This has always puzzled me about TKD. Explanation?

[equaninimus]

Instep roundhouse kicks to the side of the head can cause serious injury. Fractures of the temporal bone may be life threatening.

 

In addition, any blunt force trauma that leads to unconsciousness is never "okay," and may contribute to progressive brain damage in later years. Unconsciousness results from the brain making contact with the interior of the skull and always results in some amount of soft tissue damage and swelling of the brain itself. ANYONE who has been knocked unconscious from a blow to the head should receive medical attention. In addition, blunt trauma to the head is often coupled with injury to the cervical spine, due to the rapid flexion/extention/rotation motion the head experiences in such instances. I often use the analogy of a thirteen pound bowling ball balanced precariously on a broomstick, when teaching head and c-spine trauma to EMT and first responder classes.

 

Let me repeat: Head contact, even with equipment, is ALWAYS dangerous.

[MichiganTKD]

Excellent point. One reason why we are getting away from head kicking at the tournament we host every year-head kicking, even with headgear on, can be dangerous.

 

However, I should have clarified what I said abou the roundhouse kick. The roudhouse, while still capable of inflicting major damage, is still a kick that can be more easily blocked by keeping the hands up around the head. So if the kick comes to the side of the head, it will preferably deflect against the hands and take away some of the major force. The high side kick and punch aimed to the face are much harder to block this way. As a result, we practice both of these as self defense techniques, not free fighting techniques.

 

And for free fighting, I have to be very cautious about letting students kick to the head. Students who seem to be very aggressive are not allowed to use high kicks until they learn control. This is applicable to free fighting and one step.