Athens Olympics: Tae Kwon Do

[DLopez]

Excellent response Kicks!

The reason is because its supposed to be sport combat...and it makes people wonder when they athletes dont even have their hands up. That is a very obvious flaw in the olympic tkd fighting and its not the sports fault really but the coaches obviously dont emphasize keeping your hands up. If you took another sport combat practioner and put them in a real situation they would have a chance of surviving because they know to protect themselves...when you blatantly ignore this and let your hands hang at your sides you are asking for trouble in a fight, sport or not, IMHO.

 

Drop the "combat" and you have it right.

 

This particular criticism is probably the most ignorant one I've read.

 

Olympic TKD is just sport. That's all.

 

If you believe TKD is supposed to be "combat", then isn't boxing combat in your thinking too? I am supposed to believe that someone that doesn't know how to block a kick or throw a kick knows how to protect themselves? What about wrestling? Wrestlers don't punch or kick! Neither does Judo, so how realistic to combat can either of those competitions be?

 

Why do you not apply the same reasoning that because a wrestler doesn't punch or kick, that they wouldn't know how to protect themself in a "real life" situation? Why is that opinion saved only for TKD?

 

Please! Olympic TKD isn't real life any more than boxing, and it's pretty ridiculous to read such comments about TKD's "realism" when other Olympic "combat" sports have the exact same limitations.

 

Sorry, but that "reason" doesn't cut the mustard.

[Kicks]

American Steven Lopez won his second Olympic gold medal on Day 15 by beating Turkey's Bahri Tanrikulu in the welterweight final.

 

http://www.nbcolympics.com/2004/0828/5054360_320X240.jpg

 

I'm having trouble finding a complete Results webpage. Need help.

 

But a nice 20+ page photo gallery can be seen at: http://sports.yahoo.com/oly/taekwondo/gallery?pg=1&cap=1

 

Here's a sample:

 

http://us.news1.yimg.com/us.yimg.com/p/rids/20040827/i/r2576786134.jpgNia Abdallah ® of the U.S. kicks out at Russia's Margarita Mkrtchyan during the women's under 57 kg round of 16 taekwondo competition at the Athens 2004 Olympic Games, August 27, 2004.

Edited August 29, 2004 by Kicks

[tufrthanu]

Actually Dlopez if you had paid attention you would notice that I was the one that posted about olympic tkd being sport combat. And yes Judo and Wrestling and Boxing are all sport combats. Any thing where you are attacking someone and trying to score points or knockouts counts as sport combat. And yes I do beleive that those are real self defense arts. And as proof I refer you to the news item where a car full of Judoka on their way back from a tournament were carjacked and beat the hell out of the assailant who was later arrested by police. I would also like to say i find your derisive tone to be very offensive. I do not do olympic sparring but I have no problem discussing it in a civilized manner.

[DLopez]

Actually Dlopez if you had paid attention you would notice that I was the one that posted about olympic tkd being sport combat. And yes Judo and Wrestling and Boxing are all sport combats. Any thing where you are attacking someone and trying to score points or knockouts counts as sport combat. And yes I do beleive that those are real self defense arts. And as proof I refer you to the news item where a car full of Judoka on their way back from a tournament were carjacked and beat the hell out of the assailant who was later arrested by police. I would also like to say i find your derisive tone to be very offensive. I do not do olympic sparring but I have no problem discussing it in a civilized manner.

 

You're kidding, right? You complain about my tone while insulting a martial art that others here practice by ridiculing a sport version that has earned it's way into the Olympics? That's rich!

 

Your "proof" is all well for Judo, as I certainly don't doubt the capabilities of any Judo, wrestling, or boxing practitioner the way you doubt the capabilities of Olympic TKD practitioners.

 

Your implication that a TKD fighter would not be able to accomplish the same feat as those Judo practitioners did in your "proof" is not only unfounded, but purely "derisive" as well. It's clear you have an anti-TKD bias for no good reason at all that I can tell.

 

A little bit of advice (for free!): Try showing a little respect and you might get some in return.

[tufrthanu]

Um I do tkd...Duh! And yes I feel that if a person is taught to fight with their hands down they are at a disadvantage as I stated before. You are overly hostile and I will not discuss this any further. The reason I got into the disussion in the first place was to explain to someone why people see this as a not so hot form of sparring. I feel that I have done that and I won't be posting on it anymore.

[ramymensa]

You know, I just don't understand the negative comments about Olympic TKD. Is it just jealousy because your favorite martial art isn't in the Olympics?

 

There's no jealousy and no intention of bashing TKD. I really like the style and I've refused my friend for an out in the town, just to stay to watch the matches, after swearing like a madman because our televisions had some other interests and not TKD. Well I open the TV and see some people jumping around without any intention of doing something except for waiting to counter. That was my comment. I know they are some of the best in order to go to the Olympics, but their profficiency and training were leading to passiveness.

 

I don't care about effectiveness in the street of things like that as I know in the Olympics, there are other things to care for. It's OK and I didn't expect techniques for SD. But I have expected to see someone actually fight and try to land a techniqe, not just hop around and get penalties.

 

So ease up a bit and don't think we're just creeps who want to bash the Olympic TKD. If you read my posts so far, you'd seen I'm advocating for mature and intellectual posts, not ignorant bashes.

 

We were just making some observations. I didn't know I'm not allowed to say what I've seen and how I relate to it.

[Rich_2k3]

Well said ramymensa.

[Kicks]

Well, the 2004 Olympics are over. Did anybody see the finals of the TKD heavy weight division? Those were good fights. The women were aggresive and the men's ended in a TKO in the first round! I'll post the photo as soon as I find it on the web somewhere.

 

So, no matter what country you're from, support your Olympic athelets, even if you don't practice TKD. They are doing their best to represent your country and we should all be proud of their efforts.

 

See you in Beijing in 2008!

[Kicks]

As promised in my previous post:

 

http://us.news2.yimg.com/us.yimg.com/p/ap/20040829/capt.olytae11408291649.greece_olympics_taekwondo_olytae114.jpg

 

Dae Sung Moon, left, from Korea, lands a kick to the head of Alexandros Nikolaidis, from Greece, that ended their men's over 80kg taekwondo gold medal match at the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens, Greece. Moon won the gold medal with a technical knockout. (AP Photo/Al Behrman)

[The_One]

Very nice picture!