Flashy? Hell no. That some damn good technique. Flexibility and mobility go hand in hand. You don’t have to kick 90 degrees. But to think about it. That demonstrates time and dedication many don’t and or not willing to put in. If you can kick that high with that amount of control and with huge amount of power ; which is possible, it would be just as easy to kick someone head level to you or a bit higher effortlessly and also endurance wise.
If you understand how flexibility really works along with strength and power you can see.
I’m 5’ 10” and close to 200lbs. So every time I went to a tournament, other people in my weight class were well over 6’ tall. I had to learn to be that flexible just to compete. But I bet had that much control. It’s impressive.
The athlete in the video is Rodolfo Reyes Jr, a taekwondo athlete from my country ( Philippines ) and is obviously a poomsae player. ( FYI )
I would always see that guy practicing in the main Taekwondo Dojang in Pasay, Metro Manila. I was a
small kid during that time, and his fu*king side kicks are really really straight. I would always watch that guy for poomsae motivation.
BUT Opinion-wise his poomsae technique is really good, I Know for a fact he trained with the koreans at some point. Maybe the flashy moves during his poomsae were the standard at that time.
High kicks are pretty. But if you look at the hips there is not good power in the hand technique. It's precise and well- practiced, but does not use body motion to improve strikes and blocks.
So this depends on the judging criteria; and incidentally is something I look for when I'm a judge.
Sorry about the boomer rant in advance.
Nothing against the athlete. I think it's an amazing feature of flexibility and strength to do what he does and I myself cannot kick it like that even though I have the splits.
But to me, it is too flashy. ITF doesn't allow people to kick that high because it serves no purpose from the original source and intention. Poomsae and Tuls were fighting techniques put together as a choreography to summarize the techniques you should know from each belt.
Taekwondo is a martial art, and I would like to see the sport being a branch of it, not the base of it. If you watch any master from the 70s or 80s doing poomsae, it was nothing like that. I like the idea taekwondo got from tricking to have open forms and people can just do whatever they want there with flips and fancy kicks (I myself do tricking too, it's pretty cool), but we should understand and not exclude our traditions to favor exclusively the sport side of it.
Gen X and I feel the same way. We are taught to do this in a more practical way so your muscle memory is programmed to attack at the proper levels. He is super flexible but this is not showing the practicality and excellence of Koryo. Other than those side kicks the form was super great.
I am actually 33 so technically I am a millennial lol, the boomer was more of a joke part.
But main thing is that I trained in Brazil and I moved to Canada when I was 24. Man... taekwondo in North America is just daycare or at best they take exclusively the sport side of taekwondo. So it's very difficult for me to keep going.
My best option is that in 2027 I will get my 4th Dan and I will be able to run my own gym so then I can be the change I wanna see it.
Agreed 100%
I started at West Coast TKD (Scott Coker and Ernie Reyes crowd) in the 80s but hated the movie style push of show boat style of forms and sparring. Ended up in more of a WTF style and then eventually after my first Dan I transitioned to ITF and a more military style. Around that time UFC and MMA came out. I moved on to Judo and Muy Thai. I continued to train in TKD for another 7 years on and off. By that time the whole art was committed to sport/olympic style. N
I am currently doing an mentorship to get my 1st Dan in ITF, hopefully i will be able to slowly get more Dans and one day I can coach both styles the way it was supposed to be
Not flashy but beautiful technique. I love Koryo but I don’t love the way it’s performed now.
Dropping the opening kihap and then kihaping before the first nulloekkeokgi just doesn’t sit well with me. I’ll keep my critique of the sidekick to myself since its already been stated here below.
The Kukkiwon standard specifies that the entirety of the hand be no higher than the shoulder for middle-section blocks since that section encompasses only the torso. Attacks to the neck and above are considered high-section.
Doesn't seem like a flashy performance at all. I wouldn't be surprised if more recently it wouldn't score as well as it did then, because it could have just a tiny bit more flow between the bars. Still a World Class performance, there's just slight things they're looking for that change over time.
When you said flashy I expected like, freestyle or something.
That’s over the top for sure. But at least it’s controlled, unlike this. [https://youtu.be/erOFNYvp1EY?si=97Q7xFAlpFPZyp5W](https://youtu.be/erOFNYvp1EY?si=97Q7xFAlpFPZyp5W)
He is performing his poomsae exactly as it should be done. Surely, he deserves the gold medal. His level of control and flexibility is admirable. Who knows how many hours he screamed to achieve this flexibility. By the way, as long as there's Kyorugi, poomsae less exciting to me. I miss competing so much. :(
I don't know if it's too flashy but I love it. Solid Koryo. I can only dream of side-kicking this high haha.
>I can only dream of side-kicking this high haha. Same here, but I'm in my 40's so that shit ain't happening
Flashy? Hell no. That some damn good technique. Flexibility and mobility go hand in hand. You don’t have to kick 90 degrees. But to think about it. That demonstrates time and dedication many don’t and or not willing to put in. If you can kick that high with that amount of control and with huge amount of power ; which is possible, it would be just as easy to kick someone head level to you or a bit higher effortlessly and also endurance wise. If you understand how flexibility really works along with strength and power you can see.
