For anyone that does Tae Kwon Do

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Well I did a few years Tae Kwon Do a loooonng time ago....

From what I remember you are supposed to keep your guard high because :-

1. Getting kicked in the head hurts...

2. Getting kicked in the head can be +2 points (as opposed to +1 for a body hit) ...

Its more of a sport than a martial art, I think the competition sparring is a little different than normal sparring.

Maybe its like the pro boxers that deliberately drop their guards ?

 

TKD is more of a competion sport martial art than Karate. I studied Wado Ryu many years ago, and that is closer to Jujitsu, which my son studies now. I found that in this we kept our guards up, and quite close to our bodies. In Jujitsu, my sons style, keeps thier guard up but a bit looser to teh body.

On a side note, my friends daughters do Judo, and her eldest is hopeful of teh 2012 olympics. She's already on teh under 16s GB team.

 

I as wondering the same thing, must be something to do with points and the scoring system.


On a side note I have always had a massive respect for boxers, leaning your head forward when fighting is just plain crazy.

 

I always prefer to follow this piece of advice:

Im paraphrasing of course, but the sentiment is there. I respect those who do not fight, rather than those who do. Even if its for a sport.

I do practice Tai Chi though. At some point I'm going to need to get into sparring in it, since I just really do form at the moment. Although I prefer to follow the above, I do also feel that everyone should know how to defend themselves.

 

So how many points is it for getting whacked in the nuts?

 

I've done tae kwon do for quite some time and I can definitely tell you that alot of fighters tend to do that. It's more of a habit then anything I find. I was trained to always keep my hands up and I was told that I could use both my fists and feet. It's just that it's hard to score against an opponent of equal skill when you try to hit them with your arms while they are kicking you because of the reach advantage. All I can say is it's up to the fighter as to what he chooses, I know that when I spar I use my arms and legs alot but that's because do muay thai also.

 

LOL a negative number!

 

wagnerk,

The Tae Kwon Do style used in the Olympics is the World Taekwondo Federation style. Part of the World Taekwondo Federation's style is the point scoring in sparring. There are basically two targets: 1) the body and 2) the head. For both of those two targets, only the front and sides are valid targets. The back of the body and head are not valid targets. Under World Taekwondo Federation sparring rules, you may use your feet to attack the opponent's head and you are specifically prohibited from using your hands to attack the opponent's head. Now, try holding your arms out straight in front of you and hold it for 2 minutes. You may find that eventually, your arms just simply get tired and want to drop. That means energy is being used up keeping your arms up in a blocking position. Well, since punches to the face are prohibited and the only permitted attacks to the head are from the feet, a better use of the energy for holding your arms up in a blocking position would be to just dodge your head out of the foot's way. So that's at least one practical reason why the arms are usually down.

Here's a little video I found while searching for the World Taekwondo Federation sparring rules.

Source:

1. Taekwondo: World Taekwondo Federation Sparring Rules - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JEtWEL-n-cU

Well, since you can earn 2 points with a foot strike to the head and 1 point with a foot strike to the body but only 1 point with a hand strike to the body, it makes more sense to be skilled with the feet instead of the hands, at least within the scope of the World Taekwondo Federation sparring rules.

r.h.lee, Blue Belt in ITF, Brown Belt in KTA, and Yellow Belt in WTF.

 

Ya think? I read that an almost spew my coffee out my nose. That was pretty funny marsh!

 

As R.H Lee puts it ... save your energy to protect the bits that are A) more likely to be a target and B) most easily defendable. Also save you energy so that you can use your legs to move out the way.

I have always loved that similar styles can sometimes only be separated by how you guard or defend rather than the methods of attack. The attacks may look different but we could say that this is a result of the different starting position due to the defence.

 

Do you think Angel Matos knew the ref's guard was down?

 

Thought I'd pop my head in whilst I have 5 minutes break from work.

If you need to raise your fists, you have already lost. Ha ha heard this a few times.

I have done a few different styles of martial arts, mainly ju jitsu. From the styles I have seen TKD it's mainly a kicking thing so keeping your hands nearest your hips as I am sure you'll know helps with the balance especially when it comes to high kicks and you can also bring them up quickly if a strike comes in.

Varying styles of Tai Kwondo have it where the combatant dances in sort of a boxeresque type of way.

When I did Wing Chun Kung Fu that was more of a style of fast puches with the odd snap kick thrown in for good measure. In that style of Kung Fu the hands were more like a Karate stance but the legs were very close together but you would be balanced on the balls of each foot.

I always wanted to do JKD (Jeet Kun Do) which is a mixture of everything but apparently the only place in this country that does it, is in London.

Sai Training eh Ken, good for you. I did the nunchaku and Bo training when I did Ju Jitsu.

 

Angel Matos =

 

As much as I liked Bo work, I preferred the balance of the Jo ... possibly because I still prefer Bokken too. I donated the last of my weapons to a teaching colleague at my last place once he threw himself whole heartedly into Aikido. My Katana were donated to the uni Ju Jitsu club before I left, the Shuken to a friend of to train at the Kodokan and my Jo to my old Judo club.

In fact the only thing I have left is a solitary red oak Tanto. I do intend to make myself a new Bokken one day (made two so far) and frame it ... and have the usual instruction underneath. "In case of luser, break glass and LART!"