What about Taekwondo Makes you feel safe if attacked?

Question

Just curious, but I have taken Taekwondo for over 5 years, and have yet to see any benefit to point sparring or one step sparring. But I will concede that perhaps I have been aloof to life as a whole during those 5 years. That in those 5 years of experience at WTF, ITF and yes even ATA schools, somehow I missed the point.

SO I turn to you, ohhh knowledgeable yahoo answers martial arts section. CORRECT my horrid logic of a fantastically brutal self defense art. Show me the error of my ways so as to be able to see how holding your hands down by your waste is effective. Or that kicking men off horse back is still a common occurrence.

For me, even with the bullshit politics of Taekwondo aside, I fail to see how it is ANYTHING but a sport. And as an amazing sport (which it is! and fun to watch on TV) should be regarded as anything but that. ITF makes a futal attempt at saying that because they use less pads for sparring, and allow head contact, that it somehow saves them?

I think if anything, it should be advertised as a fitness supplement, such as aerobics. BUT NOT A SELF DEFENSE ART.

So my question to you is where have I gone wrong? and can you provide some evidence to the contrary. Some video or something to show that TKD is "teh L337 D43th SkiLL!"

Watch this Testing video... this is the MAIN STREAM for TKD. Sorry if you dissagree... but there are thousands of schools that prove OTHERWISE!

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

lol Coop... did I hurt a feeling? Your other posts made no sense. All you did was bash me, not my info, but thats fine. Thats what happens to most people when they don't know how to answer a question.

http://www.bullshido.net/forums/showthread.php?t=47973

and that video was to show how the school is run... If you couldn't figure that out, you belong someone else Coop boy.

LOL I'm sorry...... Ohhh god....
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0AXMbTDBS-I

Saint G... finally... thank god someone gets it. I wasted sooo much time with that sport instead of a real martial art. Kinda makes me sad sometimes but then again I am only 24 and have many years left to train. I find it hard to believe that there are people out there that actually see TKD as anything but a hobby.

Answer 1

Hood_12, you have escaped the cult with your common sense still intact. awesome. TaeKwon Doughnut... ROFLMAO. that art is true BULLSHIDO

giving black belts to kids shows that it isnt a realistic thing. a black belt only shows you that they are good at TKD, not of reality. I ask parents to think about the illusions they will be feeding their kids if they put them into TKD. as a competitive sport, sure. as a self defence, no. we all need hobbies, but I prefer mine to include elbows and knees, throat chops and joint manipulation. not only punches and kicks.

to limit yourself is to limit your potential. believing that a limited number of moves can be better than more is dumb, and I dont mean more moves, like kung fu animals, I mean other body tools like elbows, knees, and other target areas like knees. if you laugh at knee kicks, get one.

stay safe in the McDojo, for that is the limit of your limitations power.
no mystery there.

Answer 2

If you have ever seen real TKD from Korea before the watering down for kids, you might think differently. Essentially what we have in about 99% of the TKD schools I have seen is the bastardization of martial arts and sport. Instead of soccer moms, we now also have TKD moms.

I get some flack from people in this and other forums for studying Chinese Boxing. I realize there are many charlatans out there advertising themselves as real kung fu, or real Shaolin, and one has to weed through the many BS schools to find a good one, so I can't necessarily blame them for the perception that it is only for the movies or just garbage in general. The same holds true for TKD, but their problem is that there are at least twenty times as many TKD schools out there than any other kind of system. Too much research for me to even bother anymore...

There are some schools that teach actual martial application of TKD, but they are too few and far between to lead the general populace to any other conclusion than to assume they are all sport. I'd steer clear of the associations, corporations, and franchises.

At least you look on the bright side of your experience as a fun sport (how can point sparring truly be anything but a game of tag?) and don't feel you wasted your time. I am hoping your reaction time has improved as a result as well.

TKD was a great stepping stone for me into a much broader world of martial arts.

Answer 3

I too was involved with tae kwon do for about 5 years. It is considered a sport. I was really disappointed in that we seldom if ever practiced any hand techniques. I had 2 teachers both Korean.

The younger one would have us practice blocks. He would demonstrate say a inside block and then all of us would walk forward and do it several times. We were doing blocks but really do not have a clue as to what we were doing since the teacher never gave an explanation or showed us what it was used for.

I finally got a book from the master teacher and it showed pictures of not only the forums but pictures of hand techniques and how to use each of them.

Also I found the one step sparring to be awkward. There's one where your opponent punches and then you use a circle block with you foot to block it??!!

I finally got into boxing, it made more sense to me. At least in boxing you are taught how to slip or duck punches. If someone is much bigger or stronger than me I'd rather just get out of the way.

Answer 4

Hood, you're showing an 8 year old kid testing for an Orange belt? Is that supposed to make us change our mind about TKD? Look at my answers about you on the two previous posts. I'm not wasting my time or energy telling you what a clown you are. You already know you are one. Stop searching for excuses as to why TKD sucks, just because you suck at it! FYI, I dont even take TKD anymore I train in BJJ and some MMA. Yet, I never lost my respect for the sport or the fighters in it.

Answer 5

You should never feel 'safe' if you are attacked. Anyone with the ability to throw punches can potentially beat you, no matter what form of self-defense you study. Trained martial artists (mixed included) should have an advantage over an untrained fighter, but it only takes one lucky shot to defeat someone or to be defeated, no matter how long someone has trained.
Taekwondo is certainly not a complete 'answer,' and neither is any other traditional art. It's only a piece of the puzzle. By the way, mixed martial arts TEND to complete the self-defense picture somewhat, but even an mma fighter could find himself in a situation he is ill-prepared for (multiple attackers, for example)...

The bottom line is this: train in several arts, and determine for yourself what is useful and what is not (Bruce Lee's philosophy). I try to respect all martial arts, as each has something to offer. Only you can decide to defend yourself if attacked, and only you can determine if you are truly prepared for it...

Answer 6

TKD is a sport style mostly however I have met a handful of students who can apply it for real if need be. They study the sport aspect as well as the self-defense aspect of the style.
But I can say the same thing of wrestlers, boxers and kick-boxers as well.

Answer 7

I would feel much safer because I'll be able to kick someone off a horse!

Answer 8

IMHO ITF is much better than WTF. ATA I don't know much about. What I learn & teach in TKD is self defense. What you should be learning is how to block, kick & strike with your hands. If you don't understand how these skills could be used to protect yourself, I don't know how to explain it to you any better.

Answer 9

Your first mistake is getting attacked, keep your eyes and ears open and think always be thinking. The last thing that you want to bring to a gun fight is a foot that is why I carry my sidearm 24/7, And I know how to use it.