Beautiful Ax

[dancingalone]

If you watch the clip closely the guy in red did have his hands high enough to guard but the kick was placed directly in-between the two arms. Also because the guy in the red was kicking and leaning slightly back at the same time the angle made it impossible to guard. In this case hands up made no difference. All he could have hoped for was to deflect some of the power. And even that was a long shot due to the timing and angle of the kick.

Maybe you are right from a sport perspective. Outside of the ring in an altercation against someone you know favors kicking, I teach a more extended guard. The additional length allows you to anticipate and use your hands to help sidestep the attack, leading to a possible leg wrap or trap. It's the same idea why someone might try to use a jacket or other piece of clothing to help defend vs. a knife.

 

[Manny]

You can get burn if play with fire. Using guard up is not a guaratee you would be kyoed by a hand or kick,using the hands up can give you just an edge to absorv a kick or a punch and maybe don't be hurt.

The best way of avoid a blow to the head is to dodge,roll or stay away of the blow.

Manny

 

[TKDHermit]

this video is that of a sparring match in the sport. lets keep it at that. stop preaching about how its gonna or not gonna work in real situations tyvm. if i had to say wahts gonna work in a real situation id say a front kick to the groin/knee or an elbow to the temple or a punch to the throat - hands up hands down whatever.

 

[Tez3]

Nice kick but the whole fighting with hands down thing still isn't what the majority of us find useful or even attractive.
I think the problem is that most of us have been taught to fight in a well rounded manner, hands, feet, elbows, kicking,knees, sweeps etc and to us watching two people bouncing around for a while, throwing a kick then backing off isn't fighting, it isn't even sparring. Yes, it was a KO but how much more exciting (and useful) would the fight have been if they'd used more 'weapons'? I'm sorry and maybe the Olympic people don't care but their 'sport' is causing many to laugh at it and even the occasional KO like this does nothing for the reputation of TKD.
It's not really whether the guard should have been up in this case really as the KO would have probably come anyway guard or not, it's the whole Olympic TKD thing that people find hard to stomach, we care that our beloved martial arts are being ridiculed because of this one event.

 

[zDom]

Any kick that lands flush and results in a KO is beautiful, other wise it is just a kick.

Please don't feel like I'm always looking for places to disagree with you but.. I disagree

I have seen many a sloppy, technically poor kick result in a knockout — but it doesn't make them beautiful kicks, IMO. Not saying this one was BAD (it was OK — it was thrown at a good time and connected well), just saying in general.

I would say the clip showed a "beautiful knockout" as knockout with an axe kicks IS beautiful to behold

But then, semantics are important to me being a wordsmith by trade and inclination