Page 7 of 11 FirstFirst ... 56789 ... LastLast
Results 91 to 105 of 160

Thread: Tae Kwon Do

  1. #91
    Join Date
    Jan 1970
    Location
    Fremont, CA, U.S.A.
    Posts
    47,947

    What's needed here are more colorful uniforms

    Gene Ching
    Publisher www.KungFuMagazine.com
    Author of Shaolin Trips
    Support our forum by getting your gear at MartialArtSmart

  2. #92
    Join Date
    Oct 2004
    Location
    Dayton,Ohio,U.S.A.
    Posts
    662
    I new a guy back in the mid 1980 s that was a black belt in tae kwon do he used some of his kicks to defend himself against 2 guys that was trying to cause some trouble I know he beat them up .

  3. #93
    Join Date
    Jan 1970
    Location
    Fremont, CA, U.S.A.
    Posts
    47,947

    TKD changes at Rio Olympics

    The corrected version.

    Correction: TAE-Taekwondo Preview story
    AP 8:52 a.m. EDT June 25, 2016
    LONDON (AP) — In a story June 24 about the Olympic taekwondo competition, The Associated Press reported erroneously that the spelling of the name of the president of the World Taekwondo federation was Chongwon Choue. The president's name is spelled Chungwon Choue.

    A corrected version of the story is below:

    At Rio, taekwondo departs from origins as Korean martial art

    At the upcoming Rio de Janeiro Olympics, taekwondo may be moving further away from its roots as a Korean martial art, but organizers hope that new changes to the combat sport will produce more dynamic fights

    By MARIA CHENG
    Associated Press

    LONDON (AP) — At the upcoming Rio de Janeiro Olympics, taekwondo may be moving further away from its roots as a Korean martial art, but organizers hope the new changes to the combat sport will produce more dynamic fights featuring even more of the acrobatic kicks it has become known for.

    Not only has the size of the competition ring shrunk, giving competitors less space to retreat from the usual onslaught of kicking, but the sport's governing body is again encouraging athletes to use more spinning techniques — competitors will now get an extra point for any kick where they turn their backs.

    Head kicks already score the most in taekwondo, earning three or four points. Shots to the body, including punches, score only one. Punches to the head are not allowed.

    After the scoring debacle of the Beijing 2008 Olympics, when the results of one match were overturned, taekwondo officials introduced a new electronic scoring system that automatically registers points when fighters, wearing electronic sensors, kick their opponents with sufficient force.

    Although the new method has eliminated the subjectivity of human judges, some athletes complain that it can be a bit temperamental and that the kicks that score best are often not traditional taekwondo techniques, but unorthodox adaptations that sacrifice form for expediency.

    Instead of the powerful turning kicks integral to taekwondo, many of the sport's top fighters rely on quick-scoring jabs off the front leg that some have unkindly referred to as "chicken fighting." Chungwon Choue, president of the World Taekwondo Federation, said officials "are committed to finding a balance between honoring our traditional techniques and evolving the sport to make it more exciting for new audiences."

    He said the sport's evolution also means more medal chances for everyone, including countries without an established Olympic track record. Choue noted that while taekwondo once used to be dominated by Asian countries with a strong martial arts history, eight different countries won gold medals at the London games, including Argentina, Italy and Serbia.

    RETURNING STAR: American fighter Steven Lopez is the most decorated athlete in taekwondo history, winning a record five world championship titles and three Olympic medals, two golds and one bronze. At 37, he's also likely to be the oldest in the Rio taekwondo competition, in a sport where most athletes are in their early 20s. After a disappointing showing at the London games — Lopez was knocked out in the first round after suffering an injury shortly before — he will be even more motivated to prove he is still one of the sport's biggest stars.

    DON'T MISS: British-born athlete Aaron Cook was the sport's top-ranked fighter in the 80-kilogram division during the run-up to the London Olympics but didn't make it to the games; the U.K. refused to pick him for their team after Cook abandoned their training academy, selecting instead eventual bronze medal winner Lutalo Muhammad. This time around, Cook isn't taking any chances and recently switched allegiances to fight for Moldova after having his citizenship paid for by the country's taekwondo president. Cook fought at the Beijing Olympics, where he narrowly lost out on a bronze.

