Is Tae Kwon Do actually "useless" against other styles?

Hey guys,

I know this is also down to the skill of the person who is performing the art but I constantly read (on the internet) that Taekwondo is useless against another style such as Karate, Kung Fu, Jujutsu, Krav Maga etc.. etc....

I am thinking of learning Taekwondo or Kung Fu and I am not asking this with the premise of "who can I beat up", nothing like that AT ALL.

But how much of this is true? Is the style actually "useless" outside of tournaments, in a real world situation.

I am basically looking for the best art, of the two, for real world application and discipline. I have no preference on kicking, aggressiveness or hand strikes.

I am leaning towards Taekwondo however.

 

My personal opinion (take it as such) is that no style is useless, but some are more efficient in teaching you how to fight than others, and there are degrees of effectiveness.

After three years of Taekwondo you might expect to have the upper hand in a fight against an average Joe, if anything because of the physical conditioning. However, it is safe to say that three years of training spent in other disciplines would've made you a much better fighter.

Does it mean Taekwondo or Kung Fu are bad? Not really. It depends on your priorities. Both will keep you fit, and as long as you have your feet on the ground and don't have an idealized / unrealistic image of what a fight is, you'll be better off than if you had not trained at all.

But if you really want to learn how to defend yourself fast and efficiently... Take BJJ, boxing, muay thai, kickboxing, Sanda... The usual suspects. Personal recommendation based on what you seem to like: Sanda.

I insist: My opinion.

 

From the perspective of a karateka I can tell you kicking is very powerful. It's tough to be aggressive against a good kicker. Taekeondo guys kick better than any other style I know of. So I'd say its very useful.

 

Depends on what you mean by better though. I think that "better" should imply combat effectiveness, rather than flash and/or power, so I would say Muay Thai. xD

 

If your going to believe everything you read on the Internet, then you'll find that "muay thai is the greatest martial art and everything is useless against it" except Ameridote, ofcourse.

 

Well, of course the skill of the fighter depends far more in the individual than the style, but my post was to highlight how much they focus on kicks, and how much it seems to pay off.

And you cagey aggressive against whoever you like of course, but in my experience I can usually keep my distance and continually kick an overly aggressive opponent. Not that it's impossible to attack a kicker, my most even and frequent sparring partner is primarily a kicker, and I do fine.

 

In general terms a grappler will beat a puncher who will beat a kicker

Kicking is a "support system" and it is very hard to maintain kicking distance in reality. Not to say kicking does not have its place, it does. But it is the skill that offers the worst trade off in terms of risk/reward

 

It would be awesome if a kicker did beat a grappler, then the circle would close in a perfect game of rock-paper-scissors.

Unfortunately (or not?) a grappler beats a kicker twofold.

 

Lizard->Spock!

 

Your odds of having to fight another trained martial artist in the real world are incredibly small, people who put in the time, effort and discipline to train any martial art don't generally go around getting into fights.

In addition to it being up to the individual, how you train is as important, if not more so, than what you train. If you train TKD for real world self defense you'll be far better off than if you train TKD without any attention to real world applications, no contact point sparing and poorly performed patterns.

 

If you find a training facility that trains you to use your strongest weapons against others in full contact situations often, you will be successful against others, styles aside.

A lot of muay thai gyms train this way, which gives them a strong and credible reputation. Finding a taekwondo gym that trains this way is more difficult.

Do they spar with heavy contact and compete against others of a high class? Is there conditioning top notch? Those are things that are just as important.

 

Part of this really depends on what parameters are you setting? If you are talking 'style vs style', what kind of comparison are you using? I would choose Taekwondo if I was going to compete in Taekwondo tournaments. I would not choose Taekwondo if I was going to compete in grappling tournaments.

Taekwondo can be a very good style - its practitioners generally have good footwork, conditioning, speed, and KICKS. Many have good hands and some decent self defense skills too (not all). One of the best things about it is that you can try out your skills under a very clear rule set with FULL contact (limited targets) against other practitioners.

As far as this goes, I think you might wish to look at any local "Reality-based Self Defense (RBSD)" you have nearby first.

Otherwise, take a look at the local schools, contact them and see if they'll let you try a few lessons, talk to the instructor and tell him/her what you are looking for, and consider the free lessons and stated goals in comparison with what you are looking for and join from there.

What's in your area?

 

Bottom line is if you wanna do TKD just go for it, it will serve you well if you train hard. Just like any martial art would.

 

Don't train an art because you want to use it. Train an art because you want to train it.

 

TKD is great exercise. I don't know how effective it would be in a streetfight. One thing i don't like about TKD is those high kicks they emphasize. try that against an opponent with fast hands and your leg gets caught, you're in a bad position.
If you want my opinion, id recomend Wing Chun which stesses low kicks, straight punches and blocking and traping techniques before id recomend TKD. Id also recomend Judo or Aikido before id recomend TKD.
Thats my two cents. Theres probably some here who think i'm an idiot and im all wrong.

 

What is my experience of these arts? As i posted before Cuong Nhu combines elements of Shotokan Karate, Judo, Vovinam,Aikido,Wing Chun, Tai Chi Chuan and boxing. I am a CN shodan. I'm starting training in BJJ but i'm a beginer in that art.