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Due to the accelerated transformation
of Martial Arts into mass sports and recreation activities,
the deeper (and more complex) Martial Knowledge
of our Arts is increasingly abandoned and forgotten.
Ancient ways of training were
developed to strengthen the Spirit and social character,
in order to be able to endure and overcome life difficulties;
as well as the Body, through the aquisition of
fighting skills, to be able to survive real life-threatening
situations.
Martial Arts as fighting disciplines are physically as intellectually demanding.
They are more than recreational sports, or "Martial Arts
business”. They are Spiritual and Physical disciplines.
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The Dupré Taekwon-Do Institute is dedicated to Han Kuk Mu Sul Instructors
and serious students, willing to obtain a deeper
understanding of those sophisticated and (sometimes) unknown Martial aspects of our Arts, usually not
transmitted in sports oriented training.
This Site is one of our tools to achieve our objectives. |
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Why?
There is too much stress on etiquette
(but no respect), wardrobe beautifying (patches, stripes,
colorful combinations, and even cloth advertising), and easy
grading (as an aim).
For many, Martial Arts are translated
into training fancy techniques, grading,
and wining championships.... “Good” instructors are frequently
measured by the number their followers, or the money they
make; not the quality of their teaching.
Sports competition is taking
precedence over the ideals of fighting efficiency and personal development
through the Martial Arts. World Martial Arts organizations
are obsessed with growing in numbers and going into
the Olympics (or staying there), even if
this means crippling their knowledge by reducing
it to a simplified set of (less dangerous) techniques,
adapted into an easy-to-teach and beautiful-to-see
sports competition business.
Sports
competition is important. But competition
is just a small part of a deeper and much richer Body
of Knowledge called Martial Arts. Without training Martial Arts in a Martial context, there
is no Sul (fighting skill),
neither Do (Way of self-improvement)... it's
just recreation and entertainment.
Fighting Championships are tools to test (in a controlled fashion) our ability and our Character, strengthening the spirit of group and camaraderie with fellow Martial Artists, bringing honor and respect to our Dojang. Championships are means to our development as fighters and Martial Artists.
The Musashi Miyamoto frase we highlight on top of our Homepage is a premonition of one of the greatest Martial Artists of all times, referring of what he was already seeing in 1643: "True Martial Arts are particularly harsh with fancy intricacies, with commercial popularization and business abuse. The result of those approaches can be resumed with the phrase "recreational Martial Arts may drive to grave injuires".
How?
Late 2004, I engage myself into a project to organize and offer my research
on recovering, scientifically scrutinize, and
organize (as much as I am capable of) ancient knowledge
from which our modern Korean Martial Arts were developed.
This research started more than 25
years ago, and went through many stages and developments.
Whenever possible, I stayed for long periods in Korea,
Japan and China, learning from different Teachers or
in teaching institutions (as my one and a half year
in Shanghai, China, studying TCM and internal Martial Arts),
with varied technical backgrounds and expertise. In
addition to physically and technically challenging,
I always looked for intellectually sophisticated instructors,
capable of high level teaching (practial and theoretical).
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Conservation and innovation
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General Choi Hong Hi (최홍희 in Hangul and 崔泓熙 in Hanja), as many intelligent
and well educated Masters before him, showed us
the way of how to advance the Martial Arts. His creative and ecclectic approach to structuring
Taekwon-Do is amazing. His life-long
sustained research
and development efforts
gave us one of the most sophisticated and efficient
Martial Arts of today.
The
most outstanding Martial Arts innovators (and best
teachers) are always intellectually bright, well
educated, resourceful, will-driven (even obsessed)
people, able to study, understand, teach and improve
Martial Arts methods and techniques. If you want
to be a good teacher you should look for such kind
of guidance, and follow this approach to learning and experimenting.
General
Choi listened and learned form everyone he considered
worth of attention, and was always eager to try new
things. He developed Taekwon-Do based in Karate (method, structure and fighting strategy) and Taekyon (body dynamics and some leg techniques), And he even included Hapkido techniques into his military training program (later
called Hoshinsul in the Taekwon-Do curriculum). Hapkido was brought to him by some of his assisting instructors
(in the Korean Army) with previous background in Choi
Young Sul’s Art.
General Choi deserves our homage by furthering Taekwon-Do through
our conscientious creativity, preserving the past,
to grow into the future, as he did in his lifetime.