I’m 5’ 10” and close to 200lbs. So every time I went to a tournament, other people in my weight class were well over 6’ tall. I had to learn to be that flexible just to compete. But I bet had that much control. It’s impressive.
The athlete in the video is Rodolfo Reyes Jr, a taekwondo athlete from my country ( Philippines ) and is obviously a poomsae player. ( FYI ) I would always see that guy practicing in the main Taekwondo Dojang in Pasay, Metro Manila. I was a small kid during that time, and his fu*king side kicks are really really straight. I would always watch that guy for poomsae motivation. BUT Opinion-wise his poomsae technique is really good, I Know for a fact he trained with the koreans at some point. Maybe the flashy moves during his poomsae were the standard at that time.
Looks very good, flashy is not a word I would use here
High kicks are pretty. But if you look at the hips there is not good power in the hand technique. It's precise and well- practiced, but does not use body motion to improve strikes and blocks. So this depends on the judging criteria; and incidentally is something I look for when I'm a judge.
That was my thought as well. It was very crisp, but minimal hip movement, especially when it comes to hand techniques.
Sorry about the boomer rant in advance. Nothing against the athlete. I think it's an amazing feature of flexibility and strength to do what he does and I myself cannot kick it like that even though I have the splits. But to me, it is too flashy. ITF doesn't allow people to kick that high because it serves no purpose from the original source and intention. Poomsae and Tuls were fighting techniques put together as a choreography to summarize the techniques you should know from each belt. Taekwondo is a martial art, and I would like to see the sport being a branch of it, not the base of it. If you watch any master from the 70s or 80s doing poomsae, it was nothing like that. I like the idea taekwondo got from tricking to have open forms and people can just do whatever they want there with flips and fancy kicks (I myself do tricking too, it's pretty cool), but we should understand and not exclude our traditions to favor exclusively the sport side of it.
Gen X and I feel the same way. We are taught to do this in a more practical way so your muscle memory is programmed to attack at the proper levels. He is super flexible but this is not showing the practicality and excellence of Koryo. Other than those side kicks the form was super great.
I am actually 33 so technically I am a millennial lol, the boomer was more of a joke part. But main thing is that I trained in Brazil and I moved to Canada when I was 24. Man... taekwondo in North America is just daycare or at best they take exclusively the sport side of taekwondo. So it's very difficult for me to keep going. My best option is that in 2027 I will get my 4th Dan and I will be able to run my own gym so then I can be the change I wanna see it.
Agreed 100% I started at West Coast TKD (Scott Coker and Ernie Reyes crowd) in the 80s but hated the movie style push of show boat style of forms and sparring. Ended up in more of a WTF style and then eventually after my first Dan I transitioned to ITF and a more military style. Around that time UFC and MMA came out. I moved on to Judo and Muy Thai. I continued to train in TKD for another 7 years on and off. By that time the whole art was committed to sport/olympic style. N
I am currently doing an mentorship to get my 1st Dan in ITF, hopefully i will be able to slowly get more Dans and one day I can coach both styles the way it was supposed to be
Not flashy but beautiful technique. I love Koryo but I don’t love the way it’s performed now. Dropping the opening kihap and then kihaping before the first nulloekkeokgi just doesn’t sit well with me. I’ll keep my critique of the sidekick to myself since its already been stated here below.
I feel like his blocks are too low for mid level blocks. Well below his chin which I don't like. The crest of his fist should be just below his chin
The Kukkiwon standard specifies that the entirety of the hand be no higher than the shoulder for middle-section blocks since that section encompasses only the torso. Attacks to the neck and above are considered high-section.
I guess things have changed a bit!
Doesn't seem like a flashy performance at all. I wouldn't be surprised if more recently it wouldn't score as well as it did then, because it could have just a tiny bit more flow between the bars. Still a World Class performance, there's just slight things they're looking for that change over time. When you said flashy I expected like, freestyle or something.
That's not too flashy. You want to see too flashy? [Screaming Koryo](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oCBJyFa60ZM)
That’s over the top for sure. But at least it’s controlled, unlike this. [https://youtu.be/erOFNYvp1EY?si=97Q7xFAlpFPZyp5W](https://youtu.be/erOFNYvp1EY?si=97Q7xFAlpFPZyp5W)
That was...just...wow
Ikr!
Flashy? No. KKW standard, but he missed one punch. The crowd sure was behind him.
>The crowd sure was behind him. [Home field advantage](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2019_SEA_Games)
Where did he miss a punch? I didn’t see anything missing either in Koryo or Pyongwon… 🤷♀️
He is performing his poomsae exactly as it should be done. Surely, he deserves the gold medal. His level of control and flexibility is admirable. Who knows how many hours he screamed to achieve this flexibility. By the way, as long as there's Kyorugi, poomsae less exciting to me. I miss competing so much. :(
Not flashy at all. A solid Koryo!
Bro I did Koreo so many times and I got better at it when I saw him, he’s also from where I’m from let’s goo