So they recently implemented new rules for Taekwondo because they didn’t think it was flashy enough (I don’t really see how it is any less flashy than boxing as it is right now).
One of the changes is that they now permit pushing.
I suspect that the intent was to permit people to push their way out of a clinch to make room for a kick. But it doesn’t say that, it merely says that pushing is allowed but you cannot push someone while they are performing a kick and you can’t push them off the mat.
If you get pushed and fall down, you lose a point.
This has led to some matches turning into shoving matches as they try to shove each other to the ground. They virtually eliminated punches as a method of scoring points (which I agree with) but replaced that with pushing someone to the ground as a method of scoring points.
Another change I have problems with is how they treat cut kicks. The reason I dislike tis change is also due to lack of clarity but the specifics probably won’t interest anyone.
The rules in many local tournaments used to permit pushing your way out of clinches but it forbade an advancing competitor from following up a push with another push without an intervening kick unless the opponent disengages. Now I see people going an entire round scoring nothing but pushing points by bulldozing a weaker opponent.
Why not just permit throws and call it taekwonjudo?
I never understood the rationale, if there was one, about eliminating hand techniques as a means of scoring. I watch Olympic sparring matches these days and all I can think is “Damn. if he had just stepped in and punched…”.
I’m quite grateful that my style of Taekwondo allows punching for score.
This is what happens when you introduce competitive sparring to a fighting art. When you walk onto the mat thinking about how many points you can score instead of how to disable your opponent’s ability to attack, you go from studying a martial discipline to competiting in an aerobic championship.
You can still score with a punch but you practically have to punch someone out of the air and onto his back while he is doing a flying kick to get the point. Jabs cannot score.
They don’t stop the action after a point is scored so if you can get inside, then it can turn into a punchfest and you get final scores that look like March Madness scores and it would turn modern day Taekwondo tournament into a taekwondo/wing chun competition.
These are going to be the Olympic rules. The equipment doesn’t really score contact from punches, I suppose they could and simply use a high impact rating to score the point but in my experience, arms are for blocking, feet are for attacking.
Clothahump can explain it better, but taekwondo rules are set up to encourage kicks. Depending on the federation, competitors wear the helmet and body armor, and go full-contact but disallow hand or elbow strikes to the head or neck, and kicks to the groin and legs.
Kyokushikai does something similar, but don’t wear armor and do allow kicks to the legs.
I don’t know. I can say that our youth sports leagues (soccer, baseball, basketball, football, etc.) have seen an uptick over the last decade. but I don’t know if we are cannibalizing other sports leagues or if there is higher participation across the board. My sense is that parents are trying to have scheduled activities to drag their kids away from their ipads.
I think taekwondo has been cannibalizing other martial arts and activities for kids. I think there are several reasons for this.
It is an Olympic sport, Taekwondo is not superior (or inferior) to any other martial art but it is in the Olympics and that is a draw for people.
It is really cheap compared to a lot of Olympic sports, you can get instruction for as low as $80/month plus cost of equipment. I have seen unlimited access memberships for kids under 12 for under $150/month. Around here that is cheap for something like this.
They frequently offer after school care they pick your kids up from school, give them a taekwondo lesson and they frequently also offer things like music lessons and academic tutoring with their after school program (at least around here).
They bubble wrap the kids so they could probably survive a fall down a set of stairs without injury.
There now seem to be about ten belts before you get to black belt. (there used to be 5) Sure this costs money but it also gives your kids a sense of progression that testing twice a year did not.
Parents like the fact that their kids pick up things like respect and discipline even if they never learn how to actually fight worth a damn. After all how many fights are you going to get to in your life? 10 maybe 20? Being respectful is useful at least twice that often.
Kyokushin karate is like the taekwondo I had when I was a kid (but no knee or elbow strikes during sparring). Kick blocking and sweeps always seemed like valid techniques to me (outside of karate kid cobra kai situations). Kicking someone’s knees OTOH doesn’t strike me as being particularly appropriate to anything outside of a street brawl.
So I’m guessing the OP is talking about WTF Taekwondo, and you’re talking about ITF Taekwondo, right? I started training Taekwondo at a WTF school (circa 1990), and they only allowed punches to the body and kicks to the body or head. When my WTF school raised its rates I switched to an ITF school that happened to be cheaper, and I found that they allowed punches to the head. I haven’t trained either for many years, though.
There may be more martial arts competing with it today. My kids and I recently started Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, which I think was mostly unknown in the U.S. when I was a kid. It received a big boost in exposure from the UFC, as have some other martial arts like muay thai. (The UFC has been around since '93, but its popularity didn’t really take off until at least '05.)