Taekwondo Australia From what I have read about WTF taekwondo in Australia, it was very messy before the Sydney Olympics. There were two main bodies and there was a lot of feuding. Just before the Olympics, they managed to settle their differences and merge into Taekwondo Australia Inc. My first instructor GM Yong Dai Cho was president during the Olympics up to late 2002 when he failed to win re-election. Many people claim to be most directly responsible for forming Taekwondo Australia but I don't remember hearing GM Cho ever saying it was him. If someone knows anymore about the chaos before the Sydney Olympics, please tell us more.
Okay, so what source of information would you recommend? If there are people "behind the scenes" doing things, what are they accomplishing? What are they doing, concrete examples please, to promote and expand "worldwide leadership in the world of Tae Kwon Do"? Help me out here... if there are people out there doing more than the "publicity hounds" like GM Hee Il Cho (and others), what are they doing and how is it better than what people like GM Cho do, that is making awesome training videos, doing seminars, making articles that promote TKD and being a good example to younger students through his work ethic? Give me some specific examples, please. I don' doubt that these 7th, 8th, and 9th dans are great practitioners and instructors, but what are they doing beyond the norm to promote TKD throughout the world?
Does anyone know what criteria tkd times uses when picking someone to spotlight,or hall of fame them?
I'm not positive about this one but I believe that my HapKiDo GM, GM Myung Kwang Sik holds a 9th Dan in TKD as well as his 10th Dan in HKD. Thomas, a little help with this one please. Whatever his rank I attended a seminar with him and he was definitely the highest ranking person I have been around and he is not only a great teacher but very personable and kind as well. I couldn't ask for a better person to train under.
I don't really have a clear answer. I do know that on his books and in his biographies he uis listed as 10th dan in Hapkido. I did read somewhere that he did claim a 9th dan in Taekwondo around 1990 but I don't have any sources to substantiate this and I haven't seen it listed in any of his other biographies. I have seen some of his books and read some articles (and interacted with some of his students online) and I would say that he definately can produce good students and resources. Personally I have the utmost respect for him.
Re: I read in a biography about Bruce Lee by Bruce Thomas a story about Elvis Presley. He paid a Karate instructor $20,000 to promote him to a 7th degree Blackbelt. Elvis' wife actually earned her green belt there. I can't prove that, but if anyone else has heard of it, let me know. I do believe it however. Sadly, corruption is everywhere, martial arts included. Even though I'm no longer with the ITF I support their beliefs wholeheartedly as they are the rules laid down by General Choi himself. Namely, that the Dan grades go up to 9, and that you are a Master only at 7th. I actually find it offensive that people at 3rd and 4th Dan's can declare themselves masters of their art, or indeed that anybody in the world can call themselves a 10th Dan. Are they honestly trying to say they're better at TKD than Rhee Ki Ha? My old ITF instructor once told me he recognizes only 4 Grandmasters of Taekwon-Do. Back then the names went over my head, but now I'd like to ask him just who he meant. So for the WTF to claim it has 263 9th Dans and 5 10th Dans is absolutely ridiculous. Why do they do it? ...Ego.
Re: I'm sorry if I've offended you. But that's the way I feel. Nobody has the right to declare themselves a 10th Dan and rank themselves about the founder, and the pioneer of Taekwon-Do.
if they are registered in Kukkiwon, then they haven't declared themselves, but were declared by the Kukkiwon.
you have never heard of the Kukkiwon?????? there you go, one more reason why you shouldn't make statements like you did, especially if you have NEVER heard of the WTF headquerters in korea
Re: No I haven't heard of the Kukkiwon... Does the WTF even have Rhee Ki Ha's support to be promoting people to 10th Dans?
or do u mean if Rhee has WTF's support? ask the Kukkiwon or Rhee and his followers. if you want to do everything in a legal way, then every WTF club is a member of the WTF TKD Association of the country and every country is then a WTF member. all Dan gradings go through the Kukkiwon and you can check if somebody's rank is Kukkiwon or not.
Re: No seriously... This is all news to me. I've trained in 4 Taekwon-Do schools with dozens of instructors and I've never even heard that word.
Do you train under the UKTA? You may want to do some background reading to "flesh out" their particular interpretation of TKD history. Mitch
Speaking of history, here's a "must-read" article on the history of TKD... highly recommended: http://mavnet.dynip.com/budosport/gesch.html (Yes, it's Dakin Burd ick's article again!) For the whole ITF vs WTF, read the massive thread here (http://www.martialartsplanet.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2677 ) for a pretty good look at the differences and similarites from many views.
