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Taekwondo (also spelled tae kwon do or taekwon-do) is a martial art originating in Korea. Having become the most widely practiced martial art in the world, it is the national sport of Korea as well as an Olympic sporting event. From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia -All Photos (except county flags) from whaticaught.com   Check Out Our youtube Videos Below Koryu Black Belt Form   Karate - SPEED BREAKING VIDEO

In Korean, derived from hanja, tae (跆) means "foot"; kwon (拳) means "fist"; and do (道) means "way". Hence, taekwondo is loosely translated as "the way of the hand and foot" or more loosely, "the art of kicking and punching". Taekwondo's popularity has resulted in the divergent evolution of the martial art. As with many other martial arts, taekwondo is a combination of combat technique, self-defense, sport, exercise, entertainment, and philosophy. Although there are great doctrinal and technical differences among public and private taekwondo organizations, the art in general emphasizes kicks thrown from a mobile stance, using the leg's greater reach and power to disable the opponent from a distance. In sparring, turning (roundhouse), 45 degree, front, axe, and side kicks are most often used; advanced kicks include jump, spin, and skip kicks, often in combination. Taekwondo training also includes a comprehensive system of hand strikes and blocks, but generally does not emphasize grappling.

The development of taekwondo

Taekwondo is very much a reflection of Korea's tumultuous yet dynamic history and culture. Accordingly, the development of taekwondo must be carefully understood within proper historical and cultural contexts.

Traditional roots

The oldest ancestor of taekwondo is an amalgamation of unarmed combat styles developed by three rival kingdoms of Goguryeo, Silla and Baekje.  Young men were trained in unarmed combat techniques to develop strength, speed, and survival skills. The most popular of these techniques was subak, with taekkyon being the most popular of the segments of "subak".

As the Goguryeo kingdom grew in power, the neighboring Silla dynasty became comparatively weaker, and an effort was undertaken among the Silla to develop a corps of special warriors. The Silla had a regular army but its military training techniques were less advanced than those of the Goguryeo, and its soldiers were generally of a lesser caliber. The Silla selected young men, some as young as twelve, and trained them in the liberal arts. Those who demonstrated strong natural aptitude were selected as trainees in the new special warrior corps, called the Hwarang-do. It was believed that young men with a talent for the liberal arts may have the grace to become competent warriors. These warriors were instructed in academic as well as martial arts, learning philosophy, history, a code of ethics, and equestrian sports. Their military training included an extensive weapons program involving swordsmanship and archery, both on horseback and on foot, as well as lessons in military tactics and unarmed combat using subak. Although subak was a leg-oriented art among in Goguryeo, Silla's influence added hand techniques to the practice of subak.

In spite of Korea's rich history of ancient and tradition martial arts, Korean martial arts faded into obscurity during the Chosun Dynasty. Korean society became highly centralized under Korean Confucianism and martial arts were lowly regarded in a society whose ideals were epitomized by its scholar-kings.  Remnants of traditional martial arts such as Subak and Taekkyon were banned from practice by the general populace and reserved for sanctioned military uses although folk practice by peasants still persisted into the 19th century.

Much of Korea's traditional martial art heritage became further endangered at the end of the Chosun Dynasty which was hastened by Japanese invasion and occupation of Korea. The Japanese occupation of Korea was marked by brutal repression of Korean culture and identity. Koreans were forced to adopt Japanese names and vestiges of Korean identity were banned such as the use of the Korean language and hangul.

External influence

During the Japanese occupation (1910-1945), the practice of taekyon was also banned. Although practice of the art nearly vanished, Taekyon survived through underground teaching and folk custom. As the Japanese colonization established a firm foothold in Korea, the few Koreans who were able to attend Japanese universities were exposed to Okinawan and Japanese martial arts with some even receiving black belts under Gichin Funakoshi. Koreans in Manchuria and China were also exposed to Chinese martial arts. By 1945, when the Korean peninsula was liberated from Japanese colonization, many martial arts schools were formed and developed under various names such as Tang Soo Do reflecting foreign influence.

