Former karateka, turned taekwondo-in, partially due to drama and curiosity.

I've seen dojangs that do full or semi-full contact, so I know there are schools out there where point sparring isn't the main focus, however to that effect I don't see many schools where the forms applications are taught, even though there's official documentation by the kkw, you can even search the form applications on YouTube.

Il jang and Ee jang teaches us the first thing I learned in karazenpo-go-shinjutsu, how to block and counter.

Oh jang teaches us to grab and strike with the elbow, pulling the opponent in and striking them in the face with our elbow. That would hurt like hell and probably do some decent damage as the human face breaks easily, especially cheek bones.

I understand we can't use all of these applications while sparring, they'd cause too much damage if we actually pulled some of them off.

And it's been proven time and time again, that if you need to, you can throw American Kickboxing or even muay Thai in to unlock the "old sparring rules", which many of us have done, regardless of tkd style, plus most of the fighting stances are still in KKW style.

So, knowing what I know, I'm still stumped as to why people brush it off as the "sports" version, when it still has plenty of roots in self defense.

Is it just ignorance on their part? I know about the WT sparring ruleset and that it is in large, taken as a martial sport, but I know it's much more than that.

Taekwondo deserves more love than it receives.