Taekwondo

The Korean art of taekwondo (TKD) is without much doubt - comparable only to karate - the most widespread martial art worldwide. The art, which also can be spelled taekwon-do or tae kwon do translates roughly as "foot, fist way". Tae literally means foot, leg, or to step on; kwon is understood as fist, or fight; and the word do of course is way, art or discipline.

 Taekwondo was originally heavily influenced by other martial arts, most notably Japanese karate. You will easily be able to spot the similarities simply by comparing a number of forms in the two arts.

The main reason for this influence is the fact that Japan invaded and controlled Korea from 1910 until the end of the second World War, during which the Japanese trained a great number of Korean soldiers.

The Japanese occupants also attempted to remove and erase all traces of the Korean culture. This included of course the much older Korean martial arts, such as soo bahk (soo bakh, subak or soo bahk do), and taek kyon.

These older warrior arts may have some influence on the modern day tae kwon do, probably most notably from a philosophical and ethical point of view. If you study the almost dance-like and fluid movements of taek kyon, you will probably find that it is not very much like taekwon-do. Some even say taek kyon is a little like capoeira (a Brazilian martial art performed as dance movements).

However, you will find that the circular kicks of tae kwon do is something of a trademark also in taek kyon - even though the way these kicks are being delivered, vary to a great extent between the two arts.

Following World War 2, Korea became an independent nation. Several schools (or kwan) came to be. These included han moo, song moo, chi do, moo duk and a host of other kwan/schools. All these taught systems based on Japanese (or Okinawa) karate.

In 1955, the various schools were unified as tae soo do. The name was then changed to 'tae kwon do' and then taekwondo. It is being said these changes reflected the similarity to (the name) taek kyon.

The man who is being hailed as "the father of Korean TKD", General Choi Hong-Hi, required Korean army soldiers to take up taekwon-do. American soldiers stationed in Korea during the Korean War also began learning the art, impressed with the skills and bravery of their Korean brothers-in-arms.

The General left for the US when the South Korean Government was overthrown in 1961. He then established International Taekwondo Federation (ITF) in 1963.

It took some time to spread TKD, even though a great number of demonstrations were held world wide. Eventually, WTF (World Taekwondo Federation) was founded in 1973. The sport (WTF taekwondo) was recognized by IOC - the Olympic Committee in 1980, and it went on to become a demonstration sport at the 1988 Olympics. Then in 2000 it was presented as an official Olympic sport.

During the years there has been a number of attempts to unify the TKD of ITF and WTF. These attempts have not been successful, mainly because of the politics and separation between North and South Korea.

Taekwon-do is easily distinguished by the spectacular kicking techniques (there are far more kicks than punches in the art). Breaking, forms (poomse or hyong) and fighting/sparring are also integral parts of TKD. You may find some self defense techniques - rather crudely based on Japanese aikijutsu/jujutsu - in some schools.