prejudices

**crowey** · Posted On: 7/02/2002 4:46am

hey,
on a few occasions i have come accross prejudice against YKD, and I was just wondering why?
i mean, fair enough it's not the most effective art (coz there's no grappling) but generally it's quite a good MA.
though i suppose all the mcdojangs do tend to leave a bad impression.

**samantha711** · Posted On: 7/02/2002 8:18am

I'll assume you mean TKD? For myself (TKD Blackbelt) I'm not prejudice, it's just that after I started training in other arts, I realized just how "incomplete" I was as a fighter.

Not that I am ever going to do any hard core competing or anything. And I learned quite a bit from TKD as my base. But, the fancy high kicks were not as strong as the kicks I learned from MT. There was no ground game & I didn't really think I gained much from the forms, besides some balance & a knowledge of stances & hand tech.

And my dojo isn't really a "McDojo" we have broken away from all Assoc. & have brought in more effective ways of training & teaching, but there is still a lot missing.

So, not preudice, just wasn't DONE after the TKD..still teach it, but have brought in a better ground fighting & more realistic contact & way of training..I'm going to turn that place into a MMA school yet..lol

<img src=icon_smile_blackeye.gif border=0 align=middle> Sam

**Phrost** · Posted On: 7/02/2002 12:56pm

TKD will eventually either evolve or fade away, once people start getting over the martial myth.

As a sport art, it's got merit, simply because the art dictates the rules of engagement. Plus, it does provide a pretty decent foundation if you go on to study other, more practical/fighting focused arts, if for no other reason than you'll be pretty flexible.

The problem with TKD really IS the fact that there are so many schools out there that it's evolved into more of a business than an art. And when business concerns are given more importance than the interests of furthering the art, it will undoubtedly suffer.

Right now, Brazillian Jiujitsu is the top martial art one can study at any kind of organized school, and that's because it still has somewhat limited exposure. I'll guarantee you in 10 years, we'll see a BJJ McDojo or two.

**:-)-:** · Posted On: 7/02/2002 7:44pm

Although McDojangs have given TKD a bad name, there is still, and probably always will be, Muksodo. Military TKD practiced by the Korean armies, it is some serious ****. The only time I ever sparred one of those guys, I was literally beaten to the ground. His legs lashed out like whips, and his foot, ankle, and knee each seemed to have a mind of its own. No fancy, looping kicks, just straight-forward, wildly gyrating attacks coming from more angles than I knew existed. There was no hoppin around, no light attacks, no fakes, just bam, bam, bam, bam, repeated hard strikes.

I suppose that's why they don't, or can't, teach TKD that way, but if anyone bad mouths the art, send 'em to Korea for a week at the boot camps.

**migo** · Posted On: 7/02/2002 7:58pm

That's an awful lot of money to spend on someone badmouthing TKD.

**JKDChick** · Posted On: 7/03/2002 2:30am

There are already BJJ McDojos. And JKD ones. It's repellent, but even the good arts get diluted by bullshit after a short period.

What I wonder is what will come next?

**:-)-:** · Posted On: 7/03/2002 3:52pm

Most arts start out as good arts. The only problem is that the harder they are to get right, the more quickly they will fall prey to McDojos. Karate, for example, is, to put it lightly, a bit more spiritually complex than Muay Thai. It is somewhat difficult to teach physically, not to mention mentally. Most people simply don't understand it, much less understand how to teach it. Same goes for so many other arts which have the potential to be powerful, but are taught incorrectly.

So I don't believe it's "even the good arts" getting messed up. Most arts are good arts, some easier to mess up than others.

**migo** · Posted On: 7/03/2002 6:38pm

That's if you don't understand Muay Thai, it has a hell of a lot of spirituality, just look at all the matches. I would argue that if anything, Muay Thai is more spiritually complex than Karate.

**:-)-:** · Posted On: 7/03/2002 6:49pm

Look at the philosophies of the arts. Muay Thai has some very deep spiritual content, but it comes down to get in a ring, beat each other down. Karate? No. What I'm saying is that Karate is a lot harder to teach, because it requires two levels of understanding. The physical technique, and the mental application, whereas Muay Thai is simply the physical application, from which mental discipline is derived.

The more complex arts are the first to fall prey to mcdojos. The simpler, more straight-forward arts remain pure, for the most part, but every art has its morons.

**migo** · Posted On: 7/03/2002 9:24pm

You don't understand Muay Thai, it's not just the physical application. You can do the physical application without the spiritual in Muay Thai, just as you can in Karate. To get the spiritual in Muay Thai you have to take the extra effort and can't just expect your physical training to get you there, unless you consider getting pounded on a spiritual experience, as some people do.