TKD effectiveness

[Sam]

Hopefully it wont take that long, the nasty leg injuries ive seen from someone taking a blow when landing a complex aerial technique

[Sabumnim]

As I have said in another thread, if you generalise it will come back and bite you on the butt.

A good street fighter is very rarely made and is most often naturally gifted. All martial arts come from a similar need, to protect yourself, family and friends. You will find the same technique in most arts under different guises, no martial art can make you an accomplished street fighter but it can help you defend yourself.

[Aodhan]

As I have said in another thread, if you generalise it will come back and bite you on the butt.

A good street fighter is very rarely made and is most often naturally gifted. All martial arts come from a similar need, to protect yourself, family and friends. You will find the same technique in most arts under different guises, no martial art can make you an accomplished street fighter but it can help you defend yourself.

True. The biggest thing that makes people freeze in a street situation is when someone whollops them, and they get stunned for a half second saying "HEY!! That HURT!!!"

We get that in training, so when we get tagged, we can ignore it and move on.

Aodhan

[Sam]

experience - without going out and fighting [which i hope noone does on this board ] hard MA training is the best experience you can get - so you dont freeze up when the time comes to defend yourself... so yeah i agree with Aodhan again

[taekwondomom]

I don't know, maybe I'm way off here, but isn't one of the purposes of martial arts to be the kind of person who DOESN'T get into fights?

I'm not talking about true self-defense here, fighting because someone else has made the first move. I'm talking about adding to violence on the street or whereever just because you can--because you are a powerful weapon and you want to use this to get at people who bug you or threaten you or whatever.

I really don't think that's the purpose of martial arts.

My instructor, who is 7th dan and in his early 50s, says he is very proud of the fact that he never had to use TKD on the street until about 10 years ago when two guys jumped on him on a city street. He says he was easily able to "immobilize" both and get away, but what he's really proud of is that he went so long without fighting.

It seems like if we do martial arts right, we learn how to be calm in a hot situation, how to have self-control, how to respect others, even how to walk away from an insult. We know we can use force, and we can if we have to. But it should take a LOT more for us to "have to" use force.

Any thoughts on this at all?

[younwhagrl]

Yes taekwondomom, we learn from our instructors that martial arts should not be used just to fight people because they hit you first. They tell us that the only way we should use it, if your life is in danger. Thanks for bringing that up.

[Sabumnim]

taekwondomom and younwhagirl are both correct.

But Sam, Aodhan and myself were just saying that no martial art training can help turn you into some type of supreme fighter.

[Sam]

exaclty - just that without real experience anyone is prone to having all their training go out the window!

And sometimes fights are unavoidable.

[Aodhan]

I don't know, maybe I'm way off here, but isn't one of the purposes of martial arts to be the kind of person who DOESN'T get into fights?

I'm not talking about true self-defense here, fighting because someone else has made the first move. I'm talking about adding to violence on the street or whereever just because you can--because you are a powerful weapon and you want to use this to get at people who bug you or threaten you or whatever.

I really don't think that's the purpose of martial arts.

My instructor, who is 7th dan and in his early 50s, says he is very proud of the fact that he never had to use TKD on the street until about 10 years ago when two guys jumped on him on a city street. He says he was easily able to "immobilize" both and get away, but what he's really proud of is that he went so long without fighting.

It seems like if we do martial arts right, we learn how to be calm in a hot situation, how to have self-control, how to respect others, even how to walk away from an insult. We know we can use force, and we can if we have to. But it should take a LOT more for us to "have to" use force.

Any thoughts on this at all?

You're absolutely right. And, I don't think the original poster meant that we should be out looking for fights, but if you found yourself IN that situation, if it would be effective.

I don't look for fights, nor do I "advertise" my prowess in MA, but if I was in a situation where I was forced to it, I would feel completely confident in my TKD preparation.

Aodhan

[EternalRage]

I don't know, maybe I'm way off here, but isn't one of the purposes of martial arts to be the kind of person who DOESN'T get into fights?

I'm not talking about true self-defense here, fighting because someone else has made the first move. I'm talking about adding to violence on the street or whereever just because you can--because you are a powerful weapon and you want to use this to get at people who bug you or threaten you or whatever.

I really don't think that's the purpose of martial arts.

Any thoughts on this at all?

The effectiveness of an art, the ability of a practitioner of an art to fight proficiently is an issue that must be continuously reanalyzed about one's training. Martial arts is about fighting - hence 'martial' otherwise you would just be dancing. How you fight, when you fight, why you fight is up to you, and that's where all that stuff about "fight only in self defense" and similar creeds come in. Can you fight is a question that must always be reevaluated, as the original poster of this thread had in mind.

That being said, TKD can be effective if trained for fighting. If you're training for Olympic sparring or point sparring, you're not training for fighting. My TKD instructor always said "you will fight the way you train." That's why alot of ppl give crap to TKD for not being effective in a fight - they don't train that way.

Its like Michael Jordan, who trained basketball, tried to use his athleticism for baseball. It just doesn't work. You can't take training from one thing, flip a switch, and be able to do something else. If you want to be a good TKD fighter, go find an old school TKD dojang where they still fight (no hogus, contact anywhere, etc) and also revamp their system to make up for apparent weaknesses (no groundwork).