Taking blows to the head?

[TaeStriker]

I've trained Tkd for 5 years, and i've never been into a street fight before - i bet if any ruffian on the street punch me on the face i will go K.O.

I've always wonder how come Boxers / Muay Thai fighters can withstand so many blows on their head, is there any specific training that i can do to train that up?

[ben]

There's no-one anywhere who can withstand direct blows to the head forever. It's not something you want to spend time conditioning. Your brain happens to be inside your head and it really doesn't like being shaken around at all. If you've seen someone apparently take a blow to the head with minimal damage, you may not have noticed them slip the blow and receive it only glancingly. A punch that slides off the cheekbone is not as devastating as one the lands on the chin. Apart from that, fight rule no. 1 is protect your head. IOW don't let them punch you in the face.

But you're the fist and foot guy. Don't they teach you that?

b

[TaeStriker]

There's no-one anywhere who can withstand direct blows to the head forever. It's not something you want to spend time conditioning. Your brain happens to be inside your head and it really doesn't like being shaken around at all. If you've seen someone apparently take a blow to the head with minimal damage, you may not have noticed them slip the blow and receive it only glancingly. A punch that slides off the cheekbone is not as devastating as one the lands on the chin. Apart from that, fight rule no. 1 is protect your head. IOW don't let them punch you in the face.

But you're the fist and foot guy. Don't they teach you that?

b

We do have sparring sessions during our training, but it's obviously far different from a street fight. In sparring we have rules - No kicking with full force, no kicking to groin area. In real street fight there are no rules, the attacker can just whack you randomly, and i'm not really a agile person, and if someone just punch me on my face, i can imagine i will lie flat on the ground.

P.S. Pardon me if my English isn't really good.

[Eliz]

.... But you're the fist and foot guy. Don't they teach you that?

Not all TKD schools emphasize traditional curriculum. Many are geared more towards sport, some are just plain over priced and utterly worthless.

What I am taking from the OP is he has reached a stage in his learning where he wants to broaden his training.

[Tony Dismukes]

Boxing/kickboxing/Muay Thai training teaches you a couple of things about taking shots to the head:

First, it teaches you how not to get hit cleanly in the head. A boxer will generally have his chin down, hands up, and shoulders raised to protect the jaw. Eyes stay focused on the opponent (no looking down or away). Many boxers are highly skilled at bobbing and weaving. Openings for the other guy to hit you are small and momentary. Most of the time when you see a boxer get hit in the head, it's a glancing shot, to a less vulnerable target (like the forehead), and the force may be reduced by the boxer rolling with the punch or partially obstructing the blow with a glove or shoulder.

Secondly, it teaches you not to mentally freak out when you get hit. When the average person gets punched in the head, he/she will tend to get scared, or mad, or flustered even if the punch didn't do significant physical damage. Boxers get desensitized to that reaction.

i bet if any ruffian on the street punch me on the face i will go K.O.

Your average street punk* doesn't really have one-shot knockout punching power. If you can protect your chin and not panic when you get hit, then you should be able to survive a punch or three to the head and keep fighting.

*(Keep in mind, of course, that there are certainly above average ruffians who do possess one-punch knockout power. See Abbott, Tank.)

[Michael J. Bray]

Try not to occupy the same space that he is punching into in the moment. If you are there it usually sort of hurts!

[TaeStriker]

Maybe some of you dont understand, we don't really much TKD 'schools' around in Singapore. Most people take up TKD classes in places we called "Community clubs / centres". It's rather hard to explain. And we dont train TKD everyday, basically for me in the past, i trained only once a week. (Because most of the people here are really busy.) We trained usually at most 1 1/2 hour. And for now, i'm a black belt, usually i dont have much time to train - I go to the class and to assist my main instructor in teaching the young kids.

[Eliz]

Maybe some of you dont understand, we don't really much TKD 'schools' around in Singapore. Most people take up TKD classes in places we called "Community clubs / centres". It's rather hard to explain. And we dont train TKD everyday, basically for me in the past, i trained only once a week. (Because most of the people here are really busy.) We trained usually at most 1 1/2 hour. And for now, i'm a black belt, usually i dont have much time to train - I go to the class and to assist my main instructor in teaching the young kids.

It is not much different here, depending on the area one lives. Community Centers are a very popular choice for martial arts learning, as are university martial arts clubs. Many of our martial arts "schools" are only groups that gather in a rented space such as a ballet studio or gymnastics studio.

My own children are your age and I can honesty say a university club or a rec center/community center would be an ideal choice for them. As with you, they are in school full time, work part time jobs on weekends, and have very little money or time to devote to martial arts training.

Its all good.

[TaeStriker]

It is not much different here, depending on the area one lives. Community Centers are a very popular choice for martial arts learning, as are university martial arts clubs. Many of our martial arts "schools" are only groups that gather in a rented space such as a ballet studio or gymnastics studio.

My own children are your age and I can honesty say a university club or a rec center/community center would be an ideal choice for them. As with you, they are in school full time, work part time jobs on weekends, and have very little money or time to devote to martial arts training.

Its all good.

Do they have, something like a Dojo at your place? Like those in Japan? At times i did do sparring with some of my Seniors during Tkd lessons but usually we dont really whack each other that hard - it's more like "tap and go" those kinds, so i dont really know if i can handle well in a street fight situation.

[TonyU]

Alvin,
I don't know what games you're playing but you started with a full name and now you edited with only a first name.
The rules here, which you agreed to when you signed up, require for our members to provide their real full name at least in their profile.
I suspended your account until you comply with the rules.

[kmtsd]

I understand your concerns about being able to "street fight"...and wondering if you are prepared. If you are wondering if you can take a shot and still keep your wits about you, put on some protective gear and find a suitable opponent to knock you around a bit -as in olympic style/full contact fighting and focus on body shots full contact with controlled contact to the head. I think practicing the stategies of boxing mentioned in the other posts are definitely valuable to protect your head as much as possible...BUT DO NOT practice actually getting hit in the head full contact. Your head can not take that sort of thing... the more times you are struck to the head, the easier it is to do damage to the brain- and the easier it is to knock you out. Inevitably accidents happen and you will likely feel what it is like to take a head shot, but dont go looking for one. Focus on how to avoid that head shot. Focus on recovering mentally and physically from the pain and shock that happens to your body when you get hit hard. Build up your spirit -you may win or you may loose, but either way if your have that lion inside -that other person will remember you.

[sideslasher9]

I'm pretty sure this has been visited before, but if one is practicing martial arts for self defense, he/she should be doing some sort of full contact/full speed sparring. Training for self defense without it, is analogous to practicing swimming without jumping in the water. Your form might be great out of the water, but getting used to the waves takes some experience.
If your sparring full contact, like you should be if you are really training for self defense, dealing with ,and more importantly avoiding blows, to the head will become sop.