I’m very new to martial arts, so plz be easy on me… I’ve been reading the forum for about a year, and I love it
I’m just starting Kung Fu rather hard-core and doing Tae Kwon Do on the side to keep flexible and in shape. TKD isn’t really my kind of thing but I’m giving it a try and hey it’s not BAD for me.
One thing I’ve noticed in TKD is how often my classmates use really high kicks, and kicks where they turn their back to the enemy during sparring. I know in the rules we use (WTF rules) don’t allow hitting in the back or below the belt, but in a real fight… Aren’t high kicks and spinning kicks just a bad idea?
They expose your back/genitals, take a lot of time… I know IF they connect they’re rather powerful, but low kicks to the joints seem to be a much better idea… More like in Wing Chun.
What’s the point of these high kicks? They seem to be a very bad idea in the practical sense.
He’s right those high kicks were used to kick warriors off horses in battle.
What style of kung fu are you training? careful not to get your body mechanics messed up. TKD is a different animal to Kung Fu
as for practical uses of that kick nowadays…not much unless you use it against someone that is airbourne…or really tall…
or on the flipside it’s liable to get you sweeped and tasting concrete.
if fighting against an opponent of the same style i suppose it may or may not work…
I’m not sure how it might work against someone who’s waiting for you to trow that leg up there so they can snip it and snap it and make you wish you hadnt put it there.
You have to remember that TKD comes from TSD which was initially intended for actual warfare. Which includes weapons, mainly large swords. This is why there is so much kicking. Those high kicks enable you to attack men from horseback when your sword is somewhere else. But yes, in a real fight this can be dangerous. Then more you study CMA the more you will see that there are alot of ways of ending a fight if someone tries to kick you in the head. Not that you cant do it, its just a matter of knowing when to kick high.
That’s why I say look for an opening You have to get them when they’re not expecting it. How many times are you going come up against someone who’s going to be expecting tae kwon do kicks? If someone’s trained to fight against high kickers and is expecting you to try that, then your odds of pulling it off aren’t going to be that great.
Personally I would throw a low kick or two a body shot or so with my fists then crush the larynx with my knuckles. But hey, Im no TKD expert, I just know a little Gongfu.
i read a long time that the preference for kicks was a cultural thing in Korea. feet were considered unclean, so they were perfect for the unclean act of fighting. hands were for more noble ventures like art or calligraphy or literature etc etc… thats what i remember atleast.
That could be true, Im told though that Tae Kwon Do literally translates into “The Way of the Hand and Foot” Im not sure about all that TKD stuff though, being a misunderstood gong fu guy. You know none of us can fight, we just look good.
There is a long time TKD practitioner in my gong fu school, he has a great form, and does well with techniques. Yet when you watch him sparr, it is all TKD, this is the muscle memory that will mainly be effected by cross training, part of it anyhow will be this. It is hard to cross train like this especially between styles that are so completely different.
I took a look at your schools website, and y’all got Chuo Jiao(lots of kicks!)! Maybe since you like kicks, talk to your teacher about Chuo Jiao? You wouldn’t really need the TKD then, and it would better fit within the framework of your kungfu training
since you’re new I’ll relate my favorite martial arts fight stories. There’s two of them and actually, other then in the ring or kwoon/dojo/school they are the only two fights involving martial arts I’ve seen other then a couple of high school fights involving wrestling matches.
The short version of both is that in both cases, the fighters were TKD people, one since he was about 3 and the other practiced for about 4 years. In the first fight, the guy fought a man much much larger then himself and used a “tornado kick” to knock the guy down and basically take him out of the fight.
The second fight involved a girl against a guy who probably had atleast 30 lbs on her, and she used a spinning heel kick to take him down. She later also used a jab/knifehand of some sort and a shot to the face to get the point across he seemed ot be missing.
Now you can take that for what you want, but it’s taught me one thing - that there are so many variables in a fight that it’s hard to say what works and what doesn’t without practice. Here on a martial arts forum we tend to always talk as if we were facing off with well trained martial artists, when the streets really aren’t teeming with martial artists - and the majority of the martial artists out there are karate and TKD school dropouts more then actual hard practicing hard fighting hard boiled fighters.
You have to get them when they’re not expecting it. How many times are you going come up against someone who’s going to be expecting tae kwon do kicks? If someone’s trained to fight against high kickers and is expecting you to try that, then your odds of pulling it off aren’t going to be that great.