It’s time to clear something up. Almost everytime I see a tae kwon do match, I will shake my head and sigh. Why are they swinging their legs wildly at their opponents while leaving their hands dangling from their bodies doing nothing? It is totally different from what I have studied many years, where ‘tae kwon do’ translates to something like ‘the way of the foot and fist’. But all I see is the foot. In actual combat, how you use your hands would probably determine how the outcome is going to be. Seeing these “experts/professionals” dangling their hands freely seems like a pretty bad idea to me.
Some of you are probably laughing about now, seeing plenty of openings that can be exploited, if just any of them is willing to lift their hand and strike. Of course, this is just a sport, and kicks to the head would probably generate more points. A punch would do almost nothing to slow down opponents with their thick protective armor, but it is no excuse to leave your body exposed for your opponents.
3 comments:
Please don't take this as an incidiary rant. First Tae-kwon-do translates loosely to "way of fist and foot," but a more literal translation is the "way of breaking with hand and foot." It should be pronounced Tay as opposed to Thai, however, the names of Taiwan as well as Muay Thai (being completely unrelated) have lead English speakers to incorrectly pronounce the name (sort of how Americans say Ae-LOO-min-num [Aluminum] as opposed to the way it is pronounced in Great Britain Alloo-MI-num.
Secondly, you are looking at taekwondo in its more "evolved state," as a true sport. To understand why it evolved into this you must look at the origins of the martial arts.
The styles that form the basis of tae-kwon-do were formed so that peasants could fight off invading foreigners with horses. Combining the knowledge that the legs generate the most power in the body and allow you to jump high if trained correctly, a basis for the art was born.
True Tae-kwon-do centers in on correct techniques for upper and lower body striking. However, in sparring (staying close to the roots of Tae-kwon-do) points are mostly scored by kicks to the chest, stomach, and head. Points can be allowed for punching to the body, however,they must have showed to take the person being struck "off-balance."
As for what is better in a fight, against anyone, seasoned or not, whoever is smarter will most likely win. As there are those that suggest the smarted thing would be not to fight, whatever to them. You can ravage youTube and find videos of Tae-Kwon-do Vs. Karate | Muay Thai | MMA | Kung-Fu (They are all pretty much interchangable) and you will see both styles winning.
I like to think for practical defense, that a Tae-kwon-do practitioner would look less threatening. (Assuming they are using a more sport related sparring stance without bouncing) They would be less menacing, not instigating by placing their hands in an aggressive stance (how it is seen in court), and might even have a jump on their opponent being ready from this stance. Coupled with the fact that ALL practitioners are taught to counter attack effectively might be enough to help one walk away from a fight unscathed. (Hopefully)
I will be the first to tell you I have heard more stories of TKD practitioners doing stupid stuff, like trying to kick knives/guns out of peoples hands and paying the price for it. When it comes down to weapons, we are taught to handle them as if they are in a sense "fire." Focus on slapping/pushing away with the arms at all times and subdue the attacker at the same time.
I hope I haven't rambled too much, but I just want to end saying, there is no supreme martial art. Whoever is faster, smarter, better and/or stronger, should win in a fight, but that isn't always so. Thanks for taking a look at out sport and I hope some day you decide to try it out.
Just to follow up in case anyone misunderstands what I said in the article, in NO WAY am I saying that TKD is useless in an actual fight. I personally known quite a few TKD practitioners who are, in my opinion very good fighters.
The main point I am trying to say in my post is that people should not look into TKD just in the surface, as many people do. A day before I written this post, I have watched a video on YouTube of TKD people getting beaten up. But what really made me write this is actually the comments on the video.
Many of the people regard the video as all there is to TKD, and while that is totally untrue, people see it that way.
By the way, I myself studied TKD for many years now, and I'm proud to say I study under a good master who not only show me the physical sense of TKD, but also philosophically and spiritually.
While I completely agree with what you are saying, (especially about being trained in a less Olympic style of Tae Kwon Do) I would think that in an actual fight those fellas would DRASTICALLY change tactics. Actually, I really wonder what they would fight like if it was a fight instead of a game of foot-tag. The problem is the rules, but even MMA has some rules. If it didn't people would be critically injured or dying so it's obviously a good thing but it does make being practical challenging. Honestly, the rules for the match should really be adjusted though. In my random person on the internet opinion - Either allow head punches, or no punches at all and make it like a fencing with feet kind of thing. (or maybe foot boxing?) Anyway, thanks for the thought provoking article.
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