Just sharing the ongoings for Kukkiwon TKD in Singapore
In Singapore [talking about Kukkiwon style here - WTF is not a style of TKD, it's just a tournamenting style], and especially for testing to Chodan and above, our poomsae and technique must be hell accurate. And for the sparring part, if u're only gonna spam round kicks u're gonna get scolded. The examiners expect to see a variation of kicks and tactics like sliding in/out, sidestepping, switchin, of course, according to the situation.
There was some mention about poomsae not having guards up. In fact Poomsae does have arms-up guards, during the kicking parts. I remember there was a time I was doing Taegeuk 3, while I was kicking, the next move was a punch, so one arm was on the belt, the other was supposed to be a guard, I held it at stomach level and got a "GUARD AT CHEST LEVEL NOT STOMACH LEVEL DON'T LEARN THE BAD HABITS!!!" from my coach, a 6th Dan. For kicks, in which after that kick is a guard or something, both arms up at chest level. We don't test breaking though, only for demo, although Hosinsul is tested at Dan ranks. And of course, we're taught not to swing our arms around for momentum for kicks. Even when kicking in class, keep your arms in guarding position to yourself.
As for tournaments, what you see in the olympics doesn't happen in Singapore. Sparring is continuous, no "YEAH I SCORED" action after each kick, if you do that, you're gonna get scored while u're exclaiming - although a handful would do that. And of course, no running out of the court like some guy did in 2008 Olympics for the last 3 seconds. If that happened here the fighter will be disqualified. Side kicks and back thrusts are scored, but not by pushing alone. There must be impact. Simply put, even if someone does a pure-push sidekick or backthrust, and the recepient flies far like maybe 2-3m or more, it won't count. Even tapping head kicks don't count. And the sound must clear be coming from a legal attack [from the ankle and below]. If the sound regardless of volume came from the contact of the shin guard + hogu, no points. Precision, all or almost all martial arts emphasize that [never heard of one which does not -.-]. Attack using the foot, not the shin, I believe that is how it's taught in traditional TKD?
Off-topic but responses to previous posts
I saw someone mentioning WTF sparring rules don't allow fighters to guard with the shins? They couldn't dismiss the possibility that the fighter was chambering for a kick. I guard with my shins most of the time.
Earlier in this topic there was this "chambering axe kick" that supposedly misguided their opponent into moving in for the hit. Isn't that what TKD kicks were supposed to do even in the traditional art? The reason for the chambering as far as I know is to not let your opponent know which kick is going to be executed until it's executed. How wrong is that? Why be a stick-in-the-mud and insist that an axe kick must go straight up straight down? If the target slides off the straight line, does it mean that the kick MUST STILL go straight down and miss its target? Ever heard of Shin-chul Kang? The one who did the Revolution of Kicking, you can find the entire series on youtube. He mentions [not in the series, but in Human Weapon] that for the axe kick, there are 3 BASIC types of lifting your leg up - outside in, inside out, straight up straight down. And please be reminded that a crescent kick has a relatively huge arc. Slight deviation from the straight line to adapt to the situation - is that unacceptable? Keep what is useful, modify what is not.
Surely now we know full situps and deep knee bends [like that of some chinese kungfu whose horse stances are so deep] are bad for health, should we still stick to them because they are traditional? Basically what I think is that, what is effective from the traditional methods should be kept and used, what is not should be removed/modified - like how Professor Kano Jigoro, founder of Judo, refined Jujutsu into modern Judo. Speaking of Judo, there was an early post saying Olympic Judo is done like how it's taught. I can tell u it is NOT. Quite a number of olympic Judoka are gaming the game as well, doing sacrifice throws to stall for time, crouching down and slapping away opponent's hands right at the beginning. That is not what Judo was intended to be like.
And I'm kind of baffled why everyone mentions blocking a kick, but not parrying a kick? Surely changing the direction of a moving object is easier than stopping it head-on, and definitely less broken arms -.-
On topic
Keep hands down - 2 different types.
1. Keep hands down but guarding the front half of the hogu, it's bloody irritating.
2. Really hands down with no guard, against an impatient/fast enough opponent it will invite a slide-in roundhouse.
It really depends on what you're trying to do. Eespecially so if you can observe your next opponent in his previous matches. Look out for his dominant leg, his temperament, then decide what to do when facing him, when in closed stance and when in open stance.
As for my opinion towards WTF sparring vs SD or other rules, the most important thing is to identify the setting you're in, then adapt. The moment you step from your house onto the streets, you must remember that you are on the street, hands up, no holds barred. The moment you transfer from off the mat to on the mat, with hogu and everything on, remember that there are WTF rules to follow, and you adapt. The moment you finish your match, you step off the mat, forget the rules. If you're in a real street SD, no rules, heck just backfist to the throat and kick to the groin or elbow to the temple or whatever crap and get out of there. If there's a weapon pick it up and use it. No time for styles distinction when it comes to SD, whatever works, use it. For me, since I'm fat, the only 3 kicks I will use are front kick, round kick and side kick [blast the knees please], the rest will be upper body work.
To me, there's really no big distinction between styles. TKD has elbow and knee strikes in its traditional form [as taught by GM J H Kim and his students]. No one said only Muay Thai peeps could use knees and elbows. In fact most styles have more or less the same/similar techinques.
To me, a master of TKD should be both proficient in BOTH the sport AND martial art aspects, and basically being able to adapt to any situation.
