I've had about 3 years (late 80s) experience in Ji Do Kwan Tae Kwon Do back in Ohio, but for the most part my Martial Arts training has been with Kuk Sool Won. I'm curious, how do other schools/systems keep Quality Control among your branch schools. Does ITF of WTF send reps around to verify hyung are consistent, technique is the same etc. , does BJJ, Aikido??... There is a lot of criticism of the WKSA for it's franchise agreements, but honestly I can only see the benefits. My TKD school had two branches, and both tested at the HQ school...easy enough being in the same town. How do multi-city/state/nation arts handle it?
Nope. Technique doesn't need to remain the same or adhere to some pre-existing template. If you can hang with the other grades and tap them from time to time, and guys from your school go to comps and do OK then your grades are OK and your instructor is doing his thing. Arts with a competitive aspect are self policing by the results of the participants.
Nope, not at all. Not sure how it is regulated (if at all). I've heard of some instructors being told that they have to get their prospective students to attend a grading under a variation of a shihan-kai (essentially a council of senior grade BB's within an organisation) but I don't think that applies to everyone. As for the rest...there's seminars and the like, but beyond that, you have to use your brain I guess.
It would depend on the org and the way it maintains its structure I would imagine, that anyone moving level past 3rd Black Belt, a org will definitely have quality control for the next upper levels
For our local schools we have regular gatherings to make sure everyone is on the same page. As far as keeping in sync with Okinawa, we regularly send videos back and forth, and every couple of years either some of them come here or we go to them - we tend to be very close to the upstream as a result.
