Low-Guard or Hight-Guard
- Thread starter pierretkd
- Start date
Who is telling you this, I mean we keep or gaurd up. Now if you are doing Olympic with the sport aspect then yes low gaurd for the game. There are still planty of people using high gaurd in TKD just look around and you will find them.
Kwan Jang
Purple Belt
Under olympic TKD rules, there is no punching to the head or face. In that game, it is more profitable to keep the guard low to check the chambers of your opponents kicks, use your arms to deflect kicks and the use of your mobility/footwork for protection. This is a VERY specific response to a particular rule set. And in that rule set, it works for that purpose. OTOH, it is a bad habit that could cost you dearly in any situation outside of that game. I prefer to keep my guard high even when I have played that particular game since the way you train is the way you react. While I did sport TKD as a teen, I also boxed and late did kickboxing/full contact, so I never dared to develop that bad habit.
TKD_Father
Orange Belt
Hands up leaves an opening just below the elbow, hands down leaves the spot just above the shoulders 
.
My son learned hands down for WTF sparring. Block the head shots with movement.
.My son learned hands down for WTF sparring. Block the head shots with movement.
Earl Weiss
Senior Master
Tell everyone to use the low guard. Makes it much easire for us to punch them in the face.
It's not rocket science folks. Hands lower (more specifically, front hand about waste level with rear hand up by the chin) for competition sparring. Hands up in a more traditional boxing/kick boxing gaurd for SD and point-sparring. Train both so you are comfortable. Understand the strengths and weaknesses of both gaurds. Use the appropriate gaurd for the appropriate situation.
To those that say you fight like you train...train both then you don't have to worry. I don't understand where folks get the idea that a specifial tactial method to deal with a specific situation suddenly means that all people that compete in that style (Olympic TKD in this case) suddenly lose 20 points of IQ when faced with a situation that requires a different tactial approach. With some training and hard work...anyone can add new tools to the toolbox. Hell, I heartily recommend it.
Sheesh.
Peace,
Erik
To those that say you fight like you train...train both then you don't have to worry. I don't understand where folks get the idea that a specifial tactial method to deal with a specific situation suddenly means that all people that compete in that style (Olympic TKD in this case) suddenly lose 20 points of IQ when faced with a situation that requires a different tactial approach. With some training and hard work...anyone can add new tools to the toolbox. Hell, I heartily recommend it.
Sheesh.
Peace,
Erik
Well, the rules do not prevent you from using one or the other. Before I answer your question, what style of taekwondo are you new to? ITF and WTF sparring rules are markedly different.
Daniel
No disrespect, but I disagree. In my former mma gym, I have had plenty of occasion to spar in a open rules environment plenty of kkw tkd black belts. Almost universally they lose 20 iq points in more open rules situation. The very moment I go from kicking to my punching range, they were completely helpless to my punch's. I keep hearing on this forum that Olympic sparring is different from self defense and that KKW practitioners can and do switch to a more realistic guard and defensive game when out side of Olympic sparring. Sadly, that has not been the case with the KKW I have sparred so far.
Not one of them attempted even rudimentary punch defenses, or deflections or evasions... To the letter they would turtle up. Im sorry but because of my experience with them, I have to say it. You fight like you train..
What pisses me off the most about TKD is that, it has a good and perfectly viable hand tech system in place, yet it is so underutilized and misunderstood and neglected that its more of a joke. I can base that opinion off of my experience sparring with my father. He was taught way back, before TKD was diluted, before it was bastardized. He is nearly 60 years old and can more then keep up with me in sparring. He knows and loves the flashy kicks, yet he always defaults to the simple ones. He kicks as a opening to close into hand tech range. He is quite skilled in using TKD's deflections, and I find him to be a challenge to face. He represents what I feel TKD should have have stayed. A viable self defense stand up art, with good mix of hand and foot skills with good foot work and quality deflections.. Sadly I have yet to find any TKD school that is up to that standard. I found one that is close..
SJON
Blue Belt
Hello Kframe.
Perhaps you could video such a sparring session. That could be quite a valuable historical document.
Best regards,
Simon
Thousand Kicks
Green Belt
My respose, again with all due respect, is that TKD has not been diluted. There are plenty of people still teaching the style of TKD you talk about in your post. There are also people who teach the olympic style. What a student chooses to study or the aspects of their art they choose to focus on has nothing to do with the art and everything to do with the student. There are KKW fighters who have no interest in MMA fighting or pure self-defence. This is not a failure of the art simply a choice a person has made.
Your father, to his credit, chose to train not only the kicking aspect of his fighting game, but also the varied hand techniques. He studies TKD as do the other people on this board, so the system he studied still exists and can still be taught.
If you trained at a MMA gym, I'm sure you saw many people with various fighting backgrounds (Thai Kickboxing, American Kickboxing, Wrestling, etc.) To put it all together requires time and practice. If you're not very good at wrestling, you wouldn't say MMA is diluted.
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