Garland

"MT beginner thinking of switching to TKD-wants advice"

ok... DON'T DO IT...don't do it man...step back from the ledge...it'll be okay.

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homo homini lupus

LoneHusky

I know that some schools that promote quality black belts will stay around but alot of the shitty schools stay around and grow too.

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Shoot

My advice is to look around. I know a WTF Korean man at my gym. He's really involved in it and is a coach. His training is very modern and grueling. I'd put his fighter against ANY MT fighters anyday. They train with weights, run, do WAY more sparring than most MT fighters (since many MT schools don't spar at all). Talk about conditioned athletes. These guys are very dedicated and tough.

I talked to him one day about the bad rap TKD gets and the criticism about it's high kicks. He laughed and said, "of course kicking high on the street might get you killed. You'd probably get your foot grabbed and be thrown to the ground." He went on to add that TKD is a martial art that uses sport as something to train for and to get experience. He said that they train for self defense too and advocate low kicks to the legs, groin, and knee for that. He explained that the high kicks in competition demonstrate superior kicking ability as it is much harder to kick high than low and that if you can kick high you can easily kick low. Also, it's safer with the chest protector than say getting your knee dislodged.

So, as long as you can keep TKD the Sport apart from TKD the martial art, you're good and can apply that TKD knowledge to real fighting.

I think you'll enjoy it. Plus, many TKD schools supplement their curriculum with grappling and even BJJ now. I think if taught right TKD is an awesome system.

You can spot the "McDojang."

Another thing this TKD coach said was the colored belts are really for kids. He didn't seem to care about forms. His adults treat TKD pretty much like kickboxing. I doubt they spend ANY time on forms. I say this because this guy is REALLY involved with the WTF.

Think of this too. TKD is the most popular MA in the world. If MT was or BJJ was or MMA was then there'd be plenty of ineffective fighters in those arts. It's the fighter that makes the difference.

The other common criticism is that you can obtain a black belt in TKD in 2 years or sometimes less. Who cares. We're talking about punching and kicking and to some degree knees and elbows. It's a pretty simple art. I think 2 years is way more than enough time to become proficient in striking.

I find it so funny that people are alright with "kickboxing" when it's virtually identical to TKD. It's really funny.

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"I don't know Karate, but I know Karazy!" --James Brown