spinninggumby

High kicks to the head in a street fight are definitely harder to do than, say, a palm smash to the nose or a takedown or a choke hold or about a billion other moves. But if someone develops extreme proficiency in this area, it may not be probable but definitely possible that he/she could use this to his/her advantage. There have, believe it or not, been accounts where people have used head-high kicks to hurt others in street fights. Saying that high kicks to the head are useless in street fighting is implying that, if you did land a high kick to the head, it wouldn't do anything. Perhaps you could say that the ability to launch a kick to the head in one of those situations would be an unlikely choice for the vast majority of people. Certainly, for even many proficient kickers, a punch or ridge hand to the head is much easier to perform and requires much less effort than any effective kick.

To me, martial arts is something that should be and can be enjoyed in a variety of different ways, whether you like to study it for health, self-defense, body toning, interest in the philosophy and traditional aspects, or just for personal pleasure and fun. There are many different sides to each art alone, let alone martial arts in general. TKD can be practiced as either a sport or for self-defense or just for personal accomplishment or well being. Just as each person may gravitate toward a certain specific art, each person may also become more partial to a certain aspect or side of a specific art. There are also those who enjoy all the sides and also go further to enjoy all the sides of many different arts. It's all about what you prefer. Yes, the traditional and first purpose for martial arts was self-defense, but in a society (at least here where I am) where the ability to keep from getting killed is not quite as necessary as it was in olden times, people have found many more reasons to practice karate, kung fu, taekwondo, muay thai, etc., even though some may have had a primary purpose when the art was first conceived. Just my two cents It just kind of gets to me when you see all these people asking 'tkd vs. kung fu, or muay thai vs. kung fu, who would win' because to me personally it's all about bettering yourself b/c if you want to be the best you might as well quit since there will always be someone better than you. It's not about beating someone down, and all that stuff about 'it all comes down to last man standing' may apply to some people but sure don't apply to me.