Korean arts effectiveness

[seanyseanybean]

Wow, ive just joined this forum and after reading some threads ive seen alot of people knocking the effectiveness of korean arts.

I feel that Korean arts are a great way of learning how to protect yourself and others in real life situations for these reasons.

1, Like all fighting arts worldwide, korean arts (KA) will give you self confidence. This i feel is key to avoiding confrontation in the first place (surely the best self defence of all) as your body language and mannerisms will show potential attackers that you are not a victim, and more than likely they will look for someone else. I know from experience that walking with your head bowed, looking lost and scared is pretty much liked having a bullseye strapped to your face to a mugger.

2, To continue this point, if you have belief in yourself that you can fight, then you will fight a hellova lot better than if you dont, regardless of style. I agree that some styles will be more effective at f****** the other guy up(Muay Thai, BJJ etc), but for some one who just wants to learn a way of making room for an escape then i feel KA are as good as any.

3, Alot of people seem to think that KA are useless in MMA, i can see their point, but fighters like Pat Smith who studies/d a great combination of KA including TKD, Tang Soo Do and Hapkido show that a good combination of KA can be very effective. Sure if a guy who just knows TKD goes into the UFC then he is gonna get killed, but so would anyone who entered MMA only knowing one style (even the best BJJ guys have to learn a little kickboxing these days). For example, I feel that Tang Soo Do would compliment a grappling art perfectly to create a well rounded competition fighter.

4, even if KA were useless in MMA then that doesnt render them useless in self defence. In MMA, you will be fighting other well condition fighters, on the street you will be fighting low lifes as no decent MAist would go looking for trouble. This means that alot of techniques that dont work in MMA such as Kick combo's can be effective in self defence (in the right circumstances of course).

To conclude all MA are effective, its how you use them that counts. I'm sure that many people will think what i have have written is just b****cks though

[EnlightenedOne]

I really agree. Martial Arts aren't all about self-defense. They are also learning more about yourself and how you can be a better person. I think that Korean arts are extremely good in teaching these lessons.

[Piston]

To say that KA aren't great in MMA would be a mistake just look at Lukasz "Juras" Jurkowski, a first dan ITF TKD practitioner who does extremely well. Granted he does also do a little boxing and BJJ but he intersperses them with his TKD very effectively.

[doubleouch]

To say that KA aren't great in MMA would be a mistake just look at Lukasz "Juras" Jurkowski, a first dan ITF TKD practitioner who does extremely well. Granted he does also do a little boxing and BJJ but he intersperses them with his TKD very effectively.

Without his boxing and bjj he would get his a$$ kicked. If you stop trying to defend your art and truly look at it objectively (hard to do) you would see that korean arts are not good for self defense or MMA.

[seanyseanybean]

I agree with you about mma, but only because no single style will be effective these days, as mma is no longer a stye v style competiition anymore, its about doing whatever works to get the job done. but my point was that KA can be a good aid to an mma fighters skills.
However i disagree about self defence as in the art i study, tang soo do, we learn realistic self defence and not just flashy kicks and point scoring which i'm guessing most people assume KA are about. We spend a quarter of each class learning how to effectively knee, elbow, kick to the groin, hyperextend limbs, headbutt, throw etc in self defence situations.
Tang soo do is not a sport and therefore all techniques use the hips to gain power.
Personally my best assett is my kicking ability. I favour direct, efficient kicks like the front or side kick to the midsection. But there are people in my class who almost never use kicks at all in free fighting.

[shaolin-warrior]

I agree, ka gets a bad rap, my first ma experience was with tang soo do, From that style mixed with my strong kempo and shaolin kung fu background, i have a stronger kicking and sweeping ability wich has really me in my sparring abilities. not a lot of flashy stuff , but just solid effective fundamentals.

[GonzoStyles]

if you think KA are ineffective just find a current or former member of the
R.O.K. "Tiger" division, I am sure he could persuade anyone that they have formulated an erroneus opinion. I have heard from several vets, that if the ARVN were as effective as the ROK tiger's the Vietnam war would have went a different way. I have seen footage of the Tiger division training and it is as hardcore as anything you could ask for.


BL- "Style doesnt make the man, man makes the style"

[tomjfd]

I too am a practictioner of Tang Soo Do. TKD and TSD may both have Korean origins, but the styles have developed along different paths. TSD is a fighting art. We too, learn low kicks, elbow and knee strikes, joint expolitation and groin strikes. TKD is the Korean national SPORT. It is designed to be beautiful with high sweeping and jumping kicks, as well as quick striking for points scoring. Good practicioners of either CAN BE effective self defense fighters. MMA, as was stated above, is no longer a one discipline contest. ANY fighter who only knows one style would find himself on the recieving end of beating with someone who has great knowledge in many types of MA. That just makes sense. But, TSD and TKD very greatly in their teaching and intent. So, we should be careful not to lump all Korean arts into the TKD perceptions.

[seanyseanybean]

hi gonzo styles. i'm intrigued about the ROK tigers division, could you tell me where i could learn about them or maybe some clips??

[Whispers]

if you think KA are ineffective just find a current or former member of the
R.O.K. "Tiger" division, I am sure he could persuade anyone that they have formulated an erroneus opinion. I have heard from several vets, that if the ARVN were as effective as the ROK tiger's the Vietnam war would have went a different way. I have seen footage of the Tiger division training and it is as hardcore as anything you could ask for.


BL- "Style doesnt make the man, man makes the style"

You're right, in the olden days, there were lots of kick ass KA practitioners (old days being about 30-40 years ago). The reaason they were good had little to do with the style and jus the intensity of their training and how frequent it was. You can't compare a black belt of the 60's who spent about a decade to obtain that rank working on his skill most of the time, to most modern black belts who only attend class 2-3 nights a week and barely train outside of that. The standard in most TMA has dropped astondingly, and KA are amonst those hit hardest. It's not hard to fix this problem. Get out and do some contact sparring. Cross train alittle. Train more regularly. And if you own a school, keep standards high.

[Piston]

TKD is the Korean national SPORT.

Erm....Please don't generalise, WTF TKD is indeed as you say the sport style TKD, the kind you see at the olympic games. ITF TKD is not its far more faithful (if not an exact adherent) to the style that the General developed and was used in the Korean military. Just thought I would clear that up for ya.

[tomjfd]

Glad to know the info about ITF being more of a fighting style. ALL of the schools in my area are WTF. They seem to be all about how many third and fourth place trophies they can put in the window of the school. Students are forced to compete in a certain number of tournaments to achieve rank, but the schools keep the trophies for show. This is not a fighting art. Glad to hear yours is.

[Piston]

It is a large problem in America, (I practise in the U.K) the commercilisation MA's, I think what needs to happen is that each individual MA's institution (like the T.A.G.B in the U.K) takes steps to regulate and thus bring up the level of expertise throughout.

That's not to say that WTF doesn't have its merits, you can do any MA and have the snot beaten outta you if you apply it wrongly to the situation at hand.

[seanyseanybean]

exactly, youve got to know how to use your art. Cant just assume that its gonna do all the work for you.

[ddrive]

You're right, in the olden days, there were lots of kick ass KA practitioners (old days being about 30-40 years ago). The reason they were good had little to do with the style, but with the intensity of their training. You can't compare a black belt of the 60's who spent about a decade to obtain that rank working on his skill most of the time, to most modern black belts who only attend class 2-3 nights a week and barely train outside of that. The standard in most TMA has dropped astondingly, and KA are amonst those hit hardest. It's not hard to fix this problem. Get out and do some contact sparring. Cross train alittle. Train more regularly. And if you own a school, keep standards high.

I couldn't agree with you more.