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As you may know from reading this blog – I do Kenpo… I used to do other Japanese styles but I’ve never been to a Taekwondo tournament. My only exposure has been the Olympics. If you have read my comments back then – you know how I feel about kicking at the expense of punches.
I found this video and I could not believe it. First watch the video and then I’ll tell you what I think. Hint – I cannot believe this is a real video showing good moves.
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All I can say is I am speechless. If this was a board breaking competition I would have expected to see the board walk up to the breaker and then just stand there and let him (the board) be broken. That is what happened in this video!
Ok – a real evaluation. If this video is not a joke – I am to believe in Taekwondo the practitioners walk right up to the other guy and don’t cover up, don’t punch, and let the other guy have a free shot to the head… I am flabbergasted. I don’t see how this made it to the Olympics.
So as I watch this video I can see how to do everything wrong. First off critical distance. They stand in punching distance (not even kicking distance) and do not punch or cover up. Then they launch this barrage of kicks like they are in the dojo fighting a punching bag (you know – no worries about getting kicked back).
Then when one of them get in a lucky kick (they are spinning inside the punching range – this should not work) – they are happy about it. I mean a comedy of errors some how worked because they fought another guy that did not now how to fight!
So please watch this video of what not to do if you are fighting… never mind bragging about it… courtesy of MySelfDefenseBlog on this pre-holiday weekend! 
June 29th, 2014 at 1:11 pm
I have a black belt in a Korean style (before it became TKD) as well as Kenpo. My Korean instructor was a formidable fighter! My Kenpo instructor had a background in Kang Duk Won. He is in the Tracy’s Black Belt Hall of Fame! I imagine both of them would be quite disappointed, as you are John, as to what TKD has become.
When I go to Youtube and watch Tang Soo Do, I think that is much closer to what I was lucky enough to learn.
Hey, curling is in the Olympics, lol!
August 3rd, 2014 at 11:03 am
Obviously sparring or competition that favours high kicking and disallows punches to the head is highly unrealistic. What I don’t get though is why they don’t even bother to keep their hands close to their face to protect against kicks. Kyokushin karate has the same flaw: no hand strikes to the head allowed so they stay in punching range trading kicks and punches to the body. At least when they do it they don’t wear much protection.
The first rule of fighting is to always keep your hands up (once while I was training kicks I let my hands drop and my teacher threw a kicking shield into my face to make a point, I was actually grateful for the reminder as in sparring I would have eaten his fist), if this isn’t necessary it’s not real fighting. The way these people go at it you’d think both their arms were paralyzed.
The reason why this made it to the Olympics is probably a) it’s visually attractive (at least to the uneducated) and b) it’s perfectly harmless most of the times unlike full-contact sports that are based on punching like boxing or kickboxing.
I agree with your assesment: this is a joke and more aking to acrobatics or dance than anything else. It was funny to see how some of them actually fell down after hitting the other guy.