# Why did you choose Tae Kwon Do



## matt.m (Sep 21, 2006)

Why did you choose Tae Kwon Do over another art?  Which art was it?

I was hard core into Judo for a long time, Hapkido as well.  I love Tae Kwon Do because it is totally fresh from what I had practiced before.

I love doing the poomse.


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## IcemanSK (Sep 21, 2006)

I orginally chose it because my folks were higher bidders on lessons at an auction.

24 years later, I've got good stories & bad stories to tell of the highs & lows I've experienced. I've trained in boxing & kickboxing along the way. But I've stayed with Tae Kwon Do because my side kick doesn't quite look like my 1st instructor's yet....& I have a room full of students who dare me to bore them every week. They have the same pleasure I do from it.


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## Fluffy (Sep 21, 2006)

My uncle was a 4th Dan (now a USTF 7th Dan) in the ITF so he told us TKD was the MA for us.  It's been 21 years now so I guess he was correct.


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## ajs1976 (Sep 21, 2006)

Found a website that explained Taekwondo was a 2000 year old art that advocated kicking over punching because the legs were more powerful and it would be easier to deliver a killing blow. . . . 


At the time I was looking to start I found 4 schools close to my house and they were all TKD, so at the time I didn't chose TKD over another art.


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## exile (Sep 21, 2006)

matt.m said:


> Why did you choose Tae Kwon Do over another art?  Which art was it?



I had wanted to start doing MA for a long time, and figured---from the little I knew about the different arts---that a very hard linear art would be the best fit for me.  There's a lot of TKD in Columbus, Ohio, my little boy was interested in starting MA also, there was a good-sounding program offered at our nearby rec center, so...


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## terryl965 (Sep 21, 2006)

Well I'm the same old story was Okinawa Karate, switvhed to TKD because the hardest gym in those days that I could find was a little old man that could kick the crap out of everyone.
Terry


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## zDom (Sep 22, 2006)

double posted


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## zDom (Sep 22, 2006)

Soon after moving to Southeast Missouri, I met a guy named Tim Wall. We worked together at a radio station for awhile and started hanging out.

First time I was at his home, I saw some old "karate" trophies. He told me he had studied taekwondo as a kid, got as far as blue belt, then dropped out due to getting his drivers license, girls, and messing around with JKD in the backyard with a friend.

He showed me a couple of things he had picked up over the years such as some basic escrima stick strikes, which I thought were really cool.

A couple of years later, I had an unpleasant confrontation with three men outside a bar that ended with me being held down and beaten with a tire tool. They dislodged three of my teeth, leaving a hole in my lower lip big enough to stick a finger in, and shattered my jawbone.

During the five weeks my jaw was wired shut and I was sipping meals through a straw, I asked him to teach me a couple of martial art techniques. "I'm not really interested in belts and all that -- I just want to learn a couple of things..." I said.

So we started "working out" in his livingroom. He taught me some of the basics and we practiced them. Soon my brother found out and joined us. Then another friend joined us, too. Soon we had seven or eight guys crammed into that little living room.

So Wall went down to the Moo Sul Kwan in town where he had studied as a kid (under David LeGrand of Cape Girardeau, Mo., one of GM Lee H. Park's earliest students).

The school at that time was being run by Master Steven Dunn (who now teaches in Florida), who at the time was a 2nd dan.

The next night we were set to work out at Wall's home, he said to us, "Guys, you can do what you want, but I'm going to work out with this Steve Dunn guy."

His recommendation was good enough for me, so I went down and signed up. I have to say, I was instantly impressed. The power and snap in Dunn's techniques was inspiring, to say the least.

At that point in time it wouldn't have mattered to me what he was teaching: I'd been in scraps all my life and it looked like effective stuff.

After a couple of months, Dunn invited Mike Morton of Jackson, Mo., (matt.m's dad, btw) to come and teach hapkido at his school on Monday nights. Dunn asked his class to all give Morton's class a try.

I did, and liked it a lot, as well.

So for the next four years I did hapkido on Mondays and TKD on Tuesdays and Thursdays, then put hapkido on hold to concentrate on getting my TKD blackbelt.

/end wall-of-text


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## cali_tkdbruin (Sep 22, 2006)

It's a family thing for me. My brother-in-law and his son, my nephew, started in TKD back in the late 80's. They're now 3rd dan BBs. Well, later on in the 90's when my daughter would visit them during the summer, they would train, and my little girl who was about 7 then, would watch them go at it. When she came back home she kept telling me, "Daddy I wanna do *Karate*". So I signed her up. After watching her train for a while I thought, hey I want to do this too. Ever since I was a kid I always wanted to try the martial arts but never got around to it. So, I started my journey in the MAs and in Taekwondo because of them.

