How often do you use the more fancier Kicks?

[Kenlee25]

One thing I've noticed more recently while sparring is that I tend to prefer the use of my hands over my legs. Going in for a great counter punch combo and maybe ending with a kick seems more natural to me than doing more powerful fancier kicks. I hardly ever use crescent kicks, Tornado kicks, or hook kicks. Mostly just round kicks, twist kicks, and side kicks.

Am I the only one? Sometimes I feel like a poor TKD practitioner because of my lack of kicking in a kick heavy art ( although I know perfectly well how to do them. )...especially after 11 years of it.

 

[Dirty Dog]

You are not alone. In sparring or self defense, it's safe to say that in general, the fancier the kick, the less likely it is to be useful. Even the fanciest can be used at times, but you will find more opportunities to use the simpler kicks.

Using the hands to setup finishing kicks is an excellent idea. Hands move faster than feet. They can be used to counter an attack and redirect it in a way that creates an opening for a solid kick. Or, as you described, throwning a few hand strikes to convince your opponent to move his guard HERE rather than HERE...

As long as your primary interest isn't in WTF-style sparring, there's no reason to feel that you're doing anything wrong.

 

[MAist25]

Don't let olympic style sparring make you feel like that is the only right way to spar. As long as you aren't planning on competing in the olympics your sparring is probably fine. I too use a lot of hand techniques during sparring and I don't see myself as a sub-par TKD practitioner because of it. However, I do try and use fancy kicks during sparring as well because it is the best way to improve your overall technique. You should challenge yourself to execute more advanced techniques during sparring rather than doing what you are already comfortable with. Sparring is a time to learn and you won't learn if you just do the same things over and over again. But like I said, nothing wrong with the way you spar just because it doesn't look like what the olympians are doing.

 

[ETinCYQX]

The typical kick heavy, hands down style is the right way to do one thing and that is win WTF tournaments.

If your goal is to learn Taekwondo and enjoy yourself, even protect yourself, you're doing nothing wrong. I love counterpunching too.

If your goal is to fight Aaron Cook in the next 2 years, your sparring has to reflect that

 

[ralphmcpherson]

The longer I train the higher my ratio of punches to kicks seems to become. These days I would throw one kick to every 3 o 4 punches.I wouldnt say I dont t do fancy kicks, in fact I land tornado kicks quite regularly. Generally though, I use fancy kicks as an effective training tool to improve balance, core strength, co ordination and flexibility, I personally dont see much point to them outside of a training tool. As others have said, unless you are entering wtf tournaments, just spar with what works well for you. A guy I train with made it to the final of the sparring in our club championships, winning all his fights, and probably threw one or two kicks the whole time and the rest were all punches. Never feel like you have to "conform" to a certain sparring type just because you do tkd. There is far more to tkd than just kicking.

 

[Kenlee25]

Thanks guys. I always try to apply sparring to be as realistic as possible to simulate actual fighting, but I see what you are saying. Using the different moves will definitely help as a training technique. I'll make sure to remember that.

 

[Cyriacus]

Crescent Kick and Hook Kick arent fancy - If You think They are, read into Their uses more.

Taekwondo is not a Kicking Heavy Martial Art, its a Martial Art which can be interpreted as such. It can, and is, also taught as a Punching System. Some places dont even teach You Front Kicks until Youre a 7th Geup.

In answer to Your Question, I randomly did a 'Tornado' Kick once just to see if I could do it without ever being taught how to do it, and seeing it only on one video. I succeeded.

 

[mastercole]

Taekwondo has a greater number of hand skills than kicking skills. There are 17 different types of sparring in Taekwondo. 1 through 16 uses more hand skills than kicking skills. #17 uses more kicking skills than hand skills for attack. #17 allows practitioners to get the very valuable experience of full contact sparring.

Over all, Taekwondo uses about 60% hand skills and about 40% kicking skills, when compared to each other. There are other skills such as feinting, stepping, dodging, deflecting, etc., that do not fall into the category of hand skills or kicking skills.

Personally if I favored hand technique, I would want to kick more, to improve that area, not neglect it.

 

[mastercole]

Don't let olympic style sparring make you feel like that is the only right way to spar. As long as you aren't planning on competing in the olympics your sparring is probably fine. I too use a lot of hand techniques during sparring and I don't see myself as a sub-par TKD practitioner because of it. However, I do try and use fancy kicks during sparring as well because it is the best way to improve your overall technique. You should challenge yourself to execute more advanced techniques during sparring rather than doing what you are already comfortable with. Sparring is a time to learn and you won't learn if you just do the same things over and over again. But like I said, nothing wrong with the way you spar just because it doesn't look like what the olympians are doing.

I train all my students in *shihap kyorugi* method, the type of training methods and sparring used in the Olympics for Taekwondo. I do it for the self defense benefit. I feel it offers the greatest self defense benefit of all the other sparring types found in Taekwondo.

 

[Twin Fist]

I train all my students in *shihap kyorugi* method, the type of training methods and sparring used in the Olympics for Taekwondo. I do it for the self defense benefit. I feel it offers the greatest self defense benefit of all the other sparring types found in Taekwondo.

whatever you are smoking, you need to cut back if you think hippy hoppy hands down roundkicks over and over and over are self defense practical.....

 

[ralphmcpherson]

Thanks guys. I always try to apply sparring to be as realistic as possible to simulate actual fighting, but I see what you are saying. Using the different moves will definitely help as a training technique. I'll make sure to remember that.

What type of sparring do you use? I ask because you said you try to keep sparring as realistic as possible. In my opinion if you were to design a ruleset for sparring which looks as far from a realistic altercation as is humanly possible you would come up with wtf ruleset. Rarely in a realistic fight will you see kicks (particularly above waist height), rarely in a real fight will there not be at least 1 head punch within 2 seconds of the fight starting, rarely will you see two guys standing 4 feet from each other, rarely will a spin kick work in a real situation (even less likely will it be 'rewarded') etc. Dont get me wrong, where I train we use many different types of sparring and I find the olympic ruleset a lot of fun, but realistic, no way.

 

[ralphmcpherson]

whatever you are smoking, you need to cut back if you think hippy hoppy hands down roundkicks over and over and over are self defense practical.....

anybody who gets on a martial arts board and declares olympic sparring to be realistic self defence is trolling.

 

[Twin Fist]

or ****ing delusional

anybody who gets on a martial arts board and declares olympic sparring to be realistic self defence is trolling.

 

[ralphmcpherson]

or ****ing delusional

you're quite right. I dont believe any ruleset Ive seen is close to real fighting, some come closer than others obviously. But seriously, close your eyes and picture a streetfight in all its glory, then imagine two guys sparring wtf style and they are not even remotely similar.

 

[Archtkd]

Here we go again! Chill, everyone. Breath, think,

 

[mastercole]

One thing I've noticed more recently while sparring is that I tend to prefer the use of my hands over my legs. Going in for a great counter punch combo and maybe ending with a kick seems more natural to me than doing more powerful fancier kicks. I hardly ever use crescent kicks, Tornado kicks, or hook kicks. Mostly just round kicks, twist kicks, and side kicks.

Am I the only one? Sometimes I feel like a poor TKD practitioner because of my lack of kicking in a kick heavy art ( although I know perfectly well how to do them. )...especially after 11 years of it.

When an excellent student learns the correct basic principles of Taekwondo from an excellent teacher, and that students puts in the correct effort in to skills like kicking, they become excellent at it. They can kick from any angle or any turn. When that practitioner applies those amazing basic skills from any angle they like, it just seems fancy. It's not. It's basic done really well.

 

[ralphmcpherson]

Here we go again! Chill, everyone. Breath, think,

I really dont think people having different views on realistic sparring techniques means its time to chill. It always makes for some good debate. If personal attacks start then we need to chill. Mastercole is more than welcome to his opinions, but so are others.

 

[ralphmcpherson]

Thanks guys. I always try to apply sparring to be as realistic as possible to simulate actual fighting, but I see what you are saying. Using the different moves will definitely help as a training technique. I'll make sure to remember that.

My whole perspective changed when I began to see flashy kicks as a training tool rather than an actual kick. It was about the time I got my black belt and my instructor (who I know personally) must have noticed I was feeling indifferent to the "flashy" moves. I was having dinner at his house one night and he brought the subject up and we discussed it at length, he told me that my basics would improve after working on flashy kicks, he told me that when he learnt the tornado kick it improved his regular roundhouse kick. He told me he always struggled with balance and co ordination in his early days and after learning a jump spinning hook kick these areas improved. He told me to use them as tools to improve my basics and not to look at them as a way of defending myself. I took that onboard and it made a world of difference to me. Now I actually enjoy doing some of the flashy things, but I mainly do them in my spare time working alone at home and save class time for working on the sorts of things I would use to defend myself. It all comes down to a time thing for me. If martial arts was my full time job, then I would spend the time to perfect all the flashy things there are to learn. Unfortunately I have a wife, kids, a business, other hobbies etc, and the hours and hours I could spend perfecting a flashy kick I will never actually use, is time I could be spending doing 100 roundhouse kicks with each leg or a couple of hundred punches or cardio etc etc, but its each to their own obviously.

 

[Archtkd]

I really dont think people having different views on realistic sparring techniques means its time to chill. It always makes for some good debate. If personal attacks start then we need to chill. Mastercole is more than welcome to his opinions, but so are others.

Different opinions? Good debate? Regurgitation of stuff that been floating back and forth in the taekwondo forums for a decade is more of what's going on here.

 

[ralphmcpherson]

Different opinions? Good debate? Regurgitation of stuff that been floating back and forth in the taekwondo forums for a decade is more of what's going on here.

I think there is a reason certain subjects continually come up, people find them interesting and are passionate about those subjects. As long as people keep bringing them up, and are well mannered in their posts Im more than happy to dicuss it, as obviously many others are also. Its when people get rude or make personal attacks that I see a problem. I think thats why threads discussing such topics go for 15-20 pages, if no one was interested and it was just the same stuff regurgitated it wouldnt get past the first page.