Are there any open tournaments?
- Thread starter Leo89
- Start date
Kickboxer101
Master Black Belt
Best thing is to ask your instructor he'd be the one who enters you and would know more about the local stuff in your area
Not necessarily. By definition, an open tourney would be... open... meaning anybody can sign up.
Just don't go expecting to represent your school unless you do so with your instructors endorsement.
You can find local tournies easily enough with a little google fu...
Is it still a thing though?
KangTsai
2nd Black Belt
Of course. Taekwondo was in this year's Olympics and who knows how many other competitions there were.
That's not what he's talking about. There was, for a time, a group that tried to have professional TKD bouts. Like Olympic TKD, the ruleset was designed to emphasize kicking almost exclusively. It didn't do very well, since most people instinctively understand that limiting yourself to kicking is rather silly. It lost out to things like K1 and the PKA.
What I don't understand is, if we have jireugi (even if it's considered rudimentary by boxing standards), why not allow it as well?
Could a Taekwondo-in partake in K1 or PKA?
KangTsai
2nd Black Belt
I know, I just answered the question. I don't really like point fighting myself.
I know they have teams in Korea sponsored by companies like Samsung, but I'd be curious to find if that's something the competitors get paid for, or if it's more like, say, roller derby where the corporate sponsorships are only enough to pay for the cost of taking part in the activity.
Open or point fighting tournaments are everywhere and a total joke . is tag with both feet and hands. Lots of flashy forms that all resemble Mike Chat style. wtf style allows for full contact kicks and punches to body with contact levels to head varying , depending on your belt level and age. pro tkd was on air 2x I think and went bye bye.
If you want to punch try boxing. if not satisfied with tournaments your instructor recommends then change schools or styles. is your money and time. don't waste it.
If you want to punch try boxing. if not satisfied with tournaments your instructor recommends then change schools or styles. is your money and time. don't waste it.
TrueJim
Master Black Belt
I can ask. We often have interns at our school, interns from Korea. One them was, I was told, a professional taekwondo sparrer in Korea. I'll ask what that means exactly.
Good question. There is no good answer. The best anyone can come up with for why punching is so heavily de-valued in WTF-style tournaments if to differentiate TKD from Karate. I personally find this reasoning idiotic. Non-WTF style tournies set their own rules. In our school, we absolutely punch, and we punch to the head.
Sure. Style is/was irrelevant.
Open tournies are not synonymous with point sparring. I've fought in many open tournies. I've taken students to many. We've never done a point tourney.
Again, point sparring and open tournies are not the same thing. Most of the open events I've been too have been 2-3 minute rounds, punching, kicking, and often allow sweeps, throws and takedowns (although not generally rolling on the floor grappling).
Gwai Lo Dan
3rd Black Belt
I teenager I know signed himself up for a tournament and on the line for "Master:", he wrote "Master Kim" figuring that there has to be at least one Master Kim at the tournament. I laughed at that one.
No, a waste of time and money would be dropping the art instead of trying to better understand it, I know I'm not the only one with the goal of understanding its strengths and weaknesses, as well as adapting to and overcoming my opponents.
There's punching in this art, something worth understanding and training in.
Also, you pretty much lost me at tournies being a joke.
Point karate tournaments are a joke and a waste of time. Never said all tournaments.
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Not for the karateka partaking in them.
I'm sure they serve a purpose.
Well, if we consider sparring to be training for fighting (which is not universally true by any means) then point sparring has what I personally consider a fatal flaw.
The assumption that you will only need to hit your opponent once, especially with the little backfist pops that are so popular in these events, is patently ridiculous.
Frankly, I will gladly let you hit me once, if in doing so I can set up a counter that will allow me to inflict more damage than you.
By the same token, I consider WTF-style sparring equally flawed due to it's utter reliance on kicking and total devaluation of punching.
