Showing posts with label Olympics. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Olympics. Show all posts

Friday, 9 March 2012

Afghan female boxer at Olympics 2012

Whatever happens at the Olympics, I think Afghan female boxer Sadaf Rahimi's already a winner…

The BBC site says, "Under Taliban rule, women in Afghanistan were forbidden from participating in any sports." Here's a BBC video about Rahimi's fight to the top

And another by Al Jazeera:



Wednesday, 19 May 2010

Nobody likes Tae Kwon Do (or everybody hates being kicked in the head)

Well, the commentator certainly found this kick "impresionante" but what I found interesting was that the guy was falling over and still had the presence of mind (or was it just an intense, drilled, fighting mind) to kick as he went down...


Incredibly shabby handwork! These guys were within hand striking distance but didn't even look like they'd be prepared to swat a passing fly, let alone hit each other with their hands. They didn't seem to block with their arms either. It has to be said though that I have trained with the University Tae Kwon Do squad and those guys are really sharp with their legs: rapid and strong so *if* you can get past their legs and through their leg guard you can be effective, if not you get thumped on the way in.

But you know what, I'm not going to churn out all the old chestnuts about Tae Kwon Do because it seems that many other martial artists look down upon it anyway, so I don't need to.

Surely though, all 'games' (or disciplines if you prefer) have rules? You wouldn't pick the ball up in football would you?

More on Aaron Cook, British Tae Kwon Do Olympic 2012 hopeful, here:

Monday, 16 November 2009

Olympics 2012 'Fighting Chance'

UK sport is drumming up interest for their 2012 teams. This video is for the Tae Kwon Do team. Does this mean there isn't a decent UK team yet? Haven't UK sport got any good links with the TKD organisations and federations? It does seem like this campaign is opening up the entry to all martial artists: open to people with, "Current success at national level or above in a kicking orientated combat sport". Or in other words, Sportification of martial arts.


Sunday, 12 July 2009

Olympic Tae Kwon Do hopeful opens NZ brothel

How far would you go to raise money to fulfil your dreams? Logan Campbell, a New Zealand Tae Kwon do hopeful was sick of tapping up his parents for money to fund his Tae Kwon Do training so he started his own business. He's opened a 14 room 'gentlemen's club'!

He's hoping to raise $NZ300,000 to help towards his Olympic dream but the selectors may well take a dim view on the way the money was raised.

Logan says, "I'm an owner of an escort agency [not a pimp]."

Semantics?