Olympic style sparring vs. traditional TKD: why all the fuss??

I like the sport and traditional TKD. The traditional gets me to work on my technique and the sport gives me the workout. I'm also a competitive swimmer, so I became used to extreme cardio and everyday workouts. I may not be the fastest, but I enjoy improving myself and it also relaxes me somehow when I get a good workout. I have a long way to go in olympic sparring though. I recently started.
 
My friend this is a very interesting topic and and excellent thread.I personally enjoy olympics style sparring and I know it gets a very bad rap it has been called a cheap imitation of a martial art but what people dont seem to understand is it is a martial sport it is an event with rules and regulations based on a traditional korean martial art. I like olympic sparring because it is a good way to practice the application of your kicks and in my opiion its just plain fun I actually go to the class that the lopez family go to so olympic sparring is very fun to me I dont understand why so many people dislike it though.
 
When the USTU was on the verge of losing its IOC credentials and dissolving , my first thought was that's a nice start. The USAT has probably done as much to harm TKD in this country as anything else. Get rid of it.
 
YoungMan said:
When the USTU was on the verge of losing its IOC credentials and dissolving , my first thought was that's a nice start. The USAT has probably done as much to harm TKD in this country as anything else. Get rid of it.
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agree to a point.
 
USTU = United States Taekwondo Union...the old nationa WTF TKD org. Defunct due to corruption and flim-flammery.

USAT = USA Taekwondo...what the USTA morphed into. Like USTU light with only half the corruption and flim-flammery. Linked closely with US invovlement in Olympic TKD through...

IOC = International Olympic Committee...the guys who run the Olympics and decide where they're held, what sports are in adn the rules they play by.

Peace,
Erik
 
bluekey88 said:
USTU = United States Taekwondo Union...the old nationa WTF TKD org. Defunct due to corruption and flim-flammery.

USAT = USA Taekwondo...what the USTA morphed into. Like USTU light with only half the corruption and flim-flammery. Linked closely with US invovlement in Olympic TKD through...

IOC = International Olympic Committee...the guys who run the Olympics and decide where they're held, what sports are in adn the rules they play by.

Peace,
Erik
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You nailed it Bluekey (respectful bow) :asian:
 
mango.man said:
Sure if traditional schools had all the same tools and technology at their disposal that sport-centric "We build olympians" type places have. Things like access to the best sports medicine in the country, nutritionists, use of technology like dartfish, a staff of people that go around to all the competitons solely to scout and put together notebooks on fighters, and of course staff and athletes who devote themselves to training 2-3 time per day for 2-3 hours at a time so that they achieve a major accomplishment like making their kick just .001 second faster.

But once you do all of that, you have crossed the line from traditional to sport. Because once you are doing all of the above and so much more that I did not include above, there is no time in the day left for anything "traditional".
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Man I guess Jimmy Kim had all that technology, wait no he did not he just trained and I guess the Lopezs had these when they where training in there garage. Traditional school can compete at any level I have three that are always there competing and winning 90% of the time. As far as nothing left B.S. we find time to work on Self Defense and poomsae's and the sport side it is called time management. See I have been in TKD for over 25 years we did not need all this special equipment we needed to learn how to kick and counter, how to react to the opponet action and the ever popular just kick the living craps out of them.
 
terryl965 said:
Man I guess Jimmy Kim had all that technology, wait no he did not he just trained and I guess the Lopezs had these when they where training in there garage. Traditional school can compete at any level I have three that are always there competing and winning 90% of the time. As far as nothing left B.S. we find time to work on Self Defense and poomsae's and the sport side it is called time management. See I have been in TKD for over 25 years we did not need all this special equipment we needed to learn how to kick and counter, how to react to the opponet action and the ever popular just kick the living craps out of them.
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How many years have passed since the Lopezes trained in their garage? Or since Jimmy Kim competed at the Olympic level. Times change and technology changes they way people train.

