Posted: 7/25/2006 4:10:27 PM EDT
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My son is going to start taking martial arts. There is a very well established Tae Kwon Do school nearby that has a great reputation. They do not do tournaments or any of that crap. I am very impressed with the Master and his style of teaching. They also teach Hapkido and Jujitsu. Or, there is a school about 20 minutes away that teaches Filipino Kali, Kenpo, Kickboxing, and BJJ. We have not visited there. Before all of the next Chuck Lidells weigh in, I'd like to know why TKD is looked down upon so much, and if there are schools/methods that make it worthwhile. I also have no interest in sending my son to a belt factory. My knowledge is only in wrestling, boxing, and Isshinryu and do not claim to be an expert in any of it. Thanks for sincere opinions. Blake |
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I think the main reason that TKD is looked down upon is because of the 'belt factories' like you described. Not every school is that way, but there have been enough of them that many people judge them all. It depends on what you want him to learn. Traditional arts are good at teaching discipline, and the belt promotions give students a sense of accomplishment and achievement. I've trained in both traditional arts, and Muay Thai/BJJ, there's good things in both as long as you find a qualified instructor that has a sincere concern for the safety of his students and building a positive relationship with them. I would see if you could get free initial lessons at both places, and see which your son likes best. See which style he prefers, which instructor he prefers, which group of students he gets along best with. You can also learn quite a bit just by watching a class together without participating. |
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I got a Black Belt in TKD when I was young. It tought me self discipline, tolerance of pain, courage, increased my felxibility tremendously, and helped me have better self esteeme because I was not afraid of other youths as much. What it did NOT teach me was how to fight. Whats wrong with TKD? Patterns. Useless. No need to elaborate. Stances, designed strictly to allow single kicks and not for pucnhing. Punch to face? Most coomon thing you need to learn to do and defend... not allowed in TKD. Blocking strikes? All wrong. You dont stick your arm out to block strikes like they teach you unless you want to get knocked the fuck out. Elbows, punch combinations, more than one landed blow, knees, etc. None of this is taught. They teach one punch with poor form or some variation of it, better than nothing and school yard bullies got some bloody lips when I was a kid but if any of them knew how to fight I would have had my ass kicked and when I got older I did get my ass kicked. I woke up and smelled the coffee, or blood as it were and got into "serious" martial arts like boxing, MT kick boxing, BJJ, etc. So you will learn to have a poor fighting stance, not learn how to punch in combinations, not learn how to deal with taking multiple strikes, not learn how to dodge blows or use elbows to defelct them, you wont learn any knees, elbows or anything else usefull. Jumping spinning back kicks, flying side kicks, axe kicks, jumping front snap kicks,... I could do some really cool looking kicks! None of them ever helped me do anything other than break a board or do my belt pattern. There are 3 kicks that are usefull. Back spinning kick (most MT guys dont do that and are cought off gurad its really only usefull when you are out of position and just flow into it) side kicks (defensive to creat distance mostly) and front kicks (he will learn that in MTKB anyway) The round house kick is different and uses the instep which will break your foot MT kick boxing uses the shin and is much more effective. TKD teach bad habits on that kick. The second school will teach your son how to REALLY defend himself. It will be much more difficult on him, he may not like this. He will get bruises and such. You may not like that. Its the best choice however. |
What he said. A school that teaches several different diciplines, will inevitably take what is good from the different philosophies and combine it. This will make you a better fighter. One other thing. I think tournaments are good. It lets you compare how you are doing against others you have not seen. Competing against the same people, whether they are better than you or not, all the time makes you predictable. I personally would not choose a school that did not let its students enter tournaments. I think they are trying to hide something. |