To speak about the damage that the institutional atomization of Taekwon-Do has produced would be a reiterative truth. In a note published on Facebook with an authorship that I can’t remember, the number of entities using the same acronym and claiming to teach General Choi’s Taekwon-Do was described in detail.
The figure illustrates 48 and included the name and rank of those who preside over them. In the list were included ITO, an international organization that I founded in 2013 and I’m currently chair. Although ITO doesn’t exploit the acronym that is used by the remaining 47, it does strictly teach what the Founder of the discipline bequeathed to me because I’ve received it directly from his hands without any intermediary. Details on this can be obtained at www.itotkd.org
I knew that there were many entities that claim to teach what the General dictated, but I didn’t imagine that would be so many and in this same context those that are to come. They all claim to do it but none of them follow his teachings.
I mean being the federation that Choi Hong Hi presided over. The reasons are obvious and have been explained repeatedly. Beyond the biomechanical divergence in relation to the original, the problem begins to worsen due to the number of entities that dispute the management of the students in his name, the promotion system, times applied between ranks and costs of them. Some reminders are necessary to reason about the seriousness that besets us and understand what we call the legacy of General Choi Hong Hi:
- a) It is necessary TO USE THE SYSTEM developed by the Founder. This must be done in all its aspects and not only in any of them and because it is convenient so. The pedagogical methodology must not be altered (warm-up system, body biomechanics, philosophy, uniform to be used, the time and training required in the scale of degrees to be granted, protocols to be followed and the sports system to be used).
- b) Nobody can compulsorily occupy the place of the Founder without the consent and support of the rest; therefore, they are only regents of private companies.
- c) Art should not depend on any country or regime because that is how it was designated by General Choi himself, repeatedly said in countless seminars and reports that have been made on him. This was also written down in his bibliography and in his memoirs.
- d) Fortunately, there are still high-ranking people who, as it is in my case, we have been his direct students and can attest to this truth.
- e) Many reports that were made on him have been recorded and filmed and serve to endorse what has been said.
- f) The General boasted of the existence of a single entity that contained his unique art, with a unique biomechanics and a unique pedagogical system to transfer knowledge to the next generations of practitioners. Business ambitions and lack of awareness have done the opposite.
The number of world, continental, national, regional, and even neighborhood tournaments is overwhelming, however, and due to institutional diversity, the successes achieved in them only count for the entity that sponsors each event.
In front of an ephemeral possibility of a merger with Olympic Taekwondo, it is necessary to keep in mind that none of the aforementioned 48 has preeminence over the rest, in the event of an alleged and more than unlikely negotiation.
Institutional unity is the only possible way to preserve the legacy and give coherence to the current sale of ranks.
A single entity is the only possible means of regulating activity. The old popular saying of unity is forced to go around shouting, but apparently, no one hears it or, what is worse, it seems that no one wants to hear it, because of that «there is no worse deaf than the one who doesn’t want to hear».
SGM Ricardo Desimone
To be aware read again the previous notes