Olympic Taekwon-Do

BoB_BoT

Was anyone watching this on eurosport yesterday? ( monday ) It was the first time that I saw a WTF style Spar and tbh I thought it was pretty weak (crappy, not strenght).
Fair enough they were fighting hard, but they bearly used their hands, all the males did was kick, while the 2 of the female matches I watched used their hands. I picked up quickly enough that you can only use your hands on the "body" armour and not below or above the midsection and the head was only for kicking.

There were some good spars, but I thought it was REALLY bad form of the french female sparer to be screaming and crying when the result that she lost was given out. I know it can be emotional to try your best to be first but for christ sake have some dignity and behave like a dignified Taekwon-Do student. Ok, being upset about it is ok but to behave like that

What did anyone else think of the competition?

dudara

I saw it advertised in the paper, but we have Chorus and they recently took away Eurosport. I would love to have seen it though,

what you described happens in a lot of spars, be they ITF or WTF. Some people will fight with their legs only, forgetting that they have hands too. And when you have spars like that, they're no fun to watch.

Speaking of sparring etc, anyone heading to the INTA open in Dublin on March 6th?

BoB_BoT

I hate working sundays, never get to go to any comps or seminars unless i arrange it well in advance lol. I've being to 2 tourni's so far and the sparing was great, legs and hands and found it a lot more interesting than the spars I saw on eurosport (and that was only the green belts lol )

dudara

March 6th is a Saturday afaik

BoB_BoT

it sure is, now only if i can get weekends off lol. oh wait i can't need money lol oh well. Hoping to get to some of the seminars though

briano

I was always under the impression that WTF training focuses more on big kicks than ITF. They (WTF) don't seem to kick off the front leg as much, but this is just my experience from two or three spars against WTF people (at nowhere near Olympic Standards might I add)

How did you get on at the INTA Open?

dudara

I bottled it. As it turns out I was coming down with the flu. I didn't even spar, as I didn't feel up to it.

NeoSlicerZ

ahh yes, reliance on kicks, all good and well in a "friendly" spar. In a competition, i've found punching to be often essential as counters. Though some teams from countries have a sort of defined fighting style e.g the spanish, they do loads of jump punches "because it looks good." Guess what the result is.

briano

If you are talking about TKD, and the Spanish are fighting under AETF rules, than a jumping punch to the head is the easiest way to get two points, especially due to the fact that you can do two (or three) relativly quickly.

But I don't know what the story is with WTF.

NeoSlicerZ

Actually, the club i'm in is in the Canadian ITF.
I guess it is debatable over the effectiveness of continually using double punches. *shrugs*

BoB_BoT

double punching isn't looked on as being a bad thing, but only if they're full punches. i.e. they're not taps but full extensions of the arm punches. Our instructor told us that when sparing don't attack like a crazy fecker when punching, make sure that your arms extend fully and you'll get the points.

dubhthach

Well WTF regard themselves more of a sport then anything (players as oppose to fighters), head punches are illegal, so if you ever end up against a wtf fighter in a ITF style competition, punch him to the face a good bit, should help throw him off.

Another major difference is that sidekicks aren't really used. To actually score off a person they got to physically move back under the impact of the kick (unless you do a head kick) result they use turning kicks and back kicks alot more. extremely rare to see sidekicks used in competition fight.

Maybe also because they tend to do 4 rounds of 2mins (if not more?) they tend to hold back alot more during the rounds, as oppose to in ITF style well ye go hell for leather while your out.

I will say though that wtf fitness classes are a killer, i've done a number of them in cork (our club down there is shared with a wtf club) under a german 5th dan and i was well and truely wrecked after them.

I rarely use punches myself, mainly cause of having flexible hips i prefer kicking

-Paul
2nd Dan