I was part of the Moo Duk Kwan transition from TSD MDK to Soo Bahk Do Moo Duk Kwan in 1995 (Dan # 31898). I came to the MDK as a Sam Dan (3rd Dan) student of Dr Dae Shik Kim (Chang Moo Kwan Tae Kwon Do / Hapkido) who was one of the very first senior Koreans to teach martial arts in the US - period. I came into the system as a 1st Dan. I have 3 Dan certificates from the MDK with Hyun Chul Hwang sitting on 2 of my Dan Boards. The incessant BS comparisons to TKD was enough but the Soo Bahk Do Moo Duk Kwan is one of the most POLITICAL organizations I have ever been involved with. Most of the self-defense techniques (Ho Shin Sul) contradict everything I learned in Daito Ryu Jiu Jutsu and Hapkido. I finally had enough and left with another organization about a year after the transition to Soo Bahk Do. Politics & posturing add to the other "Eight Key Concepts."
I left sbd mdk after 20 years in 2008. I started when it actually was called Tang Soo do and at that time it was a very good fighting system but when they changed the name, I made a video All about That Right was the stupidest thing they did, they became too artful unless Martial. When you become a studio owner when you try to progress past third degree black belt yes it becomes very political and the people of top could not handle themselves in a real fight, in fact one of my pet peeves was when we would spar in the dojang I would wipe the floor with a lot of you seniors but in competition because of a point system they would win and never let you forget it. If we actually went back to the older system from the 1950s and that includes all martial arts when they were more complete it'd be a totally different ball game today
Thanks for sharing, think opinions like these are so useful, especially when people don’t want to publicly acknowledge some things. We learn by feeling things, and there’s definitely things we can work on to make them better. I feel majority of young people don’t care about the art, and want to find somewhere social where they get hit and learn how to strike in a controlled environment. I know this video will offend many people but I think it’s fantastic and if people listen perhaps they can adjust what they’re doing rather than brush it aside.
@@stanclark3992 not all the time. I did win quite a few matches I was ranked in the State of Florida under the MDK in the top three at every tournament. My point is point sparring without contact is inadequate so if I won great but it wasn't a real fight if I lost no biggie because it wasn't a real fight My friends and I would always go back to the studio in our own private sessions and take it up another level because we knew that the sparring in the traditional mdk syllabus was inadequate Like any sports style version of a martial art it isn't the same as actually trying to fight. Even in Brazilian jiu-jitsu if you were to be taken to the ground on asphalt you're not going to pull guard you're going to be hurt. I've seen it in reality too many times even in Korea. When a person was taken to the ground on asphalt everything else is rendered useless So yes to answer your question I didn't win always at point but it didn't always lose either and it wasn't a big deal for me because it didn't measure myself defensibility and what I could apply outside of the studio
@@stanclark3992 not all the time. I did win quite a few matches I was ranked in the State of Florida under the MDK in the top three at every tournament. My point is point sparring without contact is inadequate so if I won great but it wasn't a real fight if I lost no biggie because it wasn't a real fight My friends and I would always go back to the studio in our own private sessions and take it up another level because we knew that the sparring in the traditional mdk syllabus was inadequate Like any sports style version of a martial art it isn't the same as actually trying to fight. Even in Brazilian jiu-jitsu if you were to be taken to the ground on asphalt you're not going to pull guard you're going to be hurt. I've seen it in reality too many times even in Korea. When a person was taken to the ground on asphalt everything else is rendered useless So yes to answer your question I didn't win always at point but it didn't always lose either and it wasn't a big deal for me because it didn't measure myself defensibility and what I could apply outside of the studio
Yeah I agree. I was in some situations where my street fighting paid off more than the actual forms I learned. I never understood why we couldn't hit each other in sparring. The only way to learn how to fight is to actually engage in one. I learned my first big lesson when I was attacked by a grown woman, and I was a kid. She had at least 200 pounds on me. I wanted to do boxing when I was a kid, but my mother said I'd mess up my pretty face. I've been in numerous fights, and I don't have one scar from one. Soo Bahk Do was more about the discipline and form.
I agree and disagree with him. I agree that it should be tailored to the student and things should be taught and adjusted per the individual. I also agree that it is some thing you are paying for and at no point should your payments be used by the school, solely for the schools growth (unless it is agreed-upon by both parties). But where I disagree is that yes, this is an art form that was created very long ago but at the same time it origins must be honored. Some things can be adjusted or slightly differentiated upon but only very slightly, because the origins of the art must be honored. (Remember, this is the art you signed up for. You wouldn’t expect basketball to change because you can’t dunk.) Otherwise the art has changed. Everyone has their own capabilities and limits based on their bodies and mindsets and those things should be respected but at the same time, belt progression, which is equal to your level of skill and proficiency and knowledge in the art must be halted if the persons capabilities can no longer continue to progress.
