My thoughts on FTF (Functional TKD Federation)

[msmitht]

I've got a 16 year old black belt that would knock him out cold. got a 14 year old orange belt in bjj that would choke him out. what a Dbag . waste of time watching his videos.

 

[Ironbear24]

Actually, he CLAIMS a KKW 4th Dan, but another member looked him up, and the KKW only shows him as being a 2nd Poom. So what he's actually bashing is, apparently, not even a real rank.

I am not that familiar with Tae Kwon do terminology. What are geup and poom?

 

[JowGaWolf]

Considering the facts that TKD is a modern art, younger than my grandmother, an amalgam of mostly Shotokan and maybe a little other stuff, and the fact that the literal translation of Tae Kwon Do is "the way of punching and kicking," together with the current social understanding in the west that TKD is "basically Korean Karate," I'd say the answer to your question is, "He can excise pretty much all of what most experienced people think of as Tae Kwon Do and still call it Tae Kwon Do."

The Koreans might get pissed off but what can they do about it?

Names, like ranks, mean very little, usually.

Peace favor your sword,
Kirk

That's a big hill to climb taking into account that TKD is well established. It may be young but it's everywhere. I'm assuming that TKD organizations have their own black list.

 

[Dirty Dog]

I am not that familiar with Tae Kwon do terminology. What are geup and poom?

Geup = Kyu = Colored belt ranks.
Poom = The KKW term for a baby black belt. They wear a red & black belt to differentiate them from Dan holders.

 

[Kickboxer101]

I've left comments on some of his videos and, now, messaged him directly to get an answer on some of his dubious claims. Why do I obsess over getting a response from this guy?

It's not that Mr. Kelley offends me personally: if you train a martial art and you are on the internet, you will find someone dumping on it somewhere, guaranteed. I accept that in the way I accept that summers are hot and winters are cold. It can be uncomfortable at times, but you can't stop it unless <insert climate change joke here>

Maybe my 2016 Election anxiety is fueling a desire to get a straight no-bs answer from someone and I've latched on to this guy.

It's likely in part because I'm a college writing teacher, so I work hard to teach my students how to build logical arguments based on clear evidence and without fallacies of thinking. Mr. Kelley's approach agitates that part of me and makes me wish I could take Ye-Olde-Red-Pen-O'-Doom and grade his argument the way I grade my writing student's arguments.

Anyway, I've been trying to call him out on something he and his colleague have said that is just plain wrong. Not "different point of view" wrong or "in my experience wrong," but verifiably incorrect. Here is what I wrote to him via his channel on YouTube

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And now we play the waiting game...although realistically I don't expect a reasonable answer (or an answer at all), which in and of itself is a kind of answer.

I obsess over strange things when I'm stressed.

I've said this before to ironbear over this guy. Who cares let him have his little delusions if he's garbage then any real martial artist will know he's garbage at the end of the day he's only cheating himself because he'll get caught out one day so let him do his own thing it's not bothering you or hurting you so who cares

 

[Mattattack]

I should do that. I know. I'm working it out of my system.

Its not that he has a completely invalid point about bullshido. Its that he is so caught up in being a rebel and speaking truth to power that he doesn't realize he is becoming an *** and closer to what he rails against (my method is best all else is bad).

Also this

 

[Ironbear24]

Geup = Kyu = Colored belt ranks.
Poom = The KKW term for a baby black belt. They wear a red & black belt to differentiate them from Dan holders.

Ah ok so this dude is basically a jr black belt.

 

[Dirty Dog]

Ah ok so this dude is basically a jr black belt.

Well, that's the highest rank the KKW shows for him. He could have a 37th Dan Great Imperial GrandMaster High PooBaa in-house rank for all anybody knows. And if he has that AND a Build-A-Bear Ninja, then all other arguments are invalid.

 

[Mattattack]

He could have a 37th Dan Great Imperial GrandMaster High PooBaa in-house rank for all anybody knows.

Hey! That is Chuck Norris' rank, and we all know it is not wise to mock him...

 

[Dirty Dog]

Hey! That is Chuck Norris' rank, and we all know it is not wise to mock him...

Chuck Norris' rank is Chuck Norris.

 

[Xue Sheng]

Chuck Norris' rank is Chuck Norris.

 

[Mattattack]

Chuck Norris keeps anihilating his phones when they try to autocorrect his texts. No one corrects Chuck Norris. He corrects phones, not the other way around.

Anyway, no reply from the messages I sent Kelley pointing out his factual errors. Not that I expected one. I think I've finally passed my obsession with getting this guy to admit his bs (not unlike passing a bad turd).

80% of his videos so far are him and his buddy sitting in front of the camera dumping on other martial arts and talking about what they will do as opposed to SHOWING people what they will do. 19th Century British Prime Minister Benjamin Disreili once said "It is easier to be critical than correct." Quite appropriate here.

One of their videos starts with his co-commentator saying, "Get your master's c$#&k out of your mouth." There's just no reasoning with that, no room for intelligent debate.

He wants to make a new Federation to compete with the major TKD Federation. Well, a Federation implies a union of like-minded individuals, and I don't see him having that many given his attitude. Vitriol gets YouTube hits but it tends to exhaust people after a while, so good luck to him in terms of getting long-term students while leaning on that.

"A Federation of One." There I just titled his memoirs where he autopsies his shortcomings.

Ok, one more Chuck Norris Joke: Know why Rottentomatoes has no reviews for Chuck Norris 3D? No audience survives the show.

 

[lklawson]

That's a big hill to climb taking into account that TKD is well established. It may be young but it's everywhere. I'm assuming that TKD organizations have their own black list.

