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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Guest&nbsp; 85555" data-source="post: 9440326">Again I think some of the rules are okay, for example not allowing kicks to the head make TKD not a very good self defense or real fighting sport, but it preserves the kicks as teh priority (the way boxing preserves the fists as the priority). But I agree, when I did TKD, you hit as hard as you could, you were supposed to cause 'trembling shock' to score a point. The best era of TKD came just before mine, when they kicked with the ball of the foot as the striking surface (by the time I came into it, they were kicking with the top of the foot for striking surface, save things like back kick). This striking surface thing is a pretty big deal. I made a point of learning the old style from the old timers at my school and the ball of the foot sends the full power of a kick right thorough that chest guard (I have seen people fold from an old school round house to the body at competitions). But we still hit hard, knocked people out, and hurt each other (I broke someone's arm in a competition, had my nose broken, got knocked out, etc). However the individual competitions and then the rules started favoring lighter and lighter contact. After I left and started muay thai, I would hear from people at my old school telling me that refs would instruct them to not hit so hard at competitions for example (when I was doing it people went all out). Eventually they introduced the sensors and those just made it about making contact. The thing I like about TKD is it isn't like point karate, where you stop when a point is scored. you keep fighting and they keep tallying the score. That always made it more ferocious, less gentlemanly. It used to be that you would see things like people gettin knocked to the ground with a back kick counter, or crumpled from a spinning hook kick to the head. And you would see wild things like really aggressive tornado kick combinations. Now when I watch it, it seems they mostly stand up on one leg like a bird and tap with their lead round house (occasionally mixing it up with other kicks). You occasionally see flashes of what it was, and the people doing it are clearly prime athletes still, but it is so toned down it makes me a little sad.</blockquote>

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