Nevertheless, we
should not reinvent the wheel, but we may work
to build and use it in a more efficient way. We should
not change for the sake of changing, nor should we
invent personal cults to old "perfect" Masters and "modern" traditions, or messianic “orthodoxy” or “lineage” constrains. If we do this, it will be the end of our Art as it was conceived, and somebody else will start over from where we stopped. This is the natural way of things.
Once again, as in science, there is no space for bigotry or irracionality. Taekwon-Do exists because General Choi didn't follow this path. |
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Method
To pursue my research work, my academic and scientific background offered me a rigorous methodological framework to analyze, sort and organize vast amounts of material. That is why (sometimes) I may be boring, or less “exuberant” and easy to understand than popular Martial Arts texts.
Our research does not consider “traditions from thousands of years ago” as a proof of truthfulness, or just because a particular technique or method was created (always from scratch) by a mythical or "Illuminated Founding Supreme Grand Masters" (titles may go several words on..) by looking at birds and snakes. To my experience, there exist a direct relation between the number of words in the titles and the colors in the wardrobes, with the (lack of) quality of the alleged knowlege.
The applicability of Martial Arts technical and training traditional knowledge has to be proven through objective scientific testing procedures, including fighting efficacy and training applicability. In the very same way, Martial Arts can only be improved by following the very same approach of research and development.
It is my understanding that, to ensure that our work as Martial Arts Teachers is as deep and rigorous as possible, we must preserve our Martial historical heritage, as intact and complete as possible (no reinventing history, as many do), as it is the cradle from which everything we do today was developed.
To pursue this avenue of research, early 2005 I stayed a period in Korea, training Taekyon and Hapkiyusul, and talking to several fellow teachers to make up my mind on how to implement the TechGate section, our research and conservation project. The format and content we offer reflects this analysis.
Project strategy
The main criteria I used to prioritize
my research, conservation and teaching work of fighting and training methods
and techniques are:
- Martial applicability / efficacy (not for sports competition) (*);
- Wide historical background supporting
each area of study;
- Scientifically proven and/or technically
sound; and
- Danger of loss of a particular knowledge
(If it complies with any of the above criteria. As much
in danger, the most energy I put to recover and organize
it).
(*) I do not consider metaphysical, religious beliefs, racial biasing or Nationalistic bigotry (very frequent among Oriental Masters) as validation for inclusion.
To
understand the knowledge offered in our TechGate, a great deal of serious study
and dedication is required. Martial education is intellectually challenging. You may need a reasonable
understanding of human anatomy and physiology, Oriental
Traditional Medicine and herbal therapy, Oriental Philosophy/Cosmology,
Ki Theory, and even Hanja calligraphy.
An insight
Late Mr. Song Tae Il, an old Hanbang (traditional) expert from Daegu, with enough patience to accept my endless questions and unorthodox approach to traditional knowledge, once told me (during one of my visits
in 1987): "you learn brake, you
know fix…" when he saw me so infatuated
with my research on the systematics of combining Hanbang
ingredients to device conditioning herbal formulae... just to "martially" brake (somebody)... At that time, I wrote
down his (broken-English) candid phrase in my notes
book. It is still a good reminder of the practical and moral
implications of the Martial Arts training. He tried
to make me understand that learning Hanbang to condition
my body was not enough or morally correct. The concept
is to learn Hanbang to assist and improve Life, the very same way
Martial Arts are to protect Life.
Martial Arts are not just kicking
and punching... It does not mean that you have to be
a Doctor; but you have to learn the consequences
of applying your fighting abilities. To understand Do, you have to understand
the value of Life, and the importance of ethics and
correct social behavior. Pitifully, this is something we do not see much in today's martial sports. That is why our Institute is a stand-alone entity belonging to the ITF, and is not interested in sports as its main activity. The DTI is a Martial Culture and Martial training Institute.
It is always Um and Yang... It is being more than 40 years
that I am into the Martial Arts, and the most important
lesson I learned since then is that to understanding
(for real) this simple duality concept is the very first step in the Way
of self-improvement as a Human Being. To be a good
fighter and a Martial Artist is a consequence.
Dr.
Daniel Dupré
6th Dan Taekwon-Do (1997)
6th Dan Hapkido (2005)
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