Are WTF and Olympic Style Kicks Useful In Real Life?

Try throwing a fancy kick with that guy coming at you!

First things first wtf and all its flashy kicks are pretty much useless in the street. WTF is a sport and that’s where it belongs. While its origins are from a military art it has done a great job of dialing it down to pretty much something about as useful as baseball on the street. If you enjoy the sport there is nothing wrong with that but you must have an understanding that the moves and fighting style used in the wtf ring should stay there.
One of wtfs biggest flaws the lack of punches or really anything besides kicks, if you watch wtf fighters in tournaments or even in the dojang you hardly ever see them throw a punch. In the street that’s pretty much all you’re going to see and maybe some grabbing, but how are you supposed to fight against something when you never practice it or even how to defend it. How you practice something is how you’re going to perform, if you always practice throwing fancy kicks then that’s probably what you’re going to use in the street. I’ve actually had a wtf fighter tell me that in street he’d use the multiple diagonal kick move I forget what it’s called, it’s when you go from foot to foot alternating kicking leg, you see it in tournaments a lot and while it might be good for scoring points you would most likely get destroyed using it in the street. All it would take is a good punch to the face, a slam to the ground, or even a kick to the groin, which are all illegal moves in the ring.
It is very necessary to distinguish to fighting in the ring and fighting in the street. It is also necessary to train for both if you are a ring fighter, if not your knowledge of fighting elsewhere will be very limited giving you significantly less chance of surviving an altercation. The true way of martial arts is training for survival in a life or death situation, to do whatever it takes to come out on top. Wtf sport training teaches you to score points by a specific set of rules, with pads for protection, and referees to watch over the competitors, all things absent in the street.
So if you’re a wtf fighter, you enjoy what you do, plan on only sticking to your sport training, and not worry about training for the streets; that’s fine more power to you. All sorts of people train in all kinds of sports everyday that they enjoy and even live for, but that does not mean that that training will be of any use in a street fight or a survival situation. Have fun enjoy your training but never forget what your training for and know the difference between street and ring.


BatDad