Kuk Sool style forum

Discussion in 'Kuk Sool' started by Gary, Sep 8, 2010.

  1. Gary

    Gary Vs The Irresistible Farce Supporter

    Hi guys, just a friendly question and nothing to do with me being a mod (especially one that types up big old aggressive stickies...) ;)

    I haven't had much exposure to Kuk Sool Won and rarely venture in here since a lot of the discussions go straight over my head. Due to recent events I have been looking around here and one thing did strike me as a little odd.

    I know there's always going to be a few posters who like to stick to their own style forum, which obviously is fine and everyone's welcome to post where they like. This area seems to have a pretty high number of you though, I've seen some big post counts on names I've not seen before and not too many names I recognize from more general areas.

    Why is this? Is it linked to the art in some way or do the majority of posters here just treat this style forum as separate in some way from the rest of MAP?
     
  2. VegasMichelle

    VegasMichelle Valued Member

    This forum has undergone a turnover in membership status of its posters. The largest and most well-known Kuk Sool organization is WKSA or World Kuk Sool Association or Kuk Sool Won. In the past, the KS section of MAP had a larger representation of WKSA posters...understandably so...considering the fact that the largest organization may have the largest portion of posters on MAP.

    However, recently, some people left this association and started to bash this association every chance they got. Many posters who remained with WKSA decided to stop posting on MAP due to all the anti-WKSA rhetoric and propaganda...some by their own choice and some encouraged to do so by others.

    The demographics have now shifted on MAP such that there are a whole lot more anti-WKSA posters and posts and few remaining WKSA posters.

    This type if "in-feuding" most certainly should have no place on other forums and IMO, most people rightfully air their opinions limited to this forum.
     
  3. Gary

    Gary Vs The Irresistible Farce Supporter

    Interesting VM, presumably there isn't a huge world of difference between the organizations styles though? I know that like everything else people can get sensitive if they feel their own viewpoints are threatened so some friction is understandable.

    It still doesn't explain why Kuk Sool posters are fairly quiet in other areas of the forum though, for example I think this is the first time I've posted in the same thread as you despite you having over 500 posts! :)

    Pleased to meet you btw!
     
  4. davefly76

    davefly76 Valued Member

    its because they spend half their life arguing about kuk sool rather than discussing training/teaching methods. it seems very top heavy with practitioners higher ranked than me and there are very little gup level posters genuinely asking for advice..
     
  5. VegasMichelle

    VegasMichelle Valued Member

    That is one of the very contentious topics...just how similar or different these various organizations are. There are different POVs on promotions, training, material, lineage, history etc etc etc.

    As for remaining quiet in other areas of MAP...an interesting question might be...how long have posters in the various forums been practicing their art? What I mean by that is: I can see a beginner Martial Artist with something like 5 years training dabbling here and there in the various different forums. But I wonder if many people with 25+ years in an art also have similar posting patterns? Perhaps they do...perhaps not. Just going by approximate rank of many Kuk Sool posters...there are plenty of folks who have decades and decades invested in Kuk Sool...some are Master rank and some even run their own schools.

    Perhaps the number of years into one art really plays no role at all in posting patterns! But when you add the little tidbit of recent shift in demographics and the hard feelings this brings, I can see reason for such self-segregation.

    BTW, pleased as well.
     
  6. Gary

    Gary Vs The Irresistible Farce Supporter

    I'm not sure if that's it, obviously there's a ton of new posters but there's also a broad spectrum of experiences, at an extreme end we've got members like Koyo, bujingodai and Alansmurf who have been doing martial arts for years and years.

    I can understand not posting in different arts, I admitted to this myself in the OP but a lot of the general areas like H&F, Off Topic, Film/TV etc aren't necessarily linked to MA and experience shouldn't affect interest in those areas. Even bits like General martial arts should have some application to most people here.

    I think the reason I asked is that I like to see information flowing about. Occasionally I'll see a topic raised in a style forum which would be far better raised in another area. For example if someone who usually posts in Ninjutsu wants to learn how to develop some strength they'll get a far better response in the H&F area than they will in their style forum. Conversely it's nice to see people posting in these areas instead of sticking to their own style since it increases the knowledge pool available to everyone.
     
  7. MUSOOLJOHN

    MUSOOLJOHN AKA KUKSOOLJOHN

    Good points Coma, I for one will make an effort to take a gander at these other topics and inject where I can.
     
  8. unknown-KJN

    unknown-KJN Banned Banned

    Just so you know, coma...

    BTDT :cool:
     
  9. Gary

    Gary Vs The Irresistible Farce Supporter

    Haha, yeah you were one of the few names I recognised!
     
  10. Obewan

    Obewan "Hillbilly Jedi"

    Hello Coma,

    I think it is just the nature of the beast...What I mean is that Kuk Sool Won and most of the off shoots are very tight nit groups, They are encouraged not to exchange information between MA styles, so it's sort of bred into us to only have discussions with each other, whether we realize it or not, we are only interested in the proliferation of our own style. At least that's the way I see it. I'm sure other will protest to my observations. But I'm certain that if you didn't put the words Kuk Sool in your title of this thread none of us would have responded. :cool:

    regards
     
  11. Gary

    Gary Vs The Irresistible Farce Supporter

    Cheers, that would explain it a bit! I've seen a similar thing in some Kung Fu styles.
     
