Is Taekwondo Effective In A Real Street Fight?

To understand if Taekwondo is effective in a street fight, you must first understand its background. Taekwondo is a Korean striking martial art with its roots firmly based in Karate. Taekwondo was created in the 1940s by Koreans who had already experienced Karate from sparring Japanese practitioners. There are various styles and variations of Taekwondo with slightly different rulesets and techniques to one another.

With that being said, at the root of this art, it is essentially Eastern kickboxing. The emphasis on Taekwondo is on various hook and spinning kicks with less attention spent on striking with the hands. It differs from Muay Thai as you are not allowed to elbow or knee in most styles. However, it must be noted that there are styles of Taekwondo that mix techniques and have become more of a hybrid martial art.

The positive benefit of learning Taekwondo is that you’re able to become stronger and fitter than doing non-combat sports. If you are able to master a kicking discipline you will certainly be capable of winning a street fight. Even if you are smaller and weaker than your opponent, once your technique gets to a certain level, the playing field will be more balanced. As an example, a spinning kick contains so much tension your body can generate massive amounts of power easily capable of knocking someone out.

Can Taekwondo Be Used In A Street Fight?

As already mentioned, Taekwondo is a striking art and is a variation of kickboxing. It shouldn’t need to be mentioned that kickboxing is a huge asset to have in a street fight. If you have practiced sparring, movement, and even striking a bag, you are going to have an edge on an untrained opponent. Taekwondo will not stop a knife or a gun, but there isn’t really a martial art that can do this. At least if your opponent did have a knife and you had knockout power in a kick, you would at least have a small chance of winning.

Whilst Taekwondo might not be the best martial art to win a street fight with, it does at least put you in good standing against an average person who doesn’t train. There are better martial arts for self-defense that are more aggressive and versatile such as Muay Thai since you are able to train everything which Taekwondo does, as well as adding elbows and knees. Overall if you’re wanting to learn a martial art, Taekwondo will get you more fit, more flexible and also help you defend yourself.

Distance

One of the main benefits of Taekwondo is that you are able to maintain a safe distance between you and the attacker. This is especially good in a street fight scenario since you don’t always know what your opponent is thinking. They could really want to harm you, or they may be a drunk who calms down very quickly. The further you are away, the less chance you will get hurt. Your legs are able to close the distance very quickly and powerfully. You may not even need to kick your opponent in the head, small leg and torso kicks may be enough to discourage them from coming any closer, thus de-escalating the fight and staying safe.

Never Overestimate Your Own Ability

Kicking can also be dangerous when you aren’t skilled enough. If you haven’t practiced Taekwondo for long then you will not have flexible enough legs, and nor will your kicks be fast enough. If your kicks are not fast enough then they can be caught, you will then risk getting put on the ground. The ground is the last place you want to be in a street fight. Even a BJJ expert would not want their back on the ground for very long in a street fight and would make sure they got to the top position as fast as possible.

A further flaw maybe your form. If you have not practiced kicking enough your balance may not be as good as you think it is. If this is the case your kick may glance the opponent or get blocked. When this happens you need to be nimble and athletic enough to stay on your feet. Otherwise, you could be looking at being in the bottom position on the ground again.

TKD can instantly end a confrontation

Perhaps the biggest advantage of training Taekwondo is its ability to instantly end a fight. It goes without saying that if you manage to kick someone in the head with power, then you can easily knock them out. A good example of this could be seen in the UFC, where Michael Chandler knocked out Tony Ferguson with a hard front kick.

Beforehand, Ferguson was doing well and didn’t seem in much danger. This is a good tool to have for any martial artist, as it can get you out of bad situations. Some kicks are fairly low-risk too, meaning they can be used successfully and knock out bigger, stronger opponents. Aside from boxing, there are not too many martial arts out there that can teach such powerful striking techniques.

The Flaws Of Taekwondo In A Street Fight

Other than the aforementioned lack of ground and takedown skills, it must be mentioned that Taekwondo in modern day is more of a sport. Whilst you can still defend yourself with sport Taekwondo, it is encouraged to score points rather than actually harm your opponent. This may win in the Olympic games or a local competition, but there are situations where practitioners are essentially doing hit and run tactics on each other. In Taekwondo matches, you may see athletes scoring on each other without committing to heavy strikes. They do this by glancing each other in the chest with weak kicks and throwing their hands up to try and gain a point from the judges.

A lot of modern-day martial arts suffer from this sporting direction such as Karate and Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. Whilst both of these martial arts are also effective in a street fight, they have also deteriorated from becoming a sport and moving away from self-defense. If you are going to train sport Taekwondo that is fine, but you must realize that if you want to defend yourself, you must also be able to deliver powerful strikes, rather than just score points in a competition.

Taekwondo Against Other Martial Arts

The problem with Taekwondo in a street fight is that it does not train throws, ground fighting, or takedown defense. So if the person attacking you was a wrestler or highly skilled in Judo, you wouldn’t really have a way of defending. With that being said, it may be that a wrestler also doesn’t have any striking skills. This now becomes a wrestler vs striker situation, which is pretty much what the UFC was like before people were well-rounded martial artists. Overall a wrestler vs striker is a 50/50 match up, if the striker does not get taken to the floor, then they will win.

Taekwondo against a boxer, kickboxer, or Muay Thai expert would be more of a balanced match-up. Most likely in modern-day a Muay Thai expert would win against the other arts because it is sparred much harder and pressure tested. This is not to say that the other martial arts such as karate and taekwondo are bad, they are simply more point sports than Muay Thai. If you were to take a time machine back to ancient Korea, you would most likely find that Taekwondo is a lot more aggressive with people trying to knock each other out. This is very similar to Muay Thai in the present day.

Avoid Fights & Fight Defensively If Provoked

99 times out of 100, the street fight you avoid is the street fight you win. You earn nothing from beating up someone on the street, they could be high or intoxicated and just looking for trouble. By de-escalating and avoiding this person you’ve risked nothing and avoided a potentially dangerous situation. If you engage in an unnecessary fight and the other person has a weapon, you’ve already lost by risking your life needlessly.

If you do get into a fight it is a good idea to end it as soon as possible. With a striking art such as Taekwondo, this can be done by giving some swift leg kicks and kicking at the head if the opponent still comes forwards and wants to engage. You aren’t going to be given any prizes for fighting off the front foot and going after your opponent aggressively. You should always give them the chance to stop and walk away as this ends the fight safely.

Lastly, depending on the laws in your country, city, or state, it may not be your choice how aggressively you can react. If you’re caught going too far on your attacker then you may get into trouble yourself. Remember, head kicks are very dangerous and even more so if the person is landing unconscious on a hard surface.