TKD and fight ranges

With the explosion of the sport of MMA and with all the discussion on different art's and what particular styles occupy different ranges. I am wondering how many of you have looked into your training and have found holes in your game?

I for one have come to see that my training syllabus did not offer a well rounded approach to the full spectrum of combat.

I mean we had drills for self defense in which we were in close quarters from our attackers. And of course this always revolved around the element of surprise. But when it came to one on one combat, I found that we were limited by the perimeters of our sparring.

And even when I and a group of friends decided to go beyond and expand those boundaries we discovered that we lacked knowledge to handle ourselves in certain ranges. For instance we knew nothing about the trapping or close quarter combat range, and the ground or wrestling range was an entire new world.

I mean sure we had a few techniques that we practiced as drills on each other in case we ever fell or were knocked down.

But the stuff we knew when actually applied against a resisting opponent just wasn't as easy as we thought or just plain didn't work and only got us in worse situation.

Have you noticed any holes in your game? Have you looked into other arts to fill in the gaps? Have you taken what you already have learned and applied it in a way that it fills these holes?

Hi Tek

This is precisely why I left TKD. I asked about working other ranges and I was strung along for a few months (Coach: "Yeah sure we'll do in next week") , but we kept doing the kick/punch/block stuff.

I think this is a big problem with modern TKD. Most classes lack other range work, and either keep going the way they are or look to other arts, such as Hapkido or Krav Maga, to fill the gaps.

Sometimes this leads to a very disjointed system. You have to switch modes in class, and the system doesn't really feel like a whole, more of a mish-mash of seperate things. Other systems blend their training so the principles and ideas overlap, be they sparring, SD applications or technique drills.

I took wrestling in high school, so I know something about that. Yes, I agree that TKD lock-and-throw techniques, aka self-defence techniques, were atrocious, but many TKD masters, including my own, learned Hapkido in the Korean military, and so many TKD schools have now incorporated that into the curriculum.

I'm actually surprised to hear that some TKD schools are not teaching Hapkido techniques.

Where we would be weak at would be close-in punching techniques. WTF schools don't use hand techniques, which leads to the joke, "Are you practising Tae Kwon Do or just Tae Do?"

Figured this out in 1974 when a goood Ju Jitsu guy came to the Do Jang to improve his striking. When we saw what he could do if he got a hold of us we started succking whatever info we could out of him. Not so much from a basics in Ju Jitsu course standpoint but fromn the standpoint as to how to counter those techniques which of course involved how to employ them . A few years later he opens his Ju Jitus club at the local YMCA and a many of continue to train with him, some more, some less.
Fast forward anothe decade or so and he becomes chairman of the USJA Ju Jitsu division. He finaly tells a bunch of us that we know 80% of his grappling curriculm and our striking is superior to the striking of his Ju Jtsu guys so we should buckle down and learn the remaining 20% and get certified . About 12 of us did.

I actually don't think TKD needs any development, or at least not much in the closer ranges.

Ultimately TKD is an art that specialises. Lots of traditional arts do it and fear of MMAists shouldn't be allowed to change that.

Tactically rolling on the floor is an unsound idea for a martial art, trapping etc are all fine, but not absolutely necessary. As I see it the most a TKDist should know about those ranges and methods of fighting is how to avoid them and how to get out of them should they occur. After that it should all be about how to break someone with one or two kicks IMO.

Then you are going to find yourself in serious trouble if you have an altercation with a crediable ground fighter. It is very difficult to "break" someone with one or two kicks. Look at the kicks the mma guys take, more than one or two. Granted, rolling on the ground is not the optimium place to be, but you need to be proficient and its not that easy to "get out" of a ground submission if the opponent knows what they're doing.

VDJ