The Korean art of Taekwondo is widely popular and practiced in every corner of the planet. Most martial arts have an area where they tend to place the strongest emphasis in training, and for Taekwondo, that lies in the art of kicking. Indeed, Taekwondo has made a science out of kicking, with every permutation and combination of various kicking techniques imaginable being a staple of the art. Stories surrounding the power of Taekwondo’s kicking techniques are found in the many legends of martial arts, and few have captured the imagination as much as Hwang Jang-lee, who prior to his career in martial arts films in Hong Kong famously killed a knife-wielding adversary with a single roundhouse kick to the head. Taekwondo hasn’t been left behind in the modern revolution of MMA, either, with Cung Le and Anderson Silva rising to the ranks of the sport’s most feared fighters, each man drawing off his kicking skills in every match.
However, as with all things in martial arts, if it doesn’t meet the approval of the world’s deadliest warrior and only 11th degree black belt, Master Ken, then, well, we all know what his preferred term for it is! Beginning his martial arts training mere moments after his own birth, Master Ken has devoted his life to the study of every martial art ever created by man, only to eventually come to the realization that every one of them was useless nonsense. He then began to chip away the weaknesses found in each one while keeping their respective strengths, and thus his street lethal art of Ameri-Do-Te was born. This mindset towards combat is also the origin of the saying popular among Ameri-Do-Te students, “Best of All, Worst of None”. In the latest installment of his acclaimed web-series “Enter the Dojo”, Master Ken offers his critique of Taekwondo, and as with every other martial art he’s ever encountered that doesn’t bear the Ameri-Do-Te name, his final verdict is not good!
