TKD better than Shotokan for self-defense?

Question

I want to start practicing martial arts again. I studied Shotokan for 6 years and I was thinking to begin with Tae Kwon Do because its better (correct me if I'm wrong) in many ways:

1.- I agree that because TKD is an olympic sport, it is very commercialized and lot of traditional things have been lost (more sport than a martial art). The thing is that Shotokan is equal (or worse) commercialized and all that, and it is not even an olympic sport... my god, the competitions are not even well organized! So I think that if it is going to be an sport, at least it should be a GOOD, ORGANIZED sport.

2.- Tae Kwon Do guys practice sparring A LOT, lot more than shotokan, and their sparring/competition rules are full-contact and in a continuous fight. In Shotokan fights, the fight is stopped each time one guy lands a punch or kick (not continuous...not real) and you are not allowed to hit full-contact (you get the bad habit of hitting light always, which will give you bad luck in a real fight).

d**n, I'm not saying TKD is the best but at least they teach you to kick something for real / with real contact, and gives you an idea of what a continuous fight is. I think is better over shotokan in terms of systems of training useful for self-defense.

What do you guys think? Could someone correct me if I'm wrong?

Answer 1

I believe that TKD has better training and is more useful in a real life situation. Our school went to a predominately Karate tournament that used Karate rules. We beat them at their own game. Some schools still teach the traditional combat forms of TKD. I take Tae Kwon Do Chung Do Kwan and while we're not training for competitions, we're training in tradition combat Chung Do Kwan. When a competition is approaching, we train under WTF rules so we don't forget that we can't knee them in the face. I recommend that you take Tae Kwon Do (Chung Do Kwan if you can find it) AND Hapkido. Hapkido is like the grappling side of TKD, a lot of schools teach them both.

Answer 2

Of course!  Tae Kwon Do is a deadly serious killing system.  Shotokan sucks.

Just kidding.  (That was an out take from a funny movie called "The Foot Fist Way")

You don't win and lose fights based on Shotokan or TKD techniques.  Individual fighters win and lose fights based on things like experience, smarts, speed, timing, power, agility, athletic ability and even luck.  They don't win or lose based on the style they trained or the color of their belt.

James

Answer 3

Well, if you don't want the "typical answer of 'is no the style, is the instructor and practitioner'", then TKD is not a good system for self defense. Generally speaking it relies heavily on fancy kicking that is not practical in a real fight. Chances are you'll get put on the ground pretty fast trying that stuff. Does that mean TKD can't be used for self defense? Of course not. But if you want a generality about a system of training, I wouldn't recommend TKD for practical defense.

Answer 4

It doesn't depend on the style, it depends on the instructor and the person who has enough determination. TKD schools mostly have point sparring, you think that's gonna get you prepared for a self defense situation? I took Kempo Karate for 6 months and i have 2 friends who done years of TKD and one's a black belt. I'm almost, if not just as good as the black belt the first time we sparred. And the other person doesn't even use TKD, he uses Muay Thai against me because it was more practical for him and i was just as good. 3-4 years of training vs 3-6 months of training, why? Because i trained in full contact and they trained in Point Sparring and light contact, you can probably kick square in the face though.

Don't get me wrong, TKD is a fair art just like every art there is. What I'm telling you is that it doesn't depend on the style but the school you train in. TKD or Shotokan can be effective if taught properly, so go find the right school for your purposes.

Good luck and be weary of contracts.

Edit: Read your headline, which style is BETTER for self defense. I don't know a lot about shotokan but if your looking for self defense, a sport art such as WTF TKD is different. And if you're looking for self defense, why do you want to practice an olympic sport type of art?? WTF TKD can teach you to fight and surely do good contact but is it gonna teach you to fight multiple opponents or opponents with weapons? Go join Krav Maga or something.

Answer 5

the style doesnt really matter it is all about how you are trained there are TKD schools that do almost to sparring and there are shotokan schools that do lots of sparring it all depends on how your instructor likes to train.

Answer 6

If the shotokan school you attended was all "karate do" with only point sparring then by all means tae kwon do's sparring methods would be better for what you seem to want.

However Not all Okinawan schools are like the ones in your town. There are some that are reality based and are as good as any other method of fighting out there.

Answer 7

I've always subscribed to the attitude  ( That how you train is how you fight ) So understand where you are coming from ,if full contact and continuous sparring is what you'd prefer then I'd suggest Taekwondo ,I done shotokan and been there with the light contact and fights being stopped after one strike etc.

Best wishes :)***

Answer 8

You obviously don't know the total picture on either art.O r even what self defense is as you seem to have confused it with stylistic dojo/sport sparring in both cases..

Some shotokan clubs do spar full contact and some wtf clubs dont so yes it is going to depend on the training. but wtf technique are totally unreal in terms of being any kind of self defense.

Bouncing around with your hands down screaming like some little kid who has to pee real bad hardly qualifys as a self defense art.