Martial Arts & The Olympics

[aefibird]

As the thread about 'favourite Olympic MAs' has been resurrected, I thought it would be good to have a discussion about MA and The Olympics.

What MAs would you like to see in the Olympics? Which would you remove (if any)? Would you change any rules for any of the systems?

[Kicks]

What MAs would you like to see in the Olympics?

Karate

Which would you remove (if any)?

I wouldn't remove any of the MA events, but I'll say that I wouldn't agree to Muay Thai Kickboxing being introduced. To me (IMHO) it seems that this sport is too brutal for the spirit of the Olympics. From what I've seen, the goal is to demolish your opponent. While we see some very aggressive actions in some of the current MA events, to demolish your opponent is not the objective. The Olympics is supposed to have some overtones of world unity and peace.

Would you change any rules for any of the systems?

I'll quote my thought about TKD from the other thread about the lack of continuous action:

I think TKD has the potential to be a very exciting, if not the most exciting Olympic MA event. They just need to encourage, or enforce, more action and less 'jocking around".

I think they currently fight 3 rounds of 3 minutes each. Maybe if the rounds were only 2 minutes the players would have to get their points in a shorter time, thus more action.

Maybe the new rule change (floating in the rumor mill) with more points going for flying kicks will add some excitement.

[italian_guy]

I agree in adding karate, but I would add kickboxing too. It is not more violent then boxing anyhow... and it is different from karate (point fighting while kickboxing is full contact) and TKD.