TKD in a streetfight

[movingshadow]

TKD is a basis for many martial art however you look at it

Man the whole TKD does't work or this or that style is not effective stuff is a huge waste of time. Fighting is fighting. Some people talk about it like they took tea kwon do for 2 years and someone attacked them and it did not work - WHAT THE HELL DO YOU WANT? YOUR MONEY BACK? Shit why don't they just try to utilize the warranty that came with it and get a replacement? WTF - That just sounds like a petty excuse to blame something. There is a lot more to it than that.

[brokenelbow]

I didn' t know it has elbow and knee techniques too; were these added later?

No, they were there when TKD was still Shotokan. If you don't have elbows and knees in your TKD then it's either pure sport version or watered down McDojang style. But it's not old school TKD.

[EyeOfTheTiger]

Tkd basically means way of the fist and foot.Not a lot of dojangs use their elbows,knee's,and open palm hits.The school i attend is pure sport..i havent realized it until after a few tournements.Ive been taking tkd more to the ''streets'' style on my own time with a couple of my friends who attend my dojang.All of us together practice full contact sparring(with grappling).

[Andrew WA]

yeah

Eye of the tiger, you are very lucky to have a group of good friends to practice fighting with. I wish I had that. Everytime I want to do this everyone flakes out and makes excuses. Everyone is so lazy and never wants to practiice outside of school.
Keep it up. You will learn a lot more with your friends then you probably will in your dojang, but your dojang will really help you out with emphasis and direction.


Also to people who do not think TKD has elbows or knees. Why do their poomse have knees and elbows and open hand palm strikes and spear hand strieks and knife hand techniques. If you ever study the old forms or the advances forms there are a lot of very different techniques that are not really even focused on now days.
Forms are a good way to help you fight better because they help your targeting and stronger faster technique. You will have better balance and strength and power in your strikes if you practice poomse a lot. Im not saying it helps you with straight up street fighting, but it gives you direction. You need a really good strong balance of sparring (real world style) with your poomse. And dont just practice tae guk patterns. Practice every single kind. WTF ones and ITF ones.

[EyeOfTheTiger]

hm..good point about the forms...kudos to you

Anywhos my dojo is a mcdojo..i can see it...my friends can see it..even my master can see it.My master has so much potential to teach us more combatitive tkd..but he jsut teachs the sport.''kick the head!'',''you cannot kick their backs,no point counts!'' and so on....my master was raised n grew up in korea...of course hes been in atleast a couple of street fights in his oyunger days...
He told me that back in 1950's when he first started learning tkd..he said they used elbows,knee's,and could even do grapples on eachother...why has tkd gone from combatitive self defense..to a tv sport?!

[brokenelbow]

Money. Teaching martial arts is now a career choice and not one that has the average guy rolling in dough. To grow class size you have to teach what is most acceptable to the largest groups of people. The best way that I've seen of having a succesful school and also teaching something useful is to teach the usual McDojo type stuff, and then pick out students who look to want something more and teach them outside of the class in a small group.

[MAfans]

hummm... why do we have to stick with kicks... I mean that it's because that most taekwon do technics use kick that u must always use kicks... It's like people saying that TKD is not for streetfight and MT is better... One of my kung-fu teacher told me that I must adapt myself to the environment, and not the opposite. So in action, we should use what is the more convenient to the situation, if the guy is close to you and you cant kick, use your elbow or punch damn it. It's so simple! We just have to adapt to the situation...it's pur logical and I dont even have a black belt.

[Shoot]

I've written about this before. People confuse the sport with the art. TKD's system is a complete striking system. The theory is that if you can kick high, you can certainly kick low. TKD has punching, elbows, knees, and many different kicks of course as well as open hand techniques. TKD the martial art, not the sport, can be very effective. People who do sport TKD or who don't know TKD think it is a kicking art only. Not so, it is a very modern and practical martial art (as oppossed to the sport). The punching is learned karate style for balance and power, but practiced straight from boxing. It's all in the teaching and the way you use it. I've read some very good books on TKD in my study of MA although I don't practice it I have a new appreciation for it. People who understand TKD the system know that it is very street effective if learned and practiced the right way. TKD is not all high kicks. Again, TKD experts who are self defense oriented recommend kicking the outside of the thigh, like Muay THai, but with a chambered leg so that the commitment is not as much as MT. Less commitment means less power, but less consequence if you miss. Something to think about. I think TKD has a lot to offer if learned properly. Then there's the quick black belt thing. Who cares. Black belts mean different things in different systems. In an art like BJJ a black belt means mastery of the entire art. In TKD it means you have adequate skill in the basics. Its not based on performance against opponents. But who cares? Striking arts are simple. The belt system keeps you going and gives you something that says you've trained consistently in an organized manner.

[Studiobuddy]

I talked to Stanley Phillips who is a jkd instructor at Tim Mousel's Self Defense Academy. He said TKD had all those flying side kicks because if you been to Korea you know it has all hills and mountains. Basically they would launch off top of a higher point on a hill or w/e and basically land a flying kick into the enemy. Then from their they could use distance with their legs, and maybe even make them fall off the hill mountain or w/e. It was good for it's time and purpose.

[Andrew WA]

Flying kicks should never be used unless you are on a mountain or a hill or a ledge or something just like what you said. Or the guy is not paying attention to you and might have his back turned or is fighting your friend and facing sideways to you and he is about to punch him and you come in with a flying sidekick or something or a flying push kick. It will cause serious damage and push the enemy really far away wich is good.

Also using these techniques does not always mean you have to be SUPER HIGH in the air and flying all crazy. You can skip these same techniques along in a real fight. Like instead of doing a dramatic flying side kick why not skip really hard and long into your enemy with a push kick and smack him across the room and follow up with some fast devastating blows?

Taekwondo techniques were good for their time, and still are good to this preasent day. After all its only about 49 years old.

[electrorok]

tkd like all martial arts have 4 weapons.2 legs and 2 arms. if a guys 30 cms away then u would be a idiot to use your feet. but then u could use your knees and then there r those arm things. u know, for blocking and punching. tkd patterns arent suppose to be used for fighting. they r there too help with balance and to show thr origins of each technique. these patterns have been around quite a long time and in them u use your knees, elbow etc. so anyone who says tkd doesnt use close contact techniques dont know what they r talking about. Anyway if a guy has got that close to u and u think hes going to blow up, then why did u let him in so close in the first place?
Quick word to shoot. man its good to hear someone with there head on right. Its great to hear someone who doesnt even study the art still shows respect to it. good work shoot.

[aku aku]

My brother knew a guy in his Hapkido class who ended a couple of fights with a front kick.

[electrorok]

yeah man, i think front kicks are awsome. fastest kick out there and u can still guard your head at same time. perfect for groins which are yelling for some attention.

[Whispers]

yeah man, i think front kicks are awsome. fastest kick out there and u can still guard your head at same time.

Just wondering, by why not just keep your hands up while you kick? that way you'll be in a position to defend yourself the entire time.

[sirmattu]

Not sure about Officer and a gentleman, but Kata is not an effecient way to train for a street fight.

I've used TKD on the Street as have several of my students to good effect.

One student took on a knife wielding opponent and was able to disable him and leave without being cut (a great victory agianst a knife)

I've seen a few people get stomped too.

i have to disagree, my school only spars once a month, and ive never got anythng lower than a 2nd place metal at ANY tournament, and all we do is kata. kata is effective if you train in it in a way that makes the moves you practise efficent. lets not forget about martial arts that are built along the idea of kata, like judo, dr. jigoro kano made kata the main focus of judo. and we all know how well that went.