When it comes to cross-overs, I think it's safe to say that TaeKwonDo training has the worst reputation among the striking arts. If someone were to only examine the techniques of the various styles, you would be dumbfounded as to why it wouldn't serve as an equally good base.
However the devil is in the details....
One of the things I noticed early on in my TKD training and, which is supported by lots of footage elsewhere is that unlike other disciplines like traditional Karate (or Kyokushin Karate) or Boxing, or Muay Thai, TaeKwonDo free sparring has techniques used in there mainly for show-offs. That is to say, kicking flashyiness which would otherwise get undermined and punished get's a free pass, and students continually seek to improve this aspect of their kicking and let each other take turns. This results in large parts of the combative element of sparring getting lost. This is a major issue transitioning because real fighting is dirty, not pretty, and real fighting tends to have a minority of flashyiness in there. There just isn't time for that and it may prove counterproductive.
So what happens then when a student goes outside of TaeKwondo and wants to test his metal? He right away finds himself in combative environment that he simply did not train for. He gets rushed, the timing is off and he might even get ambushed by boxing.
So one of the ways that TaeKwondo schools can seek to midigate this inherent weakness is to emphasis more combat, and less flashyiness. Let the students do the spins and aerials on the mitts but stick to basics in sparring. Don't encourage performance martial arts in the sparring! If the student has found himself to possess great timing for flashy moves, then by all means do them, but don't waste time kicking air against a cooperative partner!
These are my views and observations that I feel is pretty much uniquely tied to TaeKwonDo in it's quest to fundamentally distinguish itself from Karate. While this has been accomplished, it came at a price.
For those appealing to the watered down route.. Here's TaeKwonDo in the 80s under one of the original masters. The sparring session there is more or less a waste of time for any realistic fighting format, and it's very tiring to see this over and over again.
Edit: by flashy moves I refer to spinning or aerial techniques.
However the devil is in the details....
One of the things I noticed early on in my TKD training and, which is supported by lots of footage elsewhere is that unlike other disciplines like traditional Karate (or Kyokushin Karate) or Boxing, or Muay Thai, TaeKwonDo free sparring has techniques used in there mainly for show-offs. That is to say, kicking flashyiness which would otherwise get undermined and punished get's a free pass, and students continually seek to improve this aspect of their kicking and let each other take turns. This results in large parts of the combative element of sparring getting lost. This is a major issue transitioning because real fighting is dirty, not pretty, and real fighting tends to have a minority of flashyiness in there. There just isn't time for that and it may prove counterproductive.
So what happens then when a student goes outside of TaeKwondo and wants to test his metal? He right away finds himself in combative environment that he simply did not train for. He gets rushed, the timing is off and he might even get ambushed by boxing.
So one of the ways that TaeKwondo schools can seek to midigate this inherent weakness is to emphasis more combat, and less flashyiness. Let the students do the spins and aerials on the mitts but stick to basics in sparring. Don't encourage performance martial arts in the sparring! If the student has found himself to possess great timing for flashy moves, then by all means do them, but don't waste time kicking air against a cooperative partner!
These are my views and observations that I feel is pretty much uniquely tied to TaeKwonDo in it's quest to fundamentally distinguish itself from Karate. While this has been accomplished, it came at a price.
For those appealing to the watered down route.. Here's TaeKwonDo in the 80s under one of the original masters. The sparring session there is more or less a waste of time for any realistic fighting format, and it's very tiring to see this over and over again.
Edit: by flashy moves I refer to spinning or aerial techniques.
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