McCarthy's Taekwondo Self Defense, Temple TX

I have been taking classes with McCarthy's Taekwondo and Self Defense for a little over two years now. The training is solid, comprehensive and challenging. Instructors are extremely knowledgable and very good at explaining how to do the techniques properly. They teach classes for peewee, juniors and adults. I take the adult class. I have limitations due to back issues and they are very carful to modify a technique if there is something I can not do. I appreciate this greatly and enjoy the classes very much! Awesome school!

I have been doing Taekwondo for more than 20 years (15 years at a previous school and 5 at this one).
This is a Moo Duk Kwan school which combines traditional and modern Taekwondo techniques. They also teach Hapkido (self defense) and (as a separate art) Texas Arnis Seenkohtiros.
I very much enjoy this school.
Classes are organized by age.
Students learn a variety of blocks, strikes, and kicks in a variety of different ways. Most younger students really enjoy the fancier kicks (jumping and spinning kicks) while others prefer forms or drills. My personal favorite is the way that Grandmaster McCarthy teaches self-defense. Many schools teach students to memorize a specific set of techniques. McCarthy's TKD has a specific set for the beginners, but adds on a wide variety of techniques and invites students to pick the techniques that work best for the individual.
Different days we focus on different techniques with some days focused on forms, some on hands, some on feet, etc.
This school is a traditional school which teaches self-confidence, discipline, and respect. Once a student becomes a red belt, they are able to start learning how to teach classes gaining skills in leadership and responsibility.

Solid training, ATROCIOUS business by the Grand Master.

I trained at this school for six months in the adult class. I am a 19 year old at a nearby college who moved here in August of 2021 for school. I am a first dan Kukkiwon black belt. I have done Tae Kwon Do for six years, and I wanted to leave an honest review of my experience with this school because I had not seen one that encompasses the school and the business. As a school for training, the classes are alright. The Grand Master is very knowledgeable in self defense. They don’t do kicks as much as most Tae Kwon Do schools do, and they stick to one or two drills per class. It can be repetitive, but the training is solid. They teach multiple styles of forms, including Karate forms. Not my cup of tea, but they do them well. As far as Kukkiwon forms go, they’re more Mootikwon based. The Kukkiwon forms (Tae Guks) as well as Koryo and Keumgang have slight changes that are very out of date, and they correct your stances to being wider than Kukkiwon currently would like. I believe this is because Grand Master is “old school” and trained in Mootikwon, so he requires deeper stances than what are currently preached by Kukkiwon today. They told me that there corrections were actually what Kukkiwon had recently changed them to, but if you look at the Kukkiwon forms from the organization itself, that is clearly not the case. Not a big deal, but if you’re looking for a Kukkiwon school with Kukkiwon forms, just know that these forms will be more Mootikwon styles. Master Pamela is amazing and great at explaining things. Grand Master can come off as rude and judgmental at times to students on the mats, but that is not unexpected for someone who is “old school”. Master Pamela creates a strict but caring atmosphere that I preferred, while GM was strict all of the time. Not necessarily a bad thing as I previously stated, but he came off as rude to students other than myself as well. Overall, the training is solid, somewhat repetitive and overly strict to the point it wasn’t enjoyable sometimes when Grand Master was on the mats. Also, there were only ever a maximum of four adults in the adult classes. The junior classes normally had 12-16.

The rest of this review was too lengthy to fit in Google’s character limits. Please read the attached images to learn about my horrible business experience with the Grand Master.