The biomechanical disparity that exists among institutions claiming to teach General Choi’s Taekwon-Do leads to the omission of elements in the execution of patterns or Tul. The different courses taught on the subject have contributed to emphasizing this difference. The mind of the performer is fundamentally focused on implementing small details established by the entity sponsoring the event, which only feeds the pretension of differentiation.

Remember that movements should be executed realistically, beyond always maintaining the correct posture and proper stance, but fundamentally rigidity should be absent. Realism in execution and the absence of stiffness seem to have disappeared as objectives to achieve, turning the performer into a robot obsessed with the use of physical tension, which is impractical in the case of a confrontation.

Tensing or relaxing the muscles at the appropriate time, as well as accelerating or decelerating movement, should be present in each execution. In most patterns competitions, this condition is absent. The obsession with fulfilling the details pointed out in the courses has led them to execute impractical movements.

Judges have apparently been trained to reward rigidity, lack of naturalness, and the height of kicks executed in an exhibitionist manner, to the point that on more than one occasion, the competitor makes it clear that they do not understand the practical use of one or another technique.

Maintaining the verticality of the spinal column (except in the exceptions marked by its creator) is one thing, but excessive tension in the muscles of the neck and shoulders in a completely fictitious and impractical posture is another. The number of national and international sports events produced by each and every entity is enormous, thus losing the relevance of the territorial scope included in the contest (international, continental, national, or neighborhood).

The seminars taught by the founder of the discipline were many and offered in most of the countries that were members at the time. These were filmed and leave no doubt about the correct way in which patterns should be executed. But of course, the governing entity was only one in contrast to the potpourri that overwhelms us today and produces the different deficiencies pointed out.

Many do not take into account, either for convenience or ignorance that each of the patterns or Tul begins and ends in the same exact place, a detail that marks the accuracy of the performer and the demanding work required to achieve this objective.

The aforementioned need a review by the entities that saturate the market and it must necessarily be taken into account to solve the issues pointed out. It is essential to consider training and modifying the information given to those who serve as judges and then providing those parameters to the competitors. It would be useless to train the performers properly, with the enormous personal effort that this demands, without the proper preparation of those who must judge the performance of that effort in a competition. Needless to say, on more than one occasion, people with correct performance are seen competing but not awarded by judges whose information is conditioned according to the directives of the entity in which they belong. Inadequate information often promotes injustice.

As a detail that seems not to be taken into account, starting and finishing in the same exact place is included in the score given to the diagram, among other concepts to be taken into account by the judging panel. If the competitor does not comply with this part, points will be deducted in that item that is included; of course, this will apply if the judges have been adequately trained.

SGM Ricardo Desimone

To be aware read again the previous notes

After repeating until exhaustion that there are more than 47 entities that use the same acronym to survive and develop their activities, I conclude that all of them utilize it as a surviving method to make use of the goose that lays the golden eggs. This is the worst damage that they can do to the legacy of the discipline’s Founder.

“Divide and conquer” is the old saying. Today the reign of Olympic Taekwondo faces no challenge due to the internal division of the art created by Gral. Choi Hong Hi on April 1955.

In the countless times that I’ve acted as his translator in interviews and seminars, General Choi didn’t

lose the opportunity to emphasize that in contrast to other martial arts, his was unique. The same thing was applied all around the world. Verticality was not only a hierarchical order but also a knowledge condition. Such an assertion was understandable because his lecture matches his biomechanical procedure.

As a top example everybody had the Founder’s performances in person.

Entities who call themselves his representatives were the ones who damaged that unity and forced its atomization to say “here I am.”

Those who didn’t support him in hard times, being outside of official entities recognized by him, today are leaders of entities who call themselves his representatives.

His biomechanical speech was unique and today it is distorted by people who in those times weren’t mentioned for their knowledge in that area. These are the people who produced the disparity that is overwhelming us.

What to do with this discouraging panorama? Well, unify a sole performance, protocol and sportive speech.

We have to rescue the General Choi’s original proposal: Taekwon-Do is a martial art with a sportive area and not vice versa as it is today.

We seriously disagreed with the WTF’s behavior and we’ve ended up doing the same thing.

It is easier to carry out a unification arrangement of General Choi’s Taekwon-Do than to try to merge with those who have exhaustively demonstrated their wish not to do so.

