Taekwondo Will Get You Killed

My self-defense training began many years ago in college. To fulfill my physical fitness requirement I thought it would be cool to take Taekwondo (TKD). I learned all the needed Kata and canned defenses and by the end of the semester was promoted to a yellow belt. We did spar a few times with full gear following all the required TKD sparing rules. Having no other expirence with martial fighting I thought it was very cool and bought hook line and sinker into my Sensei's  stories about how TKD was the best self-defense system out there. Fast forward 12 years and having trained with some incredible fighters in multiple fighting and self-defense arts NOTHING COULD BE FURTHER FROM THE TRUTH. Taekwondo will get you killed!


TKD is known for it flashing flying kicks and numerous schools on every corner. These schools kick out 1000's of "black belts" a year that if ever were in a fight with anyone who has ever fought before they would be killed. TKD has minimal if any defenses or training to handle real world threats like knives, clubs, and guns.  Anyone who has ever fought in the real world would stand out of the way of the flashy kicks and drop them in an instant when they were off center. Not one of those TKD "black belts" (unless they trained in other more effective fighting styles) would know what to do if some one attacked them with continuous attacks especially if those attacks were none sports targets such as groin, spine, back of the head, or throat. If you want to learn TKD for physical fitness or because you want to look cool flying through the air ok but please do expect to use any of that in a real world fight. If you have your little "Johnny" or "Suzy" locked into an expensive school contracts in hopes that they will be able to defend themselves. Please know that they will be grossly unprepared and worse most like like try something because they felt they were trained and most likely escalate the fight to a level that could be lethal because the aggressor will want to show up the "karate kid."

TKD training is good if you wanting martial arts tournament rules fight training but other than that if you tried to pull off half of what you would learn on a real threat you would most likely end up dead. Do TKD for fun, for sport, for discipline, but please don't use any of that for self-defense. Train for fun and then train something else for real life or just get really good at drawing and firing a gun. TKD is not self-defense it is a sport fighting technique if used in real life will get you killed!