Observations of Olympic martial arts

[pinklady6000]

Boxing – rewarded by charging forward with a barrage of combinations.

TKD – stand sideways on, throwing sidekicks, holding the legs up (crane kung fu?) and pushing the opponent or deflecting the opponent’s leg.

Wrestling – get into clinch, first person to attack loses, usually through exhaustion.

Judo – fight for gi hold, get exhausted, and lose on penalties from lack of aggression.

Waiting to watch the Savate, if it is televised.

 

[KangTsai]

A generalisation, but I get your point. My observations:

Boxing - it's just boxing but with headgear and shirts.

WTF taekwondo - side stance for optimal in-out speed throwing quick, light kicks and frequent fakes to make contact and score.

Wrestling (Greco-Roman) - clinch, one side gets thrown, rolled, sweeped and/or tripped for points for the other.

Wrestling (Freestyle) - squared off, very in-out beginning, one gets caught eventually and gets taken down arms out.

Judo - tight gi holds, very modified takedown techniques and joint lock defence by hugging yourself and waiting for the referee.

 

[Tez3]

Boxing – rewarded by charging forward with a barrage of combinations.

The judging has been dreadful, several judges have been sent home as their judging has not been 'up to standard', doesn't help those who didn't get medals when they should have, such as the Irish lad and the Ukrainian. The Irish boxer was furious, we watched it and it was very clear he should have won, when interviewed he mentioned the ongoing corruption investigations into the AIBA.
Only the women wear head guards in the Olympic boxing ( why I don't know just more weird AIBA rules) pro boxers were allowed to compete for the first time but embarrassingly they didn't get beyond first round lol.

 

[MAfreak]

there were some very nice techniques and last-second-wins in judo and freestyle wrestling, so don't exaggerate.

 

[Tez3]

there were some very nice techniques and last-second-wins in judo and freestyle wrestling, so don't exaggerate.

I enjoyed the Judo and the wrestling. I know very little about wrestling, I can't tell the difference between the two styles but it was very enjoyable watching. I could see techniques I recognised and where they were going also the defences to them. I loved the energy of it too.

 

[JR 137]

I enjoyed the Judo and the wrestling. I know very little about wrestling, I can't tell the difference between the two styles but it was very enjoyable watching. I could see techniques I recognised and where they were going also the defences to them. I loved the energy of it too.

In Greco-Roman, you're not allowed to attack the legs, i.e. no single, double leg takedowns, etc. Freestyle allows this. Greco basically turns into all clinching and throws because of the rule set. It's far more complex than that, but that's the very basics.

 

[Monkey Turned Wolf]

I had to stop watching the boxing, I could not tolerate the judging. I don't know if it's issues I have with the olympic point system, or the judges themselves, but what I am seeing is not boxing to beat your opponent, it is boxing to win a game, and who wins does not seem to make sense to me. IMO a real disgrace to what boxing should be. At least they don't have headgear though (for the men at least).

 

[Monkey Turned Wolf]

Waiting to watch the Savate, if it is televised.

I didn't know savate was an event, but if you have nbc available as part of your package, you can watch the non-televised events through this website Olympic Live Streams & Schedule.

 

[Tez3]

I had to stop watching the boxing, I could not tolerate the judging. I don't know if it's issues I have with the olympic point system, or the judges themselves, but what I am seeing is not boxing to beat your opponent, it is boxing to win a game, and who wins does not seem to make sense to me. IMO a real disgrace to what boxing should be. At least they don't have headgear though (for the men at least).

It's on live here at the moment, my husband is working himself up over it, I may have to turn it to something else. We have a British boxer on at the moment in a semi, the match before was a farce with again the wrong 'winner'. The commentators here just keep saying they don't know what to say as the judging is bad, one of them is a very experience boxing commentator the other a former world champion boxer but hey what would they know.

 

[Monkey Turned Wolf]

It's on live here at the moment, my husband is working himself up over it, I may have to turn it to something else. We have a British boxer on at the moment in a semi, the match before was a farce with again the wrong 'winner'. The commentators here just keep saying they don't know what to say as the judging is bad, one of them is a very experience boxing commentator the other a former world champion boxer but hey what would they know.

