Why do people bash tae kwon do?

Question

taekwondo is the only fighting system proven in modern war times. I always hear from military instructor to train like korean marines in Vietnam and Korea War. Undefeated by arms and hand to hand. Look up operation van buren. They document that firsthand US & UN soldiers found VC with unhinge jaws,crushed skulls,caved chests from encounter with 13 korean marines vs. battalion.David 'Crow' Losieu learned and used tkd, Fedor imcorporated into his training to improve his kicking.The place where i used to go taught tkd/hapkido/judo and they mix well together kinda looks like a ufc fight with heavy striking and grapling/ground game when we spar.But we also learn knife and gun disarming techniques.I know there are a lot of schools that might as well be a belt factory but not all are that way.Now i do muay thai (1 week)and the response i got from my first sparing experience was crazy beacause at tournaments most tkd places suck.

Answer 1

I think that most who answered negatively about Tae Kwon Do did so because they talk about TKD as they see it. An Olympic sport. As an olympic sport, an exhibition show, it really, and truly sucks. But, one has to look deeper into the origins of the art itself. I asked my teacher about it once, and he said, well, let me show you, and he did, and it was more street fighting than anything else. I loved it. A martial art designed exlucively against Karate (one has to only look at the offencive moves compared to those of Karate), then it is a lethal art. A deadly art. One spoke of MMA. The philosphy of TKD is Legs, hands and mind. The art is more focused on keeping your distance. So, if one who practices TKD as it should be, could keep an MME fighter at bay, and at the same time, administer some serious stopping force in close up mode. Its about agility, and harmony, and flow of movement. One should not underestimate it, because they will come to regret doing so. Cheers.

Answer 2

The TKD that Korean ROKs are taught and used is not the studio TKD that you see in this country. I have also seen a Korean master refuse a young Korean ROK veteran the right to enter a tournament and compete as well as train at his school in this country or accept his rank and I have served along side ROKs in the military as well. As you have said not all TKD schools fall into the belt factory category however there are so many that do and that have put legitimate schools and instructors out of business that now dominate the market place to some extent so you have the prevailing attitude among serious martial artists that you now have.

As for comparing the full contact as well as the sport karate aspects to actual hand-to-hand combat there is little or no comparison. Many of the techniques while loaded down, wearing combat boots and BDUs as well as trying to hold onto your weapon become very difficult to execute and there are no rules, no judges to impress, no referees to call break, and no going to a decision and scorecards afterwords. So I think the association of combat to the studio type TKD is not a good one and if you look at one of my previous answers you will find some additional background about TKD and the early years in this country that you may find interesting.

Answer 3

Tae kwon do has become the most commercialized art. Hell, it's in every major city in America. Unfortunately with money making being the prime objective this creates the worst practitioners. I went to a TKD school when I was young and the teacher was fantastic. He practiced "real" TKD and was from Korea but as time went on the students got promoted by class time and tuition/test payments. The instructor was excellent but he sold out. He wasn't completely with out morals though. He opened up a class by invitation and only the best students attended at no extra charge. This was nice but not truly effective because damage was being done to the school and the art in every other class. You can't have an effective martial art without "breaking a few eggs" and unfortunately that means never having many students. You can not have black belt kids teaching class either. No child ever should and yet most TKD schools encourage this practice. As time goes on you then have former misguided students opening up schools believing that they teach real TKD when they never even had honest or difficult training. The TKD masters are all to happy to endorse them for the membership cash they receive. This is the sad but real truth behind almost all American TKD. LIke any martial art it is extremely difficult to find a traditional, legitimate, and effective school but they are out there, TKD included.

Answer 4

Well, most of your points are just false. Taekwondo is NOT the only fighting system proven in modern war times. You sound like Korea is only nation that has ever fought a war in recent times. In fact they haven't even fought for real in recent times.

And war documentaries are just not reliable. It's not hard to do those things - broken jaws, etc if you outnumber the target, injure him, or point a gun and him and make him surrender. Random street thugs can do enough damage to you, all you have to do is be knocked out or weakened. And this is WAR here. Where bombs, nades, bullets, shrapnel can all knock you or out or weaken you.

