Question 099: Certificate mills

II take it that you support every high rank that broke away from their original schools/organizations, changed the a little something in the way they did techniques, and then founded it as a ‘new” martial art. In TKDTutor.com, I write about the marital art I founded, called ROCK. It has as much validity as many of the martial arts around today. I have specialized in Taekwondo in my martial arts training since, to be good at anything; you must concentrate your efforts upon it. Tiger Woods does not claim to be an expert at other sports, he is content being the best at golf. If he tried to excel at other sports, his golf skills would suffer. However, if you read TKDTutor.com, you will see I criticize the BS I find in TKD as much as I do the BS put out by other martial arts. General Hi did a lot to make TKD the most popular martial art in the western world, but even he had some dumb ideas in his later years, such as the “sine wave” movement.

You are right; I am a hard-liner. I believe you must have standards and that the best are those who those who exceed the standards. If you cannot meet the standards, then it is time move on to something else. I was once at a Captain’s Mast on a ship when a young sailor who was charged with incompetence told the captain that he did not mean to mess up, he loved the navy and was trying his best. The captain said, “I know you are son. We all know you are. It just that your best is not good enough for the navy.”
I believe in the “martial” part of the martial arts; that martial artists are trained warriors. What we have today are people who play the martial arts. As I have said in TKDTutor.com, making the martial arts into sports that can be played by the masses is fine; just change name so it is not confused with the real thing and tell the students that they are playing a sport that has little resemblance to real fighting. As I said Taekwondo America is more sport oriented and I am member of TA. However, when I teach, I am constantly pointing out what will score and what will stop and that the two should never be confused.

In TKDTutor.com I point out illogic, faulty reasoning, misrepresentations, half-truths, and outright lies that are found in the martial arts so students are not fooled by the BS and can make informed decisions.