TKD sparring

[TJ-Jitsu]

Hi everyone:

I am a long time JKD and Muay Thai practitioner that recently took up TKD along with my very young children. The experience has been wonderful and learning a new art is simply fascinating. I've spent a lot of time over the years sparring and competing, especially in Muay Thai, and very much look forward sparring in TKD eventually. Even as a TKD newbie I can already see big obvious differences between the styles and can only imagine how it manifests in sparring. For example, in TKD the body mechanics for the first ~50% of a round house kick, snap kick, and in some part the side kick are nearly identical making them very hard to individually identify until it's almost too late.

Curious if any of you have made a similar transition and whether you have thoughts or comments you'd be willing to share.

They really can be 2 different facets. Muay Thai and TKD are kind of extremes- one focusing on points and speed and the other for brute strength and fighting.

Not too many lead leg kicks in mt (other than a push kick) and when they are theres not much power on them. The rear cut kick would take too long to load up to be of use in TKD. Likewise the snapping motion of the kicks doesn't lend itself well to power and its not advised when you don't have protection over your feet.

One thing that does work surprisingly well though- is Axe kicks. Coupled with a good push kick, often your opponent wont know which you're throwing and when your opponent is anticipating a push kick and you drop an axe kick- that can be an effective fight ender

[Archimoto]

Thank you !!! Totally makes sense!

[bushido_man96]

Hi everyone:

I am a long time JKD and Muay Thai practitioner that recently took up TKD along with my very young children. The experience has been wonderful and learning a new art is simply fascinating. I've spent a lot of time over the years sparring and competing, especially in Muay Thai, and very much look forward sparring in TKD eventually. Even as a TKD newbie I can already see big obvious differences between the styles and can only imagine how it manifests in sparring. For example, in TKD the body mechanics for the first ~50% of a round house kick, snap kick, and in some part the side kick are nearly identical making them very hard to individually identify until it's almost too late.

Curious if any of you have made a similar transition and whether you have thoughts or comments you'd be willing to share.

They really can be 2 different facets. Muay Thai and TKD are kind of extremes- one focusing on points and speed and the other for brute strength and fighting.

Not too many lead leg kicks in mt (other than a push kick) and when they are theres not much power on them. The rear cut kick would take too long to load up to be of use in TKD. Likewise the snapping motion of the kicks doesn't lend itself well to power and its not advised when you don't have protection over your feet.

One thing that does work surprisingly well though- is Axe kicks. Coupled with a good push kick, often your opponent wont know which you're throwing and when your opponent is anticipating a push kick and you drop an axe kick- that can be an effective fight ender

A guy from our organization originally that went on to do some Kickboxing did some axe kicks in his fights, and they worked well for him. My problem with them is my flexibility limitations and I'm not that fast with them. You really have to be explosive with them to pull them off.