With this internal division, it is possible that Olympic Taekwondo is pleasantly carrying out their activities without any pressure because with which of the 48 entities that claim to be a Gral. Choi’s representatives would they speak?

I think that there is enough capacity, experience and hierarchies with the required conditions to try unifying under a unique criterion.

The difficulty is to accept that unification it obstructed not for technical reasons but for economic and political motives.

Everyone wrings their hands and proclaims how wonderful a single Taekwon-Do with an Olympic wing would be, until it is confirmed they have to carry it out. Once they recognize what each one would lose economically, politically and in their power positions, they put the unifying dreams back in a drawer.

With this undeniable reality that shelters us, there are elements that are necessary to remember to avoid confusion, misunderstandings and false expectations in the hands of mischievous opportunists:

1. a) There is no written legacy that determines with name and surname an heir of the martial art called Taekwon-Do.
2. b) In the memoirs of the Founder of the discipline it is established in writing that humanity is the inheritor of his creation and not any particular person, country or regime.
3. c) The only real heir is the practitioner, in whose hands lies the construction of the entity that contains the discipline as it was devised by its creator without capricious modifications.

Fully understanding what has been said allows us to clearly see the reality that surrounds us.

For 29 years (1973 to 2002) the founder of the discipline fought tooth and nail to keep his creation in one piece and prove that its name and only its name had been usurped. After his passing, a gradual but tenacious atomization began that did not need the old political adversary to destroy his work; this occurred at the hands of economic and personal ambitions. Those who claim to be its defenders are precisely its destroyers. In short, it is the triumph of denial

SGM Ricardo Desimone

to be awarded read again the previous notes.

Historical revisionism becomes imperative to understand the reality that surrounds us. The only source of real training for more than half of Taekwon-Do’s existence and founded by General Choi Hong Hi was the Instructor.

This direct relationship avoided to feed doubts and sustain a vertical martial system without double speeches. From the literary point of view, the appearance of the book published by the Founder of the discipline contributed to corroborate the information received from the Instructor. Many students were left with only what they received from the instructor and did not consult the literature.

The appearance of national and international championships allowed an exchange of experiences with different teaching methodologies at a global level that modified over time the previous system used. However, it should be clarified that even so all pedagogical systems had a strong dependence on the martial art and its foundation in self-defense.

The main difference consisted in the interpretation given to the techniques that were included in patterns (tul). At that time and due the non-proliferation of high grades only 15 or 16 were taught. Although the development of these was subject to the unique guide that feeds the 24 patterns, the most advanced were not executed due to the lack of degrees that demanded their development.  The international sports confrontation brought with it a discrepancy in the biomechanics of the movements executed in patterns’ competition, putting the system on alert about which was the right way to perform them.

The word of the direct Instructor began to find questions that could hardly be answered due to a criterion that presented certain differences at the international level. General Choi, who at that time had to solve the systematic usurpation of his art, had to explain the biomechanical discrepancy existing in international events. He entrusted on several occasions to Korean Masters in the task of combining reasons in the countries members to achieve unification of technical interpretation. While this helped in certain respects, on many occasions it also contributed to increasing the diversity of criteria. In these circumstances we reached to the end of the 80’s

This reality brought with it the increasingly need to unify an interpretation about the biomechanical criteria to be globally used without double definitions. It is evident that the only person for such a task was the founder of the discipline himself, who began to develop Taekwon-Do seminars in no uncertain terms. His 15-volume Encyclopedia, which photographically detailed the execution of the movements, helped to support the task.

According to dictionary, a seminar is a class or session where the source of knowledge or highest authority of the subject deal with the disciples meets, to carry out a research work or unify criteria on a certain topic. In the case at hand, General Choi instructed on the correct execution of each technique that make up the Art founded by him, many of which are included in the 24 patterns that compose it. The detailed development of each of the movements allowed during the 90’s to clear doubts worldwide about the correct execution and practical usefulness of these, making more equitable competition between the countries that made up the international entity presided by him.

At no time did General Choi spoke about the sporting facet and less about how to carry out the combative aspect. The tactical and strategic spectrum that feeds this facet is so broad that teaching classes on the subject was considered by the Founder himself as a lack of experience. He thought that it doesn’t contribute to the students or teachers evolution. He proposed that each teaching place dictates it own system, whose concepts should be individual indications and not general terms as usually is wrongly doing because each person is different.

