Ive never liked the idea of defending the slipping standards by saying commercial dojangs have to pay the rent, put food on the table etc. I have run a business (not martial arts related) for 12 years and have built my reputation on high standards. If there comes a time where the only way I can survive financially is to lower my standards or compromise my principles I will close the business and get a job doing something else. I really feel upset when I hear martial arts instructors say that they had to lower standards, hand out black belts, etc just to stay in business. The greatest pride I get when I look at my business is that I have been able to stay successful without "cutting corners". This is certainly not aimed at you Terry, after reading your posts for the last couple of years Id love to train at your club.
It doesnt matter whether you or I agree with TF's opinion, the fact of the matter is that many people agree with his way of thinking. TKD is losing credibility because of things like this. I know its easy to get high up in an org to the point that you become blinded as to what is happening, but take the rose coloured glasses off for a second and take a look around and you will see that tkd is becoming a laughing stock to many people because of things like this. As I said in another thread, just because something is popular doesnt automatically make it 'good'. Mcdonalds is popular. I remember when I was shopping around trying to find a tkd club when I started and it was almost impossible to find a positive word anywhere on the net about tkd. Yes, other arts cop some negativity as well, but nowhere near as much as tkd. I love taekwondo and hate seeing it go down this path.
I will say again, using popularuty as a measure of how good something is just doesnt cut it with me, unless of course you are driven soley by making money (reminds me of a tkd org I know of). I, too would rather not be involved in a "wacky backyard SD program", but thats beside the point. There are many, hundreds in fact, martial arts that are very credible that do not operate out of backyards. Once again, you like generalising. Again, if you take the rose coloured glasses off you will see there are more martial arts in the world than just tkd and backyard SD programs. Go and have a look sometime, there are heaps in my area and I imagine over there there would be even more to look at
I am aware of your opinion on this subject and I respect it yet dont agree with it. I have seen from previous threads that if I "feed the troll" we will bore everybody with a meaningless 7 page rant that goes around in circles. I have made my opinion clear, as have you. For the sake of the other posters I think its best we leave our discussion here. Cheers.
Those prices seem quite reasonable. Do most clubs add some profit on top or do they just pass on the kukkiwons prices direct to the student? I imagine adding on some extra to cover time, postage etc would be fair. Our school charges $100 for first dan, $150 for 2nd, $200 for third, $250 for 4th, $300 for 5th $350 for 6th and the rest are free,, so pretty much on par with the kukkiwon prices. We must be 12 years old for black belt 1st dan (still too young in my opinion) and 17 before 2nd dan, so the youngest someone could get to 4th (instructor) would be 24 years old.
Our GM. We are a large club (over 4000 members) celebrating our 40th year. Left the kukkiwon about 15-20 years ago from what I can gather, but not 100% sure. I didnt know what the kukkiwon was until I started coming here a couple of years ago. I know my instructor (7th dan) has a 1st and possibly a 2nd dan cert from the kukkiwon before we went independent.
