[nheather]

Been watching some of the Tae Kwon Do and am a little puzzled.

Are you not allowed to punch in the Olympic version?

They seem to spend most of their time hopping on one leg, with their arms pressed against their sides, flicking the other out like an Irish Line Dancer. Mostly the arms were held down agianst their sides and I rarely saw the arms being used as a guard or for blocking.

My son does Tae Kwon Do and when I watch sparring and competitions at his Dojo it is much faster and more violent.

Every other sport I've been amazed at the ability and level of the competition compared with what you see at club level, but not TKD.

To watch it seems to be a step down from club competition - I'm certain it isn't but it looks like it.

Cheers,

Nigel

[inzaman]

It must be the reach? As you will have to get closer to punch and as a defending technique you can obviously move back and then kick? Unless it is banned maybe - i dont know.

I used to do TKD many years ago so really like the sport and watching it in the Olympics wished i had never given it up now as i would be some grand master had i kept it going

Cracking Gold medal to get though.

[Mshulla]

You aren't allowed to punch to the head but a body punch does score 1 point

[Iccz]

Punches just aren't practical

[duncfunk]

They use *** in the Olympics. ITF Taekwondo uses pads on hands and feet for sparring and is a much better version of the sport. They look like they're part of the Riverdance cast In ***!

[duncfunk]

Lol this filter, they use World Taekwondo Federation in the Olympics.

[nheather]

LOL

I know what you mean - the olympic TKD standard is a banned word on AV Forums.

Definite case of martial arts discrimination. AVF let you talk about ITF but not about it's competitor *** - talk about bias

Anyone done some resarch myself - can score punches on the chest - 1 point like a straight kick to the chest. Trouble is, in the olympics they use scoring sensors which have been set with a sensitivity of a kick for the weight of that competition in mind, so quite often a perfectly valid punch wouldn't register.

I can understand not using punches but it is odd to see so little use of the arms - little guarding, blocking or parrying.

Cheers,

Nigel

[mjn]

You have to delve into the history of TKD to see why they use the *** rules, rather than the ITF.

Talking as somebody who has done both, much preferred the ITF sparring rules, but there was still no sweeps allowed.