So when I began my practicum project for PT school (titled "Lower Extremity Injury Prevention for Adult Taekwondo Practitioners") I had intended it to be specific to my TKD school's style (we are not affiliated with WTF or ITF; my Master received his training directly from General Choi (the 'Father of Taekwondo') and so we practice 'traditional TKD'). Terminology and techniques for kicks and stances always tends to be different from school to school and style to style, so it would also be something that I would be more comfortable discussing with those familiar with our particular style.
Initially, my Master was interested. And then he became un-interested, stating that no one really got hurt in his school anymore. This mentality is not uncommon, however. When he became uninterested, he gave me permission to address this issue (injury prevention) with other TKD schools. So I had contacted several schools in the Boston / Cambridge / Peabody / etc area and got similar statements-- they didn't really need injury prevention because no one got hurt.
This of course is not true. People get hurt all the time-- even doing nothing! But it is difficult for Masters to accept that they could possibly be missing something, and they might have felt that I was attacking them. This of course was not my intent. As a physical therapist student, I hear from my fellow TKD members about injuries literally every time I step into the dojang. And these injuries aren't necessarily traumatic. They can be atraumatic and due to faulty body mechanics, which could potentially be easily remedied with strengthening and stretching exercises. And that is how I created my lower extremity injury prevention manual. (of course, it is not a manual regarding treatment of injuries, but rather it is a reference offering ways in which to properly strengthen or stretch key muscles, identify when an injury may have occurred, and pointing out which techniques may be problematic.)
I presented my 80% complete (the last 20% needs to be edited) manual to my Master and he is willing to discuss how to implement my suggestions in instructor training etc! So I am going in tomorrow to speak with him (my boyfriend will be there as well, since he's the youngest instructor and a potential candidate for inheriting the school).
But also, this morning I got a really late response to one of the e-mails that I sent out. It is from a SooBakDo school. So now I feel that I am in a dilemma. If my Master wants the manual to be for our school, I will have to tell the SooBakDo Master that I won't be able to follow through with my offer... which seems very rude. IDK I think I will figure it out and probably end up presenting to the SooBakDo Master as well... We'll see.
