# Karate VS. Tae Kwon Do



## terryl965 (Jun 1, 2008)

If you have done both Art and not the sport only why did you choose one over the other.

I did Okinawa Karate for years and then made the switch to Tae Kwon Do, the main reason is simple moved away from instructor I loved and at that time in my life I could not find a decent Karate Instructor so when I meet this little old Korean guy and he train everyone so hard it was a perfect match. So that is my story what is yours


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## Jai (Jun 1, 2008)

I started in Karate and moved to TKD when Sensei's father passed away and he moved to be back with his family. I studied other arts while I was taking TKD until my injury last year. I moved back to Karate simply because it is not as harsh on my body, not as much jumping ect. It is also a lot cheeper to be perfectly honest. My son and I can both take Shotokan together for about 40 a month less then what TKD was running me alone per month.


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## terryl965 (Jun 1, 2008)

Jai said:


> I started in Karate and moved to TKD when Sensei's father passed away and he moved to be back with his family. I studied other arts while I was taking TKD until my injury last year. I moved back to Karate simply because it is not as harsh on my body, not as much jumping ect. It is also a lot cheeper to be perfectly honest. My son and I can both take Shotokan together for about 40 a month less then what TKD was running me alone per month.


 
I can understand, well at least you are doing it together.


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## OnlyAnEgg (Jun 2, 2008)

I started with TKD.  I found it to be a vigorous workout!  Our instructor was also one to teach us a variety of self-defence techniques, as well.  Not a lot of emphasis on competition.

My first karate instructor took a VERY relaxed attitude toward training.  I was with him for a year or so.

My second instructor is my first instructor's sensei.  His training is much more intense with equal time spread out between conditioning, self-defence and competition prep.

Before I attended this dojo, I would have said that TKD was the better art, if only for the intensity it required; now, I'm not as inclined to say that.  

I stayed with karate, honestly, because I like the people I train with and those that train me.  Beyond that, I could be just as happy in the dojang.


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## Jai (Jun 2, 2008)

I like Karate over TKD honestly. Maybe I just never found the right TKD instructor. I like the "old school" attitude with training. When I first started, we didn't have the top of the line studio, fancy mats, main street location with windows so everyone could pass by and look in. We trained in a basement of an old apartment building, the walls where in rough shape, the floor had seen better days, it had the feeling about it that people came here to learn and be serious. I compare it to Rocky III, Clubber training "old school" in a barn Vs Rocky in the fancy million dollar a day side show. I like the Clubber training style. I'm not one for the fancy stuff, and about every TKD place I've worked out or taught in had that feeling.


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## jim777 (Jun 2, 2008)

I started TKD with my children when we found out abut a small "word of mouth" TKD school near us a few years ago when I was looking to find something I could go to with my kids. Inexpensive, high quality; good stuff. I hope to eventually instruct there as well, with the rest of the volunteer staff.
I started karate (Seido) when I stumbled upon the Seido World Honbu less than 3 blocks from my office in NY. I thought it would be foolish to give up the chance to study with Kaicho Tadashi Namakamura when he was literally right there, so I joined. I wish I had seen the school 10 years ago! If I could only do one it would be Seido, no question. I just like the vibe in the Honbu, and the people there are so nice to each other. It's the best school atmosphere I've ever visited, and I've never seen a class taught by anyone under 5th Dan, with plenty of classes taught by Kaicho himself. It's a very big school (being the World Headquarters of the style, with the founder in residence) but it doesn't feel that way. It feels like family. 

jim


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## chinto (Jun 4, 2008)

I have never studied TKD but am a Karate student. 
I chose Karate as I am not interested in sport, or competition, but self defense, and the ability to defend others if a weapon is not available.
For that use, Traditional Okinawan Karate is very very efficient and effective.
the Kobudo/Kobujitsu training that is also taught is great as it is in a lot of weapons that would be hard to outlaw, and the rest you can improvise.. actually you can improvise most all of them on the fly if you have to.
any way that is why I prefer Karate to TKD.


