I was wondering who here believe the sport side of Tae Kwon Do is heading in the right direction? I mean right now if you are not in the right camps or in the right social group do your players really have a chance? What will happen when certain people get tired of being on the top, do we as a group have a pipeline of coaches and athletes to stay on top in the world?
Nobody ever tires of being on top, though there is a limit as to how long they can remain at the top in a given capacity. The training camp/social group issue is hardly limited to taekwondo. From what I gather, it is pretty much the norm in sports. For those who want taekwondo to be a sport, this is one of the things that inevitably goes with it.
When are we going to have a real grassroot program that will developed athletes from mid belt, not just 10-12 year old Black Belts, I know that is up to each instructor but if we do not do something to keep those training will we have enough twenty years from now? I know I am guessing and asking and nobody really knows and alot really do not care since TKD is more than a sport, but I am concern that certain groups and people are driving so many talented people out of the sport side of TKD.
To answer the question, no, sport taekwondo is not heading in the right direction.
The bolded part is really the problem. You have two separate structures and promotion paradigms existing at the same time and the sport being artificially grafted onto the 'art' so to speak.
This would not be a problem if the sport had any relation to the art, but at this point, it does not. By having forms as part of competition, it might seem that the two are connected, but this actually makes matters worse. It is like having NFL football and NFL Football Ballet. Or to put it a different way, there is a reason that figure skating and speed skating are separate sports.
Complete separation from the art is needed.
The use of belts is also another issue. Until the belt and what it represents is defined specifically for the sport and is no longer equated to the traditional usage of belts, the public at large will simply be confused, primarily at the school level.
I hate to say it (and this is
not directed at you Terry), but this isn't rocket science. If you want your sport to be successful, don't saddle it with a confused set of events and a cumbersome ranking system. Age, gender, and weight should be the only qualifiers, and fight record should be the
only ranking in the sport. In a sport, no other ranking counts.
Ditch the forms, breaking, and belts and establish local
age appropriate leagues starting the kids off in the appropriate league when they are in the single digits and have
age appropriate leagues for them to graduate to. Just like football and soccor. Involved the local boys and girls clubs.
Also, in most little league/kids league sports, many of the coaches and staff are parent volunteers, thus providing some pool of people who may potentially become referees or coaches.
From there, the most tallented individuals can then go to the necessary training camps (the training camp issue really isn't all that uncommon. If you want to go to the top levels, you pay the money and go to the top camps, just like in every other sport. I don't see why people complain about this).
I have said many times before on this board that adopting the fencing model would be much more effective than the cumbersome jumble of mismatched parts that sport taekwondo currently is made up of.
The major issue is that kids in this country
do not see taekwondo as a sport. Neither do their parents. So kids are not enrolled in it for the same reasons that they are in football or other sports. Until taekwondo is perceived as a sport in the US and not as a martial art, you will not see a strong grass roots program. Most kids who take it up drop out after black belt and most parents use it for an afterschool activity. Nothing more. A strong grass roots program needs bodies. No bodies, no program except for the higher levels where the participants have greater investment. At mid-belt, the jury is out as to whether or not the kid will even stick with it to black.
Which is why the sport needs to either ditch the belts or radically alter how they are used (a sliding scale perhaps where your fight record determines your belt color and your belt color fluxuates according ly is one option).
It really isn't all that hard to see the changes that need to be made, but a lot of people have their egos invested in the current structure and will not be willing to change it.
Daniel