Taekwondo Olympic Sparring

by jeff
(Lancaster,CA)

The new rules should help.

That's how it is in real tournaments.

No activity for five seconds = a penalty. Plus I'm tired of people saying that WTF isn't martial arts. Sure we spar but we also understand a real fight is different.

I'm not going to spear hand you in the throat for sport. That's not the purpose, that's for REAL life emergencies.

So we kick box basically :) but with style.It's just for sport and practice in that aspect though.

Not that I or ANYone would follow tournament rules in real life.

Deb's Reply

Thanks Jeff

Great to hear your views on taekwondo olympic sparring - anyone agree or disagree?

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Taekwondo Olympic Sparring

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Apr 11, 2011
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Self Defense and Sparring
by: David Fiscus

Sparring to score points in a tournament is not the same as self defense, in that you are restricted by rules. However, sparring is valuable for self defense training because it sharpens your reflexes, it improves your timing, and helps you to gauage distances better, all while attacking (or defending) against a moving target. Sparring lets me try to apply combinations that we practice, but against live martial artist. Sparring also has shown me what is not practical for me to use, and that varies from person to person depending on their skillset. Sparring can also help students develop self confidence in students, and help them overcome thoughts, fears, or concerns about being hit or kicked. So in my opinion, sparring is a valuable tool for practicing self defense.

Apr 07, 2011
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Sorry
by: Tiago Costa

Hi everyone.
I'm sorry but I have to disagree. There are too few people that are aware of the fact that training sparring won't save you out there. I'm suspicious of saying this because I practice Moo Duk Kwan, but I practiced WTF for many years and also competed. That is why we must understand the difference of the sport and the martial art. Because, let's us face it, like in any other sport, if you truly want to be good, you don't have time for anything else, and sparring is all you pracice. Along with endurance, cardio and speed. There's no time for self-defense, for the artistical expression of the patterns, of learning the philosophy and the culture. Because in order to become a great everything else that doesn't make you a great fighter is a waste of time. Then you reach 29 or 30 and your carrer is over. By then you have acumulated a whole heap of dans without really knowing anything about the actual art. This is actually a big problem, because any federation will only let you participate in the nationals if you are 6th kup, but if you qualify for an international tournament the federation will award you 1st dan. Should you fail to persue the "Olympic Dream" for any reason, like an injury or something else, you are stuck with a 1st dan and hardly any knowledge of TKD (and at 1st dan you can open your own school, what would you teach your students?). I don't really mean to sound full of myself, this is just my opinion and everyone is welcome to agree or disagree.
Peace be upon your warrior souls

Apr 07, 2011
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Sparring
by: Anonymous

I teach that technique is very important to help develop skills. So one-steps, two-steps and, three step sparring is for technique development.

I also teach actual real life stimulated sparring yes its still sparring but,its more intense I wear full body gear yes the big stuff and really assault my older students so they get the feel and they learn to respond properly.

Taekwondo is no joke if you understand its principles the principles is what real defines your combat skills.

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