Olympics shattered by TaekwonDo controversy!!!

[Saner]

http://sports.yahoo.com/olympics/beijing/taekwondo/news?slug=cr-lopez082208&prov=yhoo&type=lgns

"“(WTF officials) don’t think about the repercussions until after they make a mistake,” Steven Lopez said. “They know the power we have as a family and bringing limelight to our sport. By no means do I want to bring this sport down. I love this sport. But sometimes in any sport there are judges, there are politics involved. Unfortunately, there’s not supposed to be that in any of the sports, but you see it all the time. Whether it be gymnastics, boxing, it happens.

“There are bad calls all the time. This is one of the times that it happened to me. It normally doesn’t, but it happened. It sucks.”


that's terrible if they end up removing Tae Kwon Do from the Olympics. I mean its hard and rare enough to find this sort of thing on sports channels. boxing, basketball, soccer and football hogging and overshadowing practically everything else in the hyped up spotlight.

but hey, Herb Perez sounds familiar. wasn't he the tae kwon do guy in WMAC Masters TV show? that show was awesome! it even had the original person who was Liu Kang in the videogame. Ho Sung Pak or something.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JGfqV5lh_JM

hmm too bad the article didn't show some match videos. its hard enough to find up to the minute tae kwon do matches as it is.

[Kylie]

My friend that practices taekwondo like it's his religion isn't going to like this.

[Saner]

oh found soem neat Beijing 2008 vids of the matches
:)


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t-I0pF8T4is



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CP9vxiWSVgk

oh wait this one is 2007. lol. and not olympics related. :p


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=saM78cjj0qA

well here's some 2008 olympic trials


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4FBq3E7T4Bo

Lopez family Beijing 2008 grrr I wanna see the fights! XP

oh here is a nice calendar

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2008_Summer_Olympics_highlights

:burger: :burger:

it seems taekwondo is held on 20th to the 23rd. oh ya today is 22. :p

you can click on the dots for more details. ^^

oh finally found another match(es). there probably will be more after the Olympics is over and the
people with cameras upload everything: :)


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c9mwByk4S_I


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lvvH-fJnVFI&feature=related


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=waga1yu1axQ&feature=related

[Toadthroat]

God. Everytime I watch a REAL martial arts fight, it looks like a buncha people just flailing around.
I guess I watch too many martial arts movies, but it doesn't look nearly as graceful as I imagine it.

[Sekani]

God. Everytime I watch a REAL martial arts fight, it looks like a buncha people just flailing around.
I guess I watch too many martial arts movies, but it doesn't look nearly as graceful as I imagine it.

Never underestimate the ability of a good choreographer.

Most martial arts are very ungraceful in real-world situations.

[Saner]

God. Everytime I watch a REAL martial arts fight, it looks like a buncha people just flailing around.
I guess I watch too many martial arts movies, but it doesn't look nearly as graceful as I imagine it.

well that's because in the real martial arts, there is no script that ensures your unstoppable
attacks and flawless counters. :D

the reason why they don't attack so often and they bob up and down is to try to trick the
opponent into providing an opening to counter.

if you relentlessly just attack:

1. you'll get tired, resulting in less focused and less effective kicks.
2. you don't wanna make a wrong move that may cause you to lose balance if you miss or they
knock you down.
3. your opponent could just evade or counter the move.
4. kicks are commonly more powerful than punches. you don't wanna get hit by one of those.

therefore it's best not to be so much on the offense, especially since the opponent may
be ready for those tactics and just react to them as they come in and then all those failed
attacks would be in vain.

so it's really of strategy of trying to make your opponent think you're doing something,
so you can counter, their counter, and vice versa. So taking your energy as well into account,
results in what appears to be matches with nothing going on,

but if you were really there,
you would feel the intensity that one wrong move can really prove disasterous.

[Reno]

lol not really Saner, while conserving energy and evading/countering are vital elements, Olympic Taekwondoe consists of matches where nothing happens and everyone is holding back... it's so boring, I never watch it even though I've practiced it myself for years

Most opponents will have lightning fast reactions to the slightest opening and be all over you, not bob around testing the waters like it was their first day and they are afraid to land any real hits

Modern Taekwondoe is very 'ungraceful' to watch, as a sport it is more along the lines of kickboxing (or in the case of the Olympics, a staring contest)

[Saner]

lol not really Saner, while conserving energy and evading/countering are vital elements, Olympic Taekwondoe consists of matches where nothing happens and everyone is holding back... it's so boring, I never watch it even though I've practiced it myself for years

Most opponents will have lightning fast reactions to the slightest opening and be all over you, not bob around testing the waters like it was their first day and they are afraid to land any real hits

Modern Taekwondoe is very 'ungraceful' to watch, as a sport it is more along the lines of kickboxing (or in the case of the Olympics, a staring contest)

well ya. but this isn't full contact unrestricted Tae Kwon Do anyway. a sport where points
are awarded for only the "legal" scoring areas (and they have to be accurate and powerful)
so ya based on the sports rules, you really can't expect Tae Kwon Do at it's 100% potential in these games. :p but it's still fun to watch sometimes. ^^

[Reno]

Well I was referring to standard WTF competition regulations myself, exact same rules applied as to the Olympics, padded full upper body contact

See how often the referee has to instruct them to 'start fighting' in those videos? That is a pretty bad sign...

[amtalx]

I met Ho Sung Pak a long time ago (I used to be a martial arts nut). He's tiny and was also the guy inside the suit for one of the TMNT movies.

[Saner]

Well I was referring to standard WTF competition regulations myself, exact same rules applied as to the Olympics, padded full upper body contact

See how often the referee has to instruct them to 'start fighting' in those videos? That is a pretty bad sign...

well yeah, but we gotta try to understand the pressure the fighters are going through.
and who knows, maybe there is an Olympics mafia that tells them in the locker room to not
go all out. ^^;

but if you look at I think the last video, towards the end, one of them got pretty aggresive
and they ended up falling on their knees more often cause they couldn't catch their opponent.

It's not easy catching a moving target unless they are attacking or advancing, so why waste energy carelessly? :P

[Leviathan]

A Cuban athelete just kicked a ref.

Bad call. He was disqualified &then he argued &scuffled with the ref. :E
He &his coach might get banned for life.

Hopefully nothing too bad will happen. >.>

[Saner]

he actually KICKED THE REF?? o_o

I think I missed that detail from the wall of text. :lol:

I thought they were just verbally challenging the decision the ref made. o_____o

wonder if someone got all that on camera for youtube. >_>

[Leviathan]

Yea, he kicked the ref. But that was in another story. It's on Yahoo! I think.

http://sports.yahoo.com/olympics/beijing/blog/fourth_place_medal/post/Cuban-taekwondo-athlete-earns-lifetime-ban-for-k?urn=oly,102963

[Nitro Vordex]

I don't mean to sound like a jerk or anything, but is that the women's or men's taekwondo?

[Leviathan]

Men's Taewkando.

If you wait a few weeks after the games I'm sure there will be a video of it.

[Saner]

whee! Really wanna see the video of him kicking the ref. :) but I do feel that they are right
about the match being influenced by money behind the scenes, even the coach could smell it.

it's probably the best kick in the whole Olympics. :lol:

well ya maybe we should be serious but I'm sure the ref is okay. :p


HERE IT IS!!!!!!! o___________________________________o


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j47LLXU0z1I

holy ****!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (new link)

and he didn't miss, this video includes a close up photo of ref bleeding.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AL38k2KsrEs&feature=related

but turn off your volume, the music they added is awful. :lol: