Does Taekwondo work? When Taekwondo athletes dared to step into the ring to test themselves, they came up short over and over again. The ones who did well are the ones who already fully adopted a kickboxing style. But but itself, it just gets dominated against trained fighters. Taekwondo is great and I actually love it, but the truth needs to be shared! Get Legendary Strategies: www.lawrencekenshin.com/

"Absorb what is useful, discard what is useless, and add what is specifically your own." - Bruce Lee

Being a former TKD myself, having started at 11 years old i can confirm that. Did taekwondo from 2002 to 2009, and i had this huge confidence in my legs (a little bit true) and confidence in my punches (not true AT ALL), used to spar a lot interstyles with my friends that did karate and kung fu, and i almost always won, my kung fu friends couldn´t spar and my karate friends moved very slowly. Then i moved to another city in 2010 to do college and decided to try Muay Thai. Pretty much every single student could sweep the floor with me. It was very humbling. Being fast and agile means nothing if your kicks are kinda weak and you don´t know how to punch outside of kata (poomsae for tkd) Been practicing Muay Thai since then. First time you get knocked out for real is truly a reality check.

If you look at older TKD the baseline techniques are fine, they are pretty solid. The problem with TKD is the rule set for sparring/competition. If you scored punches to the head and kicks to the legs, allowed sweeps and throws and only scored hits that landed with significant power, you would have something more viable and respectable. They need to transition to being a combat sport and not just foot tag.

If you think about it, the main issue with most traditional martial arts is that they're intentionally incomplete. Pretty much every martial art ever made has grappling in it if you go back far enough. It's just that the styles have been watered down for competitions

I believe what taekwondo really needs is a full-contact form of competition like Karate Combat. If someone really wanted to keep it "pure" for MMA they could perhaps train ssireum to learn how to grapple. Unlike many Chinese styles (Wing Chun, Taichi, etc), taekwondo practitioners do spar often and become excellent technicians. But, as stated in the video, they never learn to take a hit without protection or to defend against moves that aren't allowed in their own ruleset. The art can work it it adopts a more practical form of sparring and training

I have found that taekwondo guys are really fast specially with their legs. Those with a taekwondo background who switched and adapted to Muay Thai tend to have very fast kicks.

As a taekwondo black belt, I agree with the video. Against a person with no training? Yes, those how train Taekwondo will have great advantage, but against other combat sports or martial arts, there are many flaws. *note: every martial arts has it owns flaws and that is the beauty of it, you can't be perfect in any aspect. The more you know, more you know that you don't know much. That's why we have MIX MARTIAL ARTS. You want to be the best kicker? train 10 years of taekwondo you want to be the best puncher? train 10 years of boxing you want to be great at general Striking? train 10 years of kickboxing/Muai Thay You want to be the best at grappler? train 10 years of Brazilian Jiu-jitsu You want to be the best fighter? Train them all mixed! and if you stoped one type of training to focus on another for 10 years, well...you will need to train the old one again to be good haha A master of one category is a "white belt" in other. And those who think that they are superior because of the art they choose, for sure leaved the side of humility and philosophy of the martial arts aside.

Agreed that any “pure” style has inherent weaknesses. One of the silliest defenses in sport JiuJitsu is to sit down on the ground and face your opponent to wait for your opponent to grab you.

i trained TKD 11 years. the problem is like u said that it teaches mostly dodging, not blocking or taking hits. if u have the space sure u can dodge or even try but once u start to get hit u lose ur composure. i also did a bit of boxing and the first thing they teach is actually guard up, blocking and getting punches to the head and face to not get scared and flinch. You can very clearly see in the video that once the TKD guys gets punched in the head they get scared and turn their backs and crumble and such. Thats a bad habit cuz they didnt trained how to receive hits to the face. TKD has to evolve if it wants to be a modern useful martial arts.

I can attest to this. I learned TKD when I was a kid and expected it to help me in fights. It actually hurt me in fights- expecting something that only works in tkd class and competition to work in a street fight. Been doing Muay Thai since and can assure you that my fighting skills have improved vastly.

