OK all for all intents and purposes the vast majority of current TKD is a sport that falls somewhere between boxing and figure skating. It’s a sport in the same way as boxing, archery, fencing, BJJ, muay thai, wrestling, judo and savate to name a few are. All follow a set of rules for how they fight and all willingly trade weakness in certain areas to specialize in others.
What makes TKD effective IMO is not completness as fighting art but that at certain levels the practitioners become well trained atheletes with an ingrained toolset that can be used to defend themselves. Even the more traditional TKD kwon work this way.
Outside of wanting to be the most practiced art in the world TKD has a problem with deciding what it wants to be. What does good TKD look like? Depends on you definition of TKD.
No, even there kicks suck. Not as bad as there hands, footwork or blocks though. When I was in my Kung Fu class, I through a roundhouse TKD style at a classmate as fast as I could. He easily deflected it and with a simple move could have messed up my ankle.
Hey Philbert, ever think maybe it was you who sucked?
