Taekwondo - The Martial Aspects
Taekwondo sparring, breaking and self-defence explained.
Taekwondo is one of the most popular martial arts in the world. Learn more about the self-defence, breaking and sparring of this martial art.
Self-defenceAs mentioned above, Taekwondo is often criticised for not having many street-practical methods. Self-defence is often basic at best. Recently however, there has been a new wave of students and instructors who wish to practice Taekwondo with martial applications in mind. This has seen a resurgence in the popularity of the patterns and the techniques contained with them.
The belief is that patterns should contain any and all techniques that a student would need in order to successfully learn how to defence themselves. Rather than just following a pattern from start to finish, such applications would consist of one or more of the techniques contained within the pattern and would also allow the student to flow to another application (which might come 'before' or 'after') within the pattern.
Such instructors often refer to Karate patterns and practitioners (such as Iain Abernethy, Bill Burgar and Rick Clark) in order to learn how to interpret the moves and then move on to make their own discoveries and conduct their own research. Although small, this school of thought is gaining momentum and could well see Taekwondo becoming a more self-defence orientated art in the future.
Taekwondo Sport Sparring
Taekwondo is also a combat sport. There are three forms of competition within Taekwondo. The first and most well-known is WTF or 'Olympic' sparring. This consists of the two players facing each other over a number of rounds (maximum of three). The fight is full contact and so the players have to wear chest guards, helmets and gloves. The rules allow kicks anywhere to the chest and sides of the body (but not below the belt) as well as punches. The head is only allowed to be kicked.
ITF competition takes two forms. Before players are green belt, all competition is in the form of semi-contact point stop i.e. if a player makes controlled contact with a valid target area they score and are brought back to the centre of the mat to start again.
Above green belt the players participate in light-contact sparring. The action is non-stop whilst the contact must be controlled.
For both forms of ITF sparring players are allowed to kick and punch anywhere above the belt barring the back and the back of the head.
Breaking
Breaking is the destruction of wood, tiles and bricks using many parts of the body. Taekwondo is unique in that breaking is often required in order to pass a grading and obtain the next rank.
Most Taekwondo competitions have a breaking section and this can sometimes be the most explosive and dynamic part of the event.
