I read the first part of the article and can see where part of the argument is going. "Self Defense" involves a lot more than kicking, punching,and lethal techniques. Self Defense involves responding to situations with a reasonable level-of-force. This is to further protect you from criminal liability after the encounter is done (sort of a continued self defense). Much of self defense involves being aware of where you are, avoiding threats, and having the humility to back down from situations where there is no valid need to escalate. In that regard, if a school isn't teaching those notions, then they really aren't teaching "self defense" as effectively as they can. At the same time, teaching good footwork and striking in hard sparring formats and letting students become both confident and humble may just give the base tools to survive 'self defense' situations if they occur. That said, the notion that Taekwondo is "too deadly" for self defense is silly. It is a great and very flexible art that can be taught to people of all ages and practiced with decent resistance (and varying levels of contact) to satisfy most needs. It's a good base for competition, for fitness, and for self defense. (And depending what you want, cross training will probably be very helpful).
I wouldn't tell that to the IDF!! :topic: Inaccurate article!! Old style TKD which was founded in 1948-1950, was actually a proposition to unite all the Korean Martial Arts under one name. Didn't work!! I would agree that Tae Kwon Do most of it taught today is for sport. But there's WTF which emphasizes sport, and ITF which actually emphasizes the old ways of TKD Self-Defense. So you have to be careful on how you word it. Personally, (and I'm a retired Tae Kwon Do Instructor), Tae Kwon Do is not good for Self-Defense purposes!! With that said they do train the South Korean Military in Tae Kwon Do from the World Taekwondo Federation WTF.
Krav Maga and TKD is good way to get you in jail!! A family member is cop and there are two things that get you in jail. Kicks to to head and when the person on the ground and you kick them. If you don't look like you been attacked this is overkill and you going to jail it don't matter who started the fight. IF all the guy is doing is pushing you and touching you a soft type like aikido be better.If you punch or kick him you have to prove to the cop you being assaulted. The citizens have limited self defense and have no protection like police officer. If there is no people by or the people by are part of hood type and no camera you could get you self in jail. IF the bad guy gets bloody nose and cuts and you look okay the police officer will take you to jail no matter who started the fight. Other note in state of Texas you can legally shoot unarmed people if they are assaulting you or breaking in your home. When I go to Texas I always open carry there.
Krav Maga and Taekwondo is a good way to get yourself out of trouble, too. Hitting a person with anything - foot, fist, brick, whatever - brings a significant amount of risk (e.g. a slap to the face can legitimately knock someone out, causing them to fall and bang their head on the pavement) and ANY act which inflicts physical force on another person brings with it the burden of explaining your actions to the authorities. For the record - not all Taekwondo instructors tell their students to kick people in the head in a real fight. Nor do all Krav instructors tell their students to boot a downed opponent in the head. I've found TKD and KM to compliment each other well.
I did krav maga and tkd at the same time and I found that my krav maga benefitted from new kicks and increased speed and agility. Krav Maga filled in tkd's gaps with regards to close combat and basic grappling. As for legal concerns; tkd'ers can kick low too. The head isnt our sole target. Most kicks are aimed to the chest anyway.
While I disagree with most of what you wrote, this is the worst thing I have read. Texas only JUST signed Open carry into law, so its not even enacted yet. Which means if you were open carrying now and anytime in the past you are committing and were committing a felony. Lastly, just because someone does TKD does not mean they will head kick on the street in self defense. Case in point, my father. I have mentioned him before here, but he was in TKD for a long time in his twenties and up. He did all the Olympic head kicking foot fencing nonsense that gets bagged on here and on that other website. However he also got a lot of traditional and self defense stuff from them as well. He got into dozens of altercations that involved him using force, and 2 that were serious self defense, and each time he did not head kick. In fact, he did something few think Pure TKD people can do, that is he set up grappling take downs with punches to the face... In fact, based on the reports I have read, and people that were there who witnessed the altercations, he didn't kick very much at all.
turn and run is whats in important and always taught in school but iv gotten in self defense situations wrist control works or get behind and palm heel in the back punch em in the face after you got em on the ground the way i look at it we do so much sparring your not gona want to tire yourself at with a fist fight its more having confidense in yourself but if they have a rope and want to kidnap you bite there heceles heel out
Taekwondo can be a good self-defense martial art, if it is trained with aliveness. The highly restrictive sparring rules such as Olympic TKD would most likely create really bad habits, just as those who train for just BJJ tournaments often do really dumb things that would get them struck repeatedly in a non-coached setting.