  12. Pugil

    Pugil Seeker of truth

    I think Obe means tight-knit, rather than hard-up [poor in wealth] fleas!
     
  13. Mitch

    Mitch Lord Mitch of MAP Admin

    Whilst I understand this, I don't "get" it.

    I love TKD. More specifically I love ITF TKD. More specifically I love ITF TKD as its principles of power generation were taught in the late 70's :D

    That doesn't stop me thinking, "You know what? Some Karate stuff is really interesting, I'd like to look at that." Or, "I've seen that Muay Thai kick and you know what? It's not that different from a traditional roundhouse kick. I wonder what those guys do to train it?"

    TKD gives me plenty to study, more than enough. Doesn't mean I shouldn't look at more :D

    Mitch
     
  14. MasterDunchok

    MasterDunchok Valued Member

    One reason is because Kuk Sool has all martial arts within it - it's meant to be the entire spectrum of martial arts practiced in one country. So you won't find people too often here thinking, "hm, I wonder what grappling is like, let's check out the jujutsu forum" or "hm, I wonder what joint locking is like, let's check out the aikido forum"...
     
  15. Obewan

    Obewan "Hillbilly Jedi"

    Yeh, that's a better explanation Master D. :cool:
     
  16. Mitlov

    Mitlov Shiny

    But just because Style A teaches punching and Style B also teaches punching, doesn't mean that Style A practitioners couldn't learn anything from Style B practitioners (and vice versa).
     
  17. KSW_123

    KSW_123 Valued Member

    I like the health and fitness section now.

    I don't go to other martial arts section much because of the language barrier. Particularly with Japanese arts. I am too lazy to learn the termanology.

    I don't participate in the kuk sool forum much anymore because it is embarrassingly lame. Everyone time I read one of these threads these days, I want to hide in my head in shame.
     
  18. MasterDunchok

    MasterDunchok Valued Member

    True, but it just might mean people would be less inclined to be curious about something not quite so far removed.
     
  19. KIWEST

    KIWEST Revalued Mapper

    This is a fair point Dave (good to see you on here again BTW) But there HAS been a number of training thread posted over the past year or so and they have also largely been ignored by the WKSA members of the forum.
    I must admit that I did wonder whether there was some kind of directive or "advice" from KSW HQ discouraging participation in the forum as it seemed that everyone stopped posting at around the same time. (In fact I was told by a WKSA school owner that this was the case but did not want to take one persons word for it. I was told that as the WKSA was going to run its own forum that participation in this one was deemed unnecessary. Additionally I was personally warned off participation by a high ranking master, oh OK then it was KJN Alex, when I was "in" which gave some credence to what I was told)
    I could understand, to some extent, the org not wanting negative stuff being written about or read by its members (although that does smack a bit of censorship and IMO too much control) but it is a shame if such a directive, if indeed it was made, puts people off or even frightens them off participating in discussions about training as well.
    As fars as participation in other forums goes, I would think that Master Dunchock is right. Students are often led to believe that KS/KSW/KSK/MSW etc etc contains "everything they need in a martial art" I even used to believe that myself for many years. Therefore, if you believe that, why should you participate in other forums?
    And once you realise the fallacy of that belief the habit of only going on here has been formed. That and the fact that just posting on this forum takes up too much of our time anyway....!
    and where else could we get such a good quality of MA BS as on here???:evil:
     
  20. KIWEST

    KIWEST Revalued Mapper

    Actually Dave cancel that. It's NOT as fair a point as I thought!
    Having checked I find on the first page of the forum the following threads;-
    1) Differences between KSB and KS
    2) Kuk Sool Won in Korea
    3) Aging and training
    4) Mohm Puhl Ki Ideas
    5) Alternate finishes to KS techniques
    6) Cross Training
    7) ALiveness
    8) Korean acupuncture chart and names
    9) What is Mu Sool Won
    10) Demo team required
    11) Function over form, the street versus dojahng
    12) Poll regarding who was going to canadian event
    13) What rank did you begin sword training
    14) Korean martial arts super seminar
    15) KSW but without tournaments etc
    That's out of 25 "non sticky" threads but including this one.
    In fact there are only a handful of thread which are overtly argumentative and several others discuss non training issues like uniforms and history of KMA etc. but I am sure that this is the case on other forums too. Certainly some threads do get taken over by those who like to argue (thos the mods are cracking down on that now). But if the WKSA members who seem to have disappeared were to participate again on the training threads then surely the forum could become what you seem to want it to be? Maybe what you think of the forum depends upon which threads you choose to read and participate in?
    I personally have to say that although they can get a bit tiresome, I am grateful for some of the "negative stuff". If it hadn't been for that I may not have found out about the NKMAA, discovered a bit more of the truth behind KMA and I would have missed the trip of a lifetime last month. Which if you have nothing better to do you can read about here.....
    http://www.kuksoolwonlancs.co.uk/www.kuksoolwonlancs.co.uk/info.php?p=101
     
    Last edited: Sep 14, 2010

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