Is Tae Kwon Do Dying?

[47MartialMan]

My over all experience with around 5 schools of Tae kwon Do here was Bad warm up, bad streching, bad forms, very focused on getting you to sign a  year contract and very focused on children. I'm sure there are good schools in some places, but the proportion must be very low. It is definetely more about your school, you and your training than the martial art itself. It certainly is not dying. It's a great discipline when your lucky to train in the right place!

TKD as yo had experienced was someone quicjly rising to black belt or certification in ordef to open a business of martial arts.....

I don't teach martial arts as a business, its my business to teach martial arts.....

[LordoftheJoust]

As I was saying, the business isn't dying, but, to me, the art is dying, and I blame some of these institutions that focus on the corporate and kiddy rather than the martial and philisophical.

[Drepanon]

Hi, I am new here… 

 I would dare to say this situation is probably present with every traditional art. 

Think about it... if you limit your classes to ONLY the most serious of students... you would probably have no more than 10 in a class.  Since there is actually business side to running a business, your business would need to stay pretty small and may or may not something you could rely on to support a family.  Furthermore, not every practitioner gets into martial arts for the same reasons.  Some sign up or the exercise others sign their children up for some structure and discipline etc… and martial arts certainly have great health benefits to offer every type of practitioner regardless of their plan to enter the fighting ring, the Olympics or just acquire some basic self-defense.  The beauty is you see adults and children gain confidence and focus in their life no matter what their aim or goal of training is.

Now lets say you do have a school with larger numbers… you probably see 15-20 white belts,  10-15 Yellow belts, 7-10 green belts,  and it thins out as you go higher as the less serious students drop off… finally out of 100 students say you end up with 10 serious students that reach black belt… out of those… only 1-3 might become involved in assisting training… and in my opinion those that get involved in training receive more 1 on 1 instruction and certainly much mental and physical reinforcement and recognition of what they have learned.

I blabbed on about this… the point I wanted to make was whether your school is large or small… you can still turn out serious and accomplished practitioners of the martial arts… 

I see it in my school… those who are more serious about all aspects of the art are naturally more involved and in turn are entrusted with more and reap more from their efforts. 

Just like anything else in life…


~Drep