just a question about TKD

[younwhadoug]

little late with this but oh well. my instructor always teaches us to keep our guard up and i personally keep a very tucked in guard and am pretty hard to be hit or kicked. my instructor however keeps his hands down when fighting. but that doesn't mean his hands arent ready. he is about 5.8 150ish and has been described as fighting smoke, simply not there to need to block. i think its a personal fighters style, its his anyways and he teaches us to always keep our guard up while kicking punching pretty much anything to do with fighting. but with his ability he has no need to keep his hands up to block or protect. he is a forth dan and competes with the masters, and the masters have a really hard time catching him in one spot long enough nor do the find it easy to predict his next movement. which we train hard at. so i guess it depends on ones ability and style and whats more protective to them wether it be a high gaurd constant attacks, ready guard. yep i think i'm done

[aefibird]

I'm WTF TKD and we train to keep the guard up.

Good footwork is also essential when sparring with WTF rules, as all techniques are full-contact.

Blocking a full-contact kick with your arm could result in damage to the blocking persons arm, so many WTF style fighters prefer to use good footowork to get them out of the way of kicks, rather than relying more on the guard.

However, that doesn't mean that a guard shouldn't be kept up, because it should.

We get made to do push-ups or running laps of the dojang if SBN sees us dropping our guard.

As for the punching thing, it is hard to score points under WTF rules, so many WTF fighters prefer to just use kicks. Hand protectors aren't used, but getting in a 'perfect' full-contact "trembling shock" punch can be difficult when the opponent is wearing a thick hogu. Plus, punches only score 1 point, so some fighters see it as a lot of effort for not a lot of reward.

[danbong]

Hopefully with the change to olympic TKD rules that allow punches to the head more TKD stylists will keep their guard up.

[younwhadoug]

having giving this some thought, disregarding my instructors personal style, i have to say as a tkd red belt that if you punch at me or kick at me my hands will be at guard and ready to strike. i think anyone that leaves themself open is either good enough, wich there are a few, or just cocky. im trying to learn to keep a leg at guard as well. tips welcome

[KwicKixJ1]

quit criticizing how other people fight.

who cares? if you fought someone who kept their hands down, do you think u could win 100% of the time? if not? why... then that answers ur question.

[Bushido58266]

quit criticizing how other people fight.

who cares? if you fought someone who kept their hands down, do you think u could win 100% of the time? if not? why... then that answers ur question.

i wasnt criticizing anyone i was simply asking a question

[bushido_man96]

I do notice that a lot of TKD fighters don't keep their hands up. The tournament rules are what I think are the major cause of this practice. Everyone would rather counter than block. In class, I like to get close and punch the crap out of the bigger guys who would rather not be in close.