Jaeimseu
3rd Black Belt
In Olympic TKD, the skill set and gymnasticism (made up word) is impressive. However, I agree with a previous poster: It is problematic to allow a player to score with a spinning/jumping kick and then fall to the ground without consequence. First of all, the technique is incomplete. Secondly, it is kind of like cheating but not. Either the score should not count if a player falls to the ground or the defender should be able to hit the person on the ground. Promoting TKD by creating rules for flashier maneuvers speaks of modern marketing techniques, rather than solid TKD techniques. I do not fault the players who use the rules to his/her favor, but I do find valid points of criticism in extolling flash over solid execution. Just imagine of gymnasts did not have to worry about landing correctly, think of all the wild flips he/she could execute?
I personally don't like that particular rule, either. The rule used to be no point if the player fell down, though a KO would still result in a victory. I would have thought that the referee could give a warning or take points off the board for "intentional" falling to avoid fighting, though. To me, there's a big difference between accidentally falling and purposely going down. Gymnasts have to stick the landing, but the other gymnasts aren't trying to kick them while they are performing their acrobatics.