Is Tae Kwon Do a show style of fighting?

Answer 1

Taekwondo is a Korean style of fighting; however, it can be very showy in demonstration mode, but so can Kung Fu and karate if the film industry is a good measure of such things. Taekwondo features many high-flying kicks, which look great in competition and public demonstrations.

In Taekwondo, the fancier and more difficult kicks are trained in to challenge the student to reach the highest level of proficiency and skills. This makes doing the basic techniques seem quite simple in comparison, and actually improves the ability to fight using the basic kicks. In actual self defense training, Taekwondo uses very little high kicks, or fancy jumping and spinning. The preference is toward low kicks to the knee, groin or abdomen, and a combination of hand strikes, knee strikes, elbow strikes, and head butts when necessary. Grappling is applied as a last resort, but is not neglected in the training of a proper Taekwondo education.

If you saw a genuine Taekwondo Master fight in real life, you might not recognize the defensive tactics used as Taekwondo unless you really understood the subtleties and application of this art. In real life, the Taekwondo fighter tends to get the job done quick, with the potential of a great amount of power to deliver the maximum amount of damage. Kicking is a preference, but that is not all we do, nor all that we are good at.