I'm sure at one point, TKD was effective for combat but like all tradtional martial arts, it was ruined by the sport of TKD. I fear BJJ will soon face the same fate. They are starting to invent techniques that only work in a controlled environment then when you pull buggy guard on pavement under a dude wearing steel toe boots, you find out the hard way that your shit doesn't work.

I started my Tae Kwon Do training in 1973. It was a different animal back then. Power was emphasized and there was an equal emphasis on hand and foot techniques. Foot sweeps, grab and punch and hard contact were involved. The black belts at that school were tough and technical. On the street, kicking with your foot is very practical when shoes are worn. I continue my training and teaching to this day. But I’ve added boxing and BJJ to my repertoire, both of which I highly regard. As I approach 60 I find myself practicing mainly boxing, as leg dexterity and flexibility wanes way before punching ability. ITF TKD is probably the most practical, but a year of strict boxing training will elevate your game.

The big problem that Taekwondo practitioners don't study ways to use the elbows, knees and other blows that are present in Poomsae

I was so lucky to begin training in the1980’s in MuayThai and Judo. I knew back them about the ‘mixed matches’ held in Holland, and how dominant the grappling arts could be. Then along came Vale Tudo and there was no place to hide. If you can’t box and grapple, you can’t fight worth a lick - simple as it is.

I remember a former friend of mine always boasted about him being a 2nd degree black belt in taekwondo and we would spar together. All I really had was kickboxing and wrestling and in a friendly technical spar he always has advantage. Mind you I'm much bigger than he was, by about a foot in height and 100lbs, and he decided to see who in the group was able to beat him in a full contact match. I ate every blow and he quit after a few leg kicks and a hard liver blow. I feel bad because he quit tkd after that and turned to drugs to cope, every time we saw each other you could feel the tension. I told him to just follow through on every strike, but when you point fight for so long, it becomes more difficult to follow through. Like a batter trying to hit a swinging bunt when they crush to the back fence of a diamond they have the same problem in reverse, always following through and then not needing to

I have a 2nd dan in ITF TKD. I would argue that my school was particularly old school and put far more emphasis on sparring than any other TKD school I've been to. That said, my instructor was no fool and understood the limitations of TKD in an actual fight against MMA style fighters. We regularly brought in instructors from other styles to mix and match as we saw fit. Most notably were boxing and grappling coaches that would teach takedowns.

I'll answer the TKD question with what I leaned on this channel in previous videos..."Style Bending" is highly effective for the complete fighter.

when I was a superheavy, the skills learned Taekwondo helped me stay on my feet and land the kind of hits only seen in DBZ. No one expects a spinning back hook from a giant. and even if you block it dosent mater with that kind of weight. but your right TKD is incomplete and should only be a augment to the 4 pillars

Hell yeah it works. I was in kickboxing and competed in full contact,modified muay Thai, and full muay Thai. I remember there was a pair of brothers who came from TKD and trained it seriously. After they learned the boxing aspects and got used to full contact continuous fighting, they had some wicked tricky kicks. Very good kickboxer. That bring said, even by being kick heavy, if TKD incorporated boxing hand strikes and full contact and continuous sparring, I think it could be a hell of a style by itself.

Anderson Silva a great UFC fighter his foundation was Taewondo, also Yair Rodriguez, Barbosa, Pettis, Schevenko and more.Boxing would be useless if the boxer doesn't add jujitsu and some Muaythai the same goes for Taewondo. Taekwondo is a good foundation to learn kicking, however, you have to incorporate some punching, elbow strikes, knee attacks and some jujitsu.

Tae kwondo fighter needs distance to attack ,when they are close to opponent they are in danger , simply

For those of us who put in years of TKD training, pre UFC days. I think there is a disappointment that TKD didn’t evolve into a more kick boxing style. There are several as mentioned in the video, and others like Kwonkicker on KZfaq. But that element has no real sway in the mma/kickboxing world.

Personally, I am a second dan black belt in Taekwondo. We train to fully expect hits and take them, and take a more Jiu-Jitsu style with self defense, while also doing akido and Karate forms, like Baisai. Taekwondo nowadays can't stand by itself, it needs support, and my dojang recognizes this, and bolsters it with other techniques from other martial arts. We train to use many things that differ from traditional Taekwondo, and learn self-defence practically. This is where Taekwondo shines, since it sets a wonderful foundation for your basics, making your stances, kicks, and throws all have more power. It used to be contact, but nowadays is made impractical by the dumb electronic system.

Taekwondo was the foundation for me, learning as a kid. I then went on to doing Muay Thai and had a few fights. I’m now back at Taekwondo and have signed my child up ! So much fun! I feel good about still training TKD having had a bit of ring experience in Muay Thai and also having just started BJJ and Casual MMA training aswell. Mixing it all up.

Damian Villa a 2x WT World Medalist made his Karate Combat debut recently. It was against a Sport Karate Pan-American Champion. What you saw in that fight was villa struggling a lot with punches and throws like you highlighted here. In general it has been interesting watching Karate Combat since it seems like it takes 1-3 fights before a point fighter starts getting comfortable in continuous full contact ruleset.

I do sanda and ITF Taekwon-do. Good points made in the video. There's different reasons people take up various styles. The four pillars of MMA, people are more likely to compete or at least you are going to get training for competition. Many people that do Taekwon-do aren't even interested in sparring so there isn't going to be that same intensity or focus on combat that you would get from a Muay Thai or boxing gym. That said, the tools are there. There's plenty of front kick KOs that is the most basic TKD kick, and as someone else has mentioned, the elbows and knees are there in the patterns (forms/poomsae) but it's how and why they are taught that makes a difference. Now we might regard it as modern but the ITF TKD only goes back to 1955 and the WT Olympic style only started around 1972. So there's a lot to be said for who is teaching it, how it is being taught and who it is being taught to. Along with the UFC fighters you mentioned, Connor McGregor trained with an ITF TKD school in Ireland, and ITF sparring champion and coach is part of Israel Adesanya's team.

I love both Muay Thai and Taekwondo. I was initially attracted to Taekwondo due to the flashy kicks like the spinning wheel kick, tornado kick, and the jumping double roundhouse. But after enrolling in an MMA gym where kickboxing and Muay Thai is taught, I fell in love on how brutal they train. No poomsae, it's drills, bag work, Thai pads, and sparring all the way through. While Taekwondo sparred as well, I loved the fact that I can fucking punch (lightly) to the head, throw leg kicks and knees when training the clinch. I love traditional martial arts like Karate and Taekwondo, but Muay Thai and kickboxing are simply just 😘👌.

My father and my uncle both did tkd and were black belts in the 80s, and it was definitely different than the foot tag that was the Olympics, my dad even recounting how he was knocked out in a tournament. Despite this, he always pushed me towards doing wrestling instead, saying that the skillset was way more applicable and I'm thankful for that.

Ya. I learned Tae Kwon do while growing up. Now I'm trying to learn Muay Thai and Boxing and integrate some of the moves into that

"If the attack has no power, the Muay Thai fighter will not respect it" So very true 🙏

As much as it hurts my 2nd Dan ego, I agree. But, in my experience, I taken many a hit in both ITF and WTF styles. I've been knocked out (WTF), had a fractured eye socket (ITF) and quite a few busted lips, and countless bumps and bruises. But, I got to the point where my feet and lower shins were like steel from kicking people's elbows and shins, and I could take a body shot like a champ 🤷🏻‍♂️. Also, when I would spar beginner kickboxers, they couldn't deal with my footwork, angles, and counterattacks due to their linear training.

Dude, I was just going to look at some more TKD matches too!

A person practicing the right cross solely can for a month can beat a tkd martial artist who's studied for a year. :/ Unless trained as kickboxing it's not a good self defense unless you want to kick as fast as you can to someone else's groin

This was a well put together video and it was very informative. I have never trained in Taekwondo but I always do what I can to research and learn about other disciplines and their cultures. (I personally train in both Kick-Boxing & Jeet Kune Do) Because even if I'll never train in a certain martial art discipline, I still find it just as important to learn their significance and impact around the world. But more straightforward videos about this that just go into the pros and cons of the fighting style itself are always useful as well. Thank you for uploading this to KZfaq and sharing it with us all here. Keep up the good work and have a good one. 😎👍 ( just wanted to let you know there's a small typo in the description. "But but itself" I understand you ment: "By itself" just thought I'd let you know. Have a great and thanks again for the upload.)

