Critique of Critique of Competitional TKD

Taken from website of the Illini Tae Kwon Do Club

THE KITTY DOJANG PHILOSOPHY
Understaning "Master" Hyong as an idiot (by Chack)

Critique of Critique of Competitional Tae Kwon Do
"Master" Hyong seems to be quite a disillusioned fellow. His views on competitional tkd, in essence are "it's different, so it's bad." Below is a point by point rebuttal to his ridiculous critique as if I were writing to him.

1) Somehow you have this very strong belief that practicing only the "Do" of tkd will lead to "human perfection." As I see it, the "Do" consists of...

1) patterns
2) steps
3) philosophy

Reality Check #1: Doing patterns and steps will not lead to human perfection.

I'm sorry, it's true. They don't make you a better person; they bore you. You may be saying, "I was talking about the philosophy when refering to human perfection!" My reply is this: the tkd philosophy almost looks like it was something that was tacked on at the last minute, because someone realized that every martial art needs a philosophy. It's incredibly generic and can be boiled down to "be a good person." I don't have a problem with it, but I hope you realize that every martial art has essentially the exact same "philosophy." It's nothing special at all. And why can't people who compete be good people too? It's entirely possible for someone to follow the "philosophy," yet still compete.

Competition provides, not only a goal for tkd'ers to aim for, but motivation to train and practice. In fact, I feel that it brings people TOGETHER under the common goal of winning a medal. People get together to practice for tournaments and dammit, they're motivated. I've never heard anyone say, "Hey let's get together to practice patterns, so we can achieve human perfection!" Total snorefest dude.

2) Bravo! You've just insulted every single sport on the face of the planet! You've basically said this: all sports are bad because they are based on winning and losing, which thus make them shallow and meaningless.

Reality check #2: The world probably doesn't agree with you.

Proof of this? Hrm...howabout the multitudes of different sports that exist? Obviously, people like sports. So you're saying that "Do oriented" tkd has more "MEANING" than other sports? Just because it comes with a "philosophy" doesn't mean it automatically holds more "meaning" than every sport on the planet. Just because tkd adapts a competitional style doesn't mean that it "means" anything less to people. It certainly holds more "meaning" for me than the "do" tkd ever did.

3) You make it sound like the members of competition squads live in a little hole in the ground. God, it's not like they live in different dimensions. I don't see why everyone can't just practice TOGETHER. Those who want to put in the extra time and effort to compete, can. Those who don't want to compete, fine. It's their choice. I personally don't care if there are people who don't want to compete. That's normal. But there ARE people who want to. Why not just let them?

Reality Check #3: We're just trying to have some fun.

No one ever claimed that competitional tkd would lead to "human perfection" or "salvation" and no one is trying to. I'm certainly not. I want to compete because I want to have some fun. But you, "mr.high and mighty", make these claims that "Do" tkd will lead to "human perfection" and "salvation." I honestly think you're talking out of your ass. Maybe in theory it works. But in theory, communism works. Now, what happened to communist Russia again?

4) I hope you know these things overlap. Many of the skills, attitudes and strengths necessary to win points in the one-on-one competition CAN contribute to better health, discipline, self-defense skills, and mental strength, etc. Many people do have this "spirit of amateurism" when they join and then slowly become interested in competing as they become more serious about tkd. People who are not serious about tkd, do not compete. Competition is now simply the next step in people’s development as tkd'ers.

Reality Check #4: Times change; to deny that is foolish and naive.

If you stop them from competing, you are essentially stopping their own personal growth, development and interests. <See? I can talk big too.> Again, why not just let people compete if they want to, and not judge them because of it?

5) I like it that you capitalized the "A" in aesthetic. It's funny. It makes me laugh. <hahaha> It's like you're trying to draw attention to the word and emphasize it's importance. Which brings up...

Reality Check #5: Tkd patterns are ugly.

Seriously dude, if you look at them and then compare them to say, karate or wushu patterns, you would realize that tkd patterns are damn ugly. Anyone who gets "Aesthetic satisfaction" from doing tkd patterns has some serious problems and should seek professional psychiatric attention A.S.A.P. King Kong (kum gang maki) and Sailor Moon (hak dari sogi) imitations are not cool. I'll tell you what's unhealthy: the incredible boringness of doing patterns. They don't make me meditate; they put me to sleep.

6) Your one-track-mind policies restrict the development of new skills beyond the structure of patterns. It's true that competitional tkd has led to less emphasis on hand skills but that changed a couple of months ago. With the new rules of "no tagging,” punching has quickly become the replacement. Not very up to date with the times, eh?

And what's this comment about the systems being modeled after western sports? It doesn't seem to have any purpose in it other than saying that western sports are bad. Do I smell a hint of racism? I think I do. You bad, bad man.

Ok big guy, so you're saying that in your tkd classes you don't have ANY restrictions during sparring, unlike competitions? You mean you let people kick below the belt, choke, bite, eye gouge, etc? Noooooooooooo, you don't.

Reality Check #6: You also place restrictions on people during sparring.

And they are the SAME restrictions that are placed upon people who compete. Competition is just a slightly modified form of sparring. Your poor arguments look trite to the eyes of anyone with a brain.

7) *ahem* Are your tkd classes free? Let me check...hrm...it says here, "required membership fee per semester: $18"...

Reality check #7: Money makes the world go round.

If you didn't make any profit, you wouldn't be teaching tkd. Sure, the money may not be the most important thing to you (and probably isn't), but the world is governed by political and economical interests. You can't escape it and declare yourself "above the system," by saying that you avoid profit motives, because it simply isn't true. "Do" tkd is also enmeshed in the logic of utility and profit. That being, "I can make money teaching tkd so I will." You may be "trying" to teach tkd as a principle of human development, but no matter how much you deny it, you're in it for the money too. Can you spell H-Y-P-O-C-R-I-T-E?

Final words: You suck. Thank you and good night.

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created 2 Sept 2002
last updated 5 Sept 2005