I don't get it.

Basic · White Belt

In traditional Tae Kwon Do, they don't put their hands up. You can just go type Tae Kwon Do in youtube and you'll find TKD practitioners sparring with each other and they have their hands rested at their sides. They don't block, and most of the knockouts come from a pop wheel kick.

In the martial art I take, the base is Tae Kwon Do, but we keep our hands up, etc. We train a lot of Muay Thai, Boxing, and basic Kickboxing. Our main kicks come from traditional TKD, and we train traditional TKD forms. You don't put your hands up in traditional TKD forms, which kind of confuses me, because my instructors constantly tell us to keep our hands up or we'll get knocked out, which I believe fully.

Anyways, back to the purpose of this post. Why don't traditional Tae Kwon Do practitioners keep their hands up?

bushido_man96 · KF Sensei

The TKD practitioners that you see when you go to YouTube are most likely Olympic stylists. They don't block much, and trade a lot of kicks and counter, trying to get points. They don't score punches, from what I can tell, so no one bothers to throw them or defend them. They also use their hands down at the sides, and swing them to get momentum for their kicks.

If you can find the right Traditional TKD school, you will find one that stresses hands up, and using the hands in sparring. At my school, I keep my hands up, and I do punch a lot. I enjoy punching, as a matter of fact.

If you look at some old clips of Karate fighters, you will see that a lot of them tend to hold their hands fairly low as well. It seems to be a theme, and I don't know why.
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pittbullJudoka · KF Sempai

Bushido man you hit the nail on the head about the TKD guys. And to answer your question about karate guys keeping their hands lows. Most dojos nowdays spar using sport tornament rules where there is no face contact allowed. So no need for them to keep their hands up when they don't get hit in the face. At the dojo were I train we stress hands up even with the kids or you're going to get hit in the face in a real fight.

hammer · Yellow Belt

Some may frown on non to light contact point sparring but when a close punch to the face is a point you learn to keep your hands up...

bushido_man96 · KF Sensei

wingedMonkey · Orange Belt

Also agreeing with everyone here, bushido_man is correct because it is the Olympic style that does not allow for hands to be used and thus the result of not using them. If you go waaaaaay back in like text books, and really traditional schools in Korea, you should always have your hands ready.
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KarateEd · KF Sempai

I agree with the previous comments. I have trained in TKD for some years now and have always been taught and continue to teach students to keep their hands up.

Ed
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ninjanurse · KF Sensei

Ditto!

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bushido_man96 · KF Sensei

IcemanSK · Purple Belt

Traditional Taekwondo does keep their hands up. As many have pointed out here: Olympic style TKD really has no need to do that because they don't punch often anymore. The reason is, one has to score a "trembling blow" to displace the opponent. That is hard to do with a punch when you're up on your feet so high because you're bouncing & focused on throwing kicks.

They are trying to change that a bit, however. Fighters are wearing a glove (a bit like MMA gloves, with less padding). There is talk about making punches more of a priority again. It's because evident to the "powers that be" in Korea that it needs to change.

While TKD has always been a kicking art, it was not ever intended that we would not use our hands. Not a single Kwan would say that the direction it has gone is positive for the art.
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