    REFUGEE'S CHANCE: Raheleh Asemani, an Iranian refugee now training in Belgium, won an Olympic spot in the women's 57-kilogram category after being granted the opportunity to fight under the World Taekwondo Federation's flag as a refugee during the European qualifiers. Now working in a post office in Belgium after moving there three years ago, the former member of Iran's national taekwondo team has been training with the Belgian squad and will likely represent her newly adopted country in Brazil.
    Gene Ching
    Publisher www.KungFuMagazine.com
    Author of Shaolin Trips
    Support our forum by getting your gear at MartialArtSmart

  4. #94
    Join Date
    Jan 1970
    Location
    Fremont, CA, U.S.A.
    Posts
    47,947

    Our latest ezine offering

    Olympic Taekwondo starts Wednesday August 17 in Rio. Read A Martial Arts Olympic Dream Comes True by Melissa Leon-Guerrero Do.
    Gene Ching
    Publisher www.KungFuMagazine.com
    Author of Shaolin Trips
    Support our forum by getting your gear at MartialArtSmart

  5. #95
    Join Date
    Jan 1970
    Location
    Fremont, CA, U.S.A.
    Posts
    47,947

    Olympic TKD was weird

    I couldn't follow the action at all. The electronic scoring system has ruined the sport.

    Is that a kick? Taekwondo fighters devise new ways to score
    AP 10:12 a.m. EDT August 20, 2016


    (Photo: The Associated Press)

    RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — Taekwondo may be best known for its flashy and acrobatic kicks, but the electronic scoring system used at the Olympics apparently doesn't care whether or not fighters use the correct technique. That's resulting in a lot of bizarre kicks that no true practitioner of the Korean martial art would recognize, in a departure that some say cheapens the sport.

    Sparring in taekwondo has traditionally relied on numerous kicks delivered with technical accuracy; depending on the kick, fighters usually strike with the blade of the foot, the heel or the front of the foot, with toes pointed back. To take advantage of the electronic scoring system — which merely detects force rather than a competitor's skill — some taekwondo fighters and their coaches have figured out that the best-scoring kicks sometimes sacrifice form for expediency.

    "I've definitely seen some weird kicks that you would never teach at any taekwondo school," said Steven Lopez, the sport's most decorated athlete, who was competing in a record fifth Olympics. "They flick their legs up trying to do something to score, but it is not taekwondo."

    Unfortunately for Lopez, his Tunisian opponent Oussama Oueslati, in his bronze medal match on Friday didn't have a problem with those unusual techniques — and used many of them to defeat him.

    Oueslati repeatedly used a move referred to by some as a "scorpion kick," where he would swing his leg up towards Lopez's head and then snap it back like a scorpion tail. No such kick exists in the traditional taekwondo repertoire but because the technique results in the foot tapping the head guard, it frequently scores on the electronic system.

    "Fighters won't care whether it looks like a banana kick or a twist kick or whatever it is, as long as it's working," said Australian taekwondo competitor Safwan Khalil. He recalled a fight he had during the Rio Games with an opponent whose strange kicks caught him off-guard. "When he started throwing those twist kicks, I was just like, 'OK, What are we doing here? This is taekwondo?' But you just have to roll with it."

    Kim So-hui, this year's Olympic taekwondo champion in the women's 49-kilogram division, said she isn't thrilled about the evolution of the martial art either.

    "Unfortunately, there's nothing I can do about it," said the South Korean athlete after clinching the gold medal on Wednesday. "It's the taekwondo federation that decided that, not the athletes," she said, noting that she declines to use any of the hybrid techniques.

    The sport's governing body acknowledged further scoring changes might be necessary.

    "Athletes are at the very heart of the World Taekwondo Federation and so we are always ready to listen to feedback from them on how they think our sport can be improved," said Jung Kook-Hyun, the federation's chairman of the technical committee, in an email. "We are committed to constantly modernizing the sport but we always want to find a balance with honoring our traditions," he said, adding the federation would consider possible reforms after Rio.

    Some coaches are divided about whether or not to recommend using the unorthodox kicks.

    "I don't like teaching these techniques, but that's the sport," said Jean Lopez, who directs the U.S. taekwondo team, including his brother Steven. "I think it's compromised taekwondo so that it's become less about fighting — and taekwondo is a martial art, a fighting sport," he said.

    Many athletes say that because the odd techniques often score, they cannot be ignored.

    "Our job as athletes is to adapt as best we can and still give our best and produce good results," said South Korea's Oh Hye-Ri, gold medalist in the women's 67-kilogram division. Oh dominated most of her opponents by employing a steady stream of old-school head kicks that her competitors were unable to counter.

    Still, she said that she wasn't opposed to the evolution of the sport, even though it means extra training.

    "I also practice a lot of those kicks as well," she said, providing a quick demonstration of what some describe as a "donkey kick," where fighters jerk their leg up awkwardly to twist the back of their foot onto their opponent's body protector. "If it can win the fight, you have to try."
    Gene Ching
    Publisher www.KungFuMagazine.com
    Author of Shaolin Trips
    Support our forum by getting your gear at MartialArtSmart

  6. #96
    Join Date
    Jan 1970
    Location
    CA, USA
    Posts
    4,900
    IMO, Olympic TKD has been unwatchable for many years now.