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## Zero (Jun 9, 2008)

Karate wins!
I trained in TKD through high school up to Uni; I got a lot out of TKD and loved the tournaments and competition - as I do in karate.  I also enjoyed kicking and pushing myself to execute higher and faster kicks and from an enjoyment perspective liked the challenge of trying to master more complicated/"flashy" techniques.

However, I changed to Goju Ryu karate some years back and from the TKD I was exposed to appreciate karate far more.  I have always been into attaining and honing self defense capabilities and awareness and I found this almost totally lacking from my TKD days.  Many of the techniques used are not appropriate for the street and not even effective in competition.  The fist/punching skills and focus work was also far less than in karate.  I find my karate is much more rounded and prepares me for in the ring and the street.

I hear now and then on this site of TKD clubs (nowdays?) that are/were not so competition focused and have good SD components but I was never exposed to this so can only comment on my experiences.


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## Daniel Sullivan (Jun 11, 2008)

I chose TKD by accident; I wanted to take karate when I was a kid, so my parents signed me up for karate class... which turned out to be TKD.  I never really understood the difference until I was in my teens.

Daniel


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## twendkata71 (Jun 14, 2008)

I am not sure why it has to be karate vs. taekwondo. They are basically two sides of the same tree. It depends weither you are talking about traditional non sport taekwondo or Olympic sport taekwondo. I do not like how the Olympic taekwondo people are trained to fight with their hands down. It seems that if they were faced with a life or death situation that they would be in a pickle. I know several tradtional non sport taekwondo masters, they are not the run of the mill, Mcdojo, type dojangs. And from what I witnessed their technique was flawless.   I am a karate stylist, I have crosstrained with a few taekwondo masters to develop my flexibility and kicking, for tournament training. Personally I prefer traditional karatedo.  Thats my thing. I like the Okinawan and Japanese culture, art,etc. We are all brothers in the martial arts, even though Karate is technically not a martial art,but a civil fighting art tradition.  The Japanese tied karate with the Samurai, years after it was introduced to Japan, but the Samurai never trained in karate, it was not a military art. They trained in Jujutsu and weapons arts. 
On the other hand Taekwondo, or its predicesor Taekkyon, was used in military training in the ancient Korean military. The Hwarang warriors of ancient Korea. Now Taekwondo, as it is called now, has only been around since 1955. And most taekwondo was developed when the Japanese occupied Korea, and the Korean martial artist of that time combined their arts with the Japanese karate,  mainly because the Japanese would not allow them to train in their native arts only the approved Japanese arts.
And as far as history goes Korea has one of the oldest histories of martial arts training, going back 5,000 years. Far predating any martial arts training that developed in Japan, Okinawa or China. Chinese martial arts records only go back 2,000 years, Japanese records go back about 1,500 years and Okinawan arts only go back about 600 to 800 years.
Now I realize that I am a bit off topic, but I thought you may want to know some history of martial arts or fighting traditions before making conclusions or assumptions about validity of different martial arts. 
In my opinion its nor this martial art vs. that martial art. It's a matter of preference and what each arts does for the participant that enjoys training in it.
So, in closing if you are a Taekwondo stylist, great, enjoy your training, if you are a Karate stylist, great , enjoy your training, the important thing is that you are training and hopefully it will make you a more complete person. :asian: Peace and harmony to you.


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## Daniel Sullivan (Jun 16, 2008)

Sometimes I wonder if the whole hands down thing came from watching some of Ali's fights.  He kept a low guard sometimes, but it worked for him because it was _him_, not because it is universally a good idea.

Anyway, Twendkata, I agree; I don't see it as karate vs. taekwondo, or vs. any martial art for that matter.  Its a question of whats right for you.

Daniel


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## tshadowchaser (Jun 16, 2008)

I started in TKD MDK but moved from the area and began studying a different art because that was what was there. I also needed to learn to use my hands and to flow more


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## tellner (Jun 16, 2008)

Ali could get away with it because he was a master of distance and timing. He'd keep his hands low to bait opponents at the edge of their range. He always kept them up when they were close enough to hit him.


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## Daniel Sullivan (Jun 16, 2008)

tellner said:


> Ali could get away with it because he was a master of distance and timing. He'd keep his hands low to bait opponents at the edge of their range. He always kept them up when they were close enough to hit him.


