American Taekwondo Association Belts

Seriously, please tell me what the American Taekwondo Association is like?

Hi all,
I personally do taekwondo and hold two different belts- a first degree ITF black belt and a WTF green belt.

I’ve visited several ATA schools. The ATA is a franchise. They have a hard sell approach to recruiting students. They are not likely to go out of business due to the strong legal contracts in the schools and the organization. If a student complains to the org about an instructor or school the org. tells them to talk to the instructor at the school.
The first ATA school i visited in Georgia had an instructor that told me that he had been training for 17 years. he was getting ready for his 5th dan test. Watching him teach and workout was really depressing. his technique had no focus, snap, or control. Many of the movements were totally impractical. Another time I walked in on a class he was teaching a Bo form to. They would place the bo on the floor in front of their feet. then they would place one foot on top of the bo and pull it back quickly causing the bo to roll up on top of their foot. At that point they would lift their knee quickly throwing the bo up so that they could grab it.
The ATA is not recognized as legitimate in Korea. Neither are any ranks they issue.
Instructors are required to meet quotas for enrolling new students as well as promoting them. The ATA does not allow any other arts to be practiced in their schools unless approved by the ATA.
Many ATa schools are bought by wannabees that are looking for a ready-made school with students. A truck driver i know has a friend that is also a truck driver. The friend was recruited by the ATA to open schools. He himself is a very good TKD student and instructor of 5th dan(rank and training not from the ATA). The ATA hired him to move to towns long enough to open a new school and get it going. Then the ATA would sell it to someone that wanted their own school. The new owners may or may not be qualified to be teaching. Many times the new owners really sucked at what they were doing. The guy opening the schools would move to a town. He would rent a location. He then supervised the build-out. He would then open the school and sign up students. He was good and students would easily join. When the school reached the break-even point, the ATA would sell the franchise and he would move to another town to open the next school. The students at the schools he opened were stuck training with the new owners no matter what since they were locked into a contract.

The guy I know at the local ATA school is qualified to be a green belt based on his control, knowledge, and ability.

The ATA has something like 15 belts levels before black belt. They have mandatory seminars like the one required before testing for brown belt. That seminar cost $50 and is one hour long. It teaches how to break a board. Everyone testing for brow belt must take it even if they already break boards. Testing is done often and fees are high. Several times in the last few years there have been video links posted on Y/A to some ATA rank tests. Some of the videos were quickly removed form youtube after being posted on Y/A. I have seen several videos of ATA testing for black belt ranks. I have yet to see any one testing that knew what they were doing or did it well. It is a shame that the ATA dupes the public and gets away with it. They do not allow anyone that is not ATA to enter their tournaments. If you attend Karate tournaments you never see ATA competitors. The ATA has their members so brainwashed that they are doing good martial arts.

If you have other questions, I can probably answer them for you.

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Joseph THE ONE Alexander Mr. R Dysktra 2′ Black Belt American Taekwondo Association

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