TaeKyon
Although it is certainly true that there are many TKD schools that could be labeled as McDojos (or McDojangs being the more accurate portmanteau with consideration of Korean terminology) I see very little reason to complain about it with regards to one style of martial art since most American schools regardless of the style suffer similar "corruption."
Lauren the Olympic TKD girl, while suffering from a snobbish superiority complex as a martial artist, demonstrated very little flexibility in terms of adapting to a different style of sparring. Under WTF TKD rules, which she was most accustomed to, there's little point to keep the hands up and throw punches as punches to the body often do not generate enough force to score points in WTF TKD. She doesn't cover up with blocks because footwork is emphasized over blocking in WTF TKD, at one point she even moves into her opponents body (only to eat more punches) to try and clinch with her opponent which is an effective strategy in Olympic style sparring to shorten the distance and limit your opponents attacks.
You know how to throw punches? Good for you. You can beat another martial artist by taking them out of their game? Are we supposed to be impressed? Why don't you challenge Michael Jordan to a match of Darts; the effect would be comparably the same.
Please, do not interchange and mix up the joke sparring system of the Final Fu with full contact olympic style sparring of WTF TKD.
Lauren the Olympic TKD girl, while suffering from a snobbish superiority complex as a martial artist, demonstrated very little flexibility in terms of adapting to a different style of sparring. Under WTF TKD rules, which she was most accustomed to, there's little point to keep the hands up and throw punches as punches to the body often do not generate enough force to score points in WTF TKD. She doesn't cover up with blocks because footwork is emphasized over blocking in WTF TKD, at one point she even moves into her opponents body (only to eat more punches) to try and clinch with her opponent which is an effective strategy in Olympic style sparring to shorten the distance and limit your opponents attacks.
You know how to throw punches? Good for you. You can beat another martial artist by taking them out of their game? Are we supposed to be impressed? Why don't you challenge Michael Jordan to a match of Darts; the effect would be comparably the same.
Please, do not interchange and mix up the joke sparring system of the Final Fu with full contact olympic style sparring of WTF TKD.
(my replies are to each paragraph, respectively)
I think Kung Fu and Karate suffer the same prejudices as TaeKwonDo in America. =/
When moving from one set of rules to another, it is common for performance to suffer. Take a kung fu practitioner and place them under WTF TKD sparring rules. I doubt s/he'd do that well, unless s/he were a highly adaptive individual.
I agree highly with the analogy made between taking a person from their area of experience and the resulting effect on performance. ^_^
I was curious as to what the Final Fu sparring rules were like, as I have never seen the show because I do not watch tv. Could you tell me, even if it is a little off topic? Perhaps you could compare it to WTF TKD sparring rules, which I am more familiar with?