Modern taekwondo

By the end of the Korean War, nine martial arts schools (known as kwan) had opened, and South Korean President Syngman Rhee ordered that the various schools unify under a single system. A governmental body, selected a naming committee's submission of "tae-kwon-do," submitted by Choi Hong Hi, a general in the South Korean army and the founder of the Oh Do Kwan, for the new unified form. Following taekwondo's official creation on April 11, 1955, The Korean Taekwondo Association (KTA) was formed in 1959 to facilitate the unification. Shortly after, taekwondo made its debut in North America, where Jhoon Rhee was teaching Karate in Texas, General Choi convinced Rhee to begin calling it Tae Kwon Do. However, the unification effort in Korea stalled, as the kwan's continued to teach different styles. Another request from the Korean government for unification resulted in the formation of the Korea Tae Soo Do Association, which changed its name back to the Korean Taekwondo Association in 1965 following a change of leadership. This new leader was General Choi Hong Hi who ended up falling out of favor in South Korea following a goodwill trip to communist North Korea. This resulted in Choi's separation from the KTA and the founding of a new, private organization, the International Taekwondo Federation, in 1966.

In 1972, the Korea Taekwondo Association Central Dojang was opened. A few months later, the name was changed to the Kukkiwon, which means "National Technique Center." The Kukkiwon remains the World Taekwondo Headquarters to this day. The following year, the World Taekwondo Federation was formed. The International Olympic Committee recognized the WTF and taekwondo sparring in 1980, and the sport was accepted as a demonstration event at the 1988 Seoul and the 1992 Barcelona Summer Olympic Games. It became an official medal event as of the 2000 Sydney Olympic Games. Taekwondo is one of two Asian martial arts (judo being the other) in the Olympic Games.

The public WTF and private ITF, the two largest taekwondo organizations, operate and train in hundreds of nations and teach the martial art to millions of people each year. Although competition has always been a significant feature of Taekwondo, in recent years the increase in the discipline's sport orientation has led those with less interest in competition to seek more "traditional" dojang in order to focus on practice for the sake of practice, rather than practice for the sake of tournaments.

Organizations

The largest taekwondo tournament organization is the World Taekwondo Federation, headquartered in South Korea. Although the term "WTF" and "Kukkiwon" are often mistakenly used interchangeably to refer to this organization, the "Kukkiwon" is the physical building that contains the administrative offices of World Taekwondo Headquarters (aka Kukkiwon), a completely different organization which trains and certifies instructors and issues official Dan and Poom certificates worldwide. Olympic taekwondo competition is administrated by the World Taekwondo Federation, and WTF rules are used for Olympic taekwondo competition.

Outside of the World Taekwondo Federation and its sanctioned events, a large number of smaller private organizations exist, the most well-known of which is the International Taekwon-do Federation, which is headquartered in Canada, Austria & North Korea. There are also other organizations such as ATF, ATA, ITA, UTF, USTF, WTU, ICTF & ITF. These organizations require that students belong to a member club or school. Events and competitions held by such organizations are sometimes closed to other taekwondo students. The World Taekwondo Federation allows any person, regardless of school affiliation or style, to compete in World Taekwondo Federation events, and is a member of the IOC, making it a public sports organization. There are over 200 private taekwondo organizations in the world. The major technical difference among these many organizations revolves around the poomsae, a set of prescribed formal sequences of movements that demonstrate mastery of posture, positioning, and technique, sparring rules for competition, and philosophy.

