FIK member federation?

[Electronegative]

Hey everyone,

We have a new member that just joined our college club this year. He did Kumdo and has a rank. At first I thought that he was KKA member, but just found out that his dojang was KKF and not KKA member.
I couldn't find out, but does anyone know if KKF is FIK member?
I'm asking because when he registers to AUSKF and SEUSKF next year with us, what would he put down for his rank.

[KendoSlug]

Hu hu,


I think that grandmaster Hee Wk Kim is a rip off and his federation is certainly not affiliated to the IKF.

Grand Master Kim has been teaching for 20 years and currently owns a school in Gaithersburg and Frederick, Maryland. He is a 9th Dan in KumDo and President of the Korean KumDo Federation.

Any person with third Dan and above, any martial art, can join, but must take the masters course for which there will be an additional one time fee.
Master Course will entitle you to:
Instructors Certificate stating that they are qualified uniform, and their 4th Dan KumDo (5th possibly depending on their current rank).

Yeaaah baby !!

[yoda-waza]

FIK and AUSKF recognize only KKA-affiliated kumdo ranks. We went through this same scenario earlier this year in our dojo, i.e., a former kumdo member joined us who had the equivalent of 1-dan certificate from a dojang that was not a member of KKA. For his first shinsa, we were required to enter him as mu-kyu. He ended up receiving 4-kyu. To his credit, he didn't make a fuss over it, continued to practice hard and will be testing for a higher level this November.

[tagonagy]

As far as I know, the only Korean Kendo/Kumdo group that has an association with FIK is the KKA. This doesn't mean your member can't have an AUSKF rank. For example, if he has a rank of 2nd dan with KKF, he'll have to take an AUSKF 2nd dan test to have his rank recognized. If his Dojang were with KKA this wouldn't be necessary.

[Electronegative]

Actually he is 2nd Dan, but I don't know if he would be able to pass AUSKF test, he is a freshman returning to Kendo after joining our club. He hasn't been practicing for last 3 years. Needs a lot of improvement as he is VERY sloppy, during our jikeiko he hit me in every part of my body that's not protected by bogu...ouch!

[rfoxmich]

No. If he has no AUSKF rank, he has to start at 1-kyu at the highets and work his way back up spending the appropriate time in rank. He can't rank jump up to a nidan test right away.

As far as I know, the only Korean Kendo/Kumdo group that has an association with FIK is the KKA. This doesn't mean your member can't have an AUSKF rank. For example, if he has a rank of 2nd dan with KKF, he'll have to take an AUSKF 2nd dan test to have his rank recognized. If his Dojang were with KKA this wouldn't be necessary.

[MikeW]

Ron, in the SEUSKF nikyu is the highest rank anyone can take if they are currently unranked regardless of age or time in kendo. So, Electronegative, I believe he would have to test first at nikyu if your sensei believes he is ready for that when the time comes.

[Electronegative]

Thank you for helpful replies!
Hopefully he is not a type of person who cares about ranks.

[enkorat]

Hi Electronegative,

Lets talk about this tonight after practice, there was already a substantial discussion amongst the operating instructors after he practiced with us and was initially evaluated.

[tango]

i was just looking at the KKF webpage... on the video links..

http://www.koreankumdofederation.com/Video.html

they have 2 videos... ("sam lee red 2" and "sam lee red 3")
.. that looks to have been taken at the same venue as the SEUSKF tournament in maryland last year(?)..

anybody have comment on that? (I wasn't at the taikai in maryland, so.. i dunno).

[enkorat]

Do you mean the Baltimore-Annapolis Tournament in Maryland? I think the venue is different.

e.g. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ezEfrYMP2YY

[Electronegative]

i was just looking at the KKF webpage... on the video links..

http://www.koreankumdofederation.com/Video.html

they have 2 videos... ("sam lee red 2" and "sam lee red 3")
.. that looks to have been taken at the same venue as the SEUSKF tournament in maryland last year(?)..

anybody have comment on that? (I wasn't at the taikai in maryland, so.. i dunno).

That video is from 2009, SEUSKF championship in 2009 was in Virginia:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GEcVppVmMZM

Venue does look very similar.

[tango]

ok right... yeah... not the annapolis tourney, but the SEUSKF tourney in Virginia.

I'm convinced that's the same venue.. just don't know if it was the same event.

I THINK it is the same event, because clearly the shimpan are using red and white flags.
kumdo tournaments use blue and white.

[Kendoka]

How can he be a 'Federation' when they seem to have only one or two dojang in the same state?
Not much credibility there, methinks.

[Kim Taylor]

All you need is two entities to make an "organization" by definition. If the two are in different countries you can make an "international organization".

Which, of course, is why one doesn't take "new improved" to mean that the soap you're looking at is better than a different soap, it's just new and improved over the old soap of the same name yes?

We all learned this early I hope.

Kim.