I'll throw this out there for what's it worth. About 25 yrs. ago when I was heavily into the martial arts (Kenpo) I got an invite to spar with a tae kwon do black belt ( I was a 1st dan in kenpo). When we started out the guy was literally kicking the sh*t out of me. Then I tried to get in close, out of his kicking range, and use some hand striking techniques. He was done from that point on. I don't like to berate any martial art because it takes dedication to reach black belt level in any system, but TKD seemed to place heavy emphasis on kicking techniques rather than hand techniques. JMO.