Just watched prelims. In -58 Aus vs Spain 1st quarter final. I really think the Aussie can take it, but whoever wins that will get to final, the kazak looks sharp on that side of the draw though! Prediction 1. Korea 2. Spain 3. Australia 4. ??? female -49 Really cheering for Spain but I think no one can stop the China/Chinese taipei final Predicion 1. TPE 2. China 3. Spain 4. Mexico? Tomorrow will be a better day of fights though! Who's following it?
Watched a bit online earlier. It seems to have become very touch contact. Some woman got a score for basically touching the other woman's head with her foot with almost zero power.
We saw Mexico vs Australia (Safwan Khalil) earlier on the TV. Good to see an Aussie win, although we'll be lucky to see any more tkd on terrestrial TV, unless the Australians continue to go well. Has Carmen Marton fought yet? I have both British and Aussie citizenship and would really love to see the Brits in their fights - but footage here is understandably very Aussie-centric.
I believe this is a new rule change to promote more kicking action & one of the stated reasons why Mr. Cook was passed over in the UK team selection process.
I started watching the prelim bouts on line this morning. I've only watched a hand ful of bouts but so far the only positive thing I can say is the Japanese girl is really cute. Hopefully there will be some better matches when I watch more later.
I am afraid that without punching the dynamics simply do not allow for much action. For those that are not raised in the sport or don't understand & appreciate the strategic component & nuances, the average spectator will be bored with what they may see as a lack of action. It seems that the tweaking around the edges is simply not working yet in winning over spectators. It is ironic that the set of rules formulated to be different from the karate roots has definately helped TKD to be distinct & uniquely a KMA, but may push it out of the Olympics post 2016 Brazil. Odds are that TKD will remain, but it faces a battle in next years voting. What may be the deciding factor that keeps it in is the fact that many poorer, smaller & developing nations have an opportunity to medal in it.
I am now. Spain did great today and others were lucky to get through and unlucky not to. I`m not well versed in WTF style sparring, but as I said in the other thread, the rule changes seems to have done it a BIG favour IMO, and it seems much more interesting to watch. I don't care about the ITF/WTF divide... I enjoyed it - not all, but most.. but then again i don't enjoy 'all' of ITF TKD style comps either! Stuart
The scotish guy commentating on the bbc said this afternoon that the reason they don't allow head punches is to distinguish it from boxing. Never heard that one before.
I watched a couple of bouts earlier today and I was very disappointed with the standard. My biggest gripe was the poor footwork, in terms of both fighters sticking very rigidly to one line and not varying their angles of attack, or stepping off the line enough to avoid attacks. Those are the sorts of basic errors which I would associate more with beginners. My other gripe was the lack of combinations in attack. I appreciate that since they can't use their hands, it greatly reduces the number of combos they can use, but I still would have liked to see less reliance on single kicks. It was very predictable at times, and how some of them managed to get caught by head kicks without the attacker having to do anything to set the kick up was a mystery to me.
Thats the thing, they can use their hands and there were a few scores today with punches. If they allowed head punches then I think the flow of the fight would be more even.
Womens final hasn't been on yet, bronze match is on now. Must have been one of the repochage matches. Just watched the mens bronze medal match and the US players final score was when the clock was on 0 time, but got it on video appeal. Don't they have time on the video review? Had to rewind it to check myself.
Depends on the weight class. I watched a couple of gold medal matches from yesterday early this morning.
Are we seeing the first fruit of the fixed selection process with Sarah Stephenson getting beat in the first round?
