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WHERE WE STAND ON ..... THE KOREAN MARTIAL ARTS INSTRUCTOR'S ASSOCIATION In a perfect world, all military or martial art practitioners would be reasonable and prudent persons. As reasonable and prudent persons, these practitioners would understand, merely upon simple reflection that both home and headquarters of the traditional Korean military arts are not in California, Texas, or Louisiana, or even in the United States. It is not in Canada. It is not in Europe. The traditional Korean martial arts have both home and headquarters on a peninsula off the coast of mainland Asia. It is a land that we English-speaking people call Korea. This peninsula was artificially divided - by foreigners - after World War II. This artificial division was made against the desire of the people of that land; a division which separated families and loved ones, and which remains imposed upon the Korean people today. The military arts in the southern portion of this peninsula are well organized under a democratic government, the Republic of Korea (ROK). While the standard-setting organization for the military sports, i.e. Judo, Kukki Taekwondo, shooting, etc., is the ROK Olympic Committee, the standard-setting body for the traditional Korean military arts is the Korean Martial Arts Instructors Association (KMAIA). Unlike in the West, being an instructor in the military arts is a profession in Korea. Becoming qualified as an instructor is a long and difficult process. The current requirements, for example, include a requirement for a minimum of two years of college education, and will increase to a college degree within the coming decade. Going back to the concept of a “perfect world”, for a moment. In a perfect world, those who publish opinions on the internet would be required to possess valid credentials in support of what they post on the internet. Unfortunately, here in the “real world”, persons posting information and opinion on the internet do not even need to provide their own name, never mind actually possessing knowledge regarding the matter for which they provide their opinion; opinion often masquerading as fact. One should not be surprised therefore, to learn that the KMAIA is periodically the object of vicious attacks by self-styled “experts” in internet “chat rooms” and “bulletin boards”. The degree of anti-KMAIA hysteria demonstrated by some of these individuals is somewhat amusing. The amount of pure venom demonstrated by others raises legitimate question as to their mental health and status. One recent posting provided “information just in” for readers of one bulletin board. The host, who does not read, write, or speak Korean, posted a purported e-mail just received from an individual in Korea, who does not read, write, or speak English. In this posting, the Korean purportedly informs everyone that there is no such organization in Korea as the KMAIA, an assertion which raised gales of laughter among knowledgeable readers, since the individual supposedly writing this e-mail heads an organization which is itself a member of of the KMAIA, as is he himself. But then, why let silly things such as truth and fact interfere with a good run of libel, defamation, just plain ignorance, and outright fraud. The following are the current member organizations of the KMAIA: Chung Tong Yudo Hae Mu Hapkido Korea BongSool Association Korea ChiMuKwan Association Korea Hapkido Federation Korea Kumdo Federation Korea KumMuSool Federation Korea KyukTookKi Federation Korea MooDo Association Korea ShimKiDo Association Korea SimMooDo Association Korea SipPalGi Association Korea Sirrum Association Korea SooRim Federation Korea Taekwondo Association Korea TaeKyun Association Korea TangSooDo MuDukKwan Society Korean Healing Arts Institute Korean Ki Society National Hapkido Association R.O.K. Yudo Association These are the traditional Korean military art organizations of the Republic of Korea. If you belong to an organization not listed above, the organization to which you belong is not recognized as a traditional military art in the Republic of Korea. Please note, however, that several of these organizations have kwons and other organizations within their membership. There are, for example, seven active kwons of Taekwondo, which operate under the Korea Taekwondo Association. There are over thirty organizations under the Korea Hapkido Federation. There are also a number of Yudo organizations in Korea (but only ChungTongKwan Yudo is authorized to operate internationally). The training of instructors is dealt with elsewhere in this series of essays, but remember one point if you are a potential student of the traditional Korean military arts looking for a place to study: if your potential instructor is not a currently licensed instructor of one of the organizations listed above, or their subordinate kwons, and current active member of the KMAIA, he or she is very unlikely to be properly qualified to teach in Korea. If he or she is not qualified to teach in Korea - for one of the organizations listed above - how can they be a legitimate instructor of the traditional Korean military arts? If you frequent one of these bulletin boards, and most serious practitioners do not, the next time that someone writes “I have a number of Korean friends and none of them have ever heard of this Korean Martial Arts Instructors Association”, please understand one thing. This is not a comment on the legitimacy of the KMAIA, whose credentials are impeccable. It is a self- indictment of the writer, and solid evidence of the lack of social or professional standing of his friends, in the legitimate traditional Korean military arts. © 2002, 2003 Joseph F. Connolly, II. |
