I just saw the olympic gold medal match in London. An Italian beat a guy from Gabon. The thing that bothered me the most, is that they were so obsessed with scoring and not being scored on, there was hardly any Taekwondo. They just stood side to side, hovering on one leg, constantly looking for an opening to score. It was pitiful.
The rules drive the behaviour. Athletes in London 2012 were dealing with new scoring rules and relatively young electronic scoring technology. Nobody really knew what effect this combination would have on how the athletes played, but the intention was to encourage more action and increase participant safety - the ring was made smaller, head contact scored higher, more difficult spinning techniques scored higher, all of which intended to make the game more spectacular.
It is unfortunate that in contrast to the rule changes, the scoring technology is such that a good stopping side kick or cut kick with the front leg to the body can score, keeping the risk of being scored against to a minimum - in particular the length of the front leg side kick pretty much eliminates the possibility of a (more points) head kick counter, without the opponent having to sidestep first. Once the athletes and coaches discovered this, then it was only a matter of time before this easier, conservative front leg point poaching strategy was adopted by everyone.
That said, I don't think London damaged the reputation of Taekwondo. The game was sufficiently different to the last Olympics, and the commentators talked many times about how and why the scoring rules and technology had been introduced - with the intention of making the game more fair, more entertaining and safer.
I fully expect further rule and technology changes post-London, using the lessons learned to alter the rules and technology to discourage conservative front leg play. We'll see a different game again in Rio.
I ran in a few people on the internet that said that Taekwondo's reputation has been damaged by the sporty side of Taekwondo, which is focused on scoring instead of fighting.
You can't believe everything you read on the internet. Olympic style TKD is a game, so of course it's focused on scoring instead of fighting. Football is focused on scoring rather than fighting. That doesn't make it a bad game.
There's much more to KKW TKD than this game, and for the most part those involved in Korean Martial Arts recognise that this is true.
Which reputation do you mean anyway? With other martial artists? Within Taekwondo? With the general public?
In my experience the general public don't know enough about martial arts to make any kind of judgment on the validity of what they see broadcast. Olympic footage sometimes prompts people to ask me questions about why, or how, or what, but it's usually only those within the martial arts who express negative opinions, and even then it's one of two groups in my experience:
1) People not involved in TKD or KMA - who have seen the Olympic game, think that's all there is to TKD, and neglect to inform themselves further before expressing their opinion as fact. "You can have your own opinions, but you can't have your own facts" - Ricky Gervais
2) People who are or were involved in TKD (usually at low level) who can't and don't recognise that the basic skills being demonstrated by players of the game hint at a much deeper and richer martial knowledge and ability. If a person can't watch Olympic Taekwondo and recognise that one of those kicks can and will take the breath out of you, bruise you, and leave you struggling to respond, then they can't have done much contact work.
One of them said: It's a disgrace to the martial art and only soils it. These athletes have little to no technique and throw a flurry of weak kicks which though great in speed lack control and power.
I defy that person to stand opposite a competent player and try to trade kicks. About 8 weeks training will get one to the point where one can compete for the first time in a low level comp, which is where most people try once, give up and then form their opinion. You probably won't get kicked much or make much clean contact at that level. Another couple of years and it's a different story. From experience I know just how much power is in those very very fast kicks, and also that the athletes are fully capable of aiming anywhere and controlling just how much power they want in the techniques.
No, and I think those who express that kind of opinion are under-informed and underexposed to the art of TKD. Get in the ring if you think it's easy, is all I would say to such a person.
