What is TKDTutor.com

TKDTutor.com is a repository of information about Taekwondo and the martial arts in general. Its goal is to educate martial arts students about the Korean martial art of Taekwondo. Some people enjoy playing football, some basketball, some baseball. These are all ball games, but one is not necessarily better than the other is; they are merely different ways to play ball. It is much the same in the martial arts; they each offer a different way of doing the same thing. As with all martial arts, Taekwondo has its good points and its bad points. TKDTutor.com informs readers of the good, and the bad, of Taekwondo, and of other martial arts, but it does not seek to condemn other martial arts.

The martial arts world is full of misinformation, misrepresentation, and misconception. TKDTutor.com tries to compensate for this by presenting clear, factual, and, as much as possible, impartial information.

Some people say, "Facts can change! But my opinions never change, regardless of the facts." Will anything presented in TKDTutor.com change your opinion of your martial art, your martial arts organization, or of the martial arts in general? Probably not! Even though there will be some points in TKDTutor.com with which you may agree, nothing presented in TKDTutor.com will cause you to shout “Eureka! My eyes have been opened and now I see the error of my ways."

No matter which Taekwondo organization you belong to, or what other style of martial art you train in, you will find something in TKDTutor.com to agree with and you will find something to disagree with. If you believe a certain method is correct and TKDTutor.com presents facts to support that belief, you will probably use the facts to prove to others that you are right in your belief. If you believe a certain method is correct and TKDTutor.com presents facts to show your belief is wrong, it will probably not change your mind, but at least you may start you thinking about your belief instead of just blindly accepting it as true.

The primary purpose of TKDTutor.com is not to change the minds of people already indoctrinated into the philosophies of their styles or organizations, but to present factual information to those who have not yet committed to a style or organization so they may make an informed decision of which martial art style or philosophy is the correct path for them to pursue. Secondarily, TKDTutor.com may cause students to question the things they have been taught, and either reaffirm then, reject them, or change them.

TKDTutor.com content

TKDTutor.com is owned and operated by TKDTutor. The site is free; I pay the bills, so I choose what to put on the site. I do not have to please any one accept the readers who visit the site. The site is not affiliated with any organization so I am not obligated to support any one or any group, it completely autonomous. I try to present all logical, reasonable methods, techniques, and viewpoints on all aspects of the martial arts. Illogical or unreasonable things are not presented other than when trying to expose and debunk hype, falsehood, and fraud. If you do not agree with something on the site, email me with your reasons why. I will gladly review and discuss with you any information you may have; however, that does not mean the information will be put on the site.

Quality of the information

Many martial artists around the world regularly visit TKDTutor.com. They trust the information presented in it and they respect the opinion I expresses on the information. I view this as awesome responsibility. I may not always be right but I always try to be right, and I will change his opinion when proven wrong. Since the goal of TKDTutor.com is to present information and not to earn money or further some personal cause, I have no reason to mislead readers or misconstrue information.

I gather information from many sources, books, magazines, newspapers, television, radio, personal education, personal work experience, and personal experience in the martial arts. If you look through martial art books, you will find that most of them have many words but say little. Some styles are “one trick ponies.” They have one thing that is different from other styles and then expand that “trick” into a “new” style. Taekwondo sites on the Internet are 99% for marketing purposes. You can visit thousands of martial arts sites and learn knowing, I know because I have been to most of them. The Internet is supposedly for the spread of information, but it is mostly used for commercial purposes. I review all the information I find, extract the key information, and presents it in a free, clear, concise manner without using pretentious vocabulary or pseudo Eastern philosophy. Just as Jack Webb's "Sergeant Joe Friday" LAPD detective character used to say in the 1960s television show Dragnet  "All we want are the facts, ma'am."

If I make a mistake in TKDTutor.com, email me and tell me what the mistake is, where it is located in TKDTutor.com, and how I may find the correct information. I once had a sailor (Bill) complain because I gave another sailor (Joe) a higher performance evaluation. Bill said Joe made many more mistakes than he made so the evaluation was not fair. I told the Bill that Joe received a better evaluation because Joe did a lot more things than he did, some of which resulted in mistakes, but much of which was correct. On the other hand, he (Bill) made few mistakes because he did so little there was no opportunity to make mistakes. There are over 600 individual topics of information in TKDTutor.com, so there will be mistakes.

Just because you are an n^th degree black belt in whatever style, or the supreme grandmaster of some style, it does mean I will accept your version of the facts. Your rank and prestige are only good within your organization; it means little outside your organization. In the Navy, as a master chief, I commanded a lot of power and prestige, but to someone in the Army, I was just another sailor. Outside, and hopefully even inside, your organization your opinion is only as good as the facts you use to support it. I, and hopefully everyone else, will not accept your arguments just because you or your "master" says it is true. Give me facts or logical, reasonable arguments and I will evaluate them, offer my opinion, and present them in TKDTutor.com. Then it is up to the readers of TKDTutor.com to decide what they believe. As stated above, I control what I put in TKDTutor. com. I do not bother my readers with mumbo jumbo, wild theories of mystical, magical powers, or conspiracy theories.

Style Wars

TKDTutor.com stays out of the style wars. I present the pros and cons of basic styles, such as grappling, hard, soft, etc., but I stay out of the "My style is better than your style" wars.

Organization power struggles

TKDTutor.com stays out of the power struggles between organizations. I will tell you about the power struggles, how to spot them, and how to avoid them, but there are too many of them to report them all, and new ones appear every day.