Until the unification of technical criteria in hands of General Choi  that were called seminars due to the direct pedagogical relationship with the highest authority in the subject, what was given by the other Korean instructors delegated by him, were cataloged as special training courses. This concept is also valid today in the face of the proliferation of a teaching staff from different nationalities and grades.

To be called seminar, the source of information must be the top of the subject to avoid any doubt about its interpretation. In an institution seriously constituted, a single voice elected and agreed upon by the Council of Masters may dictate seminars.  In this context, giving seminars without holding the highest degree of information or without exercising as the technical authority is simply a daring of hierarchies that have not understood the place they occupy. Degree and knowledge should go hand in hand, but at present this is not the case. These high grades give only one training class where they talk about kicking and punching in a sport confrontation.

All meetings dealing with the combative aspects, not advised by the founder himself, have the character of special classes only.  But of course, it is very difficult to collect the cost that can be asked for a seminar when what is giving is only a training class.

SGM Ricardo Desimone  

To be aware read again the previous notes

Long ago, where only class attendance was important to avoid the missing practice; The Instructor figure was a highly respected place. They were so few that on many occasions they should be substituted by the most advanced student present there to cover them in emergencies or other personal troubles.

The atmosphere was strictly martial and the sporting side non-existent. Time changed that distant reality turning that martial environment with undeniable personal introspection, into one almost exclusively for sportive goals. Those who are not included in this target perhaps because they’re not interested, well … they … must adapt to work as filler.

The shortage of instructors in the first years of the activity has been followed by the profusion of people who are dedicated to teach the art according to the current circumstances and demands. However, this change in objectives has not prevented the orthodox evaluation of the adepts from continuing.

These are regulated by practice times to meet and theory and practical student’s evolution, whose favorable result will be exhibited with a new color on their belts if it is a Gup or with a change of number and design of the dobok if black belts we were talking about. In both cases and unlike that distant time, the certification of the promotion is not long in coming. The process that it is not so much different with those used in the past, has more complex institutional and organizational details than then.

The testing boards uphold a diagram that has been internationalized and allows students and Instructors to enjoy a pre-established order and recognition of the effort done. Obviously, this whole global system is supported by the fees that the students will pay to justify the time invested in the evaluation of the current army of students.  They must inexorably be scrutinized in order to grant the deserved new step in their evolution.

The Assistant Instructor (1st to 3rd Dan) and once fulfilled the requirements imposed by the system will access in his last step (3^rd Dan), to the grade of 4th Dan.  This place and unlike previous promotions, will allow them to become in Instructors if they are dedicated to teach. With the completion of a course and an administrative procedure, they will access the coveted place of International Instructors. This status will allow them to chair their own testing boards and promote students outside and within their country of residence up to half their rank (a 4th Dan will be able to promote up to 2nd Dan and so on). From then on their evolution as an Instructor can turn them over the years into Masters or Grand Masters of Art.

Sometimes the place occupied by the latter is often misinterpreted. These places are directly related to the perseverance dedicated to the pedagogical task and to promote Instructors and schools’ foundations.

There are those who abandon their regular pedagogical career and their direct contact with the students to dedicate in adding other’s instructors or their assistants, becoming without being, a kind of «distributor or godfather» of art.

This procedure, which is not new, has allowed the spurious commercialization of art and the firm distrust in its institutionalization. The instant consequence was the atomization of the international governing body, which occurred in the immediate aftermath of the death of its Founder and President, Gen. Choi Hong Hi.

The once respected figure of the instructor has been blurred by the constant passage from one entity to another, from one Master to another. This rattle and the lack of institutional formality carry on the coming and going of the students as a bundle of non consulted hostages that are used as a currency of exchange when negotiating utilities.

Imitation and repetition is the form that a disciple must take in front of the teachings. That is why a Master is committed to showing what he is teaching. If this incontrovertible fact does not occur because the master no longer has a regular pedagogical relationship with the students except on random occasions, an inevitable question arises: who is then the one who really teaches the student?

The Instructor lives on monthly dues he collects from his students and the administrative work involved in evaluating them and the respective certifications that must be issued. And the one who has abandoned the regular condition of teaching, how does he do it?

In a conversation out of the record, a current «grand master» who no longer has a regular teaching relation with the students, answered that question with: well… you know….fishing Instructors.

SGM Ricardo Desimone

To be aware read the previous notes