In Singapore [talking about Kukkiwon style here - WTF is not a style of TKD, it's just a tournamenting style], and especially for testing to Chodan and above, our poomsae and technique must be hell accurate. And for the sparring part, if u're only gonna spam round kicks u're gonna get scolded. The examiners expect to see a variation of kicks and tactics like sliding in/out, sidestepping, switchin, of course, according to the situation.
There was some mention about poomsae not having guards up. In fact Poomsae does have arms-up guards, during the kicking parts. I remember there was a time I was doing Taegeuk 3, while I was kicking, the next move was a punch, so one arm was on the belt, the other was supposed to be a guard, I held it at stomach level and got a "GUARD AT CHEST LEVEL NOT STOMACH LEVEL DON'T LEARN THE BAD HABITS!!!" from my coach, a 6th Dan. For kicks, in which after that kick is a guard or something, both arms up at chest level. We don't test breaking though, only for demo, although Hosinsul is tested at Dan ranks. And of course, we're taught not to swing our arms around for momentum for kicks. Even when kicking in class, keep your arms in guarding position to yourself.
As for tournaments, what you see in the olympics doesn't happen in Singapore. Sparring is continuous, no "YEAH I SCORED" action after each kick, if you do that, you're gonna get scored while u're exclaiming - although a handful would do that. And of course, no running out of the court like some guy did in 2008 Olympics for the last 3 seconds. If that happened here the fighter will be disqualified. Side kicks and back thrusts are scored, but not by pushing alone. There must be impact. Simply put, even if someone does a pure-push sidekick or backthrust, and the recepient flies far like maybe 2-3m or more, it won't count. Even tapping head kicks don't count. And the sound must clear be coming from a legal attack [from the ankle and below]. If the sound regardless of volume came from the contact of the shin guard + hogu, no points. Precision, all or almost all martial arts emphasize that [never heard of one which does not -.-]. Attack using the foot, not the shin, I believe that is how it's taught in traditional TKD?
Off-topic but responses to previous posts
I saw someone mentioning WTF sparring rules don't allow fighters to guard with the shins? They couldn't dismiss the possibility that the fighter was chambering for a kick. I guard with my shins most of the time.
Earlier in this topic there was this "chambering axe kick" that supposedly misguided their opponent into moving in for the hit. Isn't that what TKD kicks were supposed to do even in the traditional art? The reason for the chambering as far as I know is to not let your opponent know which kick is going to be executed until it's executed. How wrong is that? Why be a stick-in-the-mud and insist that an axe kick must go straight up straight down? If the target slides off the straight line, does it mean that the kick MUST STILL go straight down and miss its target? Ever heard of Shin-chul Kang? The one who did the Revolution of Kicking, you can find the entire series on youtube. He mentions [not in the series, but in Human Weapon] that for the axe kick, there are 3 BASIC types of lifting your leg up - outside in, inside out, straight up straight down. And please be reminded that a crescent kick has a relatively huge arc. Slight deviation from the straight line to adapt to the situation - is that unacceptable? Keep what is useful, modify what is not.
Surely now we know full situps and deep knee bends [like that of some chinese kungfu whose horse stances are so deep] are bad for health, should we still stick to them because they are traditional? Basically what I think is that, what is effective from the traditional methods should be kept and used, what is not should be removed/modified - like how Professor Kano Jigoro, founder of Judo, refined Jujutsu into modern Judo. Speaking of Judo, there was an early post saying Olympic Judo is done like how it's taught. I can tell u it is NOT. Quite a number of olympic Judoka are gaming the game as well, doing sacrifice throws to stall for time, crouching down and slapping away opponent's hands right at the beginning. That is not what Judo was intended to be like.
And I'm kind of baffled why everyone mentions blocking a kick, but not parrying a kick? Surely changing the direction of a moving object is easier than stopping it head-on, and definitely less broken arms -.-
On topic
Keep hands down - 2 different types.
1. Keep hands down but guarding the front half of the hogu, it's bloody irritating.
2. Really hands down with no guard, against an impatient/fast enough opponent it will invite a slide-in roundhouse.
It really depends on what you're trying to do. Eespecially so if you can observe your next opponent in his previous matches. Look out for his dominant leg, his temperament, then decide what to do when facing him, when in closed stance and when in open stance.
As for my opinion towards WTF sparring vs SD or other rules, the most important thing is to identify the setting you're in, then adapt. The moment you step from your house onto the streets, you must remember that you are on the street, hands up, no holds barred. The moment you transfer from off the mat to on the mat, with hogu and everything on, remember that there are WTF rules to follow, and you adapt. The moment you finish your match, you step off the mat, forget the rules. If you're in a real street SD, no rules, heck just backfist to the throat and kick to the groin or elbow to the temple or whatever crap and get out of there. If there's a weapon pick it up and use it. No time for styles distinction when it comes to SD, whatever works, use it. For me, since I'm fat, the only 3 kicks I will use are front kick, round kick and side kick [blast the knees please], the rest will be upper body work.
To me, there's really no big distinction between styles. TKD has elbow and knee strikes in its traditional form [as taught by GM J H Kim and his students]. No one said only Muay Thai peeps could use knees and elbows. In fact most styles have more or less the same/similar techinques.
To me, a master of TKD should be both proficient in BOTH the sport AND martial art aspects, and basically being able to adapt to any situation.
(or more or less depending on your granularity)
