TKD Rant

tallgeese · Black Belt

I gotta go with Montana here. I did a stint boxing in college. Despite being restricted to only punching weapons it's called the sweet science for a reason. It's reliance on angles and movement are not easy to learn and even less easy to ingrain for use under pressure. It's why despite only 8 or nine punches, practitioners drill over and over for years to make them work most efficiently.

The wide array of tactics available in oriental arts sometimes (sometimes!) does not mean superiority. Most boxers who've spent similar amounts of time in have a deeper understanding of how to use their tools under duress than martial artists do.

On the grappling note, throwing a headlock and falling to the ground might be instinctive; however, from experience I can say that high end technical grappling is not instinctive. The body has to work in ways that it just doesn't on it's feet. You'll see BJJ black belts with 8-10 years of consistent training under their belts, with a big chunk of that built around randori and applying the tactics of the art under pressure. That's a time frame and training paradigm that most traditional martial artist can't claim.

Just food for thought, I'm not saying learning to kick is easy. I've never been a great fighter in that aspect. However, I don't think it's an accurate generalization to lump other arts as easier to learn. Especially the ones you indicated, brickshooter.

DWx · Black Belt

datguy · Yellow Belt

Firstly, welcome aboard MickPD82! Thanks for your service to our country. I plan on enlisting in the Marines after school's done, so it's nice to have someone with your knowledge around.

As far as the TKD rant goes, I'm just going to say no one style is better or easier than another. That's like saying a baby learning to walk comes much easier than learning to ride a bike as a toddler...it depends on the individual. My school is not oriented around sparring or Olympic acrobatics. My school teaches the techniques of the art, and lays the task of "developing your style within the style" to oneself. That being said we also focus very much so on real-world self defense.

Bottom line, this debate about TKD's practicality will go on forever so long as there isn't a mutual respect for each and every style. I'm sure there's a boxing wizz who could beat a tai chi master and I'm also sure there's a tai chi master who could beat a boxer. It all comes down to respect for ones abilities.
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“Empty your mind, be formless, shapeless - like water. Now you put water into a cup, it becomes the cup, you put water into a bottle, it becomes the bottle, you put it in a teapot, it becomes the teapot. Now water can flow or it can crash. Be water, my friend.”

brickshooter · Green Belt

Montana and Tallgeese,

How long did it take you guys to learn TKD punching to the point where you can reasonably defend yourself in a fight versus a person of the same weight and athleticism?

MasterPain · Black Belt

tallgeese · Black Belt

I've never been a TKD stylist, brickshooter. Sorry if I mislead you somehow, so take my numbers with a grain of salt here. For me, out of my base art, it was about 3 years or so before I felt comfortable with the idea of real conflict if I recall.

Then we realized (thanks UFC 1) that there was a whole range we hadn't trained in. That was probably a couple more years to feel comfortable with, and that's just to augment self defense skills with ground work. Not being comfortable in a grappling bout.

Bear in mind about the striking numbers though, I'm coming out of a different striking pardigm there. Hand were always up, heavy focus on combinations and movement. Follow up control, ext. You mileage may differ with different arts.

In the end, we usually train, if we train past say brown in most karate based arts and blue in BJJ, we're not training for just self defense anymore. Skills at those levels will greatly improve your odds in a street altercation if that's all you're looking for. Not saying more time won't make you better, just that in MOST altercations you'll have an ADVANTAGE. I bold it because that's all you'll ever get. There are no guarantees. Past those time frames you're really training to prepare yourself against that 1 percent violent offenders who really want to kill you if you're focusing on self defense.

One last point, don't let me mislead you. It's not time in just any art training for whatever reason. The methodology must be sound and realistic in implementation and the mindset focused for ANY art to give you an edge.

Lupin1 · Black Belt

Of course I know that this doesn't represent ALL TKD schools, but most of the McDojos I've seen are TKD. We've got one around here I went to for a few weeks and one night we learned this weird almost dance of monkey-punches (as my Isshinryu instructor calls those slow, powerless, "stick it out there" punches a lot of people throw in partner work) and weird side blocks where you bend your wrist and hook it around the other person's "punch" and when I commented that that wouldn't be very effective the instructor said "but doesn't it look cool?". That was my last night at that school. I also thought it was interesting that their bo form involved throwing the bo on the ground and cartwheeling over it and spining it behind your back, but didn't include any actual strikes or blocks or anything (not that I've learned bo in my own style yet, but I've watched the black belts practice their form many times).

Again, though, I know this is in no way representative of all TKD schools. There are just so many of them that ones like this are very common and so this is what a lot of people think of when they think TKD.

bushido_man96 · KF Sensei

brickshooter · Green Belt

MasterPain · Black Belt

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