I’ve known and know some pretty tough guys who have/had black belts in Tae Kwon Do. The tough Tae Kwon Do stylists keep their hands up in sparring and utilize a balanced attack. That is they posses balance between hand strikes and kicks. This is a video based purely on sparring philosophy in Tae Kwon Do. Regardless of the martial art style sparring and self defense are worlds apart. However, my issue with the video is not the excellent lecture on timing and distance, but with the idea that the two men throwing kicks leave their hands down.
I’ll say it again- sparring and self defense are nothing a like. However, in sparring one should try to make it as balanced as possible. Because once you start to move with someone in defense your body will utilize what it knows, and if you keep your hands down sparring, or never practice punching on a moving target, then you will have a hard time not breaking these habits in a real fight.
