Taekwondo for adults

So I'm training mixed martial arts and I've been trying to find a TKD school to train at but a lot of the places I've been to just seem to be focused on kids tkd and not so much adults.
With maybe having 1 or two adults classes a week at a higher price. I wonder if this is just in my area or is this just the way TKD schools are set up.

Also if anyone knows of any good TKD dojangs in the bay area please do let me know.

Thanks guys

 

To help us help you, can you answer these questions?

1) What specific locales are you interested in? (The mileage people are willing to travel wildly differs from person to person.)

2) What aspects of TKD do you want to focus on? (Some schools are focused on sport, some on self-defence, and others still on robbing you blind.)

On a purely cursory basis, this would be my choice:

www.itfsftaekwondo.com/

 

Though unfortunately these (in bold) are not limited to TKD.

Travess

 

I can only tell you if you get a GTUK one, that might be sport focused. If my club is anythign to go by, which seems like its a special one.

 

Think he means San Francisco bay area, USA...

 

Yeah I'm in San Francisco area. I would like a school that focuses on competition and kicking techniques more so than forms.

 

In that case, you probably want a WTF-affiliated school (the WTF changed its name to World Taekwondo, or WT, this year, so you might see one or both of these acronyms advertised).

Some good WTF/WT schools pop up at the top of the results for a Google search of "Taekwondo San Francisco."

I'm too lazy to post links.

 

Thanks Van. I have typed that in already and all the schools just had a main focus on kids classes. Thanks though guys. I appreciate the help

 

Thanks Mitch I've checked most of the places but most dont really offer much for adults and the few that do charge around 200 for only two days a week

 

There are kyokushin karate and enshin karate schools in San Francisco. They're going to deliver a sparring-heavy, kicking-heavy curriculum with a lot more of an adult focus than the TKD schools you're looking at.

I have no first hand experience with either of these schools, but they might be worth checking out:

World Oyama Karate San Francisco - San Mateo

Enshin Karate SF: Tomiyama Dojo

 

Thanks for the feedback!! I train at Oyama

 

Hahaha, never mind then

I think particularly with WTF/WT taekwondo nowadays, the NCAA scene is so competitive, and the stakes are so high for K-12 kids (college scholarships on the line if they’re highly competitive when they first apply to colleges), that a lot of clubs are not going to dilute their training program for people who may be vying for that sort of scholarship with an adult program as well. I did taekwondo in college, but now that I’m in my 30s, I found the same thing you described—I wasn’t particularly excited by the adult program at the local taekwondo private clubs in my area, who are really focused on their youth-through-high-school programs.

I think having a truly all-ages curriculum and class schedule is going to be more common with taekwondo schools outside of the context of WTF/WT, where they’re going to be structured more like a stereotypical karate or tang soo do school, as opposed to being an NCAA-preparatory training program. That’s not a judgment call on either side of the fence, just differing goals leading to a differing club structure/emphasis.

Out of curiosity, was there something specific you were looking for from a TKD club that you’re not getting right now at your kyokushin club, or were you just looking to mix stuff up with some cross-training?

 

TKD is a kid friendly style. Lots of belts, fairly easy gradings, low level sparring, black belt achievable in 3-4 years.
While I can find lots in it I like there's no doubt it's child orientated.
The club I go to (and assistant instruct sometimes) is a good 80% kids.

 

Well I just wanted to have more time on flexibility and to practice my kicks more often. The training of real tkd (not the Olympic point based stuff) would be very useful and beneficial for full contact sparring and give me a dexterity advantage over my opponent allowing me to have more variety in set up and attacks. The same way training with boxing increases your understanding of angles, footwork, etc.. At Oyama they do a damn good job with teaching combinations and kicking techniques as well as body strengthening that you won't see with most other styles. I just wanted to mix it up for full contact striking like kickboxing (that allow punches to the head)

 

Setting aside the fact that drawing a line between “real tkd” and “Olympic point based stuff,” and not wanting the latter, is a bit of a no-true-Scotsman fallacy (TKD is a post-WWII invention and Olympic TKD is the dominant form of TKD, so it’s most certainly real TKD)...I think you’re operating under some misunderstandings of the different types of TKD that may be complicating your search.

The only form of taekwondo that has full-contact competition—at least among US clubs—is Olympic taekwondo. It’s largely point-based, yes, but you can also win by KO and you’re not penalized for hitting too hard. (Insert Olympic boxing analogy here). The main alternative, ITF taekwondo, is largely a light-contact art, and is likely to be a closer to a 50/50 mix of patterns and sparring instead of a 90% sparring focus. If you’re looking for something like kickboxing that’s full-contact AND allows punches to the head, you’re not going to find it at any American taekwondo organization. (I’ve seen videos of something called “ITF Pro” in Eastern Europe that is close to that, but not here).

So if you’re actually looking for the sort of kicking specialists like you see in this thread (Nice TKD Sampler Vid), those actually are going to be the Olympic-style clubs. Bianka Walkden and Aaron Cook both do Olympic-style TKD, even though they’re not wearing their competition gear in that video.

 

Look up kwonkicker!! He has a better example of what I mean. I understand and know the history of TKD.

He calls it the power era style of taekwondo. I should have said less of a "tag" style rather than Olympic style. I'll see if I can upload the vid here

 

Also I've done lots of kickboxing but even a club that offers more of a adult program would benefit me. The kicking and flexibility drills help a ton