That video is sad for an ex- Youth Leader : it looks like the young man was bitter about different things, and decided to speak out of "Soo Bahk Do" in general as "the" problem. And then, the video comments became what is the worse on the internet : a meeting of complainers, in the need to express about their frustration. How about doing something about how Soo Bahk Do contributed to build the person you are today ? The True Martial Artist has to find the reason why he took this precise path, and not another one. Start to be generous in his view, rather than greedy. Happy New Year 2024 with postive vibes in your life and training.
I did Soo Bahk Do for four years. It was my first exposure to martial arts. I thought it it was too rigid and structured, like being in the military and, like you said, conforming to an organization.
Apparently, the Federation changed a lot after KJN Hwang Kee's passing. I was watching a video last night, recorded recently, where the Sa Bom flat out said that they don't spar and they don't train to fight in his dojang. What?! I was in back in the early '00s and we did a lot of sparring along with reality based defense and it was not uncommon for someone to get injured during class. The biggest issue for me was that I was started with the "giving back" part, as a student-instructor, when I was still a 7th gup. I was already proficient at most of the basics due to previous experience in World Tang Soo Do as well as having real-world fight experience, where I've actually used TSD/SBD techniques. For me, classes started being more about teaching other students, including higher ranks, than improving my own art.
it definitely became more of a philosophy than a fighting art. just watch the masters perform, their technics are a foot from the target. after 40 some years training in the art it progressed, or digressed, from a great fighting art to a philosophy oriented family oriented organization and the true art was only taught to a select few. the older you got the less it had any real benefit, so i left in 2011 and pretty much everything this guy is saying is right on.
Amen. I started as a Chuck Norris Black Belt in Tang Soo Do then moved to the Moo Duk Kwan got 3rd dan under Master George Dolby. I can say yes.. Sadly it digressed. No hate just the truth.
i started my first soo bahk do class last night and everything he explained about soo bahk do is true i want to learn martial arts to defend myself on the street now im thinking about doing taekwondo
Politics will sour anything good. The complaints about his changing status as he became a dan rank sound very "american". The organization is how you came to be, so failing to pick up your status is a failure to understand the nature of junior and senior in a dojo.
I was part of the Moo Duk Kwan transition from TSD MDK to Soo Bahk Do Moo Duk Kwan in 1995 (Dan # 31898). I came to the MDK as a Sam Dan (3rd Dan) student of Dr Dae Shik Kim (Chang Moo Kwan Tae Kwon Do / Hapkido) who was one of the very first senior Koreans to teach martial arts in the US - period. I came into the system as a 1st Dan. I have 3 Dan certificates from the MDK with Hyun Chul Hwang sitting on 2 of my Dan Boards. The incessant BS comparisons to TKD was enough but the Soo Bahk Do Moo Duk Kwan is one of the most POLITICAL organizations I have ever been involved with. Most of the self-defense techniques (Ho Shin Sul) contradict everything I learned in Daito Ryu Jiu Jutsu and Hapkido. I finally had enough and left with another organization about a year after the transition to Soo Bahk Do. Politics & posturing add to the other "Eight Key Concepts."
I left sbd mdk after 20 years in 2008. I started when it actually was called Tang Soo do and at that time it was a very good fighting system but when they changed the name, I made a video All about That Right was the stupidest thing they did, they became too artful unless Martial.
When you become a studio owner when you try to progress past third degree black belt yes it becomes very political and the people of top could not handle themselves in a real fight, in fact one of my pet peeves was when we would spar in the dojang I would wipe the floor with a lot of you seniors but in competition because of a point system they would win and never let you forget it.
If we actually went back to the older system from the 1950s and that includes all martial arts when they were more complete it'd be a totally different ball game today
Thanks for sharing, think opinions like these are so useful, especially when people don’t want to publicly acknowledge some things. We learn by feeling things, and there’s definitely things we can work on to make them better. I feel majority of young people don’t care about the art, and want to find somewhere social where they get hit and learn how to strike in a controlled environment.
I know this video will offend many people but I think it’s fantastic and if people listen perhaps they can adjust what they’re doing rather than brush it aside.
David, did breaking away from sbd mdk help or hurt your business as a studio owner?
@@unboxings8244 Seriously..of course it helped the studio. How would leaving hurt anyone
@@stanclark3992 not all the time. I did win quite a few matches I was ranked in the State of Florida under the MDK in the top three at every tournament.
My point is point sparring without contact is inadequate so if I won great but it wasn't a real fight if I lost no biggie because it wasn't a real fight
My friends and I would always go back to the studio in our own private sessions and take it up another level because we knew that the sparring in the traditional mdk syllabus was inadequate
Like any sports style version of a martial art it isn't the same as actually trying to fight. Even in Brazilian jiu-jitsu if you were to be taken to the ground on asphalt you're not going to pull guard you're going to be hurt. I've seen it in reality too many times even in Korea. When a person was taken to the ground on asphalt everything else is rendered useless
So yes to answer your question I didn't win always at point but it didn't always lose either and it wasn't a big deal for me because it didn't measure myself defensibility and what I could apply outside of the studio
@@stanclark3992 not all the time. I did win quite a few matches I was ranked in the State of Florida under the MDK in the top three at every tournament.
