Basic Olympic Taekwondo Punches and Blocks

Jonathan Reff: Hi! Jonathan here at Somafit again; we are going over Olympic Taekwondo. The next three techniques we are going to learn about, cover punch, a simple cross and an upper cut. Now, in Olympic Taekwondo, it's very difficult for one to score with punches; but, punches are very good because they displace your opponent's body and you can push them and manipulate them in such way to setup scoring techniques with kicks. Olympic Taekwondo is predominantly a kicking art and points our score and knockouts our score with kicks. However, you cannot punch to the face in Olympic Taekwondo to score; in fact you can get a penalty for it. So punches are allowed to the chest above the waist and again for the most part the idea to take your opponents, win from them, push them and manipulate them in such a way that you can displace their weight and setup other techniques.

So, we will begin in fighting stance; we're both in fighting stance and my opponent is going to round kick my stomach or attempt to round kick my stomach. I am going to block down and scoop my hand under his leg and as I am doing that I am hitting his chest protector or the front of his body with a punch and as I am blocking down I am not just blocking and holding his leg, I am scooping up so that again as I scoop up I am going to get to opponent, where his flexibility can go no further and then he is going backwards and down. In that same motion, as I am scooping up and he is falling down, I am going to send him down with a punch to the chest as well. So, I am going to block down and scoop his leg; as I do that I am coming forward with the punch. Now, I am taking my arm and raising his leg up to a point that he can go no further and then displacing his weight with the punch. Now, mind you, as I have Sumir (Ph) here, I can't take him down. Well that's not allowed in Taekwondo. As I lift his leg he is got to follow wherever I go.

Now, moving to the simple cross; the punches in Taekwondo are mostly executed from an inside guard or as we together. Now, let's say, we are sparring and I have some techniques and I am here in his guard or in his range. For me being the taller person, Sumir has more of an advantage here because his kicks -- since he is the shorter of the two, he can execute them a little easier because he doesn't have as much length in his legs. So, what I am going to do while I am here, is I am going to lock him up and punch his chest to take his wind away to keep him slightly off balance, so it's not as easy to execute those kicks. So, he might be in his guard; I am going to scoop his hand down in a way and then follow with a cross coming straight across the center right into his abdomen. Again, as I am here I am scooping his hand away; I am coming back with my hand; again, weight distributed back and forth through the hips, into the abdomen. So, as I am in Sumir's guard, I am going to take his hand away, manipulate him to throw him off balance and come with a simple cross to his chest and abdomen.

Now, last but not least, I am again inside Sumir's guard; while I have the cross, which comes straight across, I have an upper cut which many times is easier to execute and can many times be more powerful. So what I do here is, again, I have him here, where -- and he chose his guard, I am not leaving this area because again Sumir can more easily get off a kick than I can being that I have the longer legs. My rich advantage is taken away from me in this instance. What I am going to do here is, I am not going to touch his hand; what I am going to do is go under the hand with an upper cut. Basically, what I am doing heres I am staying inside my opponents guard and instead of opening my body up; I am going to go through his with my hips. As I go through his, I am planting a punch to his abdomen going up and in and this is what it's going to look like and then I can again push him in such a way or punch him in such a way that I setup the kick. So, those punching techniques are, for the most part again, not scoring techniques, but the techniques used to displace your opponent to set him up for the more powerful scoring techniques to defeat. Those were punches; coming up next is Sparring.