Is tea kwon do a self defence art or is it a sport?

Question

Is tea kwon do a self defence art or is it a sport?

Answer 1

In 1996 Judo was 'sportified' with major changes in competition rules and a blue gi.  It has split the Judo world.

Unfortunately, Tae Kwon Do has been infected with the same sport mentality disease.  Sport Tae Kwon Do is as useless as dancing in battle and will get you killed in a street fight.

Answer 2

sport. there were five schools before the government-induced merger into tae kwon do, and a few grandmasters, like hwang kee, refused to join the thing called tae kwon do, because he said it was a sport, not a traditional and effective martial art. read on the history of the korean war, japanese occupation, etc...

Answer 3

Taekwondo is a martial art and is practiced both in a sporting sense and can be useful for defending oneself in certain situations in that it makes you better at blocking, punching, kicking, and I have found that most people who practice martial arts tend to gain confidence and are in better shape than they otherwise would be too.  

If you want to know more about Taekwondo the link I listed below might be a good place to begin

Answer 4

Both!

Tea? its taeor something like  that

Answer 5

Both WTF style (Olympic) and ITF style Tae Kwon Do have combat applications, poomse (forms), and sporting competitions with slightly different rules.  

Most Tae Kwon Do schools have a curriculum for belt advancement that requires all of these aspects for adults, as well as a fitness aspect.  

Schools vary a great deal when it comes to children's curriculum and belt requirments.

James

Answer 6

Like many people on this forum have said, it depends on how you are trained. As a teenager, I trained in American Taekwondo, and my teacher put equal emphasis on hand and foot teqhniques. When learning self defense, we were taught takedowns, elbows and palm strikes as well as joint locks.

Answer 7

depends how it is trained.

if you are going to a school that trains primarily for point sparring and trains under that type of ruleset (most schools do), then you are training not only for a sport, but a sport that will make you a WORSE fighter because the sport form of tkd teaches you bad habits.

true, tkd was originally a military based martial art, if you can find a school that accurately teaches this then you can consider it a martial art.

that bieng said, there are some things that you can take from the sport form to add to your game, but it alone is going to teach you bad habits because they train for point sparring under an unrealistic ruleset, unlike boxers who train one aspect of fighting but under a HIGHLY realistic ruleset.

does not bieng allowed to punch the opponent's face and throw combinations sound realistic to you?

Answer 8

There are actually two type's of taekwondo one's the sport and the other is the traditional one for self defence but either one is prove's to be healthy and increase flexibilty if practiced.

Answer 9

I kinda see it as both... since taekwondo was put down as a sport, but at the same time, it's self-defense.

Answer 10

Yes it is a sport.

Yes it can be taught as a self defense art.

Taekwando is more often now taught as a sport.

Traditional Taekwndo is a military art. The Korean Tiger division in Vietnam was very formidable at close contact or hand to hand fighting. It was developed in Korea as a fighting art for the military of nearly two centuries ago. A lot of the high kicks were used against men on horseback.  It evolved over time to what you see today. The traditional form has very effective street self defenses in it. Many moves are not used in the sport form as they are unnecessary in sport sparing.

Answer 11

If you mean Tae Kwon Do, it is both.  It really depends how the school teaches it as well.  Are they very traditional, or do they like to add in all kinds of wushu and other things to make a performance kata.  Check out the school and see what you think.