Tae Kwon Do any Good on the Street

For competitions I can appreciate the advanced techniques. As you said throwing something unexpected is a good way to catch an opponent unaware. They do have their uses, as limited as they may be.

It was just a question to Toki_Nakayama, who responded with the usual 'advanced practitioners can use them well enough'.

 

Wouldn't the relatively anonymous settings that fights happen in be ideal to blast him with something he's never seen before, assuming you've gained the ability to do so consistently in all-ranges resistant training or competition?
I mean if you can benefit from doing that sort of thing against someone who has researched you and knows you do nuts stuff, how much more surprising and demoralizing is it going to be against a stranger?

I think this "advanced vs direct" disconnect crops up primarily among people who don't spar in a resistant, all ranges setting enough to know what they can and can't do confidently against someone trying to hurt them.
I know I can kick someone who is really trying to stab or punch me in the mouth really hard because I've done it plenty of times before. I know our house Taekwondoin can spinning hook kick someone who is really trying to attack him in the side of the head because he has done it plenty of times.

 

Time spent depends on who's teaching the class. I believe it to be realistic & practical though I haven't had the occasion to defend myself outside of the dojang and hope to never have to. I would assume that all ITF schools do same but haven't trained anywhere else to verify this. Maybe there are other board members training in ITF schools that can confirm?

 

I suppose thats the one drawback about the WTF, sports-oriented version.

 

a back or jump can be practical when theres an opening presented on the opponent or you use set ups and combos. arts like TKD happen to have

high and spinning, turning, jumping kicks as part of the striking arsenal thats part of what makes it TKD it can be effective with proper training and pressure testing as well as experience in street fights.

but people have thier individual ways of how they express thier TKD in this instance some may use advanced techniques cause they can, some may prefer a more simpler approach such as not kicking above waist level if they do

execute a kick.

 

I disagree. I had never observed these types of tactics working in a pressure testing street fight even by so-called "proper trained" TKDers, or others who think such tactics are.

Sorry to disagree, but high kicks, spinning kicks, jumping kicks, are not the proper arsenal in a street fight.

(Unless you are fighting other TKDers in the "street")

 

Isn't demoralisation something that should be considered when dealing with more than one opponent? Taking in to consideration that the altercation has gone beyond the possibility of being talked down. Wouldn't surprise and efficiency be the key words then?

That's a very good point. But when it comes down it, I'd rather use a simple technique that will work with little comparative risk than one which may have greater consequences if I fail.

Thanks for the more detailed answer. So you would just simply label it individual preference? I can see were a spinning technique, say backfist for example, may be of use. Or more realistically, back turning kick(aka, back side kick). You do have a point there. But I would disagree when it comes to jumping(kicks in particular). Why would you use a technique that commits you completely? You cannot react to anything else during the technique. A stumble following the technique could give enough time/space for the opponent to capitalise, if the jumping technique did not finish the fight.

tl dr: Why use high risk techniques, when simpler techniques used several times gives the same result?

 

A general view seems to be that the sport side has to be replaced more with the SD side. While I agree in a way, I think the sports side should be respected more and used more in the proper way to enhance the skills of the areas that people say is TKD self defence.
Most say TKD contains ,throws,knees and elbows which are good for SD and cant be used in sparring. TKD does contain these in its curriculum and is laid out in the patterns etc. So its not wrong to say. The problem is that the training methods ,tactics or fundamentals to train these areas are not laid out well or if they are its just poor,cheesy and mainly compliant and done in a self defency way. Understanding how these are trained to work in a sporting context by other martial arts that train them well is what needs to be understood and which you dont see in TKD.

Its one thing to just spar and add throws or knees but thats not how you get good at them. That takes ages. Judo guys have alot of drills and fundamentals to work on and specific training methods that would be considered 'sporting' yet they are miles better at throwing in SD situations. The same could be said for knees in Muay thai.

 

I have to agree that sport TKD differs from SDTKD

 

Tae Kwon Do does work on the street, My Master let's us do close combat(Like many schools) and teaches in every area of defense making it very effective for use on the streets. There is no such thing as a "More effective" or "Less effective" Martial Art, it just depends on the Martial Artist's use of the style.

