Marietta, GA : Is Iron Dragon Martial Arts a Bullshido TKD school or not?

**klefmung** · Posted On: 3/15/2007 11:50am

Well, I went to this TKD school (my main training is mma, and of the quality variety since I have used it) And it seemed as if they were slightly on the wierd side. They have one class a week where they spar (not just point sparring, HARD sparring), but from a wierd stance... Many can beat me, and in fact, I respect them, but there are a few things about it...

On every day but that one class, they do wierd sliding, spinning, and jumping kicks on a bag, and in fact no sparring eachother, and none fo these are usually used in their sparring. And aside from that, they do have forms, and wierd, traditional forms that are not for fighting by the looks of it, and they can get a first deg. black belt in around three years. So, the third degree black belts can beat me, but the school seems fishy. Is it a mcdojo? the ones that can beat me arre way more experienced (years more). So does that mean the school is totally useless? Or does it mean that it just isn't run as efficiantly as it should, because they can produce some good fighters... I train there for the sparring class, but nothing else.

**sempaiman** · Posted On: 3/15/2007 12:06pm

So what is the problem. It's not like people get black in a year or less like some belt factory schools do. If their sparring is as hard as you say, then the school is not afraid to loose students due to contact. Forms I wouldn't be too concerned. They are mainly for balance and stance developing so if they are weird it don't matter much. If the third dans beat you that's a good sign because if you could beat them then the school would be bad news.

**kwoww** · Posted On: 3/15/2007 12:10pm

Sounds like a halfway decent TKD school actually. sempaiman said basically everything I was going to say.

**cyrijl** · Posted On: 3/15/2007 12:28pm

do they have a website? what do they charge/lesson?

**klefmung** · Posted On: 3/15/2007 5:52pm

www.irondragonmartialarts.com

**kwoww** · Posted On: 3/15/2007 7:11pm

After poking around for about a minute, it appears to be a McDojo teaching legit martial arts. Interesting, to say the least.

**jtkarate** · Posted On: 3/16/2007 8:17am

So what exactly seems to be the problem here? Anyone that goes to a school that does a different style than what they are used to is going to see some "strange" things but that doesn't mean its a Mcdojo. And to quote kwoww seems as a pretty decent TKD school, as tkd schools go.

**Ronin.74** · Posted On: 3/16/2007 1:46pm

I looked at their list of forms and didn't really recognize any of them. They are not teaching TaeGeuk or Palgwe forms, which are the two most common sets. Does anyone know where these forms are coming from?

**NastyHaggis** · Posted On: 3/16/2007 2:54pm

The forms are from the "Chun Ji Military Set" introduced by the Chungdokwan first, and later by the Ohdokwan, which later became the ITF. These are the standard forms used by Taekwondo schools that trace their lineage through the "international style", or the brach that was originally led by General Choi Hong Hi.

They are named the "Chun Ji Military Set" because the first form is named "Chun Ji" (which means "heaven and earth"), and General Choi taught them to the Korean military. There are 24 forms in the complete set, each representing a particular figure from Korean history, and theoretically the number 24 was chosen because there are 24 hours in one complete day.

**jdinca** · Posted On: 3/21/2007 11:45am

Looks like a basic TKD school that has the added advantage of full contact sparring once a week. I have a problem with pretty much any school that will award a BB in only three years but that's me.