Tae Kwon Do

[Ed Miller]

Watching it for the first time in the Olympics. It's cool. I didn't realize that it was almost 100% kicking. It kind of reminds me of the scene in Monty Python and the Holy Grail where the Black Knight gets his arms chopped off and resorts to kicking at Arthur.

[ThaSaltCracka]

I have heard that Tae Kwon Do is th easiest martial arts to learn.

[Duke]

[ QUOTE ]
I have heard that Tae Kwon Do is th easiest martial arts to learn.

[/ QUOTE ]

I know for sure that your mom is the easiest to 'know.'

BAM!

~D

[ThaSaltCracka]

but were talking srticlty martial arts, and my momma doen't know any [img]/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]

[Duke]

[img]/images/graemlins/laugh.gif[/img]

~D

[ThaSaltCracka]

thats right [img]/images/graemlins/cool.gif[/img]

[Duke]

Yeah Tae Kwon Do is a lot of kicking. It's easy to advance seemingly far depending on your school because they tend to be belt factories. I studied a very similar martial art for about 7 years, but it wasn't so kickcentric. They shared common forms, though.

If you wanna learn how to kick the [censored] out of people "as seen on TV" I could get you started on the basics. The important part is the training. The techniques make sense so I'm pretty sure an MIT guy could pick them up rather quickly. It's not as seemingly complex as Aikido or Judo or whatever, since there isn't as much emphasis on 2-body problems.

~D

[turnipmonster]

all very true. I studied it for a long time when I was younger, and after a while I decided to branch out and study wing chun as well. I was shocked at how practical wing chun is in comparison. Tae Kwon Do does have some practical application, but is more geared towards sport and less towards street fighting. from my relatively limited experience, wing chun is completely the opposite.

by the same token, Tae Kwon Do is nice because there's lots of tournaments and stuff like that to train for.

--turnipmonster

[Duke]

[ QUOTE ]
but is more geared towards sport and less towards street fighting.

[/ QUOTE ]

Well, I'll agree about the kicks. But at least in my "spinoff" style (Tang Soo Do) there were a lot of other aspects that were there to be studied, though, and one could become pretty proficient at anything from taking minimal damage in a serious altercation, to maming and killing attackers fairly quickly with some level of ability and practice.

The best defense is usually to run away. Seriously. It's not "being a pussy" to be saving yourself from any possibility of damage, and sparing the future health of your would-be assailant. When that's TRULY not an option, you're probably in a spot to mame or kill anyhow.

And if they have a gun and aren't in striking distance, you're usually [censored] unless they don't know how to aim. [img]/images/graemlins/laugh.gif[/img]

~D

[nothumb]

I agree, Duke. People forget that, in most fighting situations, if you are hitting someone back you are guilty of assault as well. If you are a trained martial artist they are even less likely to spare you when you smoke his punk ass. Sad but true.

I have a friend who runs a TKD school that is very real-world fighting oriented, lots of holds, throws, and close techniques to go with the kicks. Best of both worlds if you ask me.

NT