Every style has useful things. I never practiced Tae Kwon do, but I knew some guys who did. They had these very fast double kicks, if I remember correctly they called these something that sounds like 'tollio'. I practiced this on the punching bags and to this sometimes I surprise my opponent in sparring with these kicks. I would never want to rely on Tae Kwon do only, but nobody can deny that Tae Kwon do has very useful kicks.

Steve Vick, Dale Cook, Rick Rufus, Serkan Yilmaz, Peter Cunningham, Hassan Kassrioui, Keiji Ozaki, Raymond Daniels have done VERY well in full contact. Some of which became world champions. Taekwondo is like all other martial arts, there’s flaws and weaknesses. That’s why you take up another art to fill in the missing gaps. As a boxer and Muay Thai fighter, I can tell you, Taekwondo and Capoeira for that matter definitely took my kicks to the next level.

Tae kwon do is great for basics such as footwork, positioning and speed. It needs to be complemented though.

I trained TKD most of my childhood for 9 years. I have a lot to learn still, but I’ve noticed that the largest asset of TKD is the footwork and distance management. Pairing that with some good head movement makes for a pretty solid defense, provided you know to block.

As a pure Martial Art, of course But as a Learning Tool to Have more Combos and Skills, its very usefull, remember that Anderson Silva had a lot of Taekwondo training

There was a 5th degree Tae Kwon Do black belt that owned a kwoon down the street that started coming to train in the afternoon. He was very tough, strong, and in great shape. He had trouble at first, but he got a lot better quickly. I always got a chuckle from the fact that when he wanted to learn to fight, he came to a mma gym. Strange fact, the first guy that I ever trained mma with was a former karate tournament champion with stacks of trophies. He took up vale tudo competition in the early days. He talked a lot about how limiting his background was and how much he had to learn and adjust to realistic combat

Beautiful martial art to watch and learn. Like you said it lacks in efficiency in fights. I've got misled before. However if some kicks lands, it could be the end for the opponent. High risks, high rewards, glass canon like !

Thanks Lawrence. Fascinating and informative as always. 👌

I remember training TKD when I was in High School. At the time I didn't pay much attention to how practical it was, only that I noticed other students in class were still ranking up despite their technique being shitty. I would see black belts throwing a round house kick that looked like a wet noodle. I feel that I missed a great opportunity to continue practicing, because my instructors taught TKD but when teaching hand techniques they drilled more boxing style techniques. That being said, there weren't enough students that came through the school that I believe would've been interested in becoming a real fighter the way that fighters are developed in a boxing gym. TKD for the most part behaves like its own sport similar to soccer or football.

My martial arts journey began with Taekowndo when I was in my late teens. I did this for several years until I discovered Muay Thai. The difference between them was illuminating. While Taekwondo emphasized kicking, Muay Thai emphasized the practical use of the eight limbs. I immediately began training Muay Thai training and did so for many years, even beginning a club at my graduate school to keep up with the art with the blessing of my Ajhan. It’s been many years since, and too many out of the gym, but I still marvel and the brutal efficiency of Muay Thai.

Tkd alone is pretty useless it's a supplementary martial art same with other martial arts but I'd say it's the least important out of every martial art Most important would be wrestling then kickboxing then jiu-jitsu

TKD taught me the best technique base of all kicks like chambered kicks and it’s great to know Boxing combos, MT, judo throws, trips and BJJ chokes. But its nice to catch a spinning reverse kick or even a capoeira kick to the jaw and end it quick. And yeah that’s one of the most effective “sneaky” kicks that works. And yeah these two kicks have been utilized in mma/ ufc.