Years later now, my daughter is a Kukkiwon 1st dan, and I'm currently a 2nd dan.  I'm so proud of my daughter. Of all the females in our very large, extended family, she's the only female of all of the sisters, aunts, girl cousins, sisters-in-law and girlfriends to have earned a black belt in the MAs. Also, my nephew was good enough to earn a spot on the All US Army Taekwondo team a few years ago in 2001-2002.

As for me, I would like to keep training in TKD for as long as I'm able. Great stuff, it kicks...:mst:


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## matt.m (Sep 22, 2006)

Everyone's situation is a tad different however no less important and all held with the same conviction.
:asian:

As a kid I thought that Tae Kwon Do was a training aid to hapkido.  If you guys knew my dad you would understand why.  However, he will even tell you that it is one of the most effective and dynamic arts you could study.

I have found Tae kwon Do to be a great art which I enjoy participating in quite a lot.  Pop told me to seek at Grandmaster Hildebrand to seek help and knowledge of Tae Kwon Do for physical therapy reasons.

I believe the road is a long one, the difference between a belt collector and martial artist is one of the mind.  However, that being said, to find a great teacher that cares about what he is teaching and doesn't allow belt collecting is priceless.


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## Kacey (Sep 22, 2006)

I started TKD because the guy I was dating kept asking me (he'd gotten his blue belt about 10 years previously, in high school) to try it with him - by the third class I was in love; something about it just 'fit' with something I didn't know until then was missing in my life.  That was 19 years ago, and I'm still in it.


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## Grenadier (Sep 22, 2006)

I trained in Tae Kwon Do when I was in college. 

When I was at the club exhibition event, where all of the recreational / non-varsity clubs were holding demonstrations, I noticed that there were only two clubs that were martial arts; the TKD organization, and a Shorin Ryu organization.  

The Tae Kwon Do organization put on a much better demonstration, and the classes were run very smoothly, so I decided to go with the Tae Kwon Do club.  The instructor was able to inspire the students there to push themselves to that next level.  

I don't regret my decision one bit, and did enjoy four years of excellent training.  After I graduated, I was looking around for a school in the new area, but couldn't find a decent Tae Kwon Do dojang, so I went back to Shotokan after that.  



In all fairness, the Shorin Ryu club was actually a very good one, but the problem was that the instructor who had been teaching for the club, had abruptly gotten up and left, due to a family emergency, so during that critical time, it was being run by someone less capable of doing so.  Had their instructor been present during that exhibition time, and for the class I watched, it could have made a difference.


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## andyjeffries (Sep 25, 2006)

I was always bullied (physically and mentall, from the age of about 7), so when I got to 11 years old my mum decided that I should enrol in a martial art.  I got a book out of the library (it was by David Mitchell and contained a 20 page summary of each martial art).  Flicking through I was instantly drawn to Taekwondo as it showed step by step how to do a jump reverse turning kick.  It also showed a guy jumping over someone and doing a flying side kick.

Anyway, ultimately the choice of martial art would be over which one was available locally, looked in the local paper and there was no Taekwondo, but there was a Karate class.  We went down to the leisure centre and found a new Taekwondo class has started the week before but wasn't advertising in the paper yet.  It was run by a small oriental man and the advert at the leisure centre showed him flying side kicking through a board.  I know you shouldn't judge a book by it's cover, but hey - he fitted the bill (and don't forget I was only 12!).

I trained under this guy (Master Pan, Sim-Woon) until I was 15 then a senior student took over (Master Carl Lees) and I carried on until about 2000, when I stopped due to work and a new family.  That's my only regret in life, I wished I'd carried on - even once per week.

I've recently gone back to it (about 8 weeks ago), the weight's slowly coming off and I've definitely caught the bug again!!!


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## bluemtn (Sep 26, 2006)

I started TKD because there wasn't many choices around that was close enough.  Now that there is a little more, I find I still enjoy it too much to really change.  I've visited other classes, but I still enjoy my first choice.