And while a few people use a part of it in their training, TKD just hasn't proven itself a complete system in MMA competitions to warrant learning more of it. Most of the kicks are just ridiculously weak or don't take advantage of body mechanics (eg weak punches, thai kick exerts more force than tkd kick, ax kick is a joke, jumping kicks are typically moot). Most fighters would rather use systems that takes advantage of body mechanics

I wouldn't say TKD is useless or anything. It's just not the most efficient

Answer 5

well, right off the bat, while we're talking about misconceptions, we might as well cut out a point of ignorance in your own question. a lot of martial arts have been "proven" in war times or other real life security situations. not just TKD.

on to your question, same reason you get a lot of misconceptions about a lot of martial arts.
a lot of people watch a few videos, and think they've already become experts in the art
the problem there is (beyond acting like an expert in something they know nothing about) is what you see most of the time is just the pure flashy stuff that even tkd ppl know wouldn't work. but it makes good demo material

some know absolutely nothing period (about any MA), and see only the flashy stuff and assume its all show.

and you can't escape that some ppl are other MA folk, and they use the same flashy stuff and act like its representative of all of TKD and say they can beat it with their "more realistic" techniques (not taking into account TKD has its realistic points).

Answer 6

It is a very effective striking art. However, due to the proliferation of "McDojos" and the perception that it is all about head and/or flying kicks (mostly at demos you see the flashier techniques so that's all most people are familiar with) that are of limited use in combat there is a stereotype that has (rightfully) been created. It certainly depends on the school if they are staying true to the combat effectiveness that is inherent in this art (we had a second degree black belt in tae kwon do enter our dojo who NEVER trained with any kind of contact!!! He stayed for one session and never returned because we were too "intense"!).
If you are in a good school, STAY!! Become the best warrior you can thru' your art and consider yourself fortunate that you have such reality based, quality instructors and don't worry about others perceptions.

Answer 7

Taekowndo is reknown as the fastest kicking art in the world. It literally translates as "the way of the foot and fist." In addition to this it is the most commonly practiced martial art in the world and an olympic sport. It is this "commonness" that makes it so subject to being bashed. People have no experience in MA and hear "taekwondo this" or "taekwondo" that because it is common and therefore feel because it is common it is not effective. The other thing that causes it to be bashed is that it has alot of advanced kicks in, the 540 kick, Tornado kick etc and yes these moves look great in demos and you probably wouldnt opt for using them in a street fight. But people forget the basic stuff, the ferocity at which taekwondo can kick. Im sure if a taekwondo student managed to strike a full power Turning Kick to the head of an agressor in the street the only guy standing would be the Student. Or how about the thousands of different applications there are for the basic moves we are taught? Low block can be used as a strike as well as a block. The flat finger tip thrust would be lethal if the solar plexis was hit with it! People forget that Taekwondo has its basic side aswell as it's fancy flashy side. And its this basic side that would be exceptionally effective in self defence. Ive been to a few tournaments around the country for taekwondo and have been successful in all of them. The fights have been intense and rough, and despite it being semi-contact rules, blood was spilt numerous times but the quality of the fights was intense.

It also depends on your instructor, fortunately I have a highly skilled instructor who teaches us almost everything from destruction to patterns, grappling to weapons, CQC, knife defence. So in that essence my TKD is great, but thats because i have a very skilled instructor, people should't bash an Art if they have had a bad experience with it, because that only represents one small proportion of the whole art.

Answer 8

In my humble opinion, tkd is one of the best martial arta for reflex developmen (besides boxong). but in that it is a style that places heavy emphasis on high kicks and jumping, especially tournament fighting, it is not as practical as say Jujitsu or Judo for real world street scenarios;not to mention basic self defense.
Martial arts training of any kind teaches body control, quickened reflex, and ways to manipulate the physiology of another's body. But when it is all said and done, whoever has the most determination, endurance and, strength will win over martial arts knowlege every time.

Answer 9

Sadly Martial Arts like almost any interest has it's fanboy element who figure I'm too cool for the room because I know something nobody else does and so they think the more obscure something is the better it must be. And naturally because nobody wants to be the odd man out everybody goes along with it.

As for these "McDojos" The reality is snakeoil salesman are in every martial art style and stoking the egos of fanboys is exactly how they make their money.

Answer 10

With martial arts people always want what seems exotic and esoteric to them. Hence styles that are open and familiar like judo and TKD are unfashionable. It's got nothing to do with the effectiveness of any given style.