Your videos are too good for not keeping your channel alive! Thank you

*My experience with Taekwondo and full contact fighting* Taekwondo, especially itf, is a superb foundation for kickboxing. It gets you REALLY good at kicking and allows you to attack from wierd angles with spinning kicks. As long as your conditioning and defense is on point and you have been sparring with Muay Thai or K1 rules for a long time, taekwondo is a great tool. I started itf taekwondo at 12 years old(I'm now 23). I've had a bunch of kickboxing fights(mostly full contact and K1 under WAKO) and recently even got 3 Thai boxing fights in Thailand, winning them all. Most traditional kickboxers absolutely do not expect a missed punch or front kick to be followed up by a powerful back kick or spin hook kick. Sidekicks are also a great weapon , practically superior to the teep in almost every way in my opinion as they are more powerful, longer, way better for disengaging after you strike and are way more deceptive if you can chamber them high enough, making your opponent have to guess if it's going to the body or head. Taekwondo holds a special place in my heart even if it is not enough on its own. The leg dexterity from taekwondo is a gimmick that will serve you great if you adopt it and it will make you unpredictable(think Raymond Daniels or MVP) . I did manage to learn how to box and work leg kicks and elbows but I can guarantee you that 99% of the fighters that start with full contact kickboxing or Thai boxing will likely never explore these trickier but effective moves. You cannot get really good at flashy kicks if you get punched hard and elbowed in the face every time you miss. Under the controlled environment of Taekwondo you can get good at these techniques so that when you want to use them in the ring they will not disappoint you

As a 3rd Dan tkd BB I'll say that tkd to muay thai is amazing. Both are kick heavy and muay thai hides the weaknesses of tkd

I have a TKD black belt and I’m also now training BJJ. TKD has a few attributes that are helpful in a real fight, such as distance management. I also love a good, fast, hard front kick against opponents who don’t move laterally and don’t have a good guard for block it.

What a concise, interesting video! I'm an armchair mma expert, but it's nice to hear from someone who actually knows what they're talking.

After one month of Sanda I destroyed a TK black belt with just low kick and straight punches...but again he never did anything else. Beautiful kick for 35 secs and after, meltdown.

From my research alot of it is because it has been so watered down over the years. In it's original form taekwondo incorporated punching, kicking, knees, elbows, and some basic grappling techniques. Now it is more sport oriented. If you brought back the original way it was taught the art would be far more effective.

I have to agree. And the proliferation of taekwondo schools targeting children has only watered down the art more. I can't find a decent TKD school around here that doesn't cater more to kids having fun than actual fighting. I feel for the young black belts that get spat out of these places who think they can actually fight. They are in for a very rude awakening.

Taekwondo is actually really useful as long as it’s paired with real boxing or Muay Thai skill. Some of the best fighters in MMA have a lot of Taekwondo experience.

It depends what school of TKD you come from. If you train only in WTF then you’re screwed. If you train in a modernised version of ITF which uses all the hand, kicks, knees and elbow strikes but also train regularly in takedown defense and grappling defense, which the best schools do, then you’re gonna be able to handle yourself pretty well in most fighting scenarios. Plus we train in 2 or 3 to 1 sparring, which isn’t something most other martial arts practise. If you’re fighting a Muay Thai fighter then you have to be aware and practiced in defending that style. Same for a wrestler. There are plenty of clips out there of wrestlers shooting for takedowns and getting knocked out on the way in. Basically a lot of self-defense drills against clinches etc. are needed. Not enough TKD schools do that, but some do.

I earned a “draw” in my last taekwondo match by knocking out my opponent with a punch to the sternum, which was covered by the armor pads we used to wear. 👍👍

This is the best breakdown I've seen yet. One thing to note as well is the ITF when it started in the mid-50s in fact was full contact. But people that train that way don't last long, so (this is my personal assumption) they slowly watered it down. People like the path of least resistance. Look at kyokushin or shotokan karate, how many students they have vs no touch martial arts. As I also practice jiu-jitsu I've noticed the further away from tradition and the closer to sport, they too have things that don't work at all in a fight, like pulling guard, not allowing simulated striking, disallowing "cheap moves" such as digging elbows or ankle locks/knee bars at lower rank, the rape choke, covering mouth, unwrapping gi and using it against opponent. The traditional jits I've taken emphasizes the use of such tactics. The coach would tell me "if it f-ing works - use it!" my current sports coach says he wants us to learn jits to beat jits, doesn't care about self defense, claims he's seen self defense jits players get injured badly in tournaments. He honestly believes jiu-jitsu is the best art so if you can beat people at the art you'll be the best in the world.

