Filed under the heading of "What were they thinking?"

[miguksaram]

Though we do not do Olympic TKD matches, we had a similar incident with our own student last weekend. For some odd reason she decided she wanted to fight, even though her specialty is forms and weapons. She has sparred in the class, but never to a degree that would have prepared her for a tournament. She is a Jr. Black Belt and prior to that day has never fought in a tournament, just done weapons and forms. I tried to tell her and her parents that it is a whole different world in there and I don't recommend this particular tournament to start a "fighting" career because this one brings out some of the better fighters from the Chicago, Wisconsn and Indiana area, but if she was really wanting to do it then she needs to be in the school every day that week prior training 2-3 hours of nothing but sparring if she was going to even be close to surviving in there.

She came in twice and only worked MAYBE 30-45 minutes each time on just fighting. Overall results...she had her @$$ handed to her in the first match. The parents were dumbfounded wondering why she didn't do better since she seemed to excel in other areas in competition. I told them she spends several hours a week in her forms and weapons but only put in just over an hour so what did they expect.

My point, is that sometimes students will do what they want to do no matter how much we caution them not to. All we can do is just pick them up after they fall and hope they learned something out of it.

 

[Tez3]

Though we do not do Olympic TKD matches, we had a similar incident with our own student last weekend. For some odd reason she decided she wanted to fight, even though her specialty is forms and weapons. She has sparred in the class, but never to a degree that would have prepared her for a tournament. She is a Jr. Black Belt and prior to that day has never fought in a tournament, just done weapons and forms. I tried to tell her and her parents that it is a whole different world in there and I don't recommend this particular tournament to start a "fighting" career because this one brings out some of the better fighters from the Chicago, Wisconsn and Indiana area, but if she was really wanting to do it then she needs to be in the school every day that week prior training 2-3 hours of nothing but sparring if she was going to even be close to surviving in there.

She came in twice and only worked MAYBE 30-45 minutes each time on just fighting. Overall results...she had her @$$ handed to her in the first match. The parents were dumbfounded wondering why she didn't do better since she seemed to excel in other areas in competition. I told them she spends several hours a week in her forms and weapons but only put in just over an hour so what did they expect.

My point, is that sometimes students will do what they want to do no matter how much we caution them not to. All we can do is just pick them up after they fall and hope they learned something out of it.

You see this is something that baffles me, why do a martial art that has the emphasis on physical combat and then just do weapons and forms? Does she know what the forms are for, can she defend herself if attacked or is she just a good gymnast/dancer?
What's the point of martial arts if you can't fight? Not whether you want to or not, if you can't fight you aren't practising martial arts, it's something else.

 

[granfire]

You see this is something that baffles me, why do a martial art that has the emphasis on physical combat and then just do weapons and forms? Does she know what the forms are for, can she defend herself if attacked or is she just a good gymnast/dancer?
What's the point of martial arts if you can't fight? Not whether you want to or not, if you can't fight you aren't practising martial arts, it's something else.

The weapons and forms - well, they have their own merits, but yeah, you do shadow boxing and think you are all that, when the shadows box back you are in trouble.

 

[msmitht]

Same exact thing happened 2 weeks ago at a tourney in SD. A boy went out into the 14-17 BB division. He was lucky and got a bye int the 2nd round. He got hit 3 times and went down on the 3rd shot (Body shot). It was his first time competing. His school practices "Ho Shin Moo DO" and rarely trains for sparring. After speaking with his father I learned that he had 3 different black belts in Kenpo, karate and HSMD. They did not do him much good in the ring. His instructor should have known better than to put him in the toughest division out there without proper training.

 

[jks9199]

Same exact thing happened 2 weeks ago at a tourney in SD. A boy went out into the 14-17 BB division. He was lucky and got a bye int the 2nd round. He got hit 3 times and went down on the 3rd shot (Body shot). It was his first time competing. His school practices "Ho Shin Moo DO" and rarely trains for sparring. After speaking with his father I learned that he had 3 different black belts in Kenpo, karate and HSMD. They did not do him much good in the ring. His instructor should have known better than to put him in the toughest division out there without proper training.

At best, he was 17 years old. And THREE different black belts?! Even giving him credit for training two at once... that's pushing things just a wee bit. No freakin' wonder he got crushed the first time he tried to compete.

If I had a guy come to me wanting to do MMA or compete in a TKD tournament or whatever, yeah, I'd train him somewhat. But I'd also get with and work with people who know that particular game and skill set, and can help prepare him properly. ESPECIALLY if the guy is a kid!

 

[Gorilla]

Olympic TKD is very much misunderstood because of the skill level of the Fighters at the World Class Level. You have to know what you are watching to fully understand what is going on. People misunderstand and think that they can go and fight at a WTF sport tournament and clean up and then wonder why they get destroyed in the first round. To be fair I have seen some TKD folks try to do MMA without the proper training and get choked out in the first 30 seconds. We all need to respect the different Arts and the skill and courage it takes to step in the ring. Those who do not will learn a very valuable lesson very quickly.

 

[granfire]

an instructor in our area, who has done open, full contact and more than just TKD suggests people start with open point sparring before they try the other stuff, especially if they come from a sheltered back ground like ITA...

 

[ATC]

Same exact thing happened 2 weeks ago at a tourney in SD. A boy went out into the 14-17 BB division. He was lucky and got a bye int the 2nd round. He got hit 3 times and went down on the 3rd shot (Body shot). It was his first time competing. His school practices "Ho Shin Moo DO" and rarely trains for sparring. After speaking with his father I learned that he had 3 different black belts in Kenpo, karate and HSMD. They did not do him much good in the ring. His instructor should have known better than to put him in the toughest division out there without proper training.

Wow!!! That is like me getting a wrestling coach to teach me to box. Not to smart.:shrug:

 

[msmitht]

Wow!!! That is like me getting a wrestling coach to teach me to box. Not to smart.:shrug:

I agree completely.