wsdddoa012

duckdodgeduck are you with the WTF or ITF or a member of the kukkiwon?
Honestly I really dont care if they do in fact partner up. My view of TKD is like many other people, I see it as sport more so then actual self defense. I know the ITF is more geared towards self defense rather then sport, but you know the instructors of tkd haven't done a good job of explaining the difference to the public.

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Mike
Senior Chief Instructor

dodgeduckdodge

I went from being a member, to a leader of the WTF in the USA. However, since 2001, I have not been a member of the WTF in the USA. I am however a life member of Kukkiwon. Before any of that, I was a member of the ITF. Before that, Tang Soo Do, Shotokan, Isshin Ryu and Boxing. Also along the way some Hapkido and a fair amount of Taekkyon practice.

You may read articles and opinions about Taekwondo and the issue that Hong Hi Choi pushed, that is where his and South Korea's brand of Taekwondo is sport of self-defense. The fact is, once a person gets out of their dojang and ventures around the world, and trains in various nations, in many different schools, you will find that the great mass majority of the 60 million members that practice Kukkiwon Taekwondo, or as some mistakenly call it, WTF, view what they practice as many things, self-defense, sport, recreation, personal development, etc being all a part of it.

Persons who try and separate Taekwondo into sport vs self-defense, martial arts vs. recreation are victims of Choi's indoctrination propaganda. He believed in the divide and conquer idea. Propaganda was the only thing he was truely a master of as we can see.

As for the self-defense of any method of training. What matters is the person, not the method, though methods help only when they allow full force blows in their sparring. This practice may help the practitioner develop self-defense skill, if there is no full force blows being exchanged in practice, then the training has ZERO self-defense practice.

A practitioner who understands Taekwondo will view it as our seniors do, as simply a way of life. And that way contains all those things that beginners debate about.

I agree with you that most Korean instructors of Taekwondo, and now the great majority of their non-Korean born counterparts, especially in the USA did not do a good job at explaining the difference. There is a reason for this.

Alcohol

wsdddoa012

How do you become a member of the kukkiwon?

I know what you mean by tae kwon do being a simple way of life, I see it as that too, and I know the reason why they didnt' explain the difference in sport and self defense, although as I said in the last post, the instructors haven't done a great job in explaining why that is. I tend to get typing and don't explain my reasoning behind my opinion.

I practiced tae kwon do for 12 years. My instructor unfortunately was the kind of instructor who promoted too fast, made alot of money and never taught tae kwon do as it should've been taught . I was fortunate enough to meet up with several masters in tae kwon do and have trained with them, although I only hold the rank of 1st dan black. I haven't practiced the art of tae kwon do for a little over 5 years although I'm trying to get back into it, the technical part that is. Work keeps me busy lol

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Mike
Senior Chief Instructor

dodgeduckdodge

When you are issued a Dan/Poom certificate from Kukkiwon, you become a black belt member, for life.

Alcohol

wsdddoa012

All certificates in TKD are through the kukkiwon right?

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Mike
Senior Chief Instructor

dodgeduckdodge

unfortunately no.

Alcohol

wsdddoa012

So how can I find out? and if I wanted to get it transferred over to the kukkiwon whom should I contact, a kukkiwon affiliated instructor?

I've been out of the loop for a while so I'm not sure how things go now!!!

__________________
Mike
Senior Chief Instructor