What's your instructor's rank?

[wipeout]

WHAAAAAT?!? A 12th dan?!? I'm no TKD newby, but that's a new one to me! I just didn't know. Man, I feel like a real dumbass now cuz I thought 10th dan was top dogg too!!! Oh well, I guess it's true then, the study and learning of the martial arts is infinite. You learn something new all the time in the MAs... :uhyeah:

GM General Choi Hong Hi, the FOUNDER of TKD, the true top dog of all time was a 9th dan.. there are only 9 dans, the number 9 has great significance in Korean and chinese culture: the number 3 is written in chinese as three horizontal lines, one line represents heaven, the 2nd represents man, and the 3rd represents the earth.. he who joins these 3 realms is said to be a king among men, this is why the chinese word for king is three horizontal lines, joined by a vertical line...
3 multiplied by 3 is 9, the highest of high.. this is why general Choi made 9 dans.

References: A killing art, Alex Gillis

 

[Earl Weiss]

GM General Choi Hong Hi, the FOUNDER of TKD, the true top dog of all time was a 9th dan.. there are only 9 dans, the number 9 has great significance in Korean and chinese culture: the number 3 is written in chinese as three horizontal lines, one line represents heaven, the 2nd represents man, and the 3rd represents the earth.. he who joins these 3 realms is said to be a king among men, this is why the chinese word for king is three horizontal lines, joined by a vertical line...
3 multiplied by 3 is 9, the highest of high.. this is why general Choi made 9 dans.

References: A killing art, Alex Gillis

Hmm, interesting post. I also note it is the date you joined the forum. I hope you are wearing your fireproof shorts since it will be "Flame on" for all the non believers.

 

[harlan]

Don't know...haven't asked. In the beginning, because it just seemed...rude...to enquire. After awhile, it didn't matter.

I'm curious about what your instructor's rank is. I just wonder what the average rank would be. Call it a spin off from the "what rank are you" thread we have every so often.

 

[IcemanSK]

Don't know...haven't asked. In the beginning, because it just seemed...rude...to enquire. After awhile, it didn't matter.

Harlan, I think that's great! We in the US (& I'm as guilty of it as anyone) seem to make it a all too important question. I spoke to my 1st instructor last night (with whom I hadn't spoken in 22 years) & while he was impressed that I'd been training all this time, my rank never came up.

Good on you!

 

[DBZ]

My insuctors rank has not come up That much. I was more interested in how many years they had trained

 

[Earl Weiss]

My insuctors rank has not come up That much. I was more interested in how many years they had trained

Please note the folowing is intended as a general comment and in no way directed to the poster specificaly.

Therein lies a couple of potential problems. Naive people walk in the door of a martial art school and are impressed by a bunch of people dancing in their pajamas (different story). Anyway they have no way of measuring the quality of the material. Worse yet, many never go outside their little circle and never have a comparison.

Then you have the issue of "how many years have they triained/' certainly one measure of knowledge, but often 20 years of experience is really the same experience repeated for 2o years.

I have found the variety, viewpoints and approaches from various instructors extremely beneficial.

 

[troubleenuf]

There is also a definite difference between being in the gym once or twice a week for 20 years and someone in the gym TRAINING 5 or 6 days a week for 20 years.

Please note the folowing is intended as a general comment and in no way directed to the poster specificaly.

Therein lies a couple of potential problems. Naive people walk in the door of a martial art school and are impressed by a bunch of people dancing in their pajamas (different story). Anyway they have no way of measuring the quality of the material. Worse yet, many never go outside their little circle and never have a comparison.

Then you have the issue of "how many years have they triained/' certainly one measure of knowledge, but often 20 years of experience is really the same experience repeated for 2o years.

I have found the variety, viewpoints and approaches from various instructors extremely beneficial.

 

[msmitht]

Which one? Lets see....
age 6-9 shotokan....sensei Hiro was a 3rd dan JKA
age 9-12 Emile Wright was a 4th dan ITF (thief!!! left town with many students paid tuition)
age 12-13 Carole marshall was a 3rd dan itf
then there was Moon Ku Baek who was a 9th dan MDK and a 7th dan ITF
Young Lee was a 9th dan wtf/itf
chul Koo Yoon 8th dan wtf
jin hwan kim 9th dan in many (too many to list)
and my BJJ coach is a 5th dan who has trained for 35 years

 

[chrispillertkd]

Young Lee was a 9th dan wtf/itf

Interesting. Do you know when GM Lee received his 9th dan from the ITF?