Yes, you will find the occassional competitor that will rise to the top without the advantages of technology, but these days that is less common and I believe that in the years ahead it will be even less common than it is today.

Babe Ruth was a great baseball player back in the day. Can you imagine if he had access to the same knowledge and technology that baseball players today have access to. He probably could have hit a thousand or more homeruns even without steroids, if he had access to today's technology.
 
mango.man said:
How many years have passed since the Lopezes trained in their garage? Or since Jimmy Kim competed at the Olympic level. Times change and technology changes they way people train.

Yes, you will find the occassional competitor that will rise to the top without the advantages of technology, but these days that is less common and I believe that in the years ahead it will be even less common than it is today.

Babe Ruth was a great baseball player back in the day. Can you imagine if he had access to the same knowledge and technology that baseball players today have access to. He probably could have hit a thousand or more homeruns even without steroids, if he had access to today's technology.
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mango I agree technology is important but grit and grind is just to me. I have seen people that can kick the living **** out of someone and not get the calls because of who they are and not what they know. In today game it is about kissing *** and making certain groups and people happy.

I applaud you and Samantha for staying with her dreams best of luck in the future.
 
terryl965 said:
mango I agree technology is important but grit and grind is just to me. I have seen people that can kick the living **** out of someone and not get the calls because of who they are and not what they know. In today game it is about kissing *** and making certain groups and people happy.

I applaud you and Samantha for staying with her dreams best of luck in the future.
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I am with you Terry. If you feel you are not getting the calls you deserve because you are not kissing anyones butt, than you gotta tell your player to get out there and leave no doubt in anyone's mind as to who is the best. Even if that means KOing anything that stands in front of you.
 
mango.man said:
I am with you Terry. If you feel you are not getting the calls you deserve because you are not kissing anyones butt, than you gotta tell your player to get out there and leave no doubt in anyone's mind as to who is the best. Even if that means KOing anything that stands in front of you.
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Absolutely right and that is what we do best now a days.
 
mango.man said:
How many years have passed since the Lopezes trained in their garage? Or since Jimmy Kim competed at the Olympic level. Times change and technology changes they way people train.

Yes, you will find the occassional competitor that will rise to the top without the advantages of technology, but these days that is less common and I believe that in the years ahead it will be even less common than it is today.

Babe Ruth was a great baseball player back in the day. Can you imagine if he had access to the same knowledge and technology that baseball players today have access to. He probably could have hit a thousand or more homeruns even without steroids, if he had access to today's technology.
Click to expand...
Or if the baseball season in his day had as many games as the modern season has. Or bats made with modern materials. Neither of which would make him a better athlete; one provides more opportunities to hit more runs and the other is an equipment change.

Illegal drugs not withstanding, the biggest advantage of technology is the abililty to measure an athlete's performance to provide them with a target to reach. But it is the hard and consistent training that makes the difference. Technology does make it easier to train smart, which is good, but athletes can and have trained smart without it. There is no substitute for dedication and hard work.

A big part of why few modern athletes rise to the top without technology is because technology is a pervasive part of the athletic world. You train with the best coaches, you will have access to tech. And if an athlete has access to it, then certainly, it would be foolish not to use it. In fact, the only reason that we're even having this discussion is because taekwondo has its feet in both the traditional world and the modern athletic world, thus older training methods exist side by side with modern ones. Not a bad thing; a modern taekwondoin can have the best of both worlds, a very positive thing indeed.

About the only thing that you mentioned earlier that really would have made night and day difference in the athletes of old is nutrition. Babe was not exactly a picture of prime conditioning. Modern athletes have so much access to to nutritional knowledge that didn't exist thirty years ago. Nutrition maximizes everything and modern athletes really do have the best in that area, hands down.

Daniel
 
It seems there was more fuss in 2004 on TKD being perceived by the world at large as an overly stylized fighting system without the practical applications of the other Olympic combat sports- boxing, judo, wrestling, ~shooting~
Unfortunately the lasting legacy involving "practicality" this time round is the action of one man against a referee.
 
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