Read before bad mouthing TKD

[Piston]

I've posted this thread to clarify for anyone certain things about TKD.

1. Agreed there are McDojangs which pander to inflexible, short attention-spanned people throughout America.

2. Olympic style TKD IS a sport, has anyone tried to tell you its not? Any decent teacher of TKD will tell you the difference between olympic style, and the non-fairy style. My teacher hates it.

3. Tae Kwon Do means "Way of Fist and Foot". See that "Fist and Foot". Yes it is kick orientated, and for a good reason, however it DOES involve knife hands, spear hand thrusts, jabs, hooks, you name it.

4. Anyone who tries to tell you TKD is thousands of years old has clearly never studied it. The founder Major General Choi Hong Hi inaugerated TKD in South Korea on April 11th 1955. TKD does however have many influences from Chinese and Japanese martial arts which are old, this is probably where the confusion comes from.

5. "You're never going to get those whirling kicks in, in close quarter street fighting situations." Oh dear god this one makes me laugh. A good practitioner of TKD uses big flashy kicks when appropriate i.e at range. Good TKD practitioners will use flurrys of close range punches, elbows, knees and kicks from the front foot to drive someone back, often setting them up for a knockout blow from a "flashy" kick.

If you've had the patience to read this, then thank you.

[jubaji]

Ok, so now can we badmouth TKD?

[Piston]

Hehe... Yeah I was just a little bit angry about the level of ignorance prevalent among many of those willing to shoot their mouths off at TKD, so why not try to clear somethings up?

If you've got an opinion about TKD go right ahead, all MA's have their weaknesses and strengths, perhaps you're view could help eme tighten up my style a bit.

Just as long as it isn't "OMFG TKD IS FOR PUSSIES OMG OMG U SHUD "X" INSTEAD"

I know that a bit of an exaguration, but you get the idea.

[IPON]

Just as long as it isn't "OMFG TKD IS FOR PUSSIES OMG OMG U SHUD "X" INSTEAD"

U SHUD X INSTEAD....ummm ahhh

[ddrive]

My only opinion

If you've got an opinion about TKD go right ahead, all MA's have their weaknesses and strengths, perhaps you're view could help eme tighten up my style a bit.

Any tool is useful if you know how to use it. I fought against various TKD practitioners who had different approaches to applying thier fighting method. Some tried to scare me with a wide variety of flashy kicks, and others I've come across have fought almost like boxers, using high cresents, roundhouses, knees, stop kicks, and sweeps with jab, hook, and cross combinations. It all depends on the person and school they've trained at.

[Piston]

U SHUD X INSTEAD....ummm ahhh

Whoops my bad, it should have been "U SHUD DO "X" INSTEAD".

Thanks for nit-picking my obvious deficency of a 2 letter word.
It was helpful.

[IPON]

Thanks for nit-picking my obvious deficency of a 2 letter word. It was helpful.

LOL That's what we are here four

[little bad boy]

well... they can bad mouth all they can... i did ITF TKD 20 years ago. and now i am doing WTF TKD with my son. always liked my TKD and so does my son.

which style is better? it all depends on the practitioner... not in the style.

[Piston]

Very true, my personal preference would be ITF incidentally.

Who was it who said "A sword is only as dangerous as the arm that swings it"? (Or something to that effect)

[little bad boy]

Who was it who said "A sword is only as dangerous as the arm that swings it"? (Or something to that effect)

exactly!

i prefer ITF too.

actually, what i find wrong with WTF is the training concentrates on how to fight in the sport-olympic-style TKD. perhaps this is the reason why most of WTF practicioners end up clueless in the streets or at a MMA fight.

but... if a WTF dude is trained for MMA or for the streets, he would be equally lethal.

just my two cents.

[Piston]

I was talking with my teacher about the differences between the two styles yesterday in class.

She (yeah thats right a she) had recently been to the world championships in Cardiff and competed in sparrin earning herself 3rd place no less! But i digress, she met up and sparred with some WTF practitioners from Korea and had this to say about them.

They can kick like bastards, however the one she sparred against didn't like it when she backfisted him to the head and followed with a reverse thrusting kick right on the chest.

I guess if a practitioner of both styles says ITF is more street effective, I'll take his word for it.

[Bjjexpertise@be]

While reading the posts about TKD I made a joke:

A father and a son are sitting at the kitchen table. The father, being a top notch submission fighter and never cared for McDojos, goes "Son, why don't you go out tomorrow and find a good martial arts school?" The son says "OK"
The next day at the dinner table the father asks his son, "So have you picked a martial art to learn yet?"
"Yep," replies his son
"So what Martial art did you pick?"says the father
"TaeKwonDo"says the son
"WTF, TKD?!" says the father

Haha get it, WTF also stands for 'what the ****' WTF TKD get it?
I'll shut up now.

[Tom Yum]

While reading the posts about TKD I made a joke:

A father and a son are sitting at the kitchen table......

BuahahahaHAhahahahahahaHAHAHAHHAHAAH!!!!!




Uh, man you had me at kitchen table....







....

[little bad boy]

need i say more?

[Tom Yum]

Spin Kick Knockdown

Little bad boy, I remember that fight.

The fighter getting knocked down and rocked is none other than Allistair Overeem, a legendary muay thai fighter from Holland.

The fellow delivering the kick (can't recall his name) is a Russian fighter with Draka (Russian equivalent of san shou), boxing and sambo background. He was known to be a fighter with the ability to be deceptive and set up his shots. The spin kick certainly rocked Overeem and knocked him to the mat, fortunately for his experience in full contact fighting, and incredible conditioning Overeem got up, continued to fight and KO'd the Russian fighter by getting him into a clinch and driving one or two knees into his ribs....damned photographic memory...jj.

Anyhow, there are a few great clips of UFC/pride fighters knocking others down or out with spin kicks.

Here I go repeating myself: fancy kicks can work, if used sparringly, especially the spinning back and spinning wheel kicks. These kicks require complete rotation of the hips.

Most kicking styles emphasize kick power from rotation/push off from the planted foot and snap from the kicking leg. The result is a lightning quick hard speed...ala Sugar foot Wallance and his 60 mph lead leg hook kick, side kick and snap roundhouse kicks.

Again this is different from muay thai kicking which relies primarily on hip rotation, foot rotation too, but straightening the leg rather than snapping it. The thai kick may seem slower in the reference of TKD kicking speed, but if it lands, you've better done your medicine ball + leg sparring work...