In addition to these private organizations, the original schools (kwan) that formed the organization that would eventually become the Kukkiwon continue to exist as independent fraternal membership organizations that support the WTF and the Kukkiwon. The official curriculum of the kwans is that of the Kukkiwon. The kwan also function as a channel for the issuing of Kukkiwon dan and poom certification (black belt ranks) for their members. Each kwan has its own individual pledge of tenets and manners that describes the organization's goals for personal improvement. For example, the tenets of oh do kwan have become very popular, and many taekwondo schools use them even though their roots are not originally from oh do kwan. The oh do kwan tenets are: courtesy, integrity, perseverance, self control, and indomitable spirit. In contrast, the jidokwan manners are: view, feel, think, speak, order, contribute, have ability and conduct rightly.

Features

Taekwondo is famed for its employment of kicking techniques, which distinguishes it from martial arts such as karate or certain southern styles of kung fu. The rationale is that the leg is the longest and strongest weapon a martial artist has, and kicks thus have the greatest potential to execute powerful strikes without retaliation successfully.

Taekwondo as a sport and exercise is popular with people of both sexes and of many ages. Physically, taekwondo develops strength, speed, balance, flexibility, and stamina. An example of the union of mental and physical discipline is the breaking of boards, which requires both physical mastery of the technique and the concentration to focus one's strength.

Although each taekwondo club or school will be different, a taekwondo student can typically expect to take part in most or all of the following:

• Learning the techniques and curriculum of taekwondo

• Both anerobic and aerobic workout, including stretching

• Self-defense techniques

• Poomse, or patterns (also called forms) -- either tul, hyung, palgwe, or taeguk

• Kyorugi (Sparring), including step-sparring and/or free-style, arranged, hoshinsul and more

• Relaxation exercises

• Breaking (using techniques to break boards for testing, training & martial arts demonstrations)

• Exams to progress to the next rank

• A focus on mental & ethical discipline, justice, etiquette, respect, and self confidence.

Some of the best-known taekwondo techniques include:

• Front Kick (ap chagi): This is a very linear kick. The practitioner raises their knee to their waist, pulls their toes back and quickly extends their foot at an opponent. It is also known as the snap kick. The front kick is one of the first kicks learned in TKD, if mastered it can become one of the most powerful.

• Side Kick (yop chagi): A very powerful kick, first the practitioner raises his knee, rotates their body 90 degrees, extend their leg striking with the side or heel of their foot.

• Roundhouse Kick or Turning Kick (op-dollyu chagi or dollyu chagi): The practitioner raises their knee, turns, and extends the kick horizontally across his target usually at a 45 degree angle.

• Hook Kick (hoorye cha kee): A less popular kick traditionally, it has found increasing favor in modern competitions. The practitioner raises the knee in a fashion similar to the roundhouse kick, then extends the foot in a dorsal arc (would be clock-wise for the right foot) with the heel as the intended striking weapon. This is also known as the front hook kick.

• Axe Kick (Naeryo Chagi): Another kick that has increased in popularity due to sparring competitions. The knee is raised in front of the body, the leg then extended and pulled down with the heel pointed downward. It is typically targeted toward the head or shoulders and requires significant flexibility to employ effectively. Due to the way that the Axe Kick is set up it requires the attacker to be within 1 to 2 feet of the opponent to land an effective blow on the shoulders or head.

• Crescent Kick (Bandal Chagi): There are two variations of this kick; outer crescent and the inner crescent. In outer, the practitioner raises the extended leg as high as they can, and slightly up across the body, (a bit across the centerline of the body), then sweeping outward to the side, in a circular movement. For the inner, the motions are the same but the direction of the kick changes, this time originating from the outside of the body, heading towards the inside, or centerline of the body.

• Spin Kicks (dora chagi): There are a number of spinning kicks that involve the rotation of the entire body and head, before the kick is released. Spinning kicks include the back pivot kick (dweel cha kee), spinning hook kick (dweel hoorye cha kee), spinning axe kick, returning kick, 360 turning kick, and a number of other kicks of varying popularity.

