Bizarre VR Taekwondo Demonstration Leaves Fans Of The Sport Puzzled & Annoyed
It’s not often that sports have technological breakthroughs, but in a recent event sponsored by Alibaba Cloud, the world of virtual reality met Taekwondo. In Gangneung, South Korea on Jan. 21, practitioners were suited up with goggles and body sensors, while taking part in what can only be described as virtual Taekwondo.
In almost a Playstation-game-looking format, competitors squared off in a video game with life bars and a character in a game that doesn’t look too dissimilar to Street Fighter.
Overall though, the comments section of Instagram was not filled with enthusiasm. The most positive comments we could find were generally from people who thought the idea was “cool”. While there is some merit to a game like this, people must remember that it is just that, and is quite some way away from being a martial art. Some older fans of the sport felt like they would also like to try VR Taekwondo since it minimizes any sort of injury you may maintain while sparring in real life.
One major criticism of the game is that it does not take into account the body types of those playing. Someone could be a lot wider, with their chest sensor being exactly the same. Long legs are also less useful in a game format since the sensors are placed above and below the knee.
Overall, the community felt like the VR gamification of Taekwondo took too much away from the traditional aspects of the sport. For example, you don’t really need to dodge any strikes since nothing hurts anymore and you won’t build any resilience or mental toughness since you never have any hardship. After all, sparring in martial arts is pretty much the best way to improve since your skills are put to a legitimate test.
In summary, a combat sport cannot really be a combat sport if it doesn’t actually have any combat in it!
