Yamabushii
Green Belt
Technically it wasn't just TKD, it was also Tang Soo Do, Karate, and Kung Fu, though the majority was TKD. I will admit that TKD isn't my core skill, however, one of my students is nearly a grandmaster in TKD and he finally convinced me to judge/ref a tournament. Surprisingly I enjoyed judging the armed and unarmed solo forms the most. Initially I thought I would have enjoyed the point sparring most. While I did see some solid foot work, I kept thinking to myself about some of the cons and I feel like they are pretty big. A lot of what I saw from both children and adults in point sparring, from beginner to advanced ranks, was a lot of forward lunges in hopes an attack would land to score the first point. Even though some people instinctively countered, the point system favored the one who struck first (assuming the attack landed). In many cases I also saw attacks that were clearly blocked but the attacker was still awarded a point. While I do see the benefit of many TKD moves, I feel like it must be hard to escape the muscle memory of throwing yourself almost completely into an attack - which are not always going to be enough to actually stop someone in reality and it personally seems dangerous to me.
Are there TKD schools out there that do not focus on point sparring at all or is it too deeply ingrained in the art's culture? Unfortunately in that tournament there was no continuous sparring which I was hoping to see. For the TKD practitioners here, what are your thoughts about training for point sparring vs fighting in reality? How do you separate the two? Not trying to knock anyone or any art by any means, but I am genuinely wondering.
TIA
Are there TKD schools out there that do not focus on point sparring at all or is it too deeply ingrained in the art's culture? Unfortunately in that tournament there was no continuous sparring which I was hoping to see. For the TKD practitioners here, what are your thoughts about training for point sparring vs fighting in reality? How do you separate the two? Not trying to knock anyone or any art by any means, but I am genuinely wondering.
TIA