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## TraditionalTKD (Sep 27, 2006)

I had wanted to study martial arts for a long time, a result of the media influence and getting bullied in school. My mom wouldn't let me for quite a while, because I think she saw me as her baby and didn't want me getting hurt. I actually carried around a judo book and was trying to study and learn the moves-not very smart when you know nothing about falling, rolling, breakfalls etc.
When my dad finally realized I was serious, he asked me if I wanted to learn a hand-oriented or a foot-oriented style. I knew nothing about either and just said "foot" because it seemed interesting. Next thing I knew, I was enrolled in the local Tae Kwon Do class at the YMCA. Now, lest anyone question the effectiveness of a YMCA class, the Head of the class-my original Instructor-was straight from Korea where he had been the 6-time Korean National Free Fighting Champion both in college and for the Army. This was in the 60's, when it was truly brutal. His classes were pretty hard core, direct from the Chung Do Kwan in Korea. It's been 23 years and I still practice according to how we did it back then.


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## IcemanSK (Sep 27, 2006)

TraditionalTKD said:


> I had wanted to study martial arts for a long time, a result of the media influence and getting bullied in school. My mom wouldn't let me for quite a while, because I think she saw me as her baby and didn't want me getting hurt. I actually carried around a judo book and was trying to study and learn the moves-not very smart when you know nothing about falling, rolling, breakfalls etc.
> When my dad finally realized I was serious, he asked me if I wanted to learn a hand-oriented or a foot-oriented style. I knew nothing about either and just said "foot" because it seemed interesting. Next thing I knew, I was enrolled in the local Tae Kwon Do class at the YMCA. Now, lest anyone question the effectiveness of a YMCA class, the Head of the class-my original Instructor-was straight from Korea where he had been the 6-time Korean National Free Fighting Champion both in college and for the Army. This was in the 60's, when it was truly brutal. His classes were pretty hard core, direct from the Chung Do Kwan in Korea. It's been 23 years and I still practice according to how we did it back then.


 
How cool that you had that experience with your instructor. You're right, it's all about quality of instruction....not where the class is held.


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## Sirius (Oct 4, 2006)

Because my sisters do it. My one sister was already a black belt by the time I started, the other a poom belt. It also seemed a great way to get in shape and. . .to be perfectly honest. . .the first time I got kicked in the face (the first time I sparred), I was hooked on fighting. Forms are nice too but I prefer watching them to doing them.


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## TraditionalTKD (Oct 4, 2006)

But I'd be kidding myself if I thought I were just like him. Similarities perhaps, but he is one in a million. The best I can hope for is to carry on his teaching and methods the best I can, realizing that America is not Korea.
I can also take heart in the fact that my students take Tae Kwon Do seriously as I do, rather than treat it like a game.


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## CaptLou (Oct 4, 2006)

I was totally impressed by the "hand to hand" combat of the Korean Marines in Vietnam using their Martial Arts and I started with what was then Korean Karate evolving into Tae Kwon Do...


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## bookworm_cn317 (Apr 30, 2007)

It was the only martial art offered at the Y my mom & I were members of at the time.


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## Manny (Apr 30, 2007)

Hi every one, I'm Manny from Mexico, I'm 39 years old, married for 13 years and with two lovely daughters. Well... why I choose TKD, nice question. It was 1983 was 16 years old and wanted to start in some martial arts, when I was a  little boy I studied Judo but only achieved a yellow belt, however martial arts always like me.

So 16 years old and start scouting for w goos martial arts school, I saw some but did not like them, in one dojo I saw a wall covered with so many certificates in so many diferent martial arts that was very funy, how a person can have such sum of degrees in so many stiles, in other dojo I saw no uniformity, I mean the sensei dressed in a way so fancy and the students used a variety of gis from white, to black, to white/black some in t shirts, no,no,no.

In highschool a girlfried who was a blue belt in TKD herd about my desire to train in martial art so she introduced me with his samboknim I atend some clases and was hooked, the stile was Ji Do Kwan and my samboknim was a third degree black belt certified by KuKiWon.

Since the beginin I liked the kicks and the dinamics of TKD, TKD was so circular, so fast,fo furius, in sparring full contact was allowed (I dislike karate point fighting) and afther 4 full yers of training I got my firsth degree black belt.

Martial arts and TKD was everything for me, sadly college, parties and chicks (oh yessss!!!) began to distract me from training and TKD was evolving in a Olimpic Games sport, yes sport, and sadly (for me) TKD began loosing tha martiality and become sporty.

