Yes definately - we kind of passed each other - you were just about leaving when I was just about starting! Dan came back with a medal from the south east so pretty chuffed! Who do you train with now?
He had a go at Dan at the S.E cos I'd put him in the wrong catagory! He asked him how tall he was and he didn't know so he started going on about instructors having enough to do and students should be responsible for their height!! It was quite funny. Yep Matt still trains, Andy stopped prob last Dec. He said he was coming back when I took it on in March but haven't heard from him for ages. Will is starting again this week hopefully - he said he remembered you. Have alot more faces - some beginners and some blue belts who have transfered. Alot more women! -for years I trained there as the only girl - I spose a female instructor is less intimidating??
Good for you for quitting. I quit a Mcdojo a few months back so I can relate. I wanted to keep training just for the love of the art, but I realized that I was contributing too much to this Mcdojo's sucess. I was one of the only good people at the school, and one of the reasons that many people stuck around. There's a saying that "No one raindrop believes that it is responsible for the flood". I stopped going because the school's no contact sparring was a waste of everybody's time, and lots of people were getting deluded into thinking they could defend themselves. The only legal striking area for anything was the stomach. No kicks were allowed to the head at all. I despised the bad Blackbelts, and pitied the few good ones because they were wasting their talent at that school. You only really know what you're taught from others. The talented Blackbelts were taught that no contact sparring is the norm, and effective training. I really should go back there and convince some of the good ones to leave. I guess I just don't think they'd listen to me anyway. Oh well.
nice! from what I saw..that school and it's senior instructors are crappy..anyway..best of luck..or find another art you can like..
I cant speak for the Clubs in Ports. but i can for the ITA schools in the states being that I own one. The ITA has been beat around in this thread for some reason but just to add few points. 1. We do allow kids to test for Black belt maily b/c we believe that black belt is not the end of a journey but the start. everyones idea of what black belt is different, and thats ok but just because your idea is different form mine doesnt make your idea better or worst. 2. It doesnt take 10 years to get a black belt in the ITA and if you want to do that in your school then so be it. I have always asked myself when it comes to my students " am i helping them or hurting them?" to make someone wait 10 years to get there black belt and have tons of people quit because they feel that they will never reach their goal, how can i help that student get better or instill the benifits of our art if they quite b/c i dont set realistic goals for them. One last point, i went to train with G.M Won kuk Lee in washington D.C in 2002 shortly before he passed and he told us( we had a few people form the ITA there) that we should always work to improve the art and our student and he was happy with the things we had done and hoped that we would continue to work on improving and moving the art forward.
i no this was a long time ago but im just looking through here at ITA posts and urm well reading this stright away made me think that you trained at cowplain school and you didnt get on with charlotte waters !! am i right ??? lol
thought i was the only one.i have the same issue. I wonder if it's a wolrdwide phenomenon with taekwondo that u gotta pump out blackbelts no matter skill level or deservedness.
Just because a Taekwondo school/association is pumping out black belts does not mean those black belts are not of a very high standard. The TAGB, for example, has literally hundreds of candidates testing for black belt over a period of several days [two gradings per year], and the standard is usually good. I think it is down to the instructor and aims of the association.
Just to clarify the charlotte waters situation she has now left and started out a new see link ..i am gonna resist saying anything on this situation, apart from that i personally was not over impressed by her tutoring style, but fortunately for me that was soon remedied.
RagingDelirium, I would be interested in your views in charlotte waters. if you wish to discuss them please let me know. this goes for other members on here.
I have no problems about discussing this situation, but i have no intention of posting it all over this forum.
Without being a heavy handed moderator, which is something I hope everyone can agree I try to avoid, can I echo this please? If things need to be discussed that are of interest to the whole TKD community lets have at it, but otherwise can we keep anything that might get personal to PMs please. PM me if you have any doubts. Mitch
Hey, I know many people will say that i am not one to talk on this post as i achieved my black belt at a very young age. But I believe that TKD is not at fault here, it is more likely to be the instructors who are more interested in status and money. I stopped training for roughly a year at one stage and on and off at others, simply because of the way things were. As soon as I got my blue belt I was given groups of students to teach. I was VERY young at this point and it made me uncomfortable, i personally didnt feel expierianced enough or confident enough to be teaching people that (although were a lower grade) were a lot older than me. I was made to continue teaching up until i spoke to my instructor about it, he didnt ask me to teach again for about 2/3 months and then it was straight back to the old routine. It got to the point were i was going to a 2 hour lesson, getting half an hour practice (inc warm up) and then straight to teaching others for the rest of the lesson. I gave up because of this at red belt, however when my instructor contacted me, he convinced me situations would change and that it was stupid to give up when i was so close to achieving my BB. I went back to training this lasted again for about 3 months and then it was back to teaching. i stuck out on the pure fact i wanted my BB. However i had the final straw when i achieved my BB. I went to 3 lessons where i was placed behind 2 BB who already knew there stuff and simply told to copy there patterns at thier speed. Although they slowed down for me, I was not taught the technique behind the moves. After 3 lessons like this, I turned up to 4 classes where i simply warmed up, copied the three patterns once and was then sent to teach. This is when i realised i had enough. I asked my 2nd dan brother 2 teach me my pattern work and then looked for a new TKD school. I also recently found out that the instrucotrs young son ( hes only 5 or 6 i think) has just been given his blue belt- the same grade i was when i first started teaching!! There wasnt any as local as my origional but the traveling was worth it at the time. I have trained at this new place since but recently I feel things are starting to change and that they too are becoming like my origional school (however no where near as bad). This is what pushed me into looking for kung fu schools near the area, i think if i settle into kung fu then gradually my TKD will slow down and maybe eventually stop? I dont want to give it all up on a whim but i respect peoples descisions to stop in these curcumstances!! i hope these situations are only unfornate for us and that TKD is not becoming like this in a whole. I think maybe its just the competition between local schools that is causing this and that TKD in general will be able to maintain the high standards its known for, it may just be a phase??? katie
yeah she left with matt marshall, and also lee mcall and travis bottriel left with them to the cobra martial art's they have there own style...HAWKS taekwondo, when ever you ask most people in ITA taekwondo about charlotte waters they all mostly have the same strong opinion that she was ethire, big headed, arrogant, cocky, stuck up bitchy. or something along those lines, i never saw charlotte in that way, i was a southampton student (now aldershot) so i dint train with charlotte every lesson but i went to cowplain a fair few times, and was with her at testing's, tournements ext and we have got on great and she been really nice, this may of been because me and matt marshall got on brilliantly, i was teaching and training with him 6days a week for liek 6-7 hours aday..i dont no but she has been okay with me but they way she left the ITA not just her but matt marshall to was very wrong, fair enough they wanted to go there own way but they should of done it in a much better approach and I read TKDMitch's post above carefully so I'm not going to go into any personal attacks on people here, oh no.
Sorry to hear about what happened I think you made the right decision to leave that school. I do hope you find somewhere/something to train in that fulfills your expectations, best of luck and who knows you might find another TKD club that is better than your last and fall in love with the art again.
