I made a thread asking this question yesterday and everyone got off track and never really asked what I was wanting to know.
I know why TKD is so popular today so you don't need to give me any more of that shit.What I want to know is how it got that way.
Most people got into TKD and martial arts in genaral from watching Chuck Norris and Bruce Lee movies in the 60's and 70's.Martial Arts were big on the west coast and somehow TKD managed to migrate all over the US faster than any other art.How did this happen?TKD was not an olympic sport at the time.TKD didn't have any big stars on the big screen.If anything you would've thought that Karate and Kung Fu would've been more popular but there are TKD schools about every 30-40 miles.
How did it get so big so fast?We didn't just wake up one day and all of a sudden TKD schools openned up over night.
I want to know how tkd spread from an obscure korean art being taught on the west coast by Jhun Rhee to being the most popular art in the US......
And yes I know that it's easy to learn and it looks flashy for kids,you don't have to tell me that 30 fucking times because I know why it is popular today but how did it get to this point?
Ferox,that thread explained why it is popular today buit didn't explain how it got so popular.How did it become available to everyone.You guys are explainging that it's easy to learn and it has flashy kicks but noone can explain how it went from a garage in California to having a tkd school in every small town in the US.
Obviously the generic answer is marketting but how exactly was it marketted so well and where did all of these instructors come from.There are thousands upon thousands of tkd schools in America.How did it get so big coming from nothing?It was not an Olympic sport until just a few years back,it's not exactly featured in a lot of on screen martial arts flicks like Karate and Kung Fu are.How did this obscure korean art get so much exposure and where did all of these instructors come from all of a sudden?
He tought in DC i belive and its pretty easy to figure out. My question is how the fuck did Walmart get so big?? One day we have a million mom and pops the next (with the help of the neocons) all big buisness. WTF. And while im on it FUCK BUSH! Oh and
Thanks Dan,finally a start of a good answer.They waterred it down and made it more "public friendly" but how did they get it so much exposure?
Take this scenario for example.-
A family of brasilians coems to America and start teaching their art out of there garage.One of them gets acess to movie sets and starts training actors on the side and gets involved with fight choreography and stunt work.He does an interview in Penthouse magazine where he leaves an open challenge to anyone in the world to give them a certain amount of money if they can beat one of his family members.Eventually,since noone seems to be able to take advantage of this offer and beat one of his family,he and some of his associates hold an event on ppv displaying his family's style of fighting against other styles getting them exposure on ppv television and the martial arts start doing exposees on him and his family due to their sucess.
It should be obvious who I am talking about and everyone knows this story and how bjj got popular(although not as popular as tkd).
Tkd started out the same way.Being taught by just a few people and then it exploded into pretty much every ton in the US.HOW?And just saying by marketting is too vague.How was it marketted to such a broad audience?Where did all of these instructors come from all of a sudden.Did Jhun Rhee have 1000 guys in his gym and told these 70 to go to Michigan and open their own school and another 60 to go to Missouri and another 80 to Kansas and so on?I want to know SPECIFICALLY how it got it's exposure
Several decades ago, some guy in a large city (L.A? N.Y?) watches some kung-fu movies and wants to learn that. So he goes to a kung-fu school. The guru says, "You must spend 10 years perfecting your horse stance before I teach you weapons!"
So he goes to a judo school. He gets sat on by a big guy and he can't do anything. This sucks. He wants to do flashy stuff and beat up 5 football players in the parking lot in front of his girlfriend, not be sat on by a big guy.
So he goes to a karate school. More horse-stance stuff. They have three belts: white, brown, and black. You spend a lot of time as a white belt. He eats a fist in a bare-knuckle sparring match and leaves.
So he goes to a Tae Kwon Do (excuse me, Taekwon-do) school. Lots of pretty colored belts, flashy kicks, and padded gear. Every time he starts to get depressed with his progress, he gets a new pretty belt. In 3-4 years, he has a black belt. His friend, who started karate at the same time he did, is still only a blue belt (if it was a progressive karate school) or a third-stripe brown (if was old-skool). His job transfers him to Podunkville, GA. People around him have seen Bruce Lee movies and are interested in the martial arts. Some of them have done it before, but he's the only one in town with a BLACK BELT. So, he opens a school and gets lots of business. He starts churning out black belts, who go looking for a place with little or no competition, and the art spreads.
The story goes like this...
Sam Walton, Ray Kroc and an Asian Guy were sitting at a bar. Sam Walton says, "I will create a wholesale store that offers club prices and beat out the little independant stores. I will be rich!!!" Ray Kroc says, "I will create a hamburger place, market my food with a clown so all the kids will want it. I will be Rich!" The Asian Guy says..."I will market my secret family martial art to you Americans...I will be Rich!"
E.L.F stands for earth liberation front. they are white terrorist that burn down housing developments and do lots of property damage in the u.s., but we wont go after them because they look like our brothers and sisters
To the average American TKD is karate with a different name. You break boards, kick, punch ect. Karate. One school produces 10 black belts every year with the average black belt taking 3 years. This is if they have the skills to make it or not. ($) One of the black belts then starts helping at the YMCA or what not and makes more Black Belts. They all move away and spread out lots of money can be made because there is so much to market.
1: Classes
2: Uniforms
3: Sparring Gear
4: Special competion team classes that cost double the regular class.
Along with this, one of your "assistants" can run the class 3 times a week and you only have to show up once.
3 reasons: Profit, Simplicity, Kids love it=good business. Good business=lots of people looking to make a buck.
Many of Korean immigrants that came over here,had the choice,China Buffet or TKD school with low interest business loans provided by "our" government.Loans that you and I will never see!!!!
The WTF/KTA actively encouraged their best instructors/fighters to come over in the late 60's/early 70's. Hee Il Cho, Gen. Choi, Dae Shik Kim, Jhoon Rhee, Nam Suk Lee, etc., etc. all came over here & taught, and laid the foundation.
It got so that many of the best TKD instructors were in the US. The next generation saw that financial success meant going overseas (less competition for students), so as soon as they made a name for themselves, they left Korea. The WTF/KTA encouraged this by offering rank for going overseas. I've heard my instructor joke about Koreans taking off in Seoul as a 3rd dan and landing in the US as a 5th or 6th dan. Some of these guys were real good, some of them were out for making money.
BTW, the rank system was copied from Judo. Ten sub black belt ranks, 9 black belt ranks - the actual lower belt color was up to the individual association/Kwan/Master/Whatever - some had 4 color belts, some had 7 or 8 - but they were all 10 ranks. Not surprising that came from Judo - Un Yong Kim, the head of the WTF, was a Judoka first & foremost. Recently that's changed to 9 sub black belt ranks & 10 black belt ranks (I have no idea why).
Trivia question - where & when did the art that became known as TKD make it's first big appearance in the US?
TKD spread becuase it was a great investment for many Korean immigrants and is an easily adapted system.
"E.L.F stands for earth liberation front. they are white terrorist that burn down housing developments and do lots of property damage in the u.s., but we wont go after them because they look like our brothers and sisters"
***They are our brothers and sisters and stand in direct opposition the the Bush "Regime's" anti-earth sentiment. Many are doing time, most of which are on trumped up charges brought about by Fascists laws like the Patriot Act. Without the ELF and others we would be at the mercy of wealthy land developers who are already building on top of themselves trying to make more money than the joneses under the misconception that money brings happiness or some such sillyness.