TKD vs karate

[Deathtrap101]

I am a karate student wondering about TKD. Now ive heard ALOT of bad things about TKD and some good things, i know TKD practitioners tend to be alot more flexable than karate students, and that you guys have some awesome kicks. My sensei tells me that at competitions him and his peers beat the snot out of the TKD just because my sensei's sensei knew and told them places to capitalize on fighting against TKD. I will for a fact eventually try TKD, though im sure i will always stick to my karate as a main study. My sensei tells me TKD biggest problem is lack of experienced teachers and bad habbits are passed down through them.

I'd like to know what you guys think about this and maybe tell me about how each style differs a little more. And please dont flame me to death, i know i am pretty ignorent about TKD. Thanks.



:asian:

 

[Bagatha]

Hmmm....interesting thought, Im sure however, that is equally true about Karate. How many different styles of Karate are there anyway? Prob hundreds. Taekwon-do also has different styles. With each style things can be both similar and dramatically different at the same time. The 3 biggest TKD organizations are the WTF, ITF, and the GTF. There are others UTI, NTF, etc. Most organizations started with either the WTF, or the ITF. The differences there are quite dramatic I think. Self defense changes between each school you go to, so if you are there for more practical purposes, you would have to check out the cirriculum at each club. Patterns are totally different between ITF and WTF. Sparring is totally different aswell. WTF is the olympic style of sparring, no kicks to the facial area, no punching to head area, full contact with chest protectors. ITF is semi-contact with the ability to punch and kick wherever except to the back and below the belt. No chest protectors. Truthfully I think you will find inexperienced instructors no matter what art you choose, and everyone is going to say that theirs is better. Look for authenticity when finding a club, a true certified instructor usually has a certificate or plaque on display and there is no harm in asking to see these things. Take advantage of free classes. Most legitimate clubs will give you the oppertunity to try a free class, and with your MA background you will be able to weed out the duds right away. By the way most open MA tournys have a large Karate representation, TKD people have their own tournys so they tend not to go to them very often, when they do it is usually a small pack of 5-10 in a crowd of 400. Odds are that one of the Karate guys would win due to numbers. When it all comes down to it, no matter what art your in I think it depends on the fighter. In the same tourniment, alot of those Karate guys arent so good. Same goes for TKD. Hey I have a question for you...whats the difference between Kenpo and say Shotokan? seriously. I have been wondering that for awhile.

 

[sweeper]

kinda on subject.. ok I hear alot about how TKD has so many kicks, is it that you guys practice more kicking techniques or that you concentrate on kicking more (for those of you who do have awsome kicks relative to hands)?

Some one told me (and I think I read somewhere) that kempo is very simular to various forms of chinese fighting, much more so than karate. But than again I know nothing about either groups.. I think I heard that from my brother (who heard it from his gung fu instructor) and I read it off of a tracy-kempo web page (or rather one of his student's pages).

 

[Deathtrap101]

seriusly i dont know, ive only ever trained under one style excluding boxing, which is renshikan which evloved from chito-ryu and has some Shotokan mixed in with it as well as some other styles. I was told it was supposed to be the most 'advanced' style, but i have no real opinion on that. IM only 15 and have had less then 9 months of training, with little knowledge of other styles let alone my own. I have troubles understanding alot of MA universal stuff. Pretty much all i know is that i love martial arts and im confident with my current skills and seeking out much much more in advancing my skill.

I was asking what you thought about the difference in style and tecnique as opposed to the rules. ANd i agree with you that it does pretty much depend on the individual.

 

[Deathtrap101]

and does TKD invlove much kata in ranking belts. My karate style is pretty much all kata for ranking and knowing kumite(and being good at it). I was just wondering how TKD dojo's awarded belts?

 

[Bagatha]

I cant speak for WTF, I dont know alot about their rank system. But in ITF you learn a new pattern for every rank, and then 3 for every degree of black until 5th dan, you learn 2 and 6th dan you learn the last one. there are 24 patterns. In my school there is a large focus on patterns, you need to perform your senior and junior pattern plus self defence, step sparring, free sparring, and an oral question and board break on color belt exams. On BB exams you get all the same stuff except MORE like min of 4-5 patterns, long sparring with multiple partners, 5 oral questions, 21 boards, multiple self defence, at least 3 step sparring.

 

[ThuNder_FoOt]

Just answering an earlier question, the reason Taekwondo focuses more on leg work than hand work, is due to the fact that TKD practitioners believe coordination of the leg is alot more complicated than that of the arm. I have found this to be true in my training.

In regards to the WTF, yes they do involve poomse (kata) in ranking belts. For the most part, the forms are the same, but there is some individualism between masters... which may result in different forms being taught. And I'm sure that goes for any style as well.:asian:

 

[Deathtrap101]

ok cool, only one poome? are they very dificult? and how long does it usualy take to advance through the belts??I heard at alot of dojo's you can get your first dan in 2-4 years or less.

 

[white dragon]

Just going to chuck my 2 pennys worth in.

TKD is a very good system, HOWEVER there seems to be a lot of complete cr*p being taught out there under the name. But as someone going into it from a background of Karate, you should be able to spot a good dojang from a mcdojo.

As for the differences between styles, well to be honest besides the patterns and the sparring rules there really aren't many. The main reason why I chose the WTF was, apart from the option of being able to do full contact sparring, that the training seemed a lot more intense. Training 3 times a week, for 2 hours each session, were most ITF clubs in the uk seem to only train twice a week for an hour each. And being someone with very little to do I decided to go for the longer training times

Expect to take about 3-4 years to get to 1st Dan. 3 years if you're very good, 4 is general. I personally want to take 4, I've been offered the chance to grade up to red tag, but decided to stay as blue tag as I didn't feel ready to even be a blue belt. It depends on you and your instructor, as I said before, shop around, find a dojang you think suites you and will educate you.

Honour in taekwondo

 

[Deathtrap101]

alright, im sure ill still stick with karate but I would like to try out some TKD so ill check out the dojo here. Living in a small town there are few choices in martial arts. I think there are maybe 2 TKD clubs here and my karate dojo shut down till september because of my sensei's back(Long story short he has a back problem) and im traveling an hour and a half with a freind twice a week to get to another one for my style of karate.

But yea thanks for all the information, if i have more questions about TKD ill ask about them here(Caus asking my classmates i may get some biased answers caus we all consider Karate and TKD rivals and say we would slap eachother if we joined for full training there.). My karate sensei has encouraged us to take a few TKD lessons and see what we think. He knows that one of the ones around here is a Mcdojo and we would critisize it alot. He says there is descent one around here and if i can find it ill try that one a few times, if not ill see out the bad one here and still get a better idea on TKD without getting the 'blackbelt' that seems to be just a given at the bad TKD dojo's. I've tried to end this post a few times and so im gonna do it now for sure, thanks for all the info.
:asian:

 

[kenpo_jeff]

This is an interesting thread since Taekwon-Do was actually derived from a combination of ancient Korean martial arts and Japanese Karate. They are more similar than one might think...

Taekwon,

 

[ThuNder_FoOt]

I have to partially agree with Jeff. Taekwondo was derived from Japanese Karate, however with Korea's claim of independence from Japan.... the art was revised in an attempt to expunge the Japanese influence. So in that since, i believe there are many similarities and many differences.

You will never know aboout the art, until you try it.... as everything else will be simply opinions. Your experience is your truth.:asian: