In my old age I've decided to give WTF taekwondo a go, I've narrowed the choice down to two clubs, one is an independant club and the other is affiliated to British Taekwondo. From what I gather the independant club has recently left an association that was affiliated to British Taekwondo because of issues around gradings being held some distance from the club, the cost of the gradings and travel expenses being prohibitively high. They did leave on good terms. What would be the pros and cons for independent vs affiliated clubs?
Some cons for both: Independent Club: - you might not be able to compete in affiliated tournaments, which will seriously limit the number of tournaments you can enter - your grade might not be recognised by anyone outside of your club, so if you ever left, you'd be required to start from scratch. - the insurance policies you are protected under, might not be so robust. Affiliated Club: - the politics of big Federations is bound to raise its head sooner or later - costs might be slightly higher
Personally I would check out both places and the people there and see which is the better match. The organization behind is, again in my opinion, not as important as a good instructor and other students you like. What would it be worth if you go to "better" school - organization/ structure-wise - but you can't stand the people?
The club is affiliated with the Independent Martial Arts Sport Association, and from what I've seen, the gradings are conducted by a Kukkiwon registered black belt. Would that mean the black belts can register with the Kukkiwon or can that only be done through the national governing body?
http://www.kukkiwon.or.kr/english/examination/examination08.jsp It Looks like your Kukkiwon registered Dan grade can grade you himself directly. I would visit both clubs, and train at the One you feel most happy with / comfortable at.
I have been to both clubs and liked them both, my only real concern was with the independant school not being a member of the NGB. Though I'm not particularly bothered about gradings it would be nice to get Kukkiwon recognition if I do reach black belt level.
Decided to go with the BT registered club, think it will be the best option in the end. Thanks for all your posts, made the decision a lot easier!
Here in the states I've not seen much difference. I belonged to both affiliated and unaffiliated over the years depending on where I lived and there are pluses and minuses to both. An affiliated club usually charges higher costs and has politics involved. Grading fee's are higher because usually a % of the fee's goes to the organization. The costs for the tournaments were higher because you had to cover the costs of the 'GM's' to attend from wherever, hotels, food, grading fee's. When I had my own school I was initially 'affiliated' but the organizations costs were killing me so I dropped the organization and became unaffiliated. My costs went down, my student fee's went down, nothing else much changed except a patch on the uniform. I didn't lose a single student because of it. Unaffiliated doesn't have to worry about those costs but some schools look down on you if you don't have a 'officially' sanctioned certificate. I never, ever, had a problem going to tournaments although students from affiliated schools will do better at tournaments due to politics depending on where you live. All I wanted to do was train and compete. I usually liked the unaffiliated schools more, less drama...
I was in an ata that switched to Wtf. Politics were everywhere. Then they went independent. Internal politics were everywhere. In the end. I left. Now all that matters is my training. No rank recognition can take my knowledge away.
