Im sure theres others if you look around! 'Weekend Warriors' is a bit harsh, some of these can be quite good as they still teach for the love of it, have you checked into them properly for times etc. How quickly do you want to progress, in one of your posts you were unhappy about progressing too quickly (not that I blame you) - how slow is too slow for you? Whatever your decisions, best of luck, I just feel its ashame to lose a TKD person from TKD itself. Stuart Ps. If its any help: http://www.raynerslanetkd.com/IAOMAS_England/Counties/IAOMAS_England_Hampshire.htm
Good luck with wherever you end up taking your current skills and your drive to learn. Sounds like you have the attitude to progress properly wherever you end up. No - I think he should just add an 'N' and an 'E' to the end of the first word in his name
Wish you the best I have seen this with many martial arts teachers. I was learning Kenpo and the instructor told me it would take about two years to reach my black belt. When I went to my first tournament, I watched some of the other kenpoist at my same rank doing techniques. I was just amazed, they looked better than my instructor. I asked them how long they had been training. I was shocked when he said two years, I had my purple in 4 months, yet it took him two years. I changed Dojo's and this made a huge difference. Time didn't matter & money didn't matter since he taught of his house and only charged $25 a month. He taught us the techniques and helped us understand how to use them. Not just in a stale this is a right punch technique, but how are you going to use this if I throw a kick or a left punch. When you were in a technique line the opponent could use any strike and was allowed to hit hard, so if you didn't block you paid for it. What I am saying is it's not Taekwondo, but the instructor. I hope you find a good instructor.
$3000?!? Wow. I'll never complain about paying that much for 4 people again. That's just highway robbery. Too bad to hear your getting out of TKD alltogether. Hope you find another style that will keep you MAing in any event. Best of luck.
$3000 is harsh. For unlimited training at the dojang it would probably cost $1000 a year (including promotion fees which is not controlled by the dojang, but by the organization). For twice a week training at a community center affiliated with us and driving over once a week to the dojang it would be around $450 (again including promotion fees). And once you get your blackbelt it drops because you don't promote for years between dans. It ****es me off that other schools give TKD a bad name by ripping people off because it hurts us all.
Agree totally! Instructors, regardless of martial art style, have to realize they can have a very positive (or negative) impact on a person. Good Luck! Miles
I'm sorry to hear you're possibly leaving TKD. However it's great that you've acted rather than just letting yourself be carried along with the whole McDojo way of training. It could have been easy to just carry on till you got your blackbelt, so I applaud you for it. I hope you find another club soon, be it TKD or something else. There are a lot of bad clubs out there, but there are some great ones too. It's a shame you're not in London or I'd invite you down for a training session. Johnno - Is Nam Pai Chaun the same as Shaolin Nam Pai? My TKD instructor holds a 6th Dan sash in it I believe, but I don't know much about it.
Personally, I would have hung on in there to BB. But good luck in your next MA (but don't quit just before you get there again!). BTW, I pay somewhere around £1000 a year (+ courses, gradings, etc.) for myself and 3 sons Karate.
B/B isn't anything in TKD, all it means is you've done 4 years twice a week to a reasonable standard. If he's had enough and he's young enough to train and maybe fight F/C then go for it. The difference is Netto -vs- M&S!
The TAGB have a school in Portsmouth (and probably a few other towns in the area) if you're interested. The Portsmouth club website is http://www.portsmouth-taekwon-do.co.uk/ You could take a look at the TAGB website www.tagb.biz and see if there are clubs in other local towns or call the helpline on 0800 052 5960. It would be up to the instructor of course, but you may be able to transfer into TAGB at red belt so you might not feel as if you've wasted all that time (& MONEY) with the ITA. Just an idea if MT doesn't work out
Well sir I for one want to say "Thanks". Thank you for all the encouragement you have given me. Thank you for your sage advice whilst I was a noobie to this, and other, forums. I am sure that I do not want to received a 'knee' of any kind from you. I have seen some of your pics and I know how big you are getting. I too realize that my dojang is a McDojo but it is keeping me active and my son does enjoy it so. I make sure he gets the "Arts" side of things at home. I will look forward to reading your posts here even in your new style!
Liam, The full name is 'Shaolin System Nam Pai Chuan', but it's usually just called 'Nam Pai Chuan'. I haven't heard of 'Shaolin Nam Pai', but we don't use terms like 'Dan' or 'sash' so it doesn't sound like the same thing.
my friend and ex house mate used to be part of that school, he knows her well. 'Hutchey', his name is Andy K, his cousin Matt used to go to the school too. I've heard that the club is still trying to find its feet after losing its main instructor (who i met once). The club is in City Boys School, i did a one off taster session before i joined the McDojo
Sorry to hear the school didn't meet your needs. Not all the ITA schools work the way you describe, but a lot of them seem to. I don't think that many would refer to our dojang as a 'Mickey Mouse Club'. I hope you find a program that makes you feel better about your training. :Angel: $3000 a year? I pay about half that including unlimited training and testing.
