What is Tae Kwon Do?

Tae Kwon Do (TKD) is a modern martial arts which is known for it's fast,
high flying (Aerial) and spinning kicks.

The NKMA interpretation of Tae Kwon Do is
Tae: To kick or smash with the foot
Kwon: To punch or strike with the hand
Do: Art or way

"The Art of Foot and Fist"

History of Taekwondo

The earliest records of Martial Arts practice in Korea date back to about 50
B.C. These earliest forms of Korean martial arts are known as 'Taek Kyon'.
Evidence that Martial Arts were being practiced at that time can be found in
tombs where wall-paintings show two men in fighting-stance. Others reject
this evidence and say that these men could be simply dancing.

Back then, time there were three kingdoms:

1. Koguryo (37 B.C. - 668 A.D.)
2. Paekje (18 B.C. - 600 A.D.)
3. Silla (57 B.C. - 935 A.D.)

Silla unified the kingdoms after winning the war against Paekje in 660 A.D.
and Koguryo in 668 A.D. The Hwa Rang Do played an important role at this
unification. The Hwa Rang Do was an elite group of young noble men,
devoted to cultivating mind and body and serve the kingdom Silla. The best
translation for HwaRang would probably be "flowering youth" (Hwa ="flower",
Rang="young man"). The HwaRang Do had an honor-code and practiced
various forms of martial arts, including Taekyon and Soo Bakh Do. The old
honor-code of the HwaRang is the philosophical background of modern
Taekwondo.

What followed was a time of peace and the HwaRang turned from a military
organization to a group specialized in poetry and music. It was in 936 A.D.
when Wang Kon founded the Koryo dynasty, an abbreviation of Koguryo. The
name Korea is derived from Koryo.


During the Koryo Dynasty the sport Soo Bakh Do, which was then used as a
military training method, became popular. During the Joseon-dynasty (also
known as the Yi-dynasty. 1392 A.D. - 1910 A.D.) this emphasis on military
training disappeared. King Taejo, founder of the Joseon-dynasty, replaced
Buddhism by Confucianism as the state religion. According to
Confucianism, the higher class should study the poets, read poems and
and play music. Martial arts was something for the common, or even inferior,
man.

Modern-day Taekwondo is influenced by many other Martial Arts. The most
important of these arts is Japanese Karate. This is because Japan
dominated Korea during 1910 until the end of World War II. During WWII, lots
of Korean soldiers were trained in Japan. During this occupation of Korea,
the Japanese tried to erase all traces of the Korean culture, including the
martial arts. The influence that Japan has given to Taekwondo are the quick,
lineair movements, that characterize the various Japanese systems.

After World War II, when Korea became independant, several kwans arose.
These kwans were:

* Chung Do Kwan
* Moo Duk Kwan
* Yun Moo Kwan
* Chang Moo Kwan
* Oh Do Kwan
* Ji Do Kwan
* Chi Do Kwan
* Song Moo Kwan

The Kwans united in 1955 as Tae Soo Do. In the beginning of 1957, the
name Taekwondo was adopted by several Korean martial arts masters, for
its similarity to the name Tae Kyon.

General Choi Hong-hi required the army to train Taekwondo, so the very first
Taekwondo students were Korean soldiers. The police and air force had to
learn Taekwondo as well. At that time, Taekwondo was merely a Korean
version of Shotokan Karate. In 1961 the Korean Taekwondo Union arose
from the Soo Bakh Do Association and the Tae Soo Do Association. In 1962
the Korean Amateur Sports Association acknowledged the Korean
Taekwondo Union and in 1965 the name was changed to Korean
Taekwondo Association (K.T.A.). General Choi was president of the K.T.A. at
that time and was asked to start the I.T.F. as the international branch of the
K.T.A. The southern government was overthrown in 1961. General Choi
Hong-hi left for America and established I.T.F. (International Taekwondo
Federation) Taekwondo, as a separate entity, two years later.

Demonstrations were given all over the world. It took a while before real
progress was made, but eventually, in 1973, the World Taekwondo
Federation (W.T.F.) was founded. In 1980, W.T.F. Taekwondo was
recognized by the International Olympic Commitee (I.O.C.) and became a
demonstration sport at the Olympics in 1988. In the year 2000 taekwondo
made its debute as an official olympic sport. There were several attempts to
unify I.T.F. and W.T.F. Taekwondo, but unfortunately, these failed. I.T.F. vs
W.T.F.
[Gen. Choi]

As mentioned earlier, Gen. Choi established ITF-Taekwondo (which
practices a more traditional form of taekwondo) while WTF-Taekwondo
(which has a strong emphasis on sparring) became an olympic sport in
2000.

A good-will trip to North-Korea in 1966 caused General Choi to fall in
disgrace in the eyes of the South-Koreans. Choi resigned as president of
the K.T.A. and founded the I.T.F. on March, the 22nd of that same year. The
headquarters of ITF were established in Canada.

ITF started concentrating on the forms developed by General Choi, while the
KTA (which later, on May 28, 1973, became the WTF) concentrated on the
Palgwe's. Later the WTF abandoned the Palgwe's and started concentrating
on Taeguks. Slowly, the WTF emphasis turned to sparring. This is also the
reason why a lot of people rather call (WTF) Taekwondo a martial sport than
a Martial Art.

The American Taekwondo Association (ATA) is a smaller organization, and
has many similarities to the ITF. The ATA has a copyright on the forms of the
organization, so these forms cannot be used on competitions by
non-members. There are many organizations, but the three mentioned
above have the most members.

ITF practices the so-called 'semi-contact' part of Taekwondo, while WTF
practices the so-called 'full-contact' part. ITF focuses more on the traditional
way of taekwondo. Since the break-up, there have been many attempts to
reunite WTF and ITF, so-far without success. There probably will never be a
union within Taekwondo.


Copyright (c) 1994-2006 by Barry Nauta (barry_at_nauta_dot_be, http://www.barrel.net/
or http://barry.nauta.be). Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this
document under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.1 or any
later version published by the Free Software Foundation; with no Invariant Sections, no
Front-Cover Texts and no Back-Cover Texts. A copy of the license is included in the
section entitled "Copyleft".
Tae Kwon Do