At around 22 years old I dropped TKD, now with 39 years old and a lot of bacon there is a slight chance I will return to TKD for two things, a) I love martial arts, jogging is not for me, foot ball soccer no way, baseball no way, it has to be martial arts period, and b) to gain some health and lose some weight.

Tonight I will atend an apointment with a TKD professor and will tell him what I want from TKD, I'm old to perform flying spining hook kicks, but want to start from the basics, get in shape,do some light sparring,be happy againg and do my best.

Wish me luck.

Manny


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## Mellyn (May 1, 2007)

The style I had trained in, Tang Soo Do, wasn't available in the area I moved to for work (Northern CA).
I do enjoy the new style Tae Kwon Do (been over 10 yrs now), but the street-fighting I learned in TSD has stuck with me =) Generally the basics are pretty much identical - or were until they changed it all for TKD in the last few years. OUCH!

Mellyn


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## Shaderon (May 1, 2007)

I trained in Aikido for 6 months, the Sensei and his wife were more insterested in all those ranks who were equal to and above their son's rank though, or had lots of money and could attend the seminars abroad.  They seemed to be running the club for money reasons rather then anything else.  I felt ignored as I was used to help the higher belts train mostly and I never heard anything about grading.   

I left as I was dissilusioned and a couple of years later joined a gym for fitness.  The gym held Karate classes, I was mildly interested and went to have a look.  Even though it looked good and the instructor was friendly, I was left cold so I didn't join.  Even though my daughter had a couple of lessons and wanted to continue I am afraid I said no and stopped her doing it too.  It just felt wrong.   I knew there was something else for us.

A couple of months later, a guy opened a TaeKwon-Do class in the same gym, I went to have a chat with him and instantly liked the guy, we clicked.  I started lessons, just too late to train for the first grading, I was a bit unsure at first as I still liked the soft style of Aikido and in my first bout of sparring I didn't do very well and didn't like it.  However when we finished and I told my husband what we had done, I realised I had learned more in that lesson than in the whole six months in Aikido, I was then hooked.  As my daughter's swimming lessons were at the same time as the kids TKD ones, I made her finish them before she started TKD.  She had the same reaction as me... the first lesson she came out unsure but when the instructor asked her to tell me what she'd learned she babbled lots of things out and told me she loved it.

I've never missed a lesson now apart from going on holiday and I doubt I'll stop.   I plan to get my BB and be an instructor, TKD is now my life.

So I guess for me it's the speed of learning and the effectiveness of what I learned in a short space of time, also the rappor I have with my instructor, I can't learn off people I don't trust and I trust him implicitly.


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## utb1528 (May 1, 2007)

I have always been interested in the martial arts.

When I was a child my family did not have much money. I wanted to study at a Tae Kwon Do school close to the house but the money was not available.

The first thing I did when I went to college was look for a martial arts class. I found an advertisement in the school paper for Karate. I called the instructor. The Karate guy told me to show up for class on the wrong time or day.

When I showed up I could not find the Karate people, but I did meet Grandmaster Humesky who was teaching Tae Kwon Do. He was helpful and told me how to find the Karate people. Instead I joined TKD and have stuck with it for around 15 years.


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## Kwan Jang (May 1, 2007)

My first MA was Jujitsu which I trained in from the age of six until I was nine when my instructor changed jobs and quit teaching his part time program. Then, a Kenpo school opened up and I started training there until it closed. Finally, a TKD school opened about three miles from my house and I hounded my parents to let me give that a try. I finally found a school that would stay open and 30 years later, I'm now a school owner myself and a 6th dan under the same instructors. We still use TKD as our traditional base, but we have more evolved into a MMA system now.


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## GlassJaw (May 1, 2007)

Manny said:


> Hi every one, I'm Manny from Mexico,



Hi, Manny.  I'm Dan from Michigan.  Your story in many ways parallels my own.



> I'm 39 years old, married for 13 years and with two lovely daughters.


I'm now 40, married 16 years, have two brilliant daughters.



> It was 1983 was 16 years old and wanted to start in some martial arts


It was maybe 1983 or 84; I was perhaps 17 or so. I had had an interest in martial arts for many years, but my "involvement" seldom extended much beyond my weekly ritual of watching two or three kung fu movies.  Maybe it was because I was already too tied up in other activities (Boy Scouts, distance running, marching band, etc.), or maybe I thought my mom would think that my taking a martial arts class would be a silly waste of my time and money.



