Howdy! Ando again from Happy Life Martial Arts. My first formal martial
arts training was in Taekwondo-- ITF if you're interested. I stayed long enough
to earn my first black belt but I never wore it. Instead I went out searching for
a different art and since some people have asked me why, today I thought I'd tell you.
First off, if you clicked this video hoping to hear me bash Taekwondo,
no--that's not gonna happen. The fact is I learned many important lessons as a
student of Taekwondo. At one point in my life it was the perfect art for me. So, if
you're training in Taekwondo and it's the perfect art for you. Keep going. But
for me, eventually there were two reasons that convinced me to quit. One might
sound a little silly, the other is more serious. Let's start with silly. Reason
number one--fear of the future. Here's the thing, I wanted to find an art that I
could still be pretty good at in my 60s 70s and dare I say beyond, but in
Taekwondo, even in my physical prime, I found myself spending more time
stretching and conditioning than actually practicing fighting skills,
which is what I wanted to learn. Now don't get me wrong, I believe in staying
in shape, but I don't believe that I should have to be able to do a full
split to be at my best. And it wasn't just me whining about this, by the way-- my
instructors were always complaining about how their backs hurt, or their legs
were getting tighter, or how their bodies were slowing down, and these guys were in
their 30s. Their 30s! Look, growing older is going to put
limitations on everyone--I get that, but I got the feeling that if I stayed in
Taekwondo I would be facing more limitations than students of other arts.
Can you practice Taekwondo without all the fancy high kicks? Of course you can,
but I personally hated the idea of devoting years of my life to developing
skills that would only get harder to do over time, not easier. I also
didn't like the idea of possibly needing hip replacements. And yes I know there
are 60 and 70 year old Taekwondo masters out there who can still kick like they're
20--good for them. I just wasn't sure if I could be one of them. Bottom line-- my
fears and insecurities were telling me that if I stayed in Taekwondo by the
time I hit 60, I'd be breaking my bones instead of boards. The second reason I
quit Taekwondo, in case you thought that first reason was a little silly, is that
Taekwondo was four arts in one. I don't know about your school, but in my
Taekwondo school we practiced a lot of forms. We also practiced free sparring.
But wait there's more! We also practiced three steps and one
steps. We also practiced self-defense techniques for grabs and chokes and
weapons. We also spent a lot of time stretching and conditioning. We also
broke boards. The way I saw it we were being asked to improve four distinct
sets of skills-- forms, free sparring, prearranged sparring, and self-defense.
Now that wouldn't be a problem if the principles and movements were the same
between each of the sets of skills, but they weren't. The principles and
movements that we practiced in forms were completely different from the
principles and movements that we practiced in sparring or self-defense. I
mean completely different! Talk about confusing. Should I stay on the balls of
my feet and bounce around or stay low and drive my heel into the floor? Boy,
dropping to a knee with a spinning knife hand sure looks cool when we do one steps.
I wonder why no one does that in forms, sparring, or self-defense?
What's up with wrist locks? They work great with the rubber knives but I can't
grab anybody's hand when we spar. Is that even legal? Why does that black belt look
so powerful when he does his forms but keep getting kicked in the face when we
spar? Why won't they let me wear a red uniform? Someday I will wear red! To be
fair, my biggest gripe with Taekwondo was not the art, it was how the art was being
taught in my school. Ten minutes of this, fifteen minutes of that, 20 minutes of
something else. Just when I was making progress in one set of skills we'd
switch to a different set of skills. It felt like TKD
suffered from ADHD, which taught me an important lesson as a student and then
later as a teacher-- sometimes the more you learn, the less you learn.
Maybe that's why arts like Brazilian jiu-jitsu, Muay Thai boxing, or the sport of MMA in
general, have been growing in popularity. It's not that their techniques are
necessarily more effective than any other arts, it might just be because they
offer a more focused training experience. A focused training experience leads to
more consistent skill development, which leads to more confidence, which leads to
feeling great instead of confused and frustrated. Let me give you an example-- if
you check out a typical BJJ class ,you're gonna practice the same moves the same
way throughout the entire class. The moves that you practice in warm-ups are
the same moves you practice in drilling and the moves you practice in drilling
you're going to use when you practice rolling. And guess what? When you come
back to the next class you're gonna practice those same moves the same way
all over again. Now, that sounds like such an obvious
teaching methodology, doesn't it? Repetition. But not all arts do that. Many
schools break up their art into jagged pieces that don't easily fit back
together again. As a result, as a student you can
end up feeling like you're making slow progress or worse no progress. For the
record, like BJJ, I found a very focused training experience in Aikido. Sure, lots
of people love to make fun of Aikido for spending all of their time on a
relatively small number of techniques. On the other hand, they spend all of their
time on a small number of techniques! Even when we practiced with a jo or a
sword, those movements were directly related to the empty hand techniques. As
a result, when I would walk out of an Aikido class those techniques really
stuck with me. Now unfortunately, where I felt Taekwondo offered too many skills
to master, I felt that Aikido didn't offer me
enough, So I quit that art too, but are you gonna hear me bash Aikido? No. The
fact is I learned a lot of important lessons there, too. So to be clear, I have
nothing but respect for every style of martial arts. Each one can teach you
something or many things. I'm also not saying that all traditional styles--
Taekwondo, Karate, Kung Fu-- suffer from being four arts in one. Some schools are
excellent at building connections between forms and drills and sparring
and self-defense, but years ago when I was searching for a more focused
Taekwondo school, I couldn't find one. Thankfully, I eventually found styles and
more importantly teachers, who made me happy. Which styles were those? It doesn't
matter! That's my martial arts journey, not yours.
I would prefer if you took a moment to ask yourself, "Am I getting what I want
out of my style, my school, and my teacher?" If you are then stay right there. Work as
hard as you can for as long as you can. But if you're not getting what you want,
hey-- no hard feelings. Take a look around and see if you can find a style or
school that will help you meet your goals.
Just remember this-- you don't have to hate where you are to be excited about
where you're going. Everything is worth something. If you liked this video, thanks
for subscribing to the channel and sharing with a friend. Until next time,
stay focused, my friend, and keep fighting for a happy life.