 

my personal experience, ive observed high, spinning, & jumping kicks being used and it worked but sometimes they didnt work depending on person's skill level and commitment to the technique. ive seen

brawlers with no training in the arts drop kick/ jump kick an opponent so i dont see why someone trained in Karate, TKD, Kung Fu etc wouldnt be able to do if they have the skill and those techniques just happen to be a part of thier way

of fighting expression. any technique regardless of how simple or advanced it is has a risk factor in a street fight

the mere gesture of engaging in a streetfight puts one at risk. common sense should be discerned as well, if one is in a setting where the floor is slippery

 

i use individual preference cause people have a particular way of how the express the use of thier art. some would use a simple technique cause for them it presents little risk like you say. ive been doing TKD my whole life although i train in other arts, its my natural reaction an instinct to be a "headhunter"

if an opening presents itself, thats how i was trained. if you cant use these types of techniques practically outside of your element i.e dojang then your not ready for advancement in the art.

have been in a fair share of fights in different settings during the younger days and see too many fights ocassionally over here to know that the ones in TKD's arsenal are effective.

 

Depends on which ones and it mainly depends on the SITUATION/ENVIRONMENT

 

exactly. I think people confuse modern self defense and street fights with "dueling". Dueling was done with agreed upon conditions and weapons and we only know historically of a handful of true duals, the rest are family tales and assumptions of how it was done ala Greacers vs. Socs type of 50's idealism. Most Hollywood martial arts movies actually show dueling not street fighting. Seagal's early stuff changed that which is why I think his Aikido made such a splash. A true today modern street fight I thank heavens I have not ever been in due to living by the tenants and applying self defense rule 1 - always be aware. My time in the military was different and the superior fighter - Coast Guardsman with shotgun or M16 and kevlar vs. drug smuggler in boat won 100% of time without resistance. Real life is not a movie folks.

 

depends on which ones and where. Again, don't confuse a dual with a real street fight. People who agree to duals are reasonable and can be talked out of the fight anyway.

 

im not confusing a dual with a street fight.

alotta people who talk shyt about TKD or claim that they do TKD simply aint seen or done real TKD and do some watered down bastardized version that gets more media attention.

if your training in Real TKD proper applications, one should freakin know how to use a technique like a spinning hook kick in a real fight against a resisting opponent. some people who train TKD or martial arts in general suck and cant do advanced kicking techniques

and because they cant do it or use it effectively they think the technique is ineffective and wont work. advanced kicking techniques is part of what make up the martial art of TKD

its an expression but not limited to it in Various KMA arts. im not saying that TKD turns you

into an unstoppable Tekken-ified Hwarangian Mauling through legions of Jacks,

but the notion that its not effective on the street when its been proven so as well as in a combat enviroment in recent global conflict is spurious and ignorant.

 

I disagree.

It is hard for people to land a spinning hook kick in the ring under conditions against a experience fighter (BTW-experienced TKDers failed at this in MMA)

I haven't seen these types of kicks effective, and I am up in age.

Also, I like to add, my Korean TKD teacher does not teach high or fancy smancy kicks in his self defense classes

 

Most martial arts are not, in and of themselves, effective, or ineffective. Training methods are effective or ineffective. Three of my friends who practice Taekwondo have KO'd opponents in three seperate occasions. Two with punches, one with a kick (body shot). Although one person did have to go to the hospital for hurting his hand on a guys tooth. No one I know has ever reported "freezing up", or feeling like they could not use techniques.

...oh, and spinning kicks to the head in a real fight are absurd. They are ring techniques.

 

just ring techniques i dont agree with. i guess thats what they teach in USA and Europe nowadays.


its true that some kicks like a hook is difficult to execute in the ring, but depending on the skill level and background of the artist they are quite effective or TKD in itself

http://youtu.be/3Jcryf8s8AE
http://youtu.be/EkIMTEQ3UOk
http://youtu.be/d8IG6JThGUM



i understand your teacher dont teach high "fancy" kicks in SD everyone isnt the same. every GM i trained under in Korea taught how to use battlefield kicking/striking/ grappling techniques that are tested an proven as recent as Iraq when the ROK had soldiers deployed there and how to effectively use advanced/ high kicks in SD

"TKD any good on the street" sounds absurd,

where i stay at now, theres mostly a bunch of shytty Karate dojos, one fake Japanese Jiujitsu school, a retarded Aikido dojo of never-been-to-Japan-I-have-a-Japanophile-Fetish wierdos and im not gonna even comment on the Kung Fu school i looked at the other day. I havent had a chance to check out the TKD schools, but at least 2 of them i googled i can tell they not even worth a visit just by reading the website.

despite this i wouldnt ask some stupid question if these arts are effective on the street cause they are effective arts and the crappy representations is weak sauce to make a blanket statement about said art's effectiveness in the street.

its like those ignoramouses who ask about BJJ's effectiveness in the street.....the U.S Army overhauled thier entire martial arts program to incorporate BJJ, other reputable arts, and a good portion of this took place in the sandbox of Iraq and Afghanistan.


as well as thier being a self defense aspect to BJJ which one can obviously see by lookin at numerous BJJ fights on video that took place on the streets.