full contact sparring

[jb85]

I'm just starting out in taekwondo,and in my organization they use point sparring. I was wondering if there is a taekwondo organization that uses full contact. i am training for taekwondo mainly for self defense. What is the best organization for this with taekwondo?

[Piston]

Depends on what kind of TKD you're doing, most likely its WTF or ITF, however both do point sparring and won't do full contact due to insurance details, so you might have to find a full-contact partner yourself.

[m_calingo]

If you are interested mainly in SD (self defense), I suggest that you consider FMA, JKD, kickboxing or Muay Thai, or Krav Maga. Most TKD schools, as noted, avoid full contact sparring to avoid serious injury which can lead to lawsuits, etc. This, in turn, could cause the school to close, and that is bad for business.

I won't necessarily say that you can't learn SD by taking TKD, but I won't say there aren't better places that teach self defense exclusively either. If it's self defense you want, I suggest you check out places that teach adults only.

Many TKD schools have small children in their classes. Nothing wrong with that--keeps kids busy, works out aggression, teaches discipline, etc., etc. However, some of the techniques that really, really work out in the real world are things little kids are better off not knowing. If you're an adult, and you're learning with six year olds, you're not getting the best self defense instruction you can get, and that's just my opionion.

[Zentenk]

If you have a kickboxing gym or something like that with real sparring I'd try to go there.

For me, I don't have any in the immediate area. I have a TKD Dojang I'm going to hit up and learn there. It is WTF so I will get some form of sparring in so when I try Muay Thai I will be a lil comfortable going toe to toe against someone. But if you do Kick Boxing you wont get to do all the cool flips/spinning kicks, showing off and getting laid.