The last one I watched was Michael Conlan's loss. I 100% did not understand the decision, and assumed the olympic boxing scoring was so foreign there was no point in me watching anymore. I just looked it up, and apparently basically everyone agrees that all the judges scored incorrectly. I can't believe the judging is really THAT bad.

 

[Tez3]

The last one I watched was Michael Conlan's loss. I 100% did not understand the decision, and assumed the olympic boxing scoring was so foreign there was no point in me watching anymore. I just looked it up, and apparently basically everyone agrees that all the judges scored incorrectly. I can't believe the judging is really THAT bad.

There was another the night before where a Russian won and even he was surprised, the crowd booed loudly at that one and again at the medal ceremony. The ones were have just been watching the Brit got through and the American girl. The American girl outclassed and out boxed her opponent but we couldn't be sure she'd win until the ref lifted her arm at the end. We've moved on to TKD now.
I thought you'd like this though seeing as you'd watched the Conlon fight. 5-year-old gives Michael Conlan his medal after Olympic heartbreak

 

[Monkey Turned Wolf]

I thought you'd like this though seeing as you'd watched the Conlon fight. 5-year-old gives Michael Conlan his medal after Olympic heartbreak

That is amazing. Such a sweet letter

 

[MAfreak]

tkd judges are the same creeps. i start to hate olympic sports the same way as professional sports...

 

[Tez3]

tkd judges are the same creeps. i start to hate olympic sports the same way as professional sports...

I find it actually quite boring to watch 'foot fencing', TKD is so much more than that. However turned over again for the hockey, British girls in final against the Netherlands. At least with ball games and races you can see who wins! We are lucky we have nine channels from the BBC for just the Olympics so have only watched sport since it began, recorded anything else we want to watch for when it's all over.

Waiting to watch the Savate, if it is televised.

Savate isn't an Olympic sport, do you mean TKD?

 

[MAfreak]

I find it actually quite boring to watch 'foot fencing', TKD is so much more than that.

then you'll love wkf karate when its in! i gave every combat sport a chance (to watch it), boxing bored me most. tkd isn very good also, thats true. sabre fencing was not bad.

 

[Steve]

As a spectator, I really enjoyed watching the judo and the freestyle wrestling. Fencing was surprisingly enjoyable, as well, even though I'm a complete lay person and only barely understand the rules.

I was pleasantly surprised by the aggressive ground fighting in judo, and freestyle wrestling is pretty dynamic. Watched some of the women in freestyle wrestling, and they were terrific. Very skilled.

TKD tends to be a little too theatrical to me.

 

[Tez3]

Women's hockey is a good martial art, it was compulsory when I was at school for girls to play. Nothing like giving sticks to moody adolescent girls and unleashing them on a rival school!

then you'll love wkf karate when its in!

I'll wait and see, I've competed a lot in karate and am not a fan of points sparring. Probably very early training in hockey hitting people full force lol.

 

[MAfreak]

its very similar. the differences between wkf karate (which combat part is basically shotokan, no matter what style you normally train) and tkd in a nutshell:
- no full contact
- less spectacular kicks
- more hand strikes (but just straight and backfist, but no spinning backfist)
- foot sweeps
but its all that screaming and posing and being stopped after a scored point etc, so meh.

 

[Monkey Turned Wolf]

The announcers did an amazing job describing what was going on for fencing. I was watching with my dad, and normally he has to ask me every five seconds what is going on/why a touch was a certain way, but this time around I think I only got like 3 questions the entire olympics. The directors/refs were fully on point as well.

 

[Tez3]

It's not martial arts but I thought I'd just tell you because it gives great hope to those of us that are more mature in years than others, the Team GB got the gold in the individual show jumping, Nick Skelton aged 58 won, it's his 7th Olympics, he'd retired in 2000 with a broken neck, but came back then had a hip replacement in 2004, this was his first individual medal. Well done that man, showing there's life in us old dogs after all!
Now I wonder if I can make it to Japan for the karate.....points fighting might suit an old lady after all lol.