Tuesday, August 19, 2008

Olympic TKD from an ATA perspective (at least mine)

I started TKD more than 3 years ago, so I had no reason to watch Olympic TKD the last time around. Now that I've been involved in the sport for a while, it's interesting to watch it on the Olympics, albeit online instead of on TV. (All hail the mighty internet!)

I've been watching the women's 49kg competitions for almost 2 hours now, and I'm still trying to get the hang of it. Okay, so it's 3-2 minute rounds, there's no punching involved, and it's all about the kicking. But I see more "dancing" than kicking. The refs actually have to tell these people to "fight" rather than keep dancing around each other. And I don't see combo kicks or jump kicks. What's with that?

So, I sent an email to the online commentary guy, and he said that punching is allowed, but harder to do. No punches to the face, naturally. And no kicks to the back of the head. (AWWWW!) But definitely lots of kicking. I also notice that they keep their hands down instead of a ready to spar stance like we are taught.

It's certainly interesting to watch and try to understand. The online guy is also explaining the scoring, which has to do with how many corner judges agree in one second if a point is made, and they actually have to see AND hear contact. THe mens' competition started, and now I'm starting to see some action. Some decent combination and jump kicks. Why is it that women are so wimpy in this kind of sport sometimes? I do know women who can be as aggressive as the guys, so why am I not seeing them here at the Olympics? Oh well.

To watch, go to http://www.nbcolympics.com/taekwondo/index.html, and check to see if there's live video. There are matches starting at 9 PM EDT, and they started today. Hey, if you can't watch it on TV, at least it's online!

1 comment:

Miss Chris said...

It's really motivating to watch the Olympians!