in a real life situation, would tae kwon do be a good source of defence?

Question

eg you were in a fight or you were at knife point

Answer 1

with or without fried rice ?

Answer 2

My son is a Sr 3rd degree black belt in Tae Kwon Do. My answer would be yes and no. It should allow you enough time to defend yourself and leave. Street fighters are not going to stop fighting and help you up if you are knocked down, like fighting in a match. There are skills taught and speed and strength developed in Tae Kwon Do which make it a very worth while sport. The discipline and the integrity taught are priceless. You are not "bullet-proof" but should be able to defend yourself and possibly disarm an opponent. A good kick to the groin is a handy weapon.

Answer 3

That is a good question, there is no definite yes or no answer, in such a situation Tae Kwon Do can be very affective form of self-defense in the hands of a skilled martial artist, but in the hands of a rookie it would be a very bad idea, like in martial arts it takes years of practice and determination to become skilled, and in some situations tae kwon do might not work and in other it might be the best choice.

Answer 4

Tae kwon do is a good martial art but I dont think it would be really good in a dangerous situation. Not to flame it but it wouldnt do so well. Tae Kwon Do's strong points are kicking, and unless you're fast at kicking, its not so good. In a real situation, fists and elbows are most effective. Like Muay thai. if the enemy is using weapons, like knives, jeet kune do would be best. Because of its "using the enemies movements as your advantage" it would be more effective. Situation:
Enemy thrusts kinfe
Side-step the knife and grab the dude's arm in a rotation, put a leg out, throw him.
Judo would be good in this situation too.
If you dont wanna learn extreme martial arts like muay thai, you should learn judo. It's less painfull. Well, less painful than muay thai.

Answer 5

You're gonna hear from alot of people that are going to say TKD is useless or "not as effective as Karate". I laugh at those people! The truth is, TKD is one of the hardest martial arts to learn due to the nature of the kicks and finding correct balance. Let me assure you that if you get kicked by someone who knows TKD your gonna either have a snapped kneecap, have the soul knocked out of you, or be asleep for a little bit. That being said, TKD, like any other stand up game requires distance from your opponent in order to kick properly. A Brazilian Jiu Jitsu fighter will immediately try to close that space and take you to the ground where kicks are useless. If your kick does not stop the BJJ guy or a wrestler you are gonna be in trouble on the ground. Which is why I highly recommend learning a ground game as well as a stand up game. This will make you a much more effective and well-rounded fighter.

Answer 6

Personally....unless your timing and mastery of the style is perfect....or unless your attacker is an idiot, I'd say no.

An intelligent knife wielder would simply step in and to the side of a TKD kick and slash your femoral, knock you down and proceed to dice your fancy kicking behind.

That would also apply to someone simply doing something to get inside the range of a TKD stylists legs, and from there doing what they intended to do.

Frankly, TKD has no inside-fighting defense, it's buggering useless in that regard. You as an attacker, get past the knees, and you're golden.

Not to mention, all those fancy kicks take too much time, occupy too much space, and leave your supporting leg with a giant target written all over it.

Target the support leg with a counter stomp kick to the inside thigh/knee/shin, takedown, or a simple reaping throw ala Jujutsu or Judo and they're done.

Taekwondo has entirely too many weaknesses, and it's taught so irresponsibly it's not even funny.

It's fun to spar against TKD students for cardio exercise, but you do anything that's not what they're used to and the session/fight is over.

It's great for cardio and muscular exercise....basically it's plyometrics in a Gi. But, it's a sport, not a system of self-defense....and unless you're damned good, it's just about poxy-all useless for defending oneself in an out of Dojo experience.

Answer 7

Not any of the Tae-KwonDo that I've ever seen. Yelling and kicking isn't going to do much but put you off balance in a real fight.
I would look at Krav Maga for real life self defence against a gun, knife or bare handed attack.
Check out this video and see what I mean.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QXHSEOv78XM

Answer 8

you can ask any one in the korean navy durign the korean war. they were a force to be reckoned with. And i have seen some schools where tehy teach practical fighiting. And any person thats been held a knife point knows the key to doing it is speed and no thinking. Just doing. And it takes a logn time to get that down. And they don't teach that in very many martial arts why? because in schools they teach you to fight otehrs that are in the same form or school. If you want to get way better you must fight others from other schools. Taekwando is more profiecient than most forms of karate because taekwando emphasizes legs which last tiem i checked legs have way bigger muscles than arms.

Answer 9

gsschulte is right. If you actually got into like, some sort of defensive variety of it, learning where to kick people to temporarily stun them, I think you'd have a pretty decent chance. But I'd probably steer more towards a self-defense or karate class. We have a REALLY good karate teacher here who teaches you different techniques to disarm a person whether they're holding a weapon or not, etc. I'd go for something designed like that.

I had a friend who took either karate or tae kwon do, and I definately felt pretty safe around him :D I knew he could kick butt if he had to.

Answer 10

For the most part yes. I have done just that with my training in Tea Kwon Do. But the best is Ju Jusi( sorry about miss spelling it). The Japanise police use Aki Do which is also very good.

Answer 11

Quality and frequency of training surpass the style you are training in.

If the school you train at focuses on tournaments and point sparring this may not be as helpful as a school that teaches actual application.
Find out right on the front end what you are training in before you spend time learning something you don't want