Tae Kwon do is a sport, not a style of martial arts. Now, there are exceptions, but most TKD schools are money pits and do not teach a well rounded form of self defense. Butterfly kicks and spinning head kicks are NOT effective street techniques.
TKD is one step above Tai Chi in the area of kickassedness.
Most styles of Japanese and Okinawan karate are pretty well rounded. Goju-Ryu in particular on the whole trains some pretty tough people. Isshinryu is the style I take which is a shorinryu/Gojuryu hybrid. More upright stances, natural body movement etc. But in reality ********* Shotokan, Shorinryu, wadoryu, isshinryu, uechiryu, and gojuryu are all extremely effective styles and worth taking. While I mentioned the exception to the TKD rule the same applies here...there are some pretty sorry Isshinryu school that totally make the style a joke. Fortunately I am not in that lineage.
Jujitsu is extremely effective and most styles are at least putting the basic principles of Jujitsu into their curriculum. Though in a street situation against an untrained opponent I think that more traditional karate is a bit more effective. I teach a goodly amount of grappling at my school and the principles of Jujitsu are essential if you want to be a good fighter.
Aikido is a neat style but I prefer something with more striking moves. While I stress that any style CAN be effective, aikido takes more to accomplish this because the style has some holes in it.
Tang soo do is too similar to TKD. Too many high kicks, too little practicality.
Jeet Kune do, Bruce's style is pretty but deficient. Bruce was not a good fighter, regardless of how well he could do choreographed stunt work.
American Kempo is neat stuff with a pretty good blend of japanese and okinawan principles.
Kung Fu is pretty, and I appreciate the chinamen for being the first to truly master open handed fighting, but for the most part the kung fu black belts I have known have been pretty miserable fighters. Good looking kata though.
In short, your friend is a lunatic. Ask ANY student of ANY other style of martial arts what they think the weakest for of martial arts is and you will get an answer of Tae Kwon do about 90 percent of the time. It really is a pretty miserable and impracticable form of self defense.
Now I will sit here and wait for the fallout from the people who swear they have conclusive proof that Bruce Lee was a fighting god.
I spent this weekend testing having my instructor down to oversee the test of my second black belt. It was a good time. He is a beast (weighs 185 bench presses 350) and after doing his kata requirements had to fight 9 different people (one at a time of course) in rounds that lasted a little bit more than an hour. It really was a hell of a stamina display and one that I am not sure that I could have pulled off.
Oh, and this part if for Skeet.
I have an african american student now, and he is about to be promoted to orange belt. Just thought you should know.
If you have any more questions please ask. I really never get tired of talking about karate.
Tacosid
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I voted for the other guy.