Ah, good point. There's a viable contender that hasn't been mentioned before. To be knocked out of contention by the big money getters like say, Curling...now that would be devastating.
Taekwondo: Out of the Olympic Games after Brazil 2016?
- Thread starter Markku P
- Start date
Actually curling is a very popular sport in a lot of places lol! It's played a lot in Scotland as well as a lot of others. Like golf however it may be better played than watched, talking of golf, that's a very big money maker, if it were in the Olympics (please no!) they would have the top names of golf playing. The Olympics seem to be about money, I think the 'popular' sports that bring the big names in such as basketball, tennis and athletics of course are the ones they will look to keep, regardless of TKDs worth or not (depending on opinions) I think it will be looked at in the light of how many tickets it will sell plus how televisual it is to entice the advertisers to buy time while it's on the television. A sport that doesn't attract the television cameras doesn't attract the advertisers.
You can find the OPC reports here:
Go to Olympic Programme. Then download these two documents.
The title of the 2009 report is "Report on the 26 Core Sports for the 2016 Games
<http://www.olympic.org/Documents/Co...mmission/REPORT_26_CORE_SPORTS_2016_GAMES.pdf>"
The title of the 2005 report is "Olympic Programme Commission Report to the 117th IOC Session
<http://www.olympic.org/Documents/Reports/EN/en_report_953.pdf>"
The one for 2013 will determine in part, taekwondo's fate. But you can look at the above two to get a feel of how the process works and what the actual factors are. No need to speculate.
I shouldn't have picked on Curling, but it stuck in my mind. My entire family watching this on prime time Olympic TV and laughing at each other while commenting on what a stupid sport it was, but no one changed the channel. Did it again the next night. and the next...It was horrifying!
swooosh.....swish..........swish..............swish..........swish........swish.....swish...swish..swishswishswishswish AHHHH HARRRR! And the crowd goes wild!!!!!!!!!!
How could Taekwondo possibly hope to compare.
Bingo! Give the lady a prize!
LOL, it's definitely something better played than watched I think. I feel that way about golf, can't stand it. I love ski jumping as I said, also Biathlon, Cross country ski-ing in it's different forms, speed skating, luge, skeleton and the bobsleigh events, luckily this are very popular in Europe, it's on the television nearly every day so they should be alright for the Olympics. It attracts the advertisers as does the figure skating, big ahh factor with them, big names too. The ice hockey had huge amount of supporters, perhaps because there's grudge matches USA v Russia that sort of thing plus it's fast, furious and violent.
I don't know what TKD can do to match sports like this for coverage to make the IOC want to keep it in, it shouldn't be about money but rather like the curling it should be there because people want it there regardless of whether there's big name professionals in it like the tennis, basketball and ice hockey. If it's a sport people want to see and do, it should be in. Do people still play table tennis, it's another 'quiet' Olympic sport, though I imagine if China wants it kept in it will be.
Does TKD have an event in the Para Olympics? I know Judo does.
You know what...I've been a martial artist for most of my life and competed all over the country as well as in France and I've never broken a bone. Last year I broke my arm curling. Curling, therefore, is more dangerous than WTF Taekwondo or Judo!
You make a good point about power, because I've watched a lot of WTF stuff, and even at the Olympic level I don't get a sense that there's a lot power behind the strikes.
I would actually appreciate it if you would answer those for me. ITF sparring makes a lot of sense to me, but WTF I still don't really "get" yet. . .
That's funny, I'm more of the opinion that it provided a great service, in that it shattered a lot of myths and notions that many people had about TMAs. It was a wake-up call to everyone.
Twin Fist
Grandmaster
cant agree, UFC, from the start, was a con game set up to promote one art, bjj, to the detriment of all others.
when the gracies got bought out, in a very real way, it got worse, with "style" ceasing to matter, to the point now where the kids comming up today think that MMA is a style, and worse, since that is all they see, they think it is the ONLY style.....
plus, UFC created the myths that you "have" to have ground training, which is BS, and that BJJ is some superstyle, it isnt.
when the gracies got bought out, in a very real way, it got worse, with "style" ceasing to matter, to the point now where the kids comming up today think that MMA is a style, and worse, since that is all they see, they think it is the ONLY style.....
plus, UFC created the myths that you "have" to have ground training, which is BS, and that BJJ is some superstyle, it isnt.
Twin Fist
Grandmaster
then why do they all fall over so much?
Because they get hit, and because they're playing the game. There's no penalty to go down without getting hit so it becomes a strategy.
ralphmcpherson
Senior Master
I dont think it shattered any myths. It was a promotion for bjj run very well. The fighters were hand picked to make sure the results went the way they wanted. I really dont think getting elite bjj fighters and sticking them in a cage with some part time nobody with a couple of months experience in karate really proves anything. You only have to watch the so called "tkd guys" that "fought" to see there was a set agenda.
Kimo came close to beating Royce and actually did knock him out of the tournament.
I'm not disagreeing that Rickson stacked the deck but John McCarthy claims that the only hand picked fight was Royce vs. Art Jimmerson and the rest were legit. I'm inclined to believe him.
That still doesn't really answer the questions, though.
I think I know about the guard down, to protect the stomach, which is a major scoring area . . . although more often than not it seems that they don't actually protect anything, they just let their hands dangle at their sides.
Also, punches are allowed, so why don't they use them more? Seems you could rack up points with good, strong punches to the chest.
And just why ARE there so many roundhouses? TKD is known for its DIVERSITY of kicks. Like you said, "think in terms of what it is," so to me that means I should see a wide array of kicks on a regular basis.
