Well…I’m going to do what I swore I never, ever would do, and I’m going to check out a TKD school. I’ve always bashed it for being flashy gymnastics, but the area that I’m in has little to no choices as far as MA’s are concerned, and I’m itching to train something…anything…and the only thing there ARE a lot of nearby are un-specified “Bobo’s Karate” type places with no clue as to what style, and TKD places out the ass…So, I’ve been calling around and visiting and after exhausting all the Karate places and having labelled them all equally shitty, I’m moving on to the TKD places. I’ve had a friend swear by one place that has some korean guy running it out of his garage or something…
So on to my question. I’ve never stepped foot in a TKD place, just need a bit of advice as what to look for, what to expect, bad habits that I dont want to pick up and maybe some that I should look TO pick up. Thoughts. Advice. Whatever.
If you see any point sparring run away as fast as you can!!! Look for the instructor to be interacting with the students not just standing around acting like he’s the bitch. If a guy tells/ shows you how to kick a ‘knife’ out of someone’s hand, refuse to do it and bring in a actually knife for that guy to try on… hahaha he will see how well it works then.
This scenario is kind of like if there was a devout Christian who can’t find any good churches in his area so he decides to frequent a mosque instead. In short, it’s a silly idea, don’t do it. Just find a buddy and train BJJ/MT/MMA/something else that doesn’t suck quite as much in your basement or something.
Are you sure there’s nothing better within reasonable driving distance, even it’s a drive you could only make once or twice a week? If not, I would visit both the karate and TKD schools and pick the one with the most adult students.
There’s nothing inherently magical about BJJ or Muay Thai. If you train them shittily you’ll be no better off than TKDers who train shittily. Training in the same styles as successful full contact fighters does not automatically make their accomplishments yours.
If you really want to train TKD, just go ahead and do it. It still gives you basics in the types of kicks. Just take the application aspect with a grain of salt. You’ll have to figure out which kicks work in real life and which don’t as well as figuring out how to make point-based kicks powerful enough to apply in real life.
This sort of self-training requires basics in some sort of martial art and unecessarily large amounts of time, but it works. So for now, just keep training.
I still recommend you finding something else if you can. You never know though, around the corner from my Apt. is a martial arts store, and the guy (old old guy) ran a TKD school. However, no one realizes this guy has a black belt in Judo as well as having been ROK marine martial arts instructor in vietnam…from my conversation with him, it sounded like his school was very pratical although it was technically just a TKD school.
Go for it! just take it with a grain of salt. Hell you may even get lucky and have fun. Point tournaments can be alot of fun and in my opinion can improve youre timing, just don’t think what you are doing is real fighting.
Judging from the replies, I take it that TKD’s reputation still holds firm.
I’m gonna go check it out tonight for a bit, if only because I spoke to the instructor on the phone and he sounds almost exactly like the guy on Team America
I’ve been batting this around in my head…there is a MMA place (MT, BJJ, Judo/Sambo) about a 30-40 minute drive from here, but money has been tight, so like “devil” said above, I’d only be able to make it there 2 times a week on a good week…would I be better served scrounging up and making the drive? (Senses a verbal bitch-slapping on the way for that question), or going to the TKD place thats a couple of miles away.
Update: I found a BJJ place nearby, seems ok…some guy named Joe Agrippa teaches, he’s a purple belt under Luiz Palharas, seems pretty legit and the price is great, so I’m gonna give it a go. Thanks for the help and ballbusting, It kept enough doubt in my mind to keep me looking.
Peace.