How Do I Know if I'm In a Legitimate Taekwondo School? Is My Instructor a Fake?

How Can You Tell if You Are In an Authentic Taekwondo School?  Is Your Instructor a Fraud?

This is a great question.  Since there are no required and standardized governing bodies for all Taekwondo schools, it can make it confusing as to which schools and instructors are legitimate.

McDojangs McDojos Belt Factories Motivated By Greed - Am I In One Of These?

However, there are a group of widely respected, and therefore considered more legitimate Taekwondo organizations.  Here are the majors:

• WTF http://www.wtf.org Officially recognized by the Korean government, the official governing body for the Olympic games and the home of Kukkiwon-the World Taekwondo Headquarters. Often referred to as Olympic Taekwondo or World Taekwondo.  Features the Taeguek Poomsae Forms.

• ITF originall founded by General Choi Hong Hi, since his passing has begun to fragment so two links will be posted. http://www.tkd-itf.org/pub_web/ver_eng/index.html  http://www.itftkd.org/ .  Features the Chang Hon pattern forms, often referred to as "Chon Ji or Chun Ji" forms.

• ATA the largest centrally located Taekwondo organization.  Considered pioneers in the personal develop aspects of Taekwondo. Originally taught the ITF forms but now have their own Songahm patterns.

Each of these organizations issue official certificates and have a centrally located governing body or office to verify claims and substantiate certification.  More and more they are working towards being able to verify and validate an instructors credentials and claims with an online searchable database.  

How Do You Protect Yourself?

The best thing you can do is arm yourself with information and education, ask good questions, do a bit of follow up research and you will be able to make that determination.

"Legitimate is as legitimate does."

Authentic Taekwondo schools will be able to clearly document and validate a lineage to a respected teacher and organization.  Some unscrupulous school owners start in a legitimate organization only later to withdraw to keep all the fees and avoid any accountability.  You can usually identify these schools because they:

• Do not have a guest Master Instructor conduct their belt promotions
• Do not offer authentic certificates or documentation
• Point only to the organizations they used to belong to conveniently leaving out their current status
• Do not continue training with a legitimate teacher 
• Do not have accountability to a martial arts organization, often citing a business affiliation instead 
• Forgo belt testing and organizational accountability, proper documentation.  
• Some go as far as to bounce from rogue master to master in hopes of buying their rank promotion or even promoting themselves (more common than one might think)
• A red flag is an instructor who is conspicuously rogue and has little to no outside opportunities such as tournaments, guest Masters, Grand Masters, and it is difficult to trace their claims.  It is also an indication that they were removed (kicked out) of a legitimate organization.
• Another red flag is instructors who hand out belt promotions in class.  This is purely motivated by greed and laziness and has no legitimacy in any recognized Taekwondo organization.
• Before long this arrogance grows and they will usually claim to have created their own art or style (without any legitimizing steps or independent recognition).  Most legitimate systems are recognized by the Korean government.

In most legitimate systems, a vetted instructor could not open his or her own school until he or she is a Master Instructor (4-6th Degree with appropriate training, experience of 10-15 minimum). Most respected organizations have school licensing which you can ask to see. In some rare cases, instructors would need to be at least a 3rd Degree Black Belt, and then only open a branch school under the direct guidance and accountability of a recognized Master.  That Master Instructor is usually very involved in such a situation.

The common sense test:

1. Consistently unhealthy and overweight
2. Makes excuses about larger organizations
3. Often compares other styles, schools, instructors and makes disparaging remarks out of envy or immaturity 
4. Has little outside validation or the outside validation seems to be coming from suspicious sources (You never meet or see the instructors who issued his/her rank.)
5. Does little to nothing to document rank (no application, written tests, physical requirements, fitness standards - nobody ever fails)
6. Does little to contribute to the art as a whole ie:

• No tournament refereeing, hosting or similar
• No hosting international guests and teams such as from Korea
• Never taking students to any international event, tournament or the like
• Never offering a training tour to the arts host country (in this case Korea)
• You rarely or ever hear or learn about your teachers lineage, instructors or have the chance to interact with them.
• Seem to be guessing at advanced material, learning from videos alone or making things up

A good instructors reputation, lifestyle, character, demeanor and abilities are all indications of his or her authenticity.

Documentation, Reputation, Representation

Remember that a piece of paper is only as good as the person behind it.  But as a consumer, it is usually a good sign to be able to document and validate claims.  

Good Instructors Lead By Example

Great Instructors Set the Example 

Legitimate Instructors Do Legitimate Things

This often means that they continue training and submit themselves to a wise mentors.  They will still have to train, travel and test for rank.  Usually, Senior Masters and Grand Masters will issue them awards and offer outside validation to students.  Illegitimate instructors will often offer excuses instead.

Legitimate Instructors usually tollerate the necessary politics to provide greater opportunity for his or her students and continue on a path of improvement.  They will also continue being a student themselves and lead by example.

Since the Martial Arts industry is unregulated, it is important to remember "buyer beware".  There are some independent school owners and instructors that are good at what they do, but no person of integrity would misrepresent, distort or exaggerate their history.  Consider who you want teaching you or your child.  

False humility is a sign of manipulative narcissistic arrogance.  True humility is a sign of inner strength and wisdom that comes from hard-won experience.