I think it’s important to point out there are Thai Nak Muay that also have a back ground in TKD. Master Toddy and Master Sken both have high ranks in TKD. I’m not a TKD person but trained with a lot in Muay Thai. They were able to modify their TKD kicks to work for Muay Thai.

Our TKD teacher taught us excellent fighting skills. But when it comes to a street fight he said leave if you can because someone will get hurt. And if you know your opponent has no chance against your skills and you seriously injure them you can be held liable because you could've simply walked away.

That may be my favorite thing about Joe, if you didn’t know his history and you didn’t know about his skill, lets say you only watch the podcast from time to time. You would think Joe just knows a little bit about fighting and its just a bit of a hobby from the way Joe talks about it, he’s pretty humble. You wouldn’t guess he is a world class tkd and a damn good mma fighter. And really I don’t think MMA would be where it is without Joe.

I took taekwondo for years. It has its strengths and weaknesses. The problem with it as a pure fighting style is it's incomplete. When I started training in MMA those guys really showed me the weaknesses. I couldn't punch like they did and of course once I was on the ground I was useless. But I also showed them the strength of taekwondo and they had me teach them better technique in their kicks.

It's not only just Taekwondo, it's all traditional martial arts like Bruce Lee said" Think outside the box". They all lack the basic techniques of boxing and wrestling you all should understand this. One thing Taekwondo has over most traditional martial arts is their ability to kick. Most of these martial arts were developed during WW2 and never became modern. Don't stop at one discipline, become a mixed martial artist with boxing and wrestling as your key core.

As a TKD parctitioner its really sad seing how downgraded taekwondo is. I've been practiceing for 13 years and will keep doing it. I have never competed because I felt it was lacking in many ways (rules, techniques, power...) and thats why I want to start training in boxing and Muay Thai. Its sad how we don't learn how yo use many of the techniques in taekwondo that can be useful (TKD has knee strikes, elbow strikes, atacks to the throat...) but we don't know how to use them because they don't show us. We wouldn't even know how to use our kicks to defend ourselves because we don't properly train for that. Thats why I want to train in boxing and Muay Thai. Ofcourse I'm going yo keep training TKD for the rest of my life

As a black belt in Korean taekwondo I can agree with this. That is why I studied more than just taekwondo. I have a purple belt in Gracie bjj and I have 7 years Muay Thai training. And as far as striking goes Muay Thai is the superior when it comes down to striking. My teacher was the world PKC world champion David the rock Humphries out of kings mountain NC.

That's absolutely right and correct in my humble experience. Superb presentation.

Great video by the way!! i am black belt third degree tkd kukkiwon and i totally agree

I need this formatted to show on every social media platforms possible. I've seen this "debate" go on about how "deadly" Tkd can be ... But this literally proves that it can't even be used in an actual fight without modifying it to begin with.. pressure testing is just too good at what it does to fall into the trap of esoteric mysticism in single style training/superiority.

Taekwondo definitely works. It depends how it is used just like every other martial art. Karate is deemed useless by lots of athletes/pro fighters and then a fighter by the name of Lyoto Machida dominated his pro fighting opponents in MMA. You just have to be smart about when to utilize the moves and in most cases with the less effective styles mix the styles move sets in with your own and/or another style. When I was younger and actually started fighting on the streets people didn't mess with me much because I would just power my way through people with wrestling/judo type of stuff and ground and pound even though I didn't know anything about either, even people who trained to fight. I have been in a lot of fights and so far lost only twice, one was because I let my feelings take over and that resulted in a dumb move that got me mounted and was over from there, the second was me and the guy that beat me in that fight both against one guy our size who was high ranked in taekwondo, he easily took us both and he only had one foot on the ground most of the fight. The kicks were very precise and timed perfectly. Most of the hits were ones to slow or off balance us, inner thigh, just above the ankle spreading our legs wide when we stepped in, or straight kick to the mid section which if we didn't react fast enough to would take a hit there but if we reacted the kick would switch to something else mid kick and it all was very quick. It's different when you are in a fight with rules, much easier to beat "non useful techniques" but on the streets you will take immobilizing hits that you won't see in competitions if you have a cocky attitude.