  7. #97
    Join Date
    Jan 1970
    Location
    SF Bay Area
    Posts
    2,111
    Quote Originally Posted by Jimbo View Post
    IMO, Olympic TKD has been unwatchable for many years now.
    Evolved and tested in competition, lol.

    Someone should link that article to the TCMA Survival thread.

  8. #98
    Join Date
    Jan 1970
    Location
    Fremont, CA, U.S.A.
    Posts
    47,947

    Forgive me but...

    ... I just can't get past the title "WTF Brain Trust Huddles...."

    Game Changers: WTF Brain Trust Huddles in Seoul to Upgrade Taekwondo Before Tokyo 2020



    SEOUL, Korea (October 17, 2016) – How to upgrade the game? This is arguably the biggest question facing taekwondo as it enters the long cycle of preparation for the Tokyo Olympic Games in 2020.

    Fortunately, there are precedents, as, for much of its history, the WTF has been introducing changes and innovations.

    Following the 2008 Beijing Olympics – plagued by controversies over scoring and refereeing – the sport’s future on the Olympic program was in jeopardy. The WTF instituted a reform drive. The mission was clear: Improve the transparency and fairness of the game.

    The key breakthrough to realize this was the introduction of the electronic protector and scoring system (PSS). The PSS makes all points scored immediately visible to the crowd, while obviating human error in judging. Referee training and education was massively upgraded and the Instant Video Replay system was introduced. Thanks to these developments, taekwondo was controversy-free in London 2012 and Rio 2016 and is now a firm fixture on the Summer Games program.

    But there have been drawbacks. The PSS – like all technologies – is imperfect. It has also altered the way the game is played: With the power component removed, taekwondo has gone from knockout mode to point-scoring mode. This has resulted in a cleft between “old school” taekwondo – the powerhouse contact sport of the past – and “new school” taekwondo – the modern, tactical game, which prioritizes front foot kicks and favors tall, skinny players.

    Even many exponents of “new school” saw they prefer “old school” techniques and fighters, who tend to be head-hunters and spin-kickers. But “new school” dominates the medal tables. Even elite exponents of “old school” taekwondo – who include some of the most crowd-pleasing fighters in the game, such as Moldova’s Aaron Cook and Turkey’s Servet Tazegul – find it hard to win with traditional fighting style in the current rules and gear.

    This is not to say that Rio was dull: In fact, there were some classic finals – such as the Jordan’s Ahmad Abughaush versus Russia’s Alexey Denisenko and Great Britain’s Jade Jones vs. Spain’s Eva Calvo Gomez – and incredible crowd support. But with the 2016 Games over, a four-year window of opportunity has opened for the WTF to make changes and re-inject spectacle back into the game. The aim is for taekwondo at Tokyo 2020 to be not only fair and transparent, but also to dazzle and excite.

    If that happens, it will open the way for taekwondo to be not just the hugely successful participation sport which it is – the WTF has 80 million members globally – but also a global spectator sport. Once crowds increase, global media will get into the action and elite fighters and teams will benefit from enriched sponsorship opportunities.

    So, there is much at stake. The game-changing process gets underway when the WTF invites its top coaches and executives to a five-day brainstorm in Seoul on Oct. 17th.

    “The Rio Olympics was a continuation of transparent and successful taekwondo competition from London 2012 and we need to prepare for the coming Tokyo 2020. In order to make a better sport, it is very important to hear opinions from you in order to make the best game,” said WTF President Chungwon Choue in the opening speech.

    From Oct. 17th-21st the first-ever WTF Coach Seminar will take place, with 30 top coaches invited from around the world. “The coaches can ask questions of the WTF on the policy side – this is the first time we have given them a platform to speak for themselves,” said WTF Director General Jin-bang Yang. “The WTF expects more of these opportunities, so coaches will have more chance to influence policy – especially Competition Rules, championship management, and ranking and qualification policy.”

    The coaching seminar will be one component of the WTF Coach Forum, which will take place at the same time and same location, with members of the WTF Technical Committee giving presentations and holding dialogs with the coaches. Changes will be discussed in four categories: competition rules; systems (such as rankings and qualification); image of the game (such as uniform designs and sport presentation); and PSS. “Those are the main areas of business,” said Yang. “Changes to rules and systems are things we can change in a short time, so we will concentrate on discussing these two. The other things will take more time.”

    On Oct 20th, having exchanged ideas and elicited feedback from the coaches, the Technical Committee will present proposed changes to top-level WTF executives – the organization’s president, secretary general, director generals and Continental Union presidents. The ideas that both parties – the technical committee and the executive team– agree upon will be presented to the WTF General Assembly in Burnaby, Canada in November, on the sidelines of the World Taekwondo Junior Championships.