> In highschool a girlfried who was a blue belt in TKD herd about my desire to train in martial art so she introduced me with his samboknim I atend some clases and was hooked, the stile was Ji Do Kwan and my samboknim was a third degree black belt certified by KuKiWon.


My highschool girlfriend, who was a brown belt in TKD, encouraged me to quit just _thinking_ about martial arts and start _doing_ it.  I went to class with her, practiced a bit, and was, as you say, hooked.  I joined up and never looked back. (_Eventually_, I even became accustomed to addressing my girlfriend as "Ma'am".)

Unfortunately, I didn't get very far in that school before I had to move away to attend university.



> Martial arts and TKD was everything for me, sadly college, parties and chicks (oh yessss!!!) began to distract me from training
> . . . . . .
> At around 22 years old I dropped TKD


At university, I checked out a few martial arts opportunities and ended up joining one of the clubs.  I jumped around a bit in that club and studied a few different styles, but as time went on, my attendance at practices became increasingly irregular.  After a couple years, my training had ceased altogether.



> and TKD was evolving in a Olimpic Games sport, yes sport, and sadly (for me) TKD began loosing tha martiality and become sporty.


That's an aspect I had never been all that fond of.

I always wanted to get back into TKD or karate.  Occasionally I would take a peek at the schedules and fees for local schools, trying to convince myself that I could find the time to do it.

For several years, my older daughter had expressed interest in studying martial arts.  When she learned that I had studied some before, she asked me to teach her.  However, having once tried to homeschool her in playing guitar (something else she asked for), I knew that her dedication as a student (and mine as a teacher) is seriously eroded by our father-daughter relationship. I knew it would be better for both of us if we just joined a school...besides, I wanted to train, too.

Unfortunately, there aren't many opportunities around here.  And opportunities that can be made to fit our schedule are even scarcer. Any class we go to involves about an hour of driving.  This, combined with my work, her schoolwork, her bedtime, other evening commitments, and our need to eat and have some family time really affords us very little flexibility.

Thus, any school that wouldn't permit us to be in class at the same time was beyond our consideration, because we could not afford the extra time spent traveling and waiting for one another.



> now with 39 years old and a lot of bacon there is a slight chance I will return to TKD


Just after I turned 39, I began thinking about it more in earnest (with much renewed prodding from my daughter).  Then a woman, who had been a friend of mine for some twenty years and who also happened to be fourth dan in TKD, was telling me some about her club.  It sounded reasonably family-friendly. Youths did not train in a separate class from the adults. 

Nearly two decades had passed since I last did martial arts. We checked it out the next week, both really enjoyed it, and have been active ever since.  A few months later, we brought my younger daughter into it as well, but that is another story.



> for two things, a) I love martial arts, jogging is not for me, foot ball soccer no way, baseball no way, it has to be martial arts period, and b) to gain some health and lose some weight.


Yeah, same here.  Additionally, I really wanted to introduce my daughters to some of the healthy attitudes I see fostered in martial arts.  When you learn what you can do, you gain self confidence.  And with that confidence, one tends to be less easily affected by the unfriendly actions of others or discouraged by challenges.

I'm not in it for the sport.  That is not to say that I don't enjoy that aspect of TKD; I do.  Tournaments are fun.  But I suspect that I would probably enjoy TKD just as much or more if the sport aspect wasn't even there.

I'm also not in it for self-defense.  Sure, it's good to learn how to defend onesself.  But in all likelihood, self defense skills will probably never be as useful to me as, say, knowledge of the art of automobile maintenance.  For me, SD skills are just a side-effect of my TKD training, not a purpose to it.



> Tonight I will atend an apointment with a TKD professor and will tell him what I want from TKD, I'm old to perform flying spining hook kicks, but want to start from the basics, get in shape,do some light sparring,be happy againg and do my best.


Hope it works out for you.

Dan


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## Manny (May 1, 2007)

Thank you GlassJaw for be so kind, it's funny how paralell our life is about TKD, I have two daugthers, Laura (10) is a gimnastic girl, and Ana (6) is takin swimming classes, Ana wants to train some kind of karate (she knows daddy is a retired black belt) but her mom does not want to.

Yeap, I want to train TKD againg for health and because I love MA, I was a state competitor in the golden years but tha's over, I got some broken noose and theets, a KO and those things but now I'm older.

I want to feel againg the happyness of deliver a good high round hose kick, or performing a good spining side kick as I did in the golden years.

One of my samboknim's was An Dae Sup from Texas and I was amazed to see how an old short man could deliver so good kicks.

Manny


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