Taekwondo Research

[Sport Structures Research]

Hi

We are doing research on behalf of Taekwondo Organisation Limited (TOL) on Lapsed participation in the sport. We are looking for the opinions of people who have either never taken part in the sport or have previously taken part in Taekwondo but no longer do. Please complete our survey for a chance to win one of four £50 Amazon Vouchers.

Taekwondo Participation Survey

Colin

 

[Midnight-shadow]

Hi there. I filled out the survey as best I could, but if you want my personal opinion on the lack of Olympic TKD participants, I would put it down to 2 things. Firstly, there are very few places (comparatively) which support and train the Olympic format. Most TKD schools are centered around self-defence and fitness rather than competition, and those that do lean towards competition tend to transition more into either MMA or Kickboxing rather than Olympic TKD. And while in the UK they have upped the funding for TKD, that money more than likely won't filter down to the basic clubs at all. So already you are on the backfoot when it comes to finding places to train.

The second reason (for me at least) is that out of all the main fighting disciplines, Olympic TKD is the most unrealistic and narrow of them all, due to the rules in place. Since you aren't allowed to strike an opponent below the belt or on their back, high level TKD essentially turns into "foot fencing" with both participants standing completely side-ways on taking turns throwing kicks to the other's head. Yes you are allowed to punch your opponent in the chest, but nobody does this as it is so risky and awards the least amount of points nobody bothers with it. This for me is very very boring to watch as the moves are so limited and quite frankly you might as well watch Fencing instead.

 

[Sport Structures Research]

Thank you for your feedback I will make sure this is passed on.

Regards

Colin

 

[Dirty Dog]

Olympic TKD just simply sucks. It limits participants to a tiny little subset of what TKD is, and furthers the public image of TKD as being useless for self defense. Without a major change to the ruleset, Olympic TKD will die, Soon,I hope.

 

[Headhunter]

Olympic taekwondo is horrid to watch to me, so many bad habits that would get them knocked out easily in a real fight.

Also what's with all the personal questions at the end of the survey

 

[andyjeffries]

I've completed the survey. I would like to say though that the survey focuses on "Taekwondo the sport" but some of the questions seemed to be also referring to the martial arts side of it. So this makes it difficult to answer from a consistent point of view (because my views on sport and the martial art as a whole differ).

 

[Tortoise Talking]

Thanks, Colin. Filling out this survey gave me a lot to reflect on about my experience in Taekwondo as a young person and gave me a fresh perspective on some things that I had not thought about for a while.