My first Knock out.

[YeLLa-TiGeR]

I believe the original forms of TKD is what the creator intended TKD to be. Olympic sparring, has made deeper stances and many of the handtechniques to be never used. I personally believe if you can spar, what is the point of poomse/forms? I rather shadow box or spar then do patterns anyday.

[gungfuhero]

Yeah I know Greg Lucas. In fact I fought in his last tournament. Didn't do very well though. Oh well it happens.

The problem with most TKD is that many practioners of the art are to caught up in the sport, and the sport is not very realistic. Power and accuracy are sacraficed for weak flippy kicks. The hand game is virtually nonexistant because of the no punch to the head rule. Add to that the point system. Although this sport can build some very important attributes, it isn't very realistic. For tkd to have a real future, we need to train it in a progressive way. That means continuous sparring, contact to the head, body and legs, athletic training (conditioning bigtime)and progressive training methods.

In regards to kids, my younger students are a joy. Part of the reason is that I have high standards for them, and when they reach their goals, we know that we both did our jobs well. I'm not a day care and they know it.

[duchman]

Yella tiger,

Most of my k.o in muay thai are with a left hook (i'am a south paw)
I've had a couple k.o's knee flurry's to the face

[Nthman]

I think forms have their place. I DON'T think that they really help fighting ability much. What I personally like about the forms is the way they are somewhat like works of art. One can develop them as much as possible and then some more, and as for myself I constantly find slight improvments in technique I can make while doing the forms. So maybe they help technique somewhat because you are essentially "fighting" in slow motion in a VERY controlled manner. For me they just somethign I can focus on using the basic techniques of TKD.
Greg Lucas was my first teacher and he was pretty damn cool and a good teacher. I really dislike the sport aspect of TKD. I see those "flippy" kicks and I am like..uh...ok Thats part of the reason why my sparring could be better hehe cuz I don't feel that I have to get out of the way when someone comes in with a super lame double round kick. There are WAY too many restrictions in TKD rules. It doesn't need to be accessible to the whole family. I think that in tournaments punches to the face should be perfectly legal (using gloves of some sort) I just don't think it should be so controlled. I Think a lot of TKD people have a very dangerous false sense of security...and damn I'm getting tired of sparring "kid" black belts hheh I was sparring this one doing my best not to take his head off so I decided to just give him a back hook kick to the solar plexus..barely tapped him he's like, "hook kicks are only allowed to the face" I was like, "yeah ok its your teeth not mine" heh heh I am thinking of going to a differnent school such as Rick Fayes so I can mix it up with people from other disciplines. I think another problem with TKD is that we get accustomed to people doing certain things, stuck in set patterns. I tested this out by basically throwing my TKD stuff out the window for a second during sparring and just coming in in such a way that felt natural got right up close and threw an axe kick that was completely unexpected by the other guy.

Wow long post..heh sorry guys. Anyway to sum up I sometimes think TKD people, (myself included) think we live in a seperate universe where we will always be warmed up, wearing our dobocks and able to throw a perfect round kick to someone's head while on the street.

[YeLLa-TiGeR]

And thats why Im outta there! FOR GOOD!

[gungfuhero]

Good luck yella. Keep your kicks and footwork sharp. Don't liberate yourself from one set of chains for another.