Damian Mavis

Eh, ya I forgot you started out with that silly statement. I dont mean you are silly, just comparing capoeira to arts that actually train by hitting pads and hitting eachother seems silly to me. I trained capoeira because they have awesome acrobatic moves that are good for my show business career. But uh, at no point did my instructor or any student believe they were learning a martial art suitable for actually fighting....

Capoeira does not devote 100% of its training time to kicking, it uses a vast majority of its time to footwork and moving to the dance rhythm and learning how to time your manouvers (kicks, flips, spins and jumps) to your partners manouvers. And a vast amount of time to learning the tricky flips and acrobatics. At no point does anyone ever actually hit a pad, heavy bag or person with a kick although we did occasionally touch eachother with a front push kick, soft enough to tickle. At least not at the 3 Capoeira classes I've visited and trained at around the world.

If you want to go against the theory that TKD is the best kicking art you would be better off saying muay thai is better, capoeira should be last on your list.

Damian Mavis
Honour TKD

Piston

That Yaw-Yan looked quite interesting, some of the kicking looked quite TKD like, the front kick chamber for instance. Those "bolo" punches look like they thow the puncher off balance quite badly though.

kalari

I am lucky to see some yaw-yan matches conducted on 2002, and found it very rough.It's like a muaythai match .The fighters can use knees and elbows on the ground and the fighters can even attack the fallen down opponent.the yaw-yans are taught to use their arms and legs as arnis sticks and they are heavily conditioned.Yaw-yan has been tested against other styles and had won majority of the matches.You can check this in their wesite.There is a street version of Yaw-Yan as well.

hEmPY

bob u stoopid ass

capoeiraz dance, when u fooz learn

LOL

doJu

Except for Kickboxing(Muay thai with no elbows or knees from clinch) and savate, no other art up there is even in the same ball park with MUAY THAI. TKD however, when blended with muay thai is effective. For anyone who does Muay Thai, it is a good idea to cross train in TKD if you have extra time.

tkd_wrestler

i find it's most effective when blended with boxing. unfortunately, no one seems to acknowledge that the style included knees and elbows. i guess that they learn the forms for nothing.

kuk sool won

What i don't understand is why people think that if a kick has similarities of a muay thai kick then it has to be a muay thai kick. Styles have developed very similar kicks without having any exposure to Muay Thai. For instance a lot of people in my KSW class kick like a muay thai fighter but we have never been taught to kick from anyone with muay thai experience. there is 1 instructor in my class with a Muay Thai background and he has never once shown anyone to kick. No longer can you say 'Muay Thai and TKD are the best kicking arts' because its just not true anymore.

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Piston

I feel the MT is very limited in its angle of attack kick wise. Granted the kicks are simple, powerful and easy to learn but most if not all kicks come from the back foot and are aimed at leg/lower abdomen area making it a little predictable.

Kuk I'm interested, what are KSW kicks like then?

Warrior189

Damian Mavis I don't know where you done capoeira, but the classes I have seen do spar against each other with a lot of forces to knock someone out. Hempy you make no sense and people who do capoeira maybe taught to dance, but won't do that in a real fight.

aku aku

I kind of like savate. They do a good job combining hands and feet and they have a good mix of high, middle and low kicks. I like the way they use angles a lot and their use of the shoe makes sense in a self-defense environment.

kuk sool won

i think boxing has the best kicks, you never expect them.

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spetnatz

Taekwondo may be a good upper body kicking art but is certainly not a full body kicking art. The lower half of the body is excluded from taekwondo kicking practice, so TKD people don´t know how to deliver or deal with low kicks. As they also not practice much delivering and dealing with punches, they are left with an art that is almost only made of upper body kicking techniques. TKD may be renowned for its kicks but is certainly not a complete kicking art. Muay Thai has fewer kicking techniques but they cover the entire human body, from the head to the feet.

kuk sool won

Entirely depends on what type of TKD you are talking about. Yes, sporting TKD only includes upper body striking but there are so many aspects of TKD that the sporting style does not offer.

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Damian Mavis

ITF TKD is 50% hands and that means to the head and face. A good ITF school does work hands sufficiently and their fighters are good at defending from them and using them. WTF of course does not, but those are 2 different styles, just don't think of all TKD as the same.

Spetnatz, you are absolutely right about TKD 'ists not knowing how to execute and defend leg kicks, that was my biggest weakness when I started muay thai 6 years ago.... 7 years? Damn Im getting old and losing track of time haha. However I dont think muay thai is a more complete kicking art based on the practice of leg kicks... it is the same kick to three levels..... Muay thai fighters have a huge weakness for some kicking angles of attack from TKD because they too do not defend all the angles and therefore dont have a reflex reaction or counter for them. I'm not just saying this out of wishful thinking like alot of posters... I've sparred a lot of pro fighters in Thailand and noticed the same things over and over. Doesnt mean a pro couldnt kick my butt, just that they get caught by the same trick angles almost every time. If you keep using the same trick though... a good pro learns and adapts quick enough to take advantage of it before the end of the fight... so the moral of the story is you better knock him out before he learns or dont over use the same new angles.

And... a good TKD school should be teaching leg kicks of various types as self defence at the least. But practicing how to kick the leg as self defence doesnt make it ingrained refex and there is rarely ay trainig to defend from the leg kick so absolutely no reflex for that at all.

Damian Mavis
Honour TKD thailand

spetnatz

What type of TKD does include lower body striking?