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Welcome to the OHTC Students Section! Dear Martial Arts Family of OHTC, I would like to welcome all of you who are inspired by Traditional Martial Arts and who are willing to become serious Martial Art students. I desire for everyone involved in our Martial Arts family to follow the proper ethics of Martial Arts, and that you will become a better student through a persistent and unwavering attitude. The true Martial Arts skill will come with years of dedication. It is this dedication and concentration that will give you great strength to help you become an excellent Martial Artist. Finally, I am preparing this "Students" section to help promote our Martial Arts education and produce the best Martial Artists in the world - both mentally and physically. Truly, Grand Master Edward K. Song
Dear OHTC Members;
Now, I would like to make a major improvement for your Martial Arts Education system and improve qualification of OHTC School’s lesson by adding philosophy and theory as a regular requirement. However, there are some concerns that I would like to share with you.
The true Martial Arts education and instruction in the USA is losing more and more of its qualities and it is becoming sloppy. Most people see Martial Arts as a form of entertainment, or something that is disposable. Today's society either doesn't know or doesn't care to learn Martial Arts as it was originally intended, which is to promote better conditioning of the Mind and Body. As you know, original Martial Arts was designed to improve the whole person and develop a good mind and body, which included philosophy. That is why Martial Arts became a way of life!
I came to the United States over 20 years ago and I taught Martial Arts and Eastern Medicine. However, I was unable to teach the full concepts involved in Martial Arts, mainly the philosophy and theory requirements. I could not communicate the true meanings of the philosophy because I was still learning English, and thus the students did not receive their full curriculums.
Thus, since I was unable to provide a complete lesson of philosophy, I replaced that part of the test with Korean Language and extra credit study. The test requirements for a promotion test, as they are meant to be, are as follows: There are five categories for the promotion requirements:
You may not know this, but the philosophy and theory requirement now being added to your tests has already been instated on the tests of all other OHTC chapters not in Dallas. The NCTMA requirements for the promotion tests are just now being added for the main OHTC Dallas school due to my discomfort of increasing the financial pressure on the students.
In fact, some students have already expressed some concerns about this increase, and the returned benefits. However, in my opinion, those students are not truly seeing this opportunity with an open mind. The true fact I will explain. If I were to teach all of the philosophies and theories during normal class hours, it would take more than twice the amount of time it takes now to properly teach Martial Arts. As a matter of fact, if we study and learn all of the philosophies in each and every class, everyone would spend a lot more extra time studying. Thus you are taking twice as many classes, and that would result in the students paying double the tuition.
For example, an average student can obtain a black belt in two to three years, with two or three months per promotion test. But if all of the required philosophy and theory were taught in class right along side the physical part, each promotion test would take 4 to 6 months per level. This adds up to a student paying double the tuition and more time is consumed in the long run. This would be counterproductive towards the students, and thus I set up a self-study system. With the self study system, students are allowed to prepare for the philosophy and theory requirements on their own free time, without wasting time and money by fitting all of it into actual paid class time.
NCTMA has 12 major categories to study for philosophy and theory by text book.
Each category requires approximately 2 or 3 months of self study. Once the student has prepared properly, he or she will take the test. The test fee is $400.00 per category. However, students of OHTC's main Dallas school will receive a 20% discount for each certification program, because the students of the main OHTC school already receive a little bit of philosophy and theory lesson in class, directly from the Master.
As you know, we are all living a busy life and we should use our time wisely.
I hope you understand and your cooperation is greatly appreciated!
I assure you that I have the best Martial Arts education available in the world, and I will do my best to help all OHTC students become Martial Artists of the highest quality, because I have brought Traditional Martial Arts education to you, as it was originally intended.
Respectfully,
Grand Master Edward K. Song
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