Maybe, but I have known other instructors (American) that got their blackbelts in Korea during the 60's in TKD and they also were taught keeping their distance and using kicks as the primary weapon and as the finisher.
Oh, the other classes were definitely teaching - things that you can't do in WKF style kumite. Which is probably the majority of the curriculum.
WKF is much like WT or even kickboxing in most formal settings. You learn the rules, you learn to manipulate the rules as much as possible, and you compete within the rules.
Not many TK-D BB's in Korea from the 1960's since it only began and started developing in the Korean Military in 1955. Were they in fact "TKD" or some previous system that adopted the name?
To be honest, I'm not sure. He always referred to it as TKD. He was stationed in Korea as a linguist in the 60's and trained in Korea.
As an Example Chuck Norris in early books refers to his TSD training in Korea but in later books calls it TKD.
His instructor in Korea was Yon Ho Kang. I believe he was involved with the ITF later on when that group started.
Was this due to TKD being heavily marketed and having better name recognition do you think, or was there just a change in his organizational membership, or a combo of both? By the early 70's his fame was well established and organizational support for his further success wasn't needed. Up to this time he called it TSD.
The little bit of TSD I experienced in the 90’s (a friend from college was teaching TSD), that is an apt description of the TSD I saw.
TSD was essentially Shotokan, so it was less focused on kicking.
IMO it was because TKD had become better known than TSD by the time the later books were published.
Wrong. Again.
So every TKD form that I've seen had more hand strikes and blocks than kicking. Which amazes me because in sparring and in sport they kick soooooo much lol. But If I was going to make an assumption about what a martial art is or isn't about then I would look at the forms more so than the sport.
I was going to comment on Chuck Norris' kata performance in a couple of tournaments I watched back in the late 60's, but it's sooo long ago I can't remember any details regarding his stylistic execution. I do remember them looking fast and sharp and deserving of the trophies he won. He was one of the few that excelled in both forms and sparring competition.
Agreed. But if the goal is to be a better fighter, for any context, the answer isn’t less application. It’s more (and more diverse) application.
A good point. I would aver that the number one component to glean from forms in any style of martial arts is to learn and polish the foundational elements of the style. In this context, footwork/stance work are very important in TKD forms/hyungs/poomsae. In some, not all TKD schools, there is a heavy element of self-defense taught in forms.
I'm not sure if you noticed, but that first video appears to be a Taikyoku (or Pinan/Heian) that was specifically designed for TKD. Taikyokus in karate do not have kicks in them - at least not the original ones designed by Gigo Funakoshi that are still used in Shotokai (many karate schools have designed their own Taikyokus [e.g., some Shito-ryu schools have them, and call them "Kihon Katas"], so there may be some that do. But I don't imagine them having nearly as many as shown in the video).
The Heian hyungs definitely derived from Shotokan/Okinawan styles or Japanese descent. The Pinan's were derived from the Heian forms and are almost (usually) identical. In some (most) TKD/TSD schools that do the Pinan's, the pattern and movements are exactly the same as the Heian's but the Way the movements are done is different.
I’m unclear how that relates to my post.
