All, I would like to know how many Dojangs/Schools practice the applications of the hyungs in Tang Soo Do My reason for asking is I spent 3 years in Tang Soo Do and never once did I learn the application of any of the Hyungs Also I have a 2nd Degree Ex-Tang Soo Do who now trains with me who again advises that he was not once show application of Hyungs Is this Standard across the board for Tang Soo Do'ists or was it just the schools we attended. Your thoughts please :hat: Note this is not a pop at Tang Soo Do, this is to find out the truth about a style that I once enjoyed very much
There are a fair number of schools that do not do the applications, or the original "bunkai" behind the Okinawan forms. The founder of Tang Soo Do Moo Duk Kwan, Hwang Kee, learned the forms out of a book he found in a library. He was having trouble presenting his system (called "Hwa Soo Do" at the time) because in immediate post Occupation Korea, the public only knew of Japanese karate. So he added in the forms out of a book to make his system more "karate-esque". Of course, the proper bunkai you can't really learn out of a book. To this day, in the original Moo Duk Kwan system (now named Soo Bahk Do Tang Soo Do Moo Duk Kwan, headed by H.C. Hwang), bunkai are not a part of the standard curriculum. Thus anyone who left the Hwang lineage to start their own Tang Soo Do associations also would not have the bunkai. However, many instructors and school owners are aware of this and have developed their own applications and bunkai over time, so there are also a fair number of schools out there that DO teach application.
