TKD was created in the 50’s. I don’t think there is such a thing as old school. there’s wtf and itf.
It’s not a bad martial art overall. It is the most popular martial art in the world to this day with the largest amount of people practicing.
Also, Bas did TKD in his youth, so take that for what it’s worth. 
Does tkd have the Sanchin training that Karate has?
[QUOTE=aussie1981;1115368]Does tkd have the Sanchin training that Karate has?[/QUOTE]
No, not really, but it does have body conditoning.
I trained under a 2nd generation ITF teacher - Dino Hennings, 1St generation TKD- Jong Park and under Choi and Choi’s son himself.
The original ITF TKD was very similar to kyokushin, but with more emphasis on lead leg kicking.
Many may not know this but hand techniques were the core of TKD, namely the ridge and knife hand and reverse punch.
The olympic TKD of the WTF is truly a case of “something else”, think olympic Judo vs pre-war judo and it is a very similar situation.
Politics suck and from what I have been told, ITF now is overly “point oriented” and the hard and FC sparring that was typical in the red belt and above levels is a thing of the past (typically).
[QUOTE=sanjuro_ronin;1115411]No, not really, but it does have body conditoning.
I trained under a 2nd generation ITF teacher - Dino Hennings, 1St generation TKD- Jong Park and under Choi and Choi’s son himself.
The original ITF TKD was very similar to kyokushin, but with more emphasis on lead leg kicking.
Many may not know this but hand techniques were the core of TKD, namely the ridge and knife hand and reverse punch.
The olympic TKD of the WTF is truly a case of “something else”, think olympic Judo vs pre-war judo and it is a very similar situation.
Politics suck and from what I have been told, ITF now is overly “point oriented” and the hard and FC sparring that was typical in the red belt and above levels is a thing of the past (typically).[/QUOTE]
I agree.
When I first started TKD it was very different. I remember sparring full contact (no punches the the head or face though) and doing a lot of impact conditioning.
We trained this way until my late teens then the instructor started adding ground work and head cages (so we could punch to the face).
That was a great school that used TKD as its base.
no, even in an art as young as TKD, there have been so many drastic changes, that there is indeed an “old school” era. (chon-ji, palgue as opposed to tae geuk)
I trained in TSD and before that, Ji Do Kwan TKD. Bare knuckle sparring was the norm, and we used alot of hands as well. My TKD teacher also taught boxing, and that was incorperated into our training as well.
TKD gives you tools. Great kicks, kicking combinations, and the ability to kick effortlessly.
“Arms like legs, legs like arms”
[QUOTE=TenTigers;1115635]no, even in an art as young as TKD, there have been so many drastic changes, that there is indeed an “old school” era. (chon-ji, palgue as opposed to tae geuk)
I trained in TSD and before that, Ji Do Kwan TKD. Bare knuckle sparring was the norm, and we used alot of hands as well. My TKD teacher also taught boxing, and that was incorperated into our training as well.
TKD gives you tools. Great kicks, kicking combinations, and the ability to kick effortlessly.
“Arms like legs, legs like arms”[/QUOTE]
It’s like anything. I think. If you find a half, legit school, you will learn to defend yourself. Personally, I am not a fan of the TKD fighting shell and all the lead leg and hand techniques, but I think that the training really can add something to one’s abilities.
I think that learning to kick properly requires a solid instructor. You can’t just watch youtube to learn to do the, “fancy” kicks. Before you even start kicking, you need to develop a proper warm up and stretching routine. After that, you need to learn to kick in a way that won’t cause you hip injury. I am seeing a lot of videos on youtube of kicking practices that only work if you have normal hips.