TKD

[Aodhan]

i don't know why a lot of tkd guys drop their hands

I was once told that it was because of the force of the kicks in sparring. WTF is full-contact and a reason for lowering the guard is (supposedly) to prevent injuries, as there would be too much damage to the defenders arms if they tried to block. Instead of using their arms to avoid getting hit, WTF fighters are supposed to use their footwork to get out of the ay and not rely on blocking.

I don't know how true that explanation is, but it's as good as any, I suppose.

However, I train WTF and when we are sparring Olympic rules (in fact, generally when we are sparring, whatever the rules) SBN tells us all to keep our guard up. You get push-ups if you don't!

More to do with what scores and what doesn't. Arms will very rarely score in Olympic sparring, so they don't waste the energy keeping them up. A technique needs to produce a "shock", or basically stop them in their tracks, so even if you have your arms up and block, it could be called a point or 1/2 point.

Olympic sparring is based on avoidance and setting up leg techniques for the most part.

However, almost every WTF school I've ever been in also teaches "street" sparring as well as tournament.

Aodhan

[bushido_man96]

I have been playing with some of the more "Olympic" style kicking techniques in my spare time, and I have found that in order to switch kicking legs like they do, that it is easier and faster to do when you swing your arms to get momentum. I think that is part of why they keep their arms low.

[younwhadoug]

we have many hand techniques in our system and are less traditional than most tkd in the manner that we are mixed martial arts with tkd as the foundation. we have great footwork techniques but we also learn to stand our ground and much of our blocking is deflection rather than taking the full force of a kick or punch i guess it can be better understood as guiding the attacks away rather than blocking... if that makes any sense

[getawaytkd]

alright