As with other senior TKD belts I agree very much with this video. I learnt a very hard form going back to the early 1970s with RAF UKTA taught by a South Korean Khee Hai Rhee who fought for the Americans in the Vietnam War by going down tunnels and taking out Vietcong. I did a lot of full-contact sparring without gloves or headgear and destruction and prided my self on being pretty good, but about 10 years leaving the RAF I got into a dispute with a man threatening a neighbour of mine and he attacked me. It was messy and more like two kids grabbing on to each other in the playground. The main thing was, being used to having the time to choose a foot or hand strike, I found my opponent was not fighting as I was used to. I also was surprise that even being very fit, I very quickly got out of breath, I expect due to the adrenalin my body was pumping which I never felt when sparring. I also for some reason while it was all going on, my brain was saying "What are you a grown man, doing fighting on the street, what will my wife and kids think of you". Both knackered we backed off, both pleased to do so, and I returned to my house with my wife scolding me for being so stupid. Afterwards I found I had cracked a bone in my right-hand knuckle, which angered me, because that showed my punched had not been fixed and once could break wood with. I also learnt I had cracked his chin bone, but both of us apparently had to have time off work due to or injuries. The whole episode proved that Tae Kwon Do was great for fitness, sport and character building but in an actual street fight was not really any good.

Can't forget Yair. Part of why he's known and what he's known for are his crazy kicks he'll throw in out of nowhere. Less often as before, probably telling of how they become less effective the higher up you are in competition but yeah

A very interesting video to say the least; 1 very important fact is always missed in such videos what happens when other arts fight TKD practitioners under TKD rules? This I have seen many times & the outcome is enlightening.

Long ago when i was first starting in martial arts, i enrolled in an ITF school. However, our main focus was Shaolin and Jeet Kun Do. One day we had a guest who stopped by to train with us. He was a black belt in ATA and getting ready to open a school in Dallas. I got to spar with him. Thanks to my Jeet Kun Do training I handled him way too easily. I was surprised that he could not do anything to counter me. My instructor later explained why ATA was more or less useless as a functional fighting art. Still, there are countless ATA schools teaching this stuff and giving people a false sense of confidence in their fighting capability. Just like sport fencing.

Hey my friend… just saw your fight last night in Chaing Mai. Good fight!

Agree. Eventhough i never practiced tkd, this martial art is the most popular one in my country (Argentina). I ve trained kick Boxing and every former tkd practicioner that steped up in the ring had a hard time with boxing punches and sweeps. However, when they get used to it their amazing kicking skills make a difererence because they catch you of guard. Rarely someone would expect a 360 spinning kick in a kickboxing sparring session

I started my martial arts training with TKD. I trained for about 4 years and remember being frustrated the whole time with not being able to throw a proper punch. I did wrestling in high school so picked up some useful grappling skills. Learned basic Judo from a friend of mine who was Junior National Judo Champion. And it wasn't until I got into college that I started training Sanda. One thing I retained from TKD and I am glad I had it as a base to build off of was that it gave me very limber legs and great hip mobility. Helps immensely with my kickboxing.

Great video and perfect analysis, thank you so much! Myself, I am a 2nd Dan BB in TKDO (WT), but I have to admit that, without punches and grappling techniques, it would be extremely difficult to survive a real fighting scenario. My opinion is that TKDO is a great "kicking ability" sport, the best school in order to learn the art of kicking, but not a real fighting system. The lower guard, a must in order to kick better, is suicidal in a real fight with a boxer. Not to mention that the overstimulation of kicking techniques is very bad for the knees, when aging. I am 66 y.o. and my knees are not fucked up yet but suffering for sure! Let's put in this way, folks: to compare TKDO vs Boxing, Kickboxing or Grappling it is like to compare (in the world of past Knights), a Foil to a Sword, to a Scimitar or to a Katana. Foil is great to develop ability, reflex and speed (= ability) but, for a real battle, it is useful. Sword, Scimitars or Katanas are the only options in order to hurt the enemy (= effectiveness). I hope my contribution can be useful, said so, I still have a lot of respect for TKDO.

what taekwondo needs is to improve and compete against other disciplines and see their deficiencies, it is good in long distance. Thanx Lawrence

This is the BEST CHANNEL ON KZfaq. Hands down.

