TKD cant kick better than everone else

[SanHeChuan]

we had this TKD guy watching us sparring, and he told my sifu he thought i had "wicked kicks".

now i dont know how long this guy had been taking TKD, but you'd think he'd at least seen someone kick better than me at his school.

I think my kicks suck, they arn't powerful enough, or fast enough, all i have is decent timing.

I took TKD when i was ten, I took a class again resently from my college, there's a TKD guy in my sanshou class, and i've watched TKD guys sparr at the Rec, and i have yet to be impressed by their kicking.

Now i'm sure that there are a few supper bad ass TKD kickers out there, but most arn't better than any other MA that kicks.

[qeySuS]

propably arent "Better" so to say, they just practice them more since it's the essence of olympic TKD, so naturally they get better kicking then most other MA practicioners that do kicking/punching equally.

I also liked the kicking in TKD because i was getting more fine point instructions then i was in the Kickboxing classes i took in one year and the few Muay Thai classes i took. Basicly in kickboxing they just showed the basic stance and how to do the kick, in TKD they were always tweaking it to conceal until the last minute exactly what kick i was executing and from what angle it was coming. 90% of all kicks in TKD that dont involve spinning begin the same way, by raising your knee straight up (not unlike the Thai block for a roundhouse). From there you can go for the roundhouse, front kick, axe kick, sidekick and so on. This is what i like, it's not just kicking it's a variety of them and concealing exactly which one it is as long as you can. It does take longer developing power in your roundhouse and other kicks doing it this way, and i'm sure that when in competition i unintentionally use the big Thai style roundhouse kick. But hey i'm working on it :)

Same thing goes for spinning kicks btw, try to keep the same stance for all spinning kicks until the end so he wont know if it's a spinning backkick or hook kick or whatever. Only the final execution differs (unlike in Kickboxing where i was just taught a bunch of kicks and then told to go sparr).

[SanHeChuan]

we kick the same way as you discribed, which is a way they never told me when i used to take tkd way back in the day.

TKD practice kicking more than anything else, but their still not better kickers than karate or kung fu people. Maybe their doing something wrong.

[qeySuS]

Well i do have a great instructor, he hasnt lost a fight in tournements the entire year and he went to the president cup, US cup in connecticut, wonderful copenhagen and some parkpollar orsome thing in Germany (where aparently the US team was).

He didnt win the last one though because he hurt his leg after the semifinal fight, but he got the bronze automaticly (since the guy he won went to the finals). He was at least in 2 of the tournements he was elected best fighter of the tourny. I know i sound like a jockrider i just really respect the guy :P Dont jump on me for this! But he kinda reminds me of Cung Le for the part that he makes the stuff you think "that will never work against a skilled resisting opponent" look easy to execute. So my school propably is propably not like most schools (go figure i found this in Iceland of all places). Then there are TKD schools that dont focus on Olympic style TKD dunno much about them :)

Like i said i just like the fact that there's really a philosophy behind the kicks that i like and think really works if you master it, so that's what keeps me going, if i were simply doing kicks all day i'd propably quit.

[rogue]

qeySuS, in the style of TKD I take we usually chamber the kicks the old way, this is because of the trad. karate emphasis we have. What kick we use is determined by position to our opponent ( the front, back, sides or angles) and what target we're going for. This is different than the sport oriented styles that usually will square up to an opponent, and launch their attack from the front.

Personally for things like the side kick with the back leg I prefer the way you describe to chamber, I feel more protected than the traditional way of chambering. I've also noticed that some Hapkido styles chamber that way too.

[SevenStar]

I don't recall anyone ever saying that all TKDers can kick better than everyone else. That is WAY too general a statement. The thing behind TKD and kicking proficiency is that they do it so much, especially those train olympic style. Same with a boxer. they practice their punches so much that they can achieve a level of proficiency that say, a TKD stylist would not reach. As with anything else though, that depends on the person and their dedication. I know alot of TKD people with devastating kicks. I also know some that can't kick their way out of a take-out box.

[rogue]

I resent that remark Sevenstar, some of those take-out boxes are tough!:(

[SevenStar]

Yeah, especially the ones made from recycled materials :D

[straight blast]

TKD kicks usually look very good, very sharp and clean. Unfortunately this only seems to be the case when practised against kick paddles & air.
To me the mark of a good kicker is not the one who practises 25 kicks to look good, but the one who practises one or two kicks that are going to work.
Muay Thai basically only has the roundkick, the push, and the straight snap kick. Or variations thereof. And most MT fighters seem to be able to make these few kicks work veeeery nicely.
But for pretty looking kicks, you can't go past TKD. I'll give them that.

[logic]

I took Shorin ryu karate and we had alot of arm strikes and blocking techniques.We also had some very powerful kicks,front thrust kick,round house,side kicks,etc.

My sense had us do some hard drills on the heavy bag along with sparring.

Later I took up T.K.D for a short time and there kicks were not that much different from shorin ryu.
Now the class I was in seemed to focus on showmanship and fancy kicking(and maybe it was just this one dojo and didn't represent T.K.D. in general)But they hardly worked on blocking and just a little punching and no bag work.
i sparred some of their black belts and didn't have a hard time with them.

Their kicks seemed the same as my karate.But they depended on them to much.But maybe thats what works for some people.

[SevenStar]

Straight Blast, MT also has a hook kick, spinning kicks and a back kick. You don't see them in the ring much, but they are there. MT has two classifications of kicks - thrusting and arcing. They teach several kicks that fall within both of these categories.

Back to TKD though, and in response to logic, I think the basic kicks for all arts are pretty much the same. When you start getting into advanced kicking, that's where the differences come in. To reiterate what I said before though, I don't think it's their kicks that give them that rep, but the way they train the kicks - at some schools anyway.

[Yung Apprentice]

I think a lot that has to do with it to, is that it's getting harder to find good instructers. I've heard of schools of TKDs that go further than just kicking. They taught good grappling, and good hand tecniques. These guys were as proficient in hand strikes as mant Karate practioners are in kicks. I just think there are to many Olympic style schools out now, and a lot of people get taught a watered down version of this art.

[Yung Apprentice]

But I don't recall there being many low kicks in Olympic style TKD.Or any low kicks for that matter.

[hughes]

My Dojang has a lot of emphasis on padwork and sparring so i guess im lucky.