Hello all who train in Tang soo do. I just was wondering your thoughts on this man. I thought if I were to leave hwa rang do and do another korean art. (not tae kwon do sorry those who train in that sport) I might train with him and his schools. But since I only know of him from what I have read about him in tae kwon do times or black belt mag. I was wondering what your thoughts on this man were. Thank you all for your insight
Really depends on the school. Seen good CS Kim TSDers. Seen bad ones. All depends. Overall TSD is TSD though execution might have little idiosyncracies from association to association.
For what its worth ive heard C.S. Kim himself is an amazing martial artist. I've never trained with him or met any of his students but over the years ive heard a lot of praise about him on the net.
I received my 4th dan from GM C.S. Kim. He is an amazing martial artist, and tremendously motivating. With that said, I was not a direct student of his. I was a student of Richard Byrne and we were in the I.T.F. and C.S. Kim would come by a coupleof times a year and work with us. We would go see him now and again as well. The only personal complaint I had was that he ran it as a business. He used contracts and had several very expensive seminars a year that were designed to update or change minor things in the forms. So, we paid $35 a whack to learn that he suddenly remembered a certain way of doing a form. I don't complain too much about it because I liked the opportunity to meet him and work with him, but some people hated that. So, I can say many good things about him and I have great respect for him for my part, but some folks are not so happy about his business ethics. One thing for certain, if he instructs his classes, you would have a world class instructor.
I agree with Andy Cap. I know Master Kim pretty well after training with him in a few seminars among other things. As a martial artist and teacher he is very good, but I don't personally agree with the way he runs his business. Forgive me for being politically incorrect, but I do not agree with the way he runs things. I still respect him, but you wouldn't see me being his yes-man (and trust me, he has plenty of them). This isn't to say that everyone under him is a bad martial artist. I imagine that his schools in the Pennsylvania area would be decent. I've known many amazing martial artists that have come from his line (including my instructor), as well as ones with a big head and not much else. There's some great schools in his organization, as well as some not so great ones. I suppose the same could be said about any large organization. As Andy and I have mentioned, there are pros and cons to his organization. You just have to check it out for yourself.
Let me first preface this by saying I'm a white belt... little personal experience. My kids, though, are green and orange and so all-told I have about 2 years of direct experience in a CS Kim school. Our do jang is Noble's Tang Soo Do in North Carolina. It is an ITF school so under CS Kim's direction. What is taught in the school is awesome. My children and the others in the classes really are taught to live good values and to try very hard and strive for perfection. Their Sabom Nim is awesome and I'm really happy with how my kids have been treated in class and how they have learned so many things in a patient and logical way. From what I understand from others in the do jang, the school is run the same way as all other CS Kim schools. I've also had the opportunity to see Richard Byrne in action and believe that he also runs good schools and in some of the same geographic areas. In listening to Sabom Nim Byrne's students, I believe he is also well revered as a teacher and his schools are good places to be. I will make one comment about CS Kim that he definately does run the schools with business in mind. I may not agree with some of this, but I have seen him in action in a live seminar and he is an awesome martial artist and very good at explaining things. Kay
