How dangerous is a Taekwondo black belt?

When it comes to Korean martial arts, there are very few that are as well known as Taekwondo. In short, Taekwondo focuses on kicking and often relies on flexibility to do so. As you may have figured, specializing in kicks can be very dangerous. Having said this, TKD also teaches punches and blocking as well. Because of this, it’s no surprise that people turn to Taekwondo for self defense.

However, people still ask the question of whether TKD is actually useful for self defense. There are lots of different martial arts out there that promise the world yet fall short against aggressive opponents. So, is Taekwondo the same, or is being a black belt in it a legitimate way to defend yourself against an attacker? We shall use this article to look at all angles of Taekwondo, from its brutal head kicks to the watering down of competitive Taekwondo, everything will be covered and will hopefully answer any lingering questions.

A Taekwondo black belt should easily beat an untrained opponent

With the correct training conditions (and no bullshido), a Taekwondo black belt should be able to easily beat an untrained opponent. This isn’t factoring in a freak slice of bad luck or the untrained opponent being double your size. However, it is looking at a realistic fight against a regular person who attacks you.

In this instance, your average TKD black belt has roughly trained for around 5 years consistently by the time they reach black belt. This means years and hours of training on how to fight. With this said, it’s not surprising they could beat someone in a fight given their superior technique. Typically, TKD fighters are known for their flexibility in their kicks, which means they could potentially stand off, create distance and kick their opponent to victory.

Of course, life doesn’t always go to plan but it would be a sensible route to take. There are also other areas that Taekwondo helps improve such as blocks, punches, and positional awareness such as footwork. That’s not to forget the conditioning or cardio gains that it also gives the average practitioner.

When put together, this should make for a technical fighter who knows the basics of striking, as well as being pretty athletic. Now, when compared to the average Joe, it makes sense that the TKD fighter would win with relative ease. Unless you think Taekwondo is completely useless, then this would be hard to disagree with. Even then, the athleticism and physicality of years of training should still give the TKD black belt the edge over your average person.

A Taekwondo head kick can potentially kill

If you’ve ever trained TKD then you’ll be well aware of how powerful some of the kicks can be. Arguably, some kicks can generate more power compared to punches due to leg muscles normally being bigger and stronger. It’s also a fact that in some circumstances, knockout punches can kill people which is sad but true.

You can easily apply this idea to kicks too, and some TKD kicks are incredibly powerful. For instance, the spinning roundhouse kick or question mark kick could kill due to the power generated. As TKD black belts are experts in this area, it’s fair to say that TKD is literally quite deadly. It may be quite difficult to kill someone with a single kick, but it’s certainly possible. In other words, it’s not ideal to start a fight with a TKD practitioner, let alone a black belt.

It depends on how the black belt trains

These days, the international Taekwondo community is split when analyzing what Taekwondo now represents. There is one side that prefers the sports based version of Taekwondo which has a modern outlook, compared to the old school version of Taekwondo. Basically, the idea is that the modern version of Taekwondo is watered down and too focused on points rather than being an effective form of fighting.

In terms of applying this idea outside of the realms of competition, it should serve as a stark reminder to those who train Taekwondo. In other words, if you’re happy to train in a sports setting then that’s fine. If not, then you may want to train in a more realistic setting that allows for hard (yet safe) sparring rather than aiming for sheer accuracy. As well, if you get a 60 year old TKD black belt who barely trains once a month, the chance is they won’t be too dangerous for obvious reasons.

Therefore, it really depends on how you train in terms of your effectiveness as a TKD black belt. If you want be truly dangerous then you must train correctly, otherwise the black belt may act as a technicality and you may be in for a nasty awakening if you ever got into a street fight. This means sparring appropriately and being honest with how you train.

How dangerous is a Taekwondo black belt in a gym setting?

If we’re looking at regular sparring inside a TKD gym then unsurprisingly, a black belt should be at the top of the food chain. At the same time, if they have an off day then they may be beatable and they’re not invincible. However, years of technical learning and experience will pay off and they should have enough knowledge to prove their belt level.

Whilst there’s a big difference between theory and practice, a TKD black belt should still have enough about them to dominate majseogi. Having said this, there’s still the possibility of a black belt losing during sparring against a higher belt who is close to black belt in terms of rank, but isn’t quite there yet. Especially if they’re weaker or quite old, as this makes sense. This is why it’s always important to be humble in martial arts as it has a funny way of striking those who get too confident.

Weaknesses of Taekwondo in fighting

Whilst this article has been quite complimentary towards TKD, let’s also be honest – Taekwondo does have its fair share of flaws. Thankfully, your average brawler probably won’t be skilled enough to exploit these flaws, nor know that you train TKD. Still, it’s something to be wary of. Firstly, Taekwondo often relies on distance to be effective. Therefore, if someone manages to get up close then a lot of its positives become obsolete.

For instance, if someone got close and started doing dirty boxing or Muay Thai, then you couldn’t really kick them very effectively. Whilst there’d still be TKD options available, you’d be massively limited and the best attacking options would be lessened significantly. At this point, despite all the skill in the world, you may be in trouble – black belt or not.

Another huge issue that TKD faces is grappling. By grappling, we don’t mean Muay Thai clinches either, we mean wrestling, Judo or BJJ. Once again, no matter how good you are at TKD, if someone manages to get up close and grab you, they can take you down. If this happens then you may end up pinned on the floor. At this point, your TKD is as good as useless. As seen in fights such as the UFC, good strikers can easily be undone by those who can wrestle and grapple. So, it’s best to create distance when fighting, as even an unskilled wrestler could drag you to the floor and win the fight which would be unfortunate but possible.

In other words, if you’re truly scared of these scenarios happening, then it may be best to cross-train your TKD with an art such as Judo just to be safe. At this point, you’d have all angles covered where fighting is concerned. Having said this, if your Taekwondo is taught correctly then you should still be very confident in your fighting ability.

Conclusion

Overall, it’s fair to say that a Taekwondo black belt can be considered a dangerous fighter and martial artist. Having said this, the same can be said for most legitimate martial arts. One thing worth considering though is how tough the black belt really is, or whether they earned it based on a technicality rather than real merit.

As well, if you are looking to get into striking martial arts, then there are other considerations to look at too, such as kickboxing and Muay Thai. In conclusion though, if you spent several years learning Taekwondo then you should be able to handle yourself. Whilst a TKD black belt may not act as a silver bullet – it will at least give you the necessary tools to defend yourself.