Actually Guy, one of the unfortunate trends in TKD is, like a contagious disease, all the schools in a certain area are all equally as bad because years ago they all came from the same roots or just copied eachothers busniess practices that make the student suffer. This isn't always the case but I've seen it and it's pretty sad to see a whole city with nothing but crap TKD.
Spookey, no I don't mind talking about my background.
I started TKD in 1990 with Mr. Fu in Aylmer Quebec. He actually came from a Kung Fu background in Honk Kong (he was Chinese) and then moved to Canada and started training in WTF TKD with Grandmaster Lee (who controls WTF in the city of Ottawa). They had a falling out years later and Mr. Fu joined the ITF. When I joined we were ITF. But my training incorporated ITF,WTF and kungfu influences. We only sparred ITF style, however... if you know anything about Quebec Canada you will know they are some hardcore mofa'kas and it was pretty rough. We did not wear sparring equipment of any kind and every night I had a new busted lip, broken nose or black eye. At the time I hated it and almost quit but now I thank god for that kind of training and am so glad I didn't give up on martial arts. It changed my life.
After I received my black belt Mr. Fu switched us over to GTF which was just a smaller version of ITF.
Unfortunately I had a falling out with Mr. Fu (go figure) and was forced to leave and took my school and went back to ITF... just like all the other instructors that Mr. Fu alienated over the years... we were all back in ITF except him! I was the last to leave.
Now after 14 years I am 4th degree and happy in the ITF under Master Choi and opening the first ITF school in Thailand while still running my school in Ottawa Canada.
There is a ton of other stuff involving all the other martial arts I trained in but unless you ask about that I'll just stick to TKD!
Damian Mavis
Honour TKD
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