Absolutely.  But I wonder if that's where the trend came from in Olympic TKD.  I will say that while I am at a WTF/KKF dojang, we are not trained that way.  

Daniel


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## twendkata71 (Jun 16, 2008)

Did you know that in later years, Mohamed Ali studied Taekwondo with Jhoon Rhee and went on a martial arts promotional tour with him all over the place?


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## Daniel Sullivan (Jun 17, 2008)

Yes, I did.  Pretty cool!  

Daniel


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## exile (Jun 17, 2008)

If you block out competition TKD and sport karate, and just focus on the two as combat arts, they're brothers under the skin&#8212;as you'd expect, given the roots of early TKD in Shotokan/Shudokan karate. They have way more in common than in opposition. 

The main difference I see between the arts isn't technical, it's cultural: the culture of TKD is inextricably tied to its Olympic status (if you're primarily a tournament TKDist, you define TKD in terms of WTF-rules competition; if you're a combat TKD type, you spend a lot of your 'rhetorical' time denouncing Olympic TKD and showing how different what you do is from that), and to the associated battle between those who view the RoK directorate as TKD Central, vs. those who long for the freewheeling Kwan era, when every school was completely independent and you didn't worry about anything as long as you were down with your GM. Karate doesn't seem to be lumbered with anything like these internal conflicts and polarised allegiances. It seems much more open, less bloody-minded and less insecure about its historical sources, less inclined to insist on an heroic mythic history for itself. 

Some of this comes from the difference between Korean and Japanese history and culture, some from the difference in the role of the two arts respectively on the world stage, but wherever it comes from, if you can just 'bracket' it and set it to one side, and look at the two arts in terms of potential SD applications, they appear extremely similar. As has been said before, zillions of times, in many different contexts, the important thing is who you train with, and what that person's take is on the content and application of the art...


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## Logan (Jun 18, 2008)

exile said:


> If you block out competition TKD and sport karate, and just focus on the two as combat arts, they're brothers under the skinas you'd expect, given the roots of early TKD in Shotokan/Shudokan karate. They have way more in common than in opposition.
> 
> .


 
I would agree with this. Aside from politics, individual interpretation and language, they are essentially the same. All that matters is the quality of tuition that you have access to.


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## twendkata71 (Jun 22, 2008)

Well said. 





exile said:


> If you block out competition TKD and sport karate, and just focus on the two as combat arts, they're brothers under the skinas you'd expect, given the roots of early TKD in Shotokan/Shudokan karate. They have way more in common than in opposition.
> 
> The main difference I see between the arts isn't technical, it's cultural: the culture of TKD is inextricably tied to its Olympic status (if you're primarily a tournament TKDist, you define TKD in terms of WTF-rules competition; if you're a combat TKD type, you spend a lot of your 'rhetorical' time denouncing Olympic TKD and showing how different what you do is from that), and to the associated battle between those who view the RoK directorate as TKD Central, vs. those who long for the freewheeling Kwan era, when every school was completely independent and you didn't worry about anything as long as you were down with your GM. Karate doesn't seem to be lumbered with anything like these internal conflicts and polarised allegiances. It seems much more open, less bloody-minded and less insecure about its historical sources, less inclined to insist on an heroic mythic history for itself.
> 
> Some of this comes from the difference between Korean and Japanese history and culture, some from the difference in the role of the two arts respectively on the world stage, but wherever it comes from, if you can just 'bracket' it and set it to one side, and look at the two arts in terms of potential SD applications, they appear extremely similar. As has been said before, zillions of times, in many different contexts, the important thing is who you train with, and what that person's take is on the content and application of the art...


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## dancingalone (Jun 22, 2008)

> If you have done both Art and not the sport only why did you choose one over the other.



I'm a firm believer that all arts have something to offer.  For me, I earned my second dan in TKD first before I moved away.  I later studied various styles of karate, eventually also reaching second dan in goju-ryu, but I would have happily continued to train in TKD if I could have found a situation that fit me.  Thanks to yet another move, I'm now studying classical jujitsu with additional work in bajiquan.  I still keep up with my goju and TKD (less so) when I can.


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