the taekwondo user, actually it quite true the techniques could be easily defeated just by only get near him, by that action tae kwon do won't do any use not like if you use this tricks against muay thai boxer if you get near him you will feel elbow and knee slam without warning, and when I join muay thai class I learned that tae kwon do focused on speed kick only not strong kick like muay thai which is swing so hard towards the target, in taekwondo many of the kicks take too long to be done because the circular movement so the enemy could see the movement
if you learn other martial arts you could compare the tkd kicks with kung fu excercise in kung fu you have leg sweeping movements etc, tae kwon do usuallya focus on body and head
Oh buddy, stay clear of the ATA.
Because it's American. It's basically like saying P.F. Chang's is "authentic" Chinese food. Personally, I think it's disgraceful.
Because idiots in America and Canada made it dumb by training crappy way of Taekwondo.
People say they suck and I just wanted to know because I was going to do a martial art. So tell me if you hate or like them and WHY. Don't just say they suck; I need examples and legitimate reasons.