• Jump Kicks (ee dan chagi): There are also a number of kicks that involve jumping before their execution. These include jumping front kick (ee dan ap cha kee), jumping side kick (ee dan yop cha kee), flying side kick, jump roundhouse (ee dan dol ryu cha kee) jump spinning hook kick, butterfly kick or "shuffle jump kick," jumping (or counter) back kick, and jump spinning side kick.

• Snap Kick : A snap kick is when you lift your knee up and snap your leg out, hence the name "snap kick"

Some taekwondo instructors also incorporate the use of pressure points, known as ji ap sul as well as grabbing self-defense techniques borrowed from other martial arts, such as Hapkido and Judo.

Ranks, belts, and promotion

Like many martial arts, taekwondo has ten student ranks (called a gup, also romanized as geup or kup) and nine or ten black belt ranks (dan). New students begin at 10^th gup (white belt) and advance down in number to 1^st gup. At many schools, students then advance into an intermediate rank called cho dan bo or dan bo, meaning "black belt candidate". After some prescribed amount of time has passed, the student takes a dan test, after which the student becomes a 1^st dan.

Dan ranks then increase to a maximum of either 9^th dan (ITF) or 10^th dan (Kukkiwon). The Kukkiwon does not allow students under 15 to attain dan ranks. Instead they earn poom ranks, or "junior black belt". Underage students may earn up to 4^th Poom, and all poom ranks convert automatically to dan ranks when the student comes of age and passes his or her next promotion.

The grading in taekwondo consists mainly of patterns, techniques and theory. The patterns are a display of punching and kicking techniques, and may also contain others such as breathing and stances. Theory is displayed verbally and expresses information on Korean words, vital information (such as vital points and rules) and a general understanding and knowledge of taekwondo.

Gup ranks and belt colors

The colored belt system is an artifact of Japanese influence on Korea during the occupation, and thus ultimately from Jigaro Kano, the founder of judo. Some organizations' leaders, like General Choi Hong Hi, assigned meanings to the various colors of the ranks, representing the progression of a student from white, the innocence of a beginner, into the maturity of the black belt, who is impervious to darkness and fear. The interpretation of the colors of the belt vary from school to school, and are sometimes omitted from instruction, as they did not have meaning when they were originally chosen. Neither the World Taekwondo Federation nor the Kukkiwon assign official meanings to the colors.

The correspondence of belt color to Gup varies drastically from school to school, and can even change within the same school over time. Belt colors are most useful in allowing students and instructors within a school to quickly determine rank. The traditional and most common rank-color correspondence found in both Kukkiwon and ITF schools are:

In most schools, the method by which colors are assigned for intermediate belt rankings (odd-numbered Gup) is far less uniform. The three most common approaches are: creating a new color for each odd rank (such as a purple or orange belt for 7^thGup), marking the increase of rank with a stripe on the belt, or wearing a "mixed" belt blending the two neighboring even-numbered colors together. There is little uniformity between schools in the new created colors, or how the "mixed" belts are created. Even the typical even-numbered Gupcolors are sometimes altered or omitted, and even the names of the same color can vary from school to school (for example, calling it a "gold belt" instead of a yellow belt). Because of this large variety in color naming systems, for clarity, taekwondo practitioners should always refer to their rank by number ("7^thGup") instead of by belt color. The time required to advance in each Guplevel also varies from school to school, but typical rates are quarterly or monthly. Not all students advance at each promotional testing, and students at advanced gupranks often wait one or more testing periods for their next promotion. Students with good attendance and strong aptitude may earn faster promotions than those with irregular attendance or effort. Guprank advancement records are usually kept by the school of origin, and sometimes by the association headquarters.

Korean commands

In Taekwondo, Korean forms of commands are often used.

General Cha-ryut! - Attention!. Kyung-nae! - Bow!. *Students reply taekwon when bowing. †Sabumnim ke kyung-nae! - Bow to the Instructor!. (†Only when bowing to a blackbelt or instructor.)

A 360 degree spinning roundhouse kick is thrown during a taekwondo sparring match in Dