Leaving my TKD school

**manuva** · Posted On: 1/31/2011 3:48am

I know there's some threads like this already but I felt like writing up my own to have my little spiel.

I started TKD about 18 months ago as I wanted to learn self defense and get fitter and it was one of the few schools around . For a while it was good and I learned some good basics like front/side/roundhouse/back kicks and some blocks. Also patterns were interesting too.
Also the instructors were nice and seemed pretty good fighters & teachers.

However over time parts of it seemed impracticable or impairing.

Classes & Students
- I was an adult and therefore had to join the Family class which is for everyone 6 - 60. To do the more intense sports class you had to be at least a Blue belt. So I'd train with people in their 40's who were out of shape and didn't like to go too hard or a 8 year old where you have to pull all your kicks and humor them whilst sparring or go against a teenager who would constantly flinch or flail around when you were working on drills. At times it felt more like a social club with people talking during demonstration and drills or never being able to spar properly as some kid always forget to bring pads.

I think the last class I attended was a father brought his kid to learn TKD. However the classes ground to a slow pace as the kid had a attention disorder and was yelling and running around and the instruction had to spend alot of the class calming him down and trying to make him focus.

As for gradings it seemed you be quite bad at TKD and not train up until red belt and get passed. I saw students come to gradings and spar and just stand on the spot feigning lazy roundhouse kicks with an occasional "giup" and they would pass with no effort. Gradings were showing up 'attempting' the pattern, then some kicks followed by a short spar and you'd move up the belts automatically.

Practicality
As I mentioned, some of the kicks and blocks were good and have practical application in a self defense situation. However some of the techniques and lessons were confusing trying to put it all together.

One week we'd be doing kicking drills from white to black belt techniques. So you'd do your basic kicks as a white belt but then have to try and do a spinning back kick with red belts. Trying to run before walking.

Other weeks we'd work on basic kicks, horse stance punches and blocks (upper, lower,outer ect) and then do patterns. However when we'd be doing the self defense component of the classes we wouldn't use any of the moves. And when I'd ask how come we don't use any of the traditional blocks and strikes the response was "oh you'd wouldn't use those on the street" So we'd learn a bunch of moves that would only used for demo/patterns and never for self defense or sports sparring.

Most of the self defense was stuff was based around moving evasively and striking joints and close quarter fighting. This in turn removed alot of the sports kicks as they weren't usable in self defense environment. Also some of the getting out of grabs and holds didn't seem practical or were over complicated and our instructor didn't really promote using these techniques. Also alot of the fancy WTF sports techniques weren't too usable either.

There was little ground work. The only ground stuff was drills for getting up quickly if on the ground. This was practical but not so good if someone is on top of you :icon_pale I wasn't expecting there to be much ground work in TKD but some basics would be nice.

I found it confusing when our schools master was talking down on grappling arts saying how it's not good as it's dangerous and you could cause injury by choking someone and that BJJ classes have a somewhat high injury rate.
However he didn't say anything about the massive physical damage that occurs from people being kicked/punched in the head and hitting their head on the ground as a result.

I came to a conclusion I wasn't into it anymore and wanted to find something else. Over a month I sent 3 emails to the head master that I was leaving and then after the third email he finally got back to me and said my first two emails were never sent/received and he finally stopped payments being taken out of my account. However since he took so long to respond the school already took the money out of my account for a month of classes. When I asked about a refund he said I can't have one as he would of needed 30 days to cancel the payments. So I would of had to pay anyway :cry:

Fortunately I've found a good school to do BJJ (which I've wanted to try for a while) which I can do mauy thai and mma cross training too. It's gonna cost more and further to travel but the teachers are good, the classes seem practical and most of the students are fit and want to learn and be good fighters and train with alot of discipline and as a team and don't go to hangout and treat it like a afterwork hangout. Hopefully this will be my new home.

I'm not trying to crap on TKD as there are some great benefits from it and there's a lot of great fighters but I wanted to do my lil speech and get it off my chest.

Thanks.

**jspeedy** · Posted On: 1/31/2011 11:32am

It's pretty standard to give 30 days notice before canceling. Example, if you quit training at the middle or end of January you can expect to pat for February also.My school requests 2 months notice to cancel training.

**twan55** · Posted On: 2/03/2011 11:23pm

I am shocked to hear of someone on Bullshido speaking badly about Tae Kwon Do. It is totally well-respected on here- the vast majority of posters on this site feel that it is the most effective, realistic, worthwhile, cost-effective, best martial art out there, bar none.

Saying that you do BJJ- or Judo, boxing, or Muay Thai- will be met with derision by people here- pretty much everyone's gonna tell you that those arts are worthless and that- if you want to learn to fight- you must do Tae Kwon Do.

I do Judo- but again, I don't like to advertise it on here because it's seen as fake and weak. The Bullshido creed is: "practicing with aliveness against a resisting opponent is terrible. Far better is to practice katas and forms. Also, as far as fighting training goes, physical contact should- nay, must be avoided at all costs. One learns to seriously brawl through non-contact point sparring and air techniques performed on a smaller, weaker, far younger opponent, like a young boy or girl.

I regret quitting Tae Kwon Do for Judo. I am merely a white-belt in Judo, whereas the 11 year-old girl who occasionally came to Tae Kwon Do was just awarded her black belt.

This proves which art is better.

**twisted mind** · Posted On: 2/06/2011 1:10pm

First off, I'm sorry to hear about your bad experience in TKD. I wish I could say that your experience is a rare occurence but that would be a lie. I am glad to say that not all TKD schools are McDojos but the non McDojo TKD school is farely rare.

With that being said, it sounds to me like you have found more of what you were looking for in the first place, if grappling is your wish, then as you have seen TKD doesn't really have a ground game.

I hope that you plug yourself into your new school and take full advantage of everything they have to offer you.

Good luck in your future training.

**Smoke** · Posted On: 2/06/2011 4:35pm

Originally Posted by twan55

I am shocked to hear of someone on Bullshido speaking badly about Tae Kwon Do. It is totally well-respected on here- the vast majority of posters on this site feel that it is the most effective, realistic, worthwhile, cost-effective, best martial art out there, bar none.

Saying that you do BJJ- or Judo, boxing, or Muay Thai- will be met with derision by people here- pretty much everyone's gonna tell you that those arts are worthless and that- if you want to learn to fight- you must do Tae Kwon Do.

I do Judo- but again, I don't like to advertise it on here because it's seen as fake and weak. The Bullshido creed is: "practicing with aliveness against a resisting opponent is terrible. Far better is to practice katas and forms. Also, as far as fighting training goes, physical contact should- nay, must be avoided at all costs. One learns to seriously brawl through non-contact point sparring and air techniques performed on a smaller, weaker, far younger opponent, like a young boy or girl.

I regret quitting Tae Kwon Do for Judo. I am merely a white-belt in Judo, whereas the 11 year-old girl who occasionally came to Tae Kwon Do was just awarded her black belt.

This proves which art is better.

I can't tell if you're trolling or what. Judo is highly respected on here, it's even in the stickies.

**twisted mind** · Posted On: 2/06/2011 10:25pm

I hope he's not trolling in the traditional MA section.
If he read the stickies, he would know that trolling here is an offense that the moderators severely frown upon.

**Miguksaram** · Posted On: 2/07/2011 3:26pm

Originally Posted by twan55

I am shocked to hear of someone on Bullshido speaking badly about Tae Kwon Do. It is totally well-respected on here- the vast majority of posters on this site feel that it is the most effective, realistic, worthwhile, cost-effective, best martial art out there, bar none.

Saying that you do BJJ- or Judo, boxing, or Muay Thai- will be met with derision by people here- pretty much everyone's gonna tell you that those arts are worthless and that- if you want to learn to fight- you must do Tae Kwon Do.

I do Judo- but again, I don't like to advertise it on here because it's seen as fake and weak. The Bullshido creed is: "practicing with aliveness against a resisting opponent is terrible. Far better is to practice katas and forms. Also, as far as fighting training goes, physical contact should- nay, must be avoided at all costs. One learns to seriously brawl through non-contact point sparring and air techniques performed on a smaller, weaker, far younger opponent, like a young boy or girl.

I regret quitting Tae Kwon Do for Judo. I am merely a white-belt in Judo, whereas the 11 year-old girl who occasionally came to Tae Kwon Do was just awarded her black belt.

This proves which art is better.

Troll and not even an imaginative one...which just makes this double annoying.

**twisted mind** · Posted On: 2/08/2011 9:13am

You're right.....I was just trying to be polite.

**foxguitar** · Posted On: 2/08/2011 6:09pm

The problem with most TKD Dojangs I have had experience with they are just huge money makers and Black Belt Factories . Of course they will pass you most Dojangs charge well they did when I got my first dan in TKD $500.00 and $600.00 for the 2nd Dan.
Not saying there arent quality TKD Schools . But again IMHO the TKD Dojangs for the most part affliated with the WTF are weak and watered down . Read the book "a killing art" and it explains how TKD was once a very lethal martial art based on Japanese Karate and how they "Koreanized " it and by doing so watered it down and created useless Poomse .

There are some legitimate TKD Dojangs but again in my opiniom most of them arent affliated with the Kukkiwon or WTF

**Smoke** · Posted On: 2/09/2011 12:46am

Originally Posted by foxguitar

The problem with most TKD Dojangs I have had experience with they are just huge money makers and Black Belt Factories . Of course they will pass you most Dojangs charge well they did when I got my first dan in TKD $500.00 and $600.00 for the 2nd Dan.
Not saying there arent quality TKD Schools . But again IMHO the TKD Dojangs for the most part affliated with the WTF are weak and watered down . Read the book "a killing art" and it explains how TKD was once a very lethal martial art based on Japanese Karate and how they "Koreanized " it and by doing so watered it down and created useless Poomse .

There are some legitimate TKD Dojangs but again in my opiniom most of them arent affliated with the Kukkiwon or WTF

Does this go with TKD in Korea as well?

It would nice if I could find a decent ITF school to improve my kicking and fitness. But then, I might as well just continue Kyokushin and/or try to find a good Muay Thai school (which is a lot easier than finding a good TKD school).