My point is point sparring without contact is inadequate so if I won great but it wasn't a real fight if I lost no biggie because it wasn't a real fight
My friends and I would always go back to the studio in our own private sessions and take it up another level because we knew that the sparring in the traditional mdk syllabus was inadequate
Like any sports style version of a martial art it isn't the same as actually trying to fight. Even in Brazilian jiu-jitsu if you were to be taken to the ground on asphalt you're not going to pull guard you're going to be hurt. I've seen it in reality too many times even in Korea. When a person was taken to the ground on asphalt everything else is rendered useless
So yes to answer your question I didn't win always at point but it didn't always lose either and it wasn't a big deal for me because it didn't measure myself defensibility and what I could apply outside of the studio
Yeah I agree. I was in some situations where my street fighting paid off more than the actual forms I learned. I never understood why we couldn't hit each other in sparring. The only way to learn how to fight is to actually engage in one. I learned my first big lesson when I was attacked by a grown woman, and I was a kid. She had at least 200 pounds on me. I wanted to do boxing when I was a kid, but my mother said I'd mess up my pretty face. I've been in numerous fights, and I don't have one scar from one. Soo Bahk Do was more about the discipline and form.
I agree and disagree with him. I agree that it should be tailored to the student and things should be taught and adjusted per the individual. I also agree that it is some thing you are paying for and at no point should your payments be used by the school, solely for the schools growth (unless it is agreed-upon by both parties). But where I disagree is that yes, this is an art form that was created very long ago but at the same time it origins must be honored. Some things can be adjusted or slightly differentiated upon but only very slightly, because the origins of the art must be honored. (Remember, this is the art you signed up for. You wouldn’t expect basketball to change because you can’t dunk.) Otherwise the art has changed. Everyone has their own capabilities and limits based on their bodies and mindsets and those things should be respected but at the same time, belt progression, which is equal to your level of skill and proficiency and knowledge in the art must be halted if the persons capabilities can no longer continue to progress.
That video is sad for an ex- Youth Leader : it looks like the young man was bitter about different things, and decided to speak out of "Soo Bahk Do" in general as "the" problem. And then, the video comments became what is the worse on the internet : a meeting of complainers, in the need to express about their frustration. How about doing something about how Soo Bahk Do contributed to build the person you are today ? The True Martial Artist has to find the reason why he took this precise path, and not another one. Start to be generous in his view, rather than greedy.
Happy New Year 2024 with postive vibes in your life and training.
He was paying for a service he wasn't receiveing. I would have quit.
I did Soo Bahk Do for four years. It was my first exposure to martial arts. I thought it it was too rigid and structured, like being in the military and, like you said, conforming to an organization.
Apparently, the Federation changed a lot after KJN Hwang Kee's passing. I was watching a video last night, recorded recently, where the Sa Bom flat out said that they don't spar and they don't train to fight in his dojang. What?! I was in back in the early '00s and we did a lot of sparring along with reality based defense and it was not uncommon for someone to get injured during class. The biggest issue for me was that I was started with the "giving back" part, as a student-instructor, when I was still a 7th gup. I was already proficient at most of the basics due to previous experience in World Tang Soo Do as well as having real-world fight experience, where I've actually used TSD/SBD techniques. For me, classes started being more about teaching other students, including higher ranks, than improving my own art.
it definitely became more of a philosophy than a fighting art. just watch the masters perform, their technics are a foot from the target. after 40 some years training in the art it progressed, or digressed, from a great fighting art to a philosophy oriented family oriented organization and the true art was only taught to a select few. the older you got the less it had any real benefit, so i left in 2011 and pretty much everything this guy is saying is right on.
Amen. I started as a Chuck Norris Black Belt in Tang Soo Do then moved to the Moo Duk Kwan got 3rd dan under Master George Dolby. I can say yes.. Sadly it digressed. No hate just the truth.
i started my first soo bahk do class last night and everything he explained about soo bahk do is true i want to learn martial arts to defend myself on the street now im thinking about doing taekwondo
If you’re looking for self defense do a mix of Jiu Jitsu and Muay Thai. Taekwondo isn’t very effective
Did you start with taekwondo?
@@moctezumita im now a green belt in taekwondo going for my blue tip on saturday didn't go with soo bahk do
@@kennydean7872 Oh! That's great, I hope everything goes well on Saturday.
@@moctezumita thanks man hope it does i can smash 3 of my previous patterns out just have to do it faster than usual haha
Politics will sour anything good. The complaints about his changing status as he became a dan rank sound very "american". The organization is how you came to be, so failing to pick up your status is a failure to understand the nature of junior and senior in a dojo.