Good article, thanks !

Generally speaking most “traditional” schools emphasize the traditional approach to the technical side of a given martial art. The moral/spiritual is usually there but not as emphasized. At least this has what I’ve seen and also have heard from others who have spent time in a traditional school. My current TKD instructor came from a school that was so rigid that they had to bow in the shower area to seniors. Now naked bowing may be your thing but I think that’s just plain silly and also misses the point. I’d wager that half of those students could not tell me squat about the history (or histories) of taekwondo proper! Yet there they are bowing to seniors in the bathroom! Now which is the worse tragedy?

Now I’m perfectly fine with these traditions and traditional approaches if you can actually tell me why I’m doing it and what I may get out of it. But as you’ve alluded too, often that is not the case. Honestly, I probably don’t respect naked bowing or the 9th dan who insists it but I’m funny that way.

Same goes for “traditional” explanations of certain techniques. It’s fine if you teach a chambered punch to honor “tradition”. But it’s suicide if you are sending students out with the notion that this technique alone will help them in self-defense. What’s more likely to happen is that if they do get in a fight with someone who knows how to “keep ‘em up” and box that person will knock their blocks off. A more modern approach might be to teach these chambered shots as finishing or disabling blows to a prone or stunned opponent–at least that’s what my school does.

I still like how Tedeschi classifies the styles within taekwondo:

http://strikingthoughts.wordpress.com/2006/05/13/taekwondos-genealogy/

My school falls into the classification:

*Integrated: These schools combine (to varying degrees of success) the sport and martial arts aspects of Taekwondo.

As for Batman Pajamas yeah I own a pair…so what?