Pax,

Chris

 

[goingd]

Both my masters are Kukkiwon 4th Dan. Neither of them care much for testing, so when I'm ready to get passed 3rd I'll be testing with one of their grand masters.

 

[grado]

how do I know the rank?

 

[Laurentkd]

how do I know the rank?

Well, sometimes its really easy and you can just count the stripes on his belt

But, you could also see if there is an instructor bio on your school's website (if you have one). Or just ask a senior student or your instructor. How and when you would ask would really depend on the instructor...

Or, you could give us his/her name and someone here might know.

Welcome to Martial Talk

 

[IcemanSK]

how do I know the rank?

Muay Thai folks don't usually use a belt system. Therefore rank isn't the issue it is in other systems. I have seen a few who do use them, however.

 

[miguksaram]

GM General Choi Hong Hi, the FOUNDER of TKD, the true top dog of all time was a 9th dan.. there are only 9 dans, the number 9 has great significance in Korean and chinese culture: the number 3 is written in chinese as three horizontal lines, one line represents heaven, the 2nd represents man, and the 3rd represents the earth.. he who joins these 3 realms is said to be a king among men, this is why the chinese word for king is three horizontal lines, joined by a vertical line...
3 multiplied by 3 is 9, the highest of high.. this is why general Choi made 9 dans.

References: A killing art, Alex Gillis

Thank you for that most hillarious post. I will be sure to forward it to my joke of day mailing list.

Choi was not the FOUNDER of TKD. Perhaps he "founded" the name and "founded" his own organization, but he was not the FOUNDER of TKD. There are have been many threads that jump on this topic. Feel free to read them.

He was not the true top dog..Again, read through the mulitple threads which disputes his claim to fame. He did not come up with the 9 dan system either, which is what your post implies. This type of system was in place long before he came around.

As for '9' being a magic number, I will have to check on that one. I know '4' is significant and '8' is but I never heard of nine being such a big deal.

 

[Earl Weiss]

Thank you for that most hillarious post. I will be sure to forward it to my joke of day mailing list.

Choi was not the FOUNDER of TKD. Perhaps he "founded" the name and "founded" his own organization, but he was not the FOUNDER of TKD. There are have been many threads that jump on this topic. Feel free to read them.

He was not the true top dog..Again, read through the mulitple threads which disputes his claim to fame. He did not come up with the 9 dan system either, which is what your post implies. This type of system was in place long before he came around.

As for '9' being a magic number, I will have to check on that one. I know '4' is significant and '8' is but I never heard of nine being such a big deal.

Before one can argue if General Choi was or was not the founder of TKD, one would first have to define what TKD is.

Since no definition is universaly accepted, the founder argument is like asking how many angels can dance on the head of a pin.

Nine is a big deal due to 3 being a bis deal and 3x3 is therefore a bigger deal, as well as it being the largest single digit number contrasted with 10 gup levels where 10 is the smallest 2 digit number ... and how many angels....

 

[dortiz]

I think its fair to say that an art which took its basis from a few Japanese schools and some Chinese influence and that was originally divided in to several Kwans does not have one Founder.
It has many and yes Choi was probably one of the greatest components to what we see as todays art, although more so on the ITF side.
This was posted on the other thread and for all my years I somehow missed it. Very good reading as well.
http://tkd.stanford.edu/documents/tkd_history.pdf

Dave O.

Number Nine, Number Nine..Number Nine

 

[terryl965]

My lord here we go again, did we not do this enough thoughout all the other threads? I mean General Choi is consider the father of modern TKD, not the sport but the ITF. In the end I would like to know one thing can I be consider a founding father of TKD in my own mind and if so that is all that matters.

 

[dortiz]

We did but it will always come up again. I like this description best of all.

"General Choi is consider the father of modern TKD"

That to me makes sense.

But please remember my opinion wont buy you a cup of coffee ; )

Dave O.

 

[Earl Weiss]

We did but it will always come up again. I like this description best of all.

"General Choi is consider the father of modern TKD"

That to me makes sense.

But please remember my opinion wont buy you a cup of coffee ; )

Dave O.

I guess it depends how old you are . For me, "Modern TKD" is a redundant statements since TKD did not exist before 1955. For my kids, anything before 1990 is not modern.

 

[miguksaram]

We did but it will always come up again. I like this description best of all.

"General Choi is consider the father of modern TKD"

That to me makes sense.

But please remember my opinion wont buy you a cup of coffee ; )

Dave O.

I wouldn't say founder of Modern TKD at all. I would just say founder of the ITF. Nothing more and nothing less.

I am not saying Choi didn't have a say in the development, but he is not the founder of TKD. TKD was group effort not the single effort of one man.