What IS Taekwondo?

**oldman34** · Posted On: 2/11/2007 6:54am

It has come up in another thread, what TKD is, or isnt.

We all have differing views on this, which is why I advocate starting a new style of TKD. Let the traditionalists have there TKD, and those of us who wish to learn more SD oriented TKD have ours.

Please feel free to define what TKD is to you.

DONT FLAME SOMEONE UNLESS YOU HAVE POSTED WHAT TKD IS TO YOU FIRST.

**MaartenSFS** · Posted On: 2/11/2007 8:44am

TKD is bad Karate. Karate was bad (Mostly) Gongfu (Baihequan/..). And Baihequan was just fucking ridiculous.

- Maarten Sebastiaan Franks Spijker

P.S. I DID waste 5 years of my life doing TKD so I am not trying to flame you or be a smartarse.

**biomed190** · Posted On: 2/11/2007 12:27pm

If you want to start a new TKD make it whatever you want it to be. Incorporate what you think will work and discard what you think does not work. From what I read Bruce Lee did that and seemed to work well for JKD.

**oldman34** · Posted On: 2/11/2007 6:26pm

Originally Posted by biomed190

If you want to start a new TKD make it whatever you want it to be. Incorporate what you think will work and discard what you think does not work. From what I read Bruce Lee did that and seemed to work well for JKD.

yeah, but I aint BL.

:)

**itf_chic** · Posted On: 2/12/2007 1:57pm

just wondering what does the SD stand for and why don't you think the traditional TKD isn't as good as the one you talk of.... i respect that you say everyone can go their own way and not 'bash' the other type, style, which ever. What made you think of such a question??

**itf_chic** · Posted On: 2/12/2007 2:02pm

Originally Posted by MaartenSFS

TKD is bad Karate. Karate was bad (Mostly) Gongfu (Baihequan/..). And Baihequan was just fucking ridiculous.

- Maarten Sebastiaan Franks Spijker

P.S. I DID waste 5 years of my life doing TKD so I am not trying to flame you or be a smartarse.

why do you say that you wasted 5 yrs in it, didn't you get anything even the littlest out of it....every style has it's own thing to teach or learn from, something that another style doesn't have.

**Neildo** · Posted On: 2/12/2007 2:04pm

TKD is all about kicks to the face.

**itf_chic** · Posted On: 2/12/2007 2:08pm

Was your instructor more focused on tournaments and what not.....or thats just what you got out of it...

**MaverickZ** · Posted On: 2/12/2007 2:23pm

.. and artificial distinction of no importance to one's overall skill as a fighter.

**DCS** · Posted On: 2/12/2007 2:41pm

Well, i can only talk about what TKD was in the late 70's (when i started) and what TKD seems to be today, at least here (Spain).

Back in the day, it was some kind of Kyokushin lite: no low kicks, no punches to the face and hogu (only) for comps. Contact level from light to medium when sparring without hogu and full contact if hogu was available.

Sometimes punches to the face were allowed (we used the what we called "full contact karate" gloves; these ones made of foam used in american kickboxing at that time) in training, but that was on very rare occasions.

Lots of makiwara, heavy bag, board breaking and of course you have to learn the form for your next grading (a week was usually enough time for learning it).

What i see today:

Olympic fencing with foots: fun, physically demanding and safe for everybody. You can get some fighting skills but with the very restrictive ruleset and the usually low contact level (people are more interested in referees hearing loud hogu taps than in kicking with real power) people develops more vices than virtues from a fighting pov.

If anyone wants to develop or learn a more SD/fighting oriented TKD, go for it. Evolution in Martial Arts is a good thing, imo. But, in any case, at the moment one departs from "the way of punching and kicking" and starts "the way of punching, kicking and flying reverse omoplata" i think is the moment of changing the art's name.