There's a reason that individual TKD organizations have trademarked their full names but not just Tae Kwon Do.

I'd also point out that it's happened with other Korean martial arts. "Combat Hapkido" is still a thing, even though it pisses off traditional HKD folks and makes BJJ folks giggle.

Again, even if TKD organizations have their own "black lists," what are they going to do about it? Pout and talk bad about the dude? Everyone is already doing that. <shrug>

Peace favor your sword,
Kirk

 

[msmitht]

There's a reason that individual TKD organizations have trademarked their full names but not just Tae Kwon Do.

I'd also point out that it's happened with other Korean martial arts. "Combat Hapkido" is still a thing, even though it pisses off traditional HKD folks and makes BJJ folks giggle.

Again, even if TKD organizations have their own "black lists," what are they going to do about it? Pout and talk bad about the dude? Everyone is already doing that. <shrug>

Peace favor your sword,
Kirk

Combat hapkido . ..lol...rotflol. thank you. needed a good laugh this morning.

 

[lklawson]

Combat hapkido . ..lol...rotflol. thank you. needed a good laugh this morning.

Yup. Exactly what I mean. We both can laugh at it, but we can't make it go away; certainly not based on "it doesn't look like any other Hapkido."

Peace favor your sword,
Kirk

 

[JowGaWolf]

There's a reason that individual TKD organizations have trademarked their full names but not just Tae Kwon Do.

I'd also point out that it's happened with other Korean martial arts. "Combat Hapkido" is still a thing, even though it pisses off traditional HKD folks and makes BJJ folks giggle.

Again, even if TKD organizations have their own "black lists," what are they going to do about it? Pout and talk bad about the dude? Everyone is already doing that. <shrug>

Peace favor your sword,
Kirk

It's easier to do things like this when one has other organizations and people who are willing to put in a good word for you. It's one thing to bash people online to get ratings and clicks. It's something totally different to run a business or organization. People may get in their mind that it doesn't matter what other organizations think of you, but as a business it can be the difference between being successful and failing big. If a business cannot satisfy a potential customer then they may be able to recommend another organization to train at. Potential customer's may also ask "Hey what do you think about ?" This actually happened in Martial Talk where one of the members asked about FTF and originally stated that he thought it was a good idea. Within 30 minutes, the discussion filled up with people who don't think highly of FTF or it's founder (mainly the founder). It wasn't that everyone disapproved of FTF it was that the founder was is a butt, no skill, no respect. etc...

To this day people people are willing to go out of their way to highlight the negatives of this guy. Had he taken a more respectful approach, he may have not only gotten support through advice but he may have even gotten some financial help to make his idea become reality.

 

[Mattattack]

It's easier to do things like this when one has other organizations and people who are willing to put in a good word for you. It's one thing to bash people online to get ratings and clicks. It's something totally different to run a business or organization. People may get in their mind that it doesn't matter what other organizations think of you, but as a business it can be the difference between being successful and failing big. If a business cannot satisfy a potential customer then they may be able to recommend another organization to train at. Potential customer's may also ask "Hey what do you think about ?" This actually happened in Martial Talk where one of the members asked about FTF and originally stated that he thought it was a good idea. Within 30 minutes, the discussion filled up with people who don't think highly of FTF or it's founder (mainly the founder). It wasn't that everyone disapproved of FTF it was that the founder was is a butt, no skill, no respect. etc...

To this day people people are willing to go out of their way to highlight the negatives of this guy. Had he taken a more respectful approach, he may have not only gotten support through advice but he may have even gotten some financial help to make his idea become reality.

Yes

 

[lklawson]

It's easier to do things like this when one has other organizations and people who are willing to put in a good word for you. It's one thing to bash people online to get ratings and clicks. It's something totally different to run a business or organization. People may get in their mind that it doesn't matter what other organizations think of you, but as a business it can be the difference between being successful and failing big. If a business cannot satisfy a potential customer then they may be able to recommend another organization to train at. Potential customer's may also ask "Hey what do you think about ?" This actually happened in Martial Talk where one of the members asked about FTF and originally stated that he thought it was a good idea. Within 30 minutes, the discussion filled up with people who don't think highly of FTF or it's founder (mainly the founder). It wasn't that everyone disapproved of FTF it was that the founder was is a butt, no skill, no respect. etc...

It's my experience that most potential customers neither care about what competing organization bodies think of the competition, nor frequent MT to get the collective advice here.

Peace favor your sword,
Kirk

 

[TrueJim]

Occasionally I'll check the interwebs to see how Taylor Kelly's so-called Functional Taekwondo Federation is doing.

• Taylor's original website is gone: functionaltkd.com Recall that the old website mostly consisted of a PayPal "donate now" button and a list of ways to tell whether or not your school was a McDojo. (Hint: one sign is children who are black belts.)
• Taylor has taken down the infamous YouTube video where he said we should all "take our instructor's d*ck out of our mouths".
• Taylor has opened up his own school in Texas now, and of course...
• ...it includes kids and family programs (two things that he previously didn't seem to have much tolerance for). Taylor starts kids at age 4.
• Here's the new website that I guess replaces his old website: Martial Arts In Grand Prairie Texas

On Taylor's new website he explains the difference between his "functional taekwondo" and "regular taekwondo". tldr: the difference is the emphasis on self-defense. Martial Arts In Grand Prairie Texas

 

[Tony Dismukes]

it includes kids and family programs (two things that he previously didn't seem to have much tolerance for). Taylor starts kids at age 4.

In fairness, none of the pictures seem to show kids with black belts. (I suppose we could check back in a couple of years once his school has been open longer to see if that is still the case.)