Irish ITF Question

cade

Which Is Truer To Gen Choi Hong Hi's Original

I want to join a Taekwon do class yet looking around im lost with the amount of organisations claiming to be THE ITF.

Im torn between the I.N.T.A on Exchequer street and R.I.T.A. on Parnell Street, as these seem to be the most organised of the bunch.

any info'd be apreciated

Thanks

dudara

INTA and RITA are both ITF affiliated, and probably are the biggest two organisations in Ireland.

I'm a member of a Cork-based INTA club, but I know some of the instructors in the Exchequer Street club and they're very impressive people. The only way to know for certain if it is for you however, is to just go along and try out a few classes.

Innervision

dudara wrote:

INTA and RITA are both ITF affiliated, and probably are the biggest two organisations in Ireland.

I'm a member of a Cork-based INTA club, but I know some of the instructors in the Exchequer Street club and they're very impressive people. The only way to know for certain if it is for you however, is to just go along and try out a few classes.

That's true, you really would need to check both out to see what your personal preference is. I'm in the RITA, Master Howard in Parnell St is excellent, to be honest I haven't seen much INTA stuff so I can't make a fair comparison.

entropi

well i'm gonna be checking out the INTA one on exchequer st pretty soon , on 2nd floor of the building.. get a timetable from em, turn up on beginner nights , starts from 20 quid a week, max of 3 sessions .. pretty good place it seems, and instructors are very good i hear.

Tim_Murphy

Which Is Truer To Gen Choi Hong Hi's Original

What does it matter what association you are with? They will all be doing pretty much the same thing. From my own TKD experience I would say the more people say they are 'true ITF' the more I would stay well away from them.

INTA and RITA are both ITF affiliated, and probably are the biggest two organisations in Ireland.

dudara, do you know how many clubs are in each? Just out of interest really

dudara

To the best of my knowledge, the INTA has mainly 30 clubs, based mainly in Dublin and Cork, with some in Waterford and other places.

RITA has about 22 scattered throughout.

Both these organisations are pretty well run to the best of my knowledge.

memphis

There are loads of clubs in Ireland now that claim to use ITF teachings. Its kinda what someone else refered to in a simular thread about this a few months back as alpabetic soup.

Ya got INTA, RITA, GST, IUTF and I'm sure there are tomes more just can't think of em right now.

pma-ire

memphis wrote:

There are loads of clubs in Ireland now that claim to use ITF teachings.... .....and I'm sure there are tomes more just can't think of em right now.

And as Tim said it really don't matter about "true ITF" affilation. Go train at a place that suits you.

If Exchequer street is it! Then fine! Good Luck on your journey

Repli

I went to exchequer st for a few years, I just have 2 points to make about it:

1) Compared to local taekwondo clubs, the instructors are very impersonal, don't be surprised if you're there months and they don't know your name. It's because there are a HUGE amount of people in the club so you don't get as much 1-1 training as experienced in local clubs. I trained in my friends tkd club in a dublin suburb for a few weeks once and couldn't believe how personal it was. Everyone knew each other and the instructor knew everyone, their level of tkd, when they were ready for grading, etc.

2) It is very expensive, if you are paying by the week (€20/week) for 3 classes, whereas I was training in a WTF club in the suburbs at the same time, paying €10 / week for 4 classes. I know you can pay monthly/3 monthly/etc and it works out cheaper, but they are strict about payment. Again when I was in my friends club, if people didn't have the €2 one week, he wouldn't care and would let them pay the next time no problem. I'd advise paying for 3 months/6 months/etc if you plan on staying in exchequer st.

Roper

Well who cares how much attention you get or whatever, as long as they're the REAL ITF, how far wrong can you go?

dudara

Roper wrote:

Well who cares how much attention you get or whatever, as long as they're the REAL ITF, how far wrong can you go?

ROFL

The Exchequer Street club is busy. You might be better off heading to one of the smaller INTA clubs. Check out INTA for other club details.

Down here in Cork, I pay E30 for a calendar month training (approx 7-9 classes per month). Can't beat that for value.

grosser

the best club in dublin is aita in blanchardstown!i trained in exchequer st for nearly three years!believe me when i say the better instructor is in blanchardstown!

cade

thanks for the info Repli, helps alot man, think i'd go their just for sum extra training, learn the skills at a smaller club though

roper dude, its not like i crave attention but i would like some interaction with the instructors even if its to say im crap, at least i'd have something to build on

yea dudara, had looked up inta before, didnt tell me anything, seems their menus on site doesnt like firefox, had to use opera to get info.

dudara

cade wrote:

yea dudara, had looked up inta before, didnt tell me anything, seems their menus on site doesnt like firefox, had to use opera to get info.

I've had the same problems with their website and firefox. Have to use IE any time I want to view their site.

The only way to know for sure is to take a few classes and see what you think of it. Best of luck, whatever you do

mark.leonard

Roper wrote:

Well who cares how much attention you get or whatever, as long as they're the REAL ITF, how far wrong can you go?

lmao

Ger Healy

cade why are you so interested in the "Truer To Gen Choi Hong Hi's Original" of TKD is there something better about this syle than say other ITF TKD style???

Roper

cade wrote:

roper dude, its not like i crave attention but i would like some interaction with the instructors even if its to say im crap, at least i'd have something to build on.

Eh, I think you missed the sarcasm there. Who cares whats 'real' and what's not. If you find a place that calls itself nung nung krang foo, but you get out of it what you want... what's the problem?

Too many people hung up on politics before they even join IMO.

cade

yea, sorry roper dude, i sorta did,
anyway i know what u mean, i wouldnt mind even going outside the club and having to regrade at an affiliated club grading as long as i was getting what i wanted.

the reason i said which is truer to the original is because i was hoping to find a club that taught the original martial art, as opposed to the evolved (watered down) martial sport, i believed the affiliated clubs would be the most likely to have held onto the original teachings.

don't get me wrong now im not saying the other clubs are crap or anything and i'll admit i don't know diddly about taekwon do it's just i spent enough of my karate years training for competitions, learning sport movements as opposed to applying the original techniques now only found in Kata to combat.

pma-ire

cade wrote:

the reason i said which is truer to the original is because i was hoping to find a club that taught the original martial art, as opposed to the evolved (watered down) martial sport, i believed the affiliated clubs would be the most likely to have held onto the original teachings.

The thing is that even Choi's ITF did not teach the original teachings of the Oh Do Kwan (Choi Hong Hi and Nam Tae Hi's first school teaching the Korean Army).

cade wrote:

it's just i spent enough of my karate years training for competitions, learning sport movements

If this is the case then most TKD clubs will be of a big dissapointment to you. If you thought that Karate had too much sport training. Then TKD will break your heart! Even the ITF is very sport driven, the only reference to a more traditional art is that the movements are still somewhat similar to the original Karate forms it was created from.

As for....

applying the original techniques now only found in Kata to combat.

some Styles of Okinawan Karate might still train like this? But I would think that they are not that common in this country? (Please speak up if you are out there?)

But it does not take much to adopt your training to the original frame of thought and use of the forms of Asian Martial Arts.

Think about what you are looking for here????