Olympic taekwondo (WTF) starts tomorrow!

Repli

Just thought id let you guys know - i presume it will be televised too
All you ITF ppl can watch some real sparring for a change

Beëlzebooze

Eurosport will be broadcasting on

friday 27th from 17.30 Finals M - 68kg / W - 57kg

Saturday 28th from 14.30 W-68kg/ M +80kg
Saturday 28th from 16.45 Finals W -67kg / M -80kg

Unpossible

do we have any Irish contenders?

dudara

No Irish contenders as far as I know. It's a pity that it's WTF, as we actually have some world champions in ITF at the moment.

I will be watching it, but I'm still confused as to why WTF was chosen as the olympic variety.

Unpossible

can somebody not fight in both?

Unpossible

I wasn't being a smartass (just ignorant), why don't people fight in both ITF and WTF ? they are both TKD are they not?

columok

Different rules.

WTF people train in full contact but with kicks only.

ITF (generally) train with hands and fists but dont train full contact.


There seems to be a lot of rivalry between the two styles and they seem to look down on each other.

Unpossible

but if ITF people know the same kicks then surely moving to full contact wouldn't be much of a problem.


why would somebody limit themselves to kicking only in a MA?

columok

Transition from semi contact to full contact is a big deal. Its the difference between guarding points and guarding a knockout. Psychologically even, its a big hurdle!

why would somebody limit themselves to kicking only in a MA?

Dunno. Good question though. Very probing! :cool:

gollem_1975

did a quick check of the rules on the olympics site.

kicks are allowed to the head and body under the rules.

punches to the head are not allowed.

http://www.athens2004.com/en/TaekwondoRules

dubhthach

They are two different style of TKD it's like the way you got different styles of Karate or Kung Fu.

As for why WTF became the olympic sport, well you don't get ITF style TKD in South Korea anymore not since General Choi went into exile in the early 70's. As a result "WTF style" is the official sport in South Korea they even do it for PE in school, so the koreans were always going to push for what they saw as their official style to be an olympic sport.

As for differences between the two styles, yes ITF is "semi-contact" but as anyone who has sparred in the style will know that you can come away with bruises, a good comparison is comparing Olympic Boxing and say professional boxing. In a ITF fight if you knock out your opponent you get disqualified for excessive contact, while in WTF you win (well so i believe but not been a wtfer i could be wrong )

There are also some differences in default techniques, such as the whole sidekick vs. turningkick situation. You rarely see WTF fighters using a sidekick in competition they tend to use turningkick as their main default kick. While ITF fighters use sidekick alot as well as the turning kick.

As for the more complex kicks well they tend to be much the same. Someone mentioned hands, WTF sparring your only allow use hand techniques to the bodyshield, you cant punch to the face. There's no such rule in ITF and punches to both the body and face are allowed though stuff like hooks and upercuts tend to be either banned or frowned on (depending on competition) so you can only use a straight punch or a backfist.

Outside of sparring, both style do different patterns (tuls/hyung vs. poomsae) that and the sine wave isn't in WTF, however many ITF styelists don't use the Sine Wave either it tends to be used by only people who are in associations affliated to the ITF (there's a couple of them due to spilts)

Alright that's a fairly simple comparision between the two of them no doubt i've left out plenty of other things as well as made a few mistakes but hopefully it's been a help.

dubhthach

columok wrote:

Dunno. Good question though. Very probing! :cool:

Well there is a difference between say WTF sparring and what they actually learn in class, like in ITF they no doubt learn plenty of different hand techniques which aren't used in competition. After all competition is a controlled enviroment (to an extent) that and the way TKD is seen in Korea is more of a martial sport then a martial art (sorta the way judo is seen)

Jim

Aye, family lives across the road from me. 3 sons, all european / world top 5 in their age group. Was wondering why they didn't compete....

dudara

ITF is semi-contact because you're supposed to be in control of your strikes and be able to pull them back at the last moment, and avoid striking hard. To me, removing hand strikes to the head seems to really limit the sport. I think it's a pity.

On the other hand, if we wore body armour, then I mightn't have a cracked rib right now. (I walked onto a side kick in training about two weeks ago and I'm still paying the price)

NeoSlicerZ

Watched one fight of Olympic TKD... turned it off straight afterwards. Really, there is pretty much NO punching at all, even though the opponent is wide open. It saddens me

dudara

NeoSlicerZ wrote:

Watched one fight of Olympic TKD... turned it off straight afterwards. Really, there is pretty much NO punching at all, even though the opponent is wide open. It saddens me

After watching a few bouts, I have to say that I really agree with you. The competitors spend ages watching each other, and then throw out the smae few kicks time and time again. There seems to be a big lack of originality in it and I really dislike the complete lack of use of the hands.

columok

After watching a few bouts, I have to say that I really agree with you. The competitors spend ages watching each other, and then throw out the smae few kicks time and time again. There seems to be a big lack of originality in it and I really dislike the complete lack of use of the hands.

I know boxers and thai boxers who would say the same about ITF TKD. Different strokes though I guess .

A lot of WTF people would criticise ITF for not being full contact. I suppose each has their detractors.

memphis

I actually spent weeks waiting for this to come up, and so tuned into Eurosport to see it with great anticipation.

What a let down. Not one punch thrown, and the standard actually looked pretty poor. Boring boring boring!!!

Memphis

dent

I know it can be boring to watch but its all about tactics. Punch's don't really score (I think your oppenent has to take a step back) as far as I know so its all about the kicks. Remember its a sport as oppossed to a MA. I guess its like a MMA wondering why a Judo player roll's up into a ball

dudara

ITF TKD scores as follows

1 point for
Kick to torso
Punch to head or torso

2 points for
Jumping punch to head
Kick to head

3 points for
jumping kick to head

such scoring means that more hand work is employed in ITF

memphis

dudara wrote:

ITF TKD scores as follows

such scoring means that more hand work is employed in ITF

Making the ITF Tae Kwon Do far more interesting. More physical too if ya ask me.

Oh, thanks for the points chart, wondered how it worked out!

memphis

1stmonkeyonline

Unpossible wrote:

can somebody not fight in both?

As far as I know, with the different styles there are different forms and literature to learn as well as techniques. I do a different style of taekwondo again and am not that familar with the differences between ITF and WTF.

However, the differences in fighting are minimal (eg. kicking with a different part of the foot) and as far as I know, you can fight in both - you just need to earn your belt in both! But it would be easier to earn a belt in, say, WTF if you were already a black belt in ITF, than if you were a complete beginner (obviously). This is because you could get tested more times during the year and hence excel through the belts quicker.

Still takes work though

mjn

As have already been said:

ITF = All points based, and semi-contact. And you can be disqualified for excessive contact.

WTF = Points based again, but knock-out wins.

The way you spar/train for both are different, you use a different fighting guard for each, you use different techniques for both.