There's Global Taekwondo Federation (GTF) that supports full contact.

This remembered me of a former friend of mine who practiced TKD and believed he could beat a BJJ fighter because TKD fighters had "strong legs and a strong base".

I think it all depends on each person's personality with how he practices, I am a red black belt strip 2 and I agree with the shortcomings of Taekwondo let alone Taekwondo New school Focusing only on points and not using strength that's why I applied old school Taekwondo lessons to myself and I studied boxing and also learned wrestling

Started in TKD, moved on later. Styles that give hands priority and do hard sparring w hands are a must. Boxing and Muay Thai are excellent. High kicks are a flashy, high risk move when low kicks, and sweeps are allowed, or there are no rules.

The problem with modern taekwondo is that it's focused on being flashy as opposed to practical. In a nutshell: style over substance.

I started with Chung Do Kwan when I was 15, and when I first seen taekwondo I thought 🙄When I first seen Hapkido I thought cool. When I started hardcore Okinawa Goju I thought street brutal. Unfortunately, most of the stuff taught in the west and in the Japanese Dojo isn’t the absolute real stuff. I once asked my sensei why that is and he replied when I started teaching the real stuff I lost all my students in a month. He said it was much better to just give them lots of exercise and make them feel like to doing something.

I concur to this. My dojo was traditional hard style Shorin Ryu and we had storefront TKD places in the same area. We were doing mixed martial arts and training a bit of ground game before the first UFC. In fact we were all gathered at my sensei's house to watch the second one. TKD black belts could not handle our purple belts in sparring as we didn't do point fighting.

Taekwondo is the fencing of martial arts. We fight for points and we're not used to take hits, give powerful hits and guard cause as you said it, it's a martial art that gives you a false sense of security. I wish we had more heavy sparring in taekwondo. I switched to muay thai after a few years practicing taekwondo and I really felt how lacking the way we are taught taekwondo is. There's also some grappling techniques in it but we never use them nor practice them properly. It would be nice to see a new wave of taekwondo with a more realistic approach to combat.

For every 5 people who claim TKD is ineffective against other styles or in MMA competition, there are 5 who have used it to great affect. This is true for most martial arts. The practitioner is more important than the style.

Olympic Taekwondo is NOT a martial art, it's a sport.

Looking forward to your breakdown of Dale Cook vs Superman Osotsapa. :)

This video just shows me that some fighters of one discipline are better than some others of a different discipline. For real fighting you should learn fundamentals of different disciplines and use what works best for you.

For the reality of fighting a criminal, the TKD practitioner must learn a good grappling art and a weapons art. Not just for defense but also offense.

Taekwondo It will work if you train the way Stephen Thompson trains karate

I practiced self defense TKD for 3 years where my instructor allowed me to do full contact sparring provided I only spar with the black belts and it was surprisingly effective in a fight it however didn't look like TKD and looked very much like kickboxing and mma. I then moved towns and switched to a different studio to an instructor that told he teaches self defense but any time I sparred was told not to use certain moves because they don't score points in a match. I spent 1 year in that studio before leaving.

I am thankful in spades for Taekwondo. The agility it provides has help me develop a more agile body. Yes I'm 41, my back will not allow more Axe Kicks. My Tornado kick is just fine. I don't feel to have the body of my friends that are the same or a bit younger age. But that's problably Martial Arts in General

I used to learn Taekwondo before switching to Muay Thai. Totally relatable

Understand the history of Korea and you will understand the history of Taekwondo. Like every martial art it evolved to fit the needs of the practitioners. It evolved from a practical self defence to a tool that allowed early Korean immigrants to feed their families teaching a cool sport.

As a rookie starting my martial arts in Taekwondo. I agree that Taekwondo will never beat other martial arts. But I love the principles of Taekwondo. In the future, once I fully master Taekwondo, I want to learn other martial arts. Like Muy thai, and BJJ.😎🙂

My current kick boxing instructor (also 5th degree TKD black belt) said to me once that the problem (in ITF at least) was the scoring, before it used to be one contact: one point, but then they changed it, kicks are worth so much more points that punches that punching is almost pointless.