TKD Blocking...

[manuelito]

i block kicks with my shins, bottom of my foot, low blocks, getting out of the way is best imo. and i spar in more of a square position if that makes sense.

[Sam]

to clarify tkd styles

 

traditional ITF (original) fights side on shin blocks body side attacks. Back side attacks arent blocked you move the leg into an attack...

 

WTF style use full facing and therefore usually shin block

 

would love to go into more detail but got to run so sorry for the very inaccurate description.

[ninjanurse]

Another 2 cents (can't keep my mouth shut as usual)...TKD fighters that use a sideways stance are usually those that use a lot of back kicks or lead leg side kicks and are just giving it away. They don't practice throwing kicks from a neutral stance and/or their instructors are not correcting a bad habit when it starts. Don't get me wrong here, I still stand by my earlier post that there are good reasons to use a particular stance and good reasons not to...versatility is the key here and fighters can be effective from any stance. I just think that a lot of TKD stylist's telegraph their techniques using this stance. Watch your students (or fellow classmates) when they spar and you'll see what I am talking about.

 

[Ottman]

TKD blocks are generally not oriented to blocking leg kicks due to the sport aspects of sparring, (which doesn't allow leg kicks) but we are taught to move away from an attack before blocking it, if possible. We practice these evasion techniques (at least at my school) in every direction against a wide range of attacks, moving from side to side, back and forth, around and behind our opponents, and we are taught to counter attack with these movements as much as possible. I think the sideways stance is far superior to the face-on stance in that it cuts down your own body into a much smaller target area, and, for me anyway, I don't lose any mobility. We also train to stay in constant motion while fighting, reacting to our opponents movements. Notice that Bruce Lee himself used a sideways stance in most of his fighting.

 

To put it in perspective of MMA fighting: I have been sparring with a San Shou kickboxing school that also does MT and I've had a lot of success there using the sparring style I learned in TKD. I Find that these guys want to kick to the outside of the leg as much as possible, and only having one leg presented to them really messes them up. If they attack the outside of my leg, I move to side, or in close and attack. They try their attacks with so much power that they've completely comitted to the kick and once I move out of range, they're off balance and it is easy for me land a devastating kick, or a few quick punches and get back out again. If they try to attack the inside of my leg, I can either move again, or guard and block by raising my knee and this works well too. One thing I've noticed about Kickboxers and MT guys, is that they over commit when kicking. They never seem to try to fient and fake me out. It's just one huge, powerful kick that's easy to avoid and throws them off balance because they don't seem to think that I'll move out of the way. It's always puzzled me. I used to throw mulitple kicks at them (a fake with one then a more powerful blow) but when I realized that most kickboxers will stand still and try to raise that knee to block, or just absorb the hit, I don't even throw a feint anymore, I just make a telegraphing motion with my hips, they usually put their knee up, then when they set it down I let 'em have it. Maybe this isn't the case with other kickboxing schools, but I'm constantly suggesting that these guys move around more, but they don't seem to want to listen. To them, kickboxing is the most superior fighting style on earth, despite that I usually dance circles around them with my TKD skills. Sorry to be so long winded, but I had to defend my style here.