TKD and self defense - a look at qualifications

[Touch Of Death]

I'm confused, who in the thread hasn't trained in TKD?

I have taken some TKD, just incase you are looking at me.

 

[drop bear]

If we are relating martial arts to violence here and using an industry perspective. If fighting bad guys is your job then success is determined by your set up.

99% set up 1% take down.

So does your martial art teach you to deal with multiple oponants with weapons? Is wrong from an industry point of view.
You set the game up so you have the numbers and weapons and let the other guy deal with that problem. This is why cops and security have radios why soldiers set up ambushes and why muggers look for weak targets.

That is not really martial arts but just basic personal safety stuff.

Otherwise your martial art should work on your ability to knock dudes out. In case the other guy be better at setting up an attack than you are at defending it.

Tkd actually does OK at that.

I trained with Kelly seif for a bit. And worked doors with some of jemal hassans students.

About XFC Gym 24/7 Noble Park
Olympic Taekwondo Centre - Elite Martial Arts Melbourne

 

[Gnarlie]

There are some fairly ill-informed generalisations and cliches in this thread, is all I am saying. And they are tending to come from sources that don't practice Taekwondo, even in the face of contradictory statements from those that do. It's difficult to agree on what TKD is because Taekwondo is what you make it, and it is nothing without you.

It's pretty easy to define what Taekwondo is not: it is not what people who don't practice it think it is.

 

[Kong Soo Do]

There are some fairly ill-informed generalisations and cliches in this thread, is all I am saying.

Okay, can you detail which statements you feel fall into this category so we can examine them?

It's pretty easy to define what Taekwondo is not: it is not what people who don't practice it think it is

Alright, I thought I was familiar with everyone that has responded so far. Who here hasn't trained in TKD?

 

[Dirty Dog]

Alright, I thought I was familiar with everyone that has responded so far. Who here hasn't trained in TKD?

I think the question is irrelevant. It doesn't matter if the poster has no formal TKD training, or a few weeks training 20 years ago, or if they're a Big Shot in their organization.
Their experience (or lack thereof) will likely color their view, but they're still entitled to it and entitled to post about it, so long as they stay within the rules.

 

[Tony Dismukes]

It might help to clarify the question a little bit.

If we're talking about "big picture" self-defense (including lifestyle, awareness, target hardening, de-escalation, understanding legalities, etc, etc) then TKD (or any other martial art) has only a limited amount to offer directly.*

If we're talking about the specific limited subset of self-defense where martial arts training is directly applicable (i.e. physically fighting an attacker when everything else has failed), then TKD can be useful - if it is trained appropriately for that purpose. I've seen some TKD practitioners who seem like they are training in a useful manner for fighting in a self-defense context and many others who ... aren't.

As far as my qualifications: I've been training various martial arts for 34 years with a focus on self-defense applications. I only have about 6 months or so of direct instruction in TKD, but I have kept elements of what I learned during that time as part of my training regimen over the decades. I've also watched a lot of TKD practitioners train and demonstrate their techniques - both in person and on video.

*(Sometimes martial arts practice can also have indirect benefits on the non-fighting side of things. If you spend your time training instead of hanging out in dive bars, that's good. If your art gives you self-confidence so you don't feel the need to prove yourself in a fight, that's good. If your training gives you the cardio to run away fast, that's good too. TKD practitioners are as likely to gain these kinds of benefits as any other martial artists.)

 

[Kong Soo Do]

I think the question is irrelevant. It doesn't matter if the poster has no formal TKD training, or a few weeks training 20 years ago, or if they're a Big Shot in their organization.
Their experience (or lack thereof) will likely color their view, but they're still entitled to it and entitled to post about it, so long as they stay within the rules.

In terms of my original post I don't think it matters either. However, Gnarlie has posted a couple of times about it so it is apparently important to him. I wanted to value his concern by addressing it.

 

[Balrog]

Through the years we've of course had numerous threads on TKD and self defense i.e. TKD is great for self defense or TKD sucks for self defense or TKD was never designed for self-defense etc.

It's never the martial art. It's always the martial artist. I don't care what you train in, if you're better in your training than the other guy is in his, you have an advantage. Whether you can exploit that advantage or not is up to you.

In our school, we train for the 1%. By that, I mean that our training builds a level of confidence that 99% of the time will cause the bad guy profiling for victims to pass us over. But when somebody jumps out of the weeds unexpectedly, we have the skills to fall back on. That guy might be an experienced street thug and the student might only have six months experience. But if the student has better training on distraction and redirection, the student will win the encounter.

 

[Drew Ahn-Kim]

A lot of good points here, I think its hard to say that there's any one answer.

I lean towards the school of thought that some have stated here in that "Self-Defense" is too nebulous a term, and there are so many variables that come into a fully comprehensive Self-Defense for all the situations you may run into. This is a great video from Ryan Hall one of the best thinkers in BJJ, who recently won the Ultimate Fighter this year.