# Tong Il lo, system have merit?



## FasterthanDeath (Jul 9, 2004)

As I have posted in another thread, I attended a belt test for Tenjindo and the panel of judges for the test was lead by a Grandmaster William Mcdonald. Who was founded a system called Tong il Lo. Now by watching the test alone I felt that there were many things wrong with it right off the bat. One, why is board breaking required for a belt rank in self-defense? When do you ever fight boards? Two, After watching the Tenjindo guy fail each part of the test over and over again, why did they give him the belt? Three, There was a 7 year old child there who was one of the "Black belts" of the system, in fact he was going to test for his 2nd degree but he hurt his hand. Who gives black belts to children under the age of 13? And if a child has a black belt, they should be able to defend themselves vs an lower ranking opponent, be it adult or another child. IMHO. And has anyone else taken, or heard of this system? He has like multiple mini schools around that teach once or twice a week. Here is the website. 
www.tongillo.com Any info would be helpful.


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## FasterthanDeath (Jul 10, 2004)

I am guessing that noone has anything bad to say about it, I will wait a few days.maybe someone can give me some idea


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## MichiganTKD (Jul 10, 2004)

As I understand, Tong Il is the last ITF form and means "Unification". What Lo means is beyond me, and sounds like a Chinese word. Sounds like the guy took a Korean and Chinese word and tacked them together. In other words, sounds like someone's half-a@@ed attempt to invent a nonsense word to describe a nonsense new style.


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## Kevin Walker (Jul 10, 2004)

Hi,

I have never hear of the Tong Il lo system.  Yet, breaking boards and bricks is called 'demolition' and is emphasized in some of the harder 'karate' styles, such as Tae Kwon Do and Shotokan, etc.

Some styes give a degree for every 'form' that is learned.  For example, a Korean Buddhist monk who invented SHIM GUM DO and teaches it in Boston, doesn't award black belts, but rather 'Stars' for every form learned, thus some of his students are ranked at 15th star, or 20th star, etc.

So it sounds like the Tong Il lo system may have a similar paradigm.




			
				FasterthanDeath said:
			
		

> As I have posted in another thread, I attended a belt test for Tenjindo and the panel of judges for the test was lead by a Grandmaster William Mcdonald. Who was founded a system called Tong il Lo. Now by watching the test alone I felt that there were many things wrong with it right off the bat. One, why is board breaking required for a belt rank in self-defense? When do you ever fight boards? Two, After watching the Tenjindo guy fail each part of the test over and over again, why did they give him the belt? Three, There was a 7 year old child there who was one of the "Black belts" of the system, in fact he was going to test for his 2nd degree but he hurt his hand. Who gives black belts to children under the age of 13? And if a child has a black belt, they should be able to defend themselves vs an lower ranking opponent, be it adult or another child. IMHO. And has anyone else taken, or heard of this system? He has like multiple mini schools around that teach once or twice a week. Here is the website.
> www.tongillo.com Any info would be helpful.


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## Mark Lynn (Jul 18, 2004)

Faster than death where are you located?

I saw this system down at Mayfest in Ft. Worth a couple of years ago.  I think they teach at some of the Rec centers around the Ft. worth areas.  They just started teaching in the Rec. center in the city where I live.

However I know nothing about the guys, I talked to GM McDonald and some of the studetns at Mayfest, the demo was OK, but I didn't see the GM in action.  I really haven't given the system any thought.

Hey is the Tenjindo system around here as well?  It seems like I saw these guys at Mayfest too.

You can PM if you want.  I won't bash another system here on the internet, however if you want and are interested in them I'll go down to the Rec, center and watch a class.  If you are instructor in the martial arts, then you have probably already made your assesment of the system.  If you are a student of the martial arts and are looking for a another opinon, then I'll check out the class. 

Mark


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## terryl965 (Jul 22, 2004)

Tong Il Lo is all around the dfw area and GM MCDonald s a fine man I really can't defend his system but the man is very knowledgeable in his beliefs. I have seen a couple of demo by his students, lets leave it at that.


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