    Those changes voted in will be applied at WTF championships from 2017. For more on how these important developments unfold – watch this space.




    Gene Ching
    Publisher www.KungFuMagazine.com
    Author of Shaolin Trips
    Support our forum by getting your gear at MartialArtSmart

  9. #99
    Join Date
    Jun 2006
    Location
    IL
    Posts
    998
    I was reading something recently on the World Taekwondo Federation ( W T F) and the word is out to "change" the designation due to some obvious acronym affiliation

  10. #100
    Quote Originally Posted by mawali View Post
    I was reading something recently on the World Taekwondo Federation ( W T F) and the word is out to "change" the designation due to some obvious acronym affiliation

    Bravissimo!

    mickey

  11. #101
    Join Date
    Jan 1970
    Location
    CA, USA
    Posts
    4,900
    Quote Originally Posted by mawali View Post
    I was reading something recently on the World Taekwondo Federation ( W T F) and the word is out to "change" the designation due to some obvious acronym affiliation
    After watching some of the TKD from the London and Rio Olympics, they should probably keep the federation name, because the acronym is quite apropos.

  12. #102
    Quote Originally Posted by Jimbo View Post
    After watching some of the TKD from the London and Rio Olympics, they should probably keep the federation name, because the acronym is quite apropos.
    LOL. I agree.

    ITF !

  13. #103
    Join Date
    Jan 1970
    Location
    Fremont, CA, U.S.A.
    Posts
    47,947

    TCEC 2017: Tae Kwon Do Highlights



    There's this whole other championship that happens at Tiger Claw Elite Championships for Taekwondo.
    Gene Ching
    Publisher www.KungFuMagazine.com
    Author of Shaolin Trips
    Support our forum by getting your gear at MartialArtSmart

  14. #104
    Join Date
    Jan 1970
    Location
    CA, USA
    Posts
    4,900
    I was browsing at a Barnes & Noble, and in the June/July issue of Black Belt magazine, with Bruce Lee in the cover, is a reprint of an article from November 1968 titled Roar of the Tiger, about the S. Korean Tiger Division in Vietnam. It's long been known they were some true bad@sses and greatly feared among the VC, Taekwondo being only one of those reasons.

    On page 65 is a group photo, and the man standing 3rd from the right (and not named) is none other than Hwang Jang Lee, who later starred in innumerable kung fu movies (usually as the villain), including, most famously, with Jackie Chan in Snake in the Eagle's Shadow and Drunken Master. Black Belt magazine did a feature article on Hwang back in 1983 which mentioned his Tiger Division (and movie) experiences that included some photos as well. But it's interesting to see this article from way back in '68.

    I almost never buy MA magazines anymore (except for KFM when I come across it, of course ), but bought this one just because of this article. Back then, it was obvious the TKD practice was still a lot closer to its Shotokan/karate roots, and was literally "Korean karate" but with more of a killer attitude. There was still an emphasis on developing strong, solid basics and all of the body's striking weapons, not just fancy kicks. Completely different from the Olympic TKD of today.
    Last edited by Jimbo; 06-06-2017 at 08:09 AM.

  15. #105
    Join Date
    Apr 2007
    Location
    Ontario
    Posts
    22,250
    Quote Originally Posted by Jimbo View Post
    I was browsing at a Barnes & Noble, and in the June/July issue of Black Belt magazine, with Bruce Lee in the cover, is a reprint of an article from November 1968 titled Roar of the Tiger, about the S. Korean Tiger Division in Vietnam. It's long been known they were some true bad@sses and greatly feared among the VC, Taekwondo being only one of those reasons.

    On page 65 is a group photo, and the man standing 3rd from the right (and not named) is none other than Hwang Jang Lee, who later starred in innumerable kung fu movies (usually as the villain), including, most famously, with Jackie Chan in Snake in the Eagle's Shadow and Drunken Master. Black Belt magazine did a feature article on Hwang back in 1983 which mentioned his Tiger Division (and movie) experiences that included some photos as well. But it's interesting to see this article from way back in '68.

    I almost never buy MA magazines anymore (except for KFM when I come across it, of course ), but bought this one just because of this article. Back then, it was obvious the TKD practice was still a lot closer to its Shotokan/karate roots, and was literally "Korean karate" but with more of a killer attitude. There was still an emphasis on developing strong, solid basics and all of the body's striking weapons, not just fancy kicks. Completely different from the Olympic TKD of today.
    There is a book, The Killing Art, that details the history of TKD.
    Good read and lots of true stuff about the internal politics of TKD.
    Psalms 144:1
    Praise be my Lord my Rock,
    He trains my hands for war, my fingers for battle !

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •