Olympics Taekwon-do

Elaine asked me about taekwon-do today...

"Alia, you are practicing the martial arts taekwon-do or the sports taekwon-do"

"errr? what do you mean?" (most of the time I kinda blur, so please forgive me)

"you can punch the head or not in sparring?"

"can...why?"

"if can, martial arts taekwon-do lah"

"ooo...like that. Tak tau pun"

From what I read, taekwon-do is an art of self-defense developed for the Korean army. It's a combination of the ancient Korean art - taekyon and Japanese karate. The difference between the three styles, WTF, GTF and ITF is said to be on political ground. Taekwon-do can be both for the purpose of arts as well as sports. Let's not try to say one style is focussing on art and another is on sports.

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Did you watch the taekwon-do event (Olympic) on astro? I was damned frustrated when our very own Malaysian taekwon-do "artist", Elaine Teo lost in the preliminary round (if I'm not mistaken). The match ended with a draw, so the referees had to decide who's 'superior' (the term they used) or rather more aggressive in the fight, and Elaine lost to her opponent. I don't think 'superiority' should be the key in determining the winner. You might be aggressive in the ring, but that doesn't mean you are skillful. I've encountered many bulldozers i.e. those who simply charge like a bull without thinking. The best way to defeat them is to be calm, and wait for them to come to your, and when they charge at you, use your dominant leg to give them one hard side kick - just stick out your leg lah to give them some sort of "shocking" experience hehehe. Sometimes, playing defensive is very important - counter attack technique. It shows that you're able to read your opponent's movement and you use your brain to score points rather than to use your physical strength to whack your opponent.

Another thing that I realised was the quality of the fight - I'm sorry to say this, but I think I could spar better than many of those Olympics participants. Taekwon-do is the art of hand and leg (direct translation), but I didn't see any handwork in the sparring. Yes, I know the regulation, you cannot punch the face. But can't you at least guard your face so that your won't "eat" your opponent's leg. Can't you punch the body? And again sorry to say this, I saw nothing but roundhouse kicks and sometimes back kick (back whip kick) - chopping kick or downward kick was very very rare. I didn't understand why should the participants use the same technique when it just can't get through the opponent's defense. You know what, when I went to uni, they were asking me,

"is that how tkd fighters fight - nothing more than dancing and acah2"

"erm...dunno, that's not how I was trained...maybe that's the olympic taekwon-do style"

"like that ah, alia, better go and join ballet or gymnastic"

"hehehe...very true!"

And yesterday, I went to LTA to train for the demo, we were laughing at the taekwon-do event. One thing for sure, if you come for our competition you'll be amazed to see how we actually fight in the ring - I dare to promise you an action-packed event especially in the boys/men category.

p/s: erm...what's with the hugging thing anyway...geli lah! this is not boxing OK!