Taekwondo Fighters

For those of you who take Taekwondo for self-defense and sport fighting: Now, I realize that you expierence training that gives you an advantage over untrained people, but do you train to fight people who train in other martial arts( or martial sports). Viewing statistics, I have seen that Taekwondo practitioners often don't fare well against other arts such as Muay Thai. I don't mean to nettle you, but how do you deal with this if you know it? Do you believe these results aren't true, or do you start cross-training? Has anyone out there completely changed their traings?

Savateur,

These questions are not necessarily conducive to a good discussion about martial arts. Suffice it to say that everyone's experience is subjective, despite whatever stats are provided and that everyone's reasons for doing any particular MAs are their own.

By the way, this is coming from someone who currently practices karate.

-B

I'm trying to emphasize the most important points of the martial in martial arts.

Different peple have different objectives in MA training, Savatuer. Many TKD folks train to fight in TKD style tournaments. They might not do well in a MT competition.

A MT guy may not do well in a TKD tourney. Different rules.

Let's not go art bashing, as there are many TKD people that DO emphasize good overall martial arts skills.

Savateur,

Maybe your reasons are not mine. I never claimed to be a fighter.

-B

This is one of those topics that have been done to death. MattJ is correct, you can't put a TKD practioner in a MT tourney or vice versa and expect them to fair well, the rules will always favor that practioner. Bill Wallace covered this a long time ago in Black Belt magazine (when I still read Black Belt). As far as the street is concerned, cross training is always the way to go. Bruce Lee knew this years ago, that is why he was such a great martial artist, he was ahead of his time ! His Jeet Kune Do is the first and original Mixed Martial Art ! Just look at what he did, Hand techniques from Wing Chung, Many of his kicks were TKD his foot work was boxing and he also knew grappling. There is no such thing as one complete martial art or the "Best" art. They ALL have something to offer and we should keep our minds open to experience them when we can. One dojang I visit brings in BJJ teacher once a month to teach him and his students ground fighting. This is the kind of teacher that you want, one who knows his stuff but also has the humility to empty his cup to learn something knew. Yeah, if you haven't guessed by now I definitley am pro crosstraining.

TK
VDJ

Agreed. I'd also like to point out that each Taekwondo school is different. Some teach sport. Some teach traditional. Some teach self defense. And some teach combination. You can visit school after school and see something different so you cannot group all Taekwondo schools as the same. Nor Karate, Kung Fu, Jujitsu (Brazilian or Japanese), etc.

For instance, I belong to one school of three under the same banner. Each of the instructors were taught by the same Master. Each of these instuctors train together full time and teaches full time. Each of these instructors teach differently. A friend of mine goes to another school and though the basics are all the same we do more ground work, self defense and cross training then his school does. Even with the same name we aren't the same. It is different because a different person instructs and has different values. So depending on how one is taught, that will be the difference.

Cross training in any art is good. But remember, we each want somethng else different out of our arts.

Have you ever seen a boxer and a wrestler go at it? Both are good in their own respect, but they do not mix very well. It also depends on how aggressive a person is. The way a person is trained also makes a big difference. Olympic style TKD is aggressive but focuses on quick kicks to the torso and head for scoring and not so much with everything else that the traditional style teaches. But there is nothing wrong with that, it is just different.

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Have you ever seen a boxer and a wrestler go at it?/quote]

Rocky any one??