What does all this money sent to the organization get you?

It gets you a lot of pretty certificates that are worthless outside of the organization, pretty uniform patches, maybe a newsletter or magazine (which usually is just to inform you about all the things the organization has to offer), and tournaments and camps to attend (which charge exorbitant fees). You may still get all the benefit that the martial art itself has to offer, but you could get that without being a part of any major organization. As a matter of fact, you would get more of the benefit of a martial art by not being in a major organization.

To bring in more students and keep them paying, organizations have lowered rank requirements so anyone with money can attain a black belt. Therefore, there are lots of black belt wearers, but few black belts. It is similar to when you are purchasing a house and you are visiting houses that are for sale. You visit two houses, one is vacant, and the owners still live in the other one. They both look the same from the outside, but the vacant one has no soul.

Commercial Taekwondo schools are similar to day care centers or public schools. They are set up for chidden, and adults are used to help train and control the children. If you are an adult student, your classes will be overrun with teenagers and you will be expected to help control and train them. Adult classes are usually offered out of necessity, they schools want the free labor.

Some commercial martial art schools are professional gyms that specialize in adult students. They train adults to be professional, semi-professional, or amateur fighters. They usually are not operated as a traditional martial art school and do not have any of the standard martial art décor, uniforms, or procedures; they just concentrate on the fighting aspects of the martial arts. These schools may not appear to be rip-offs, but they have their own set of problems. They may use the name of a famous fighter, but you will probably never see the fighter, and will certainly not be trained by the fighter, even though the high fees you pay will go toward paying for the fighter’s training.

Bottom Line

If you understand what is involved in commercial martial arts and still want to participate in them, that is your choice. Just do not confuse commercial martial arts with traditional martial arts and do not believe that just because you train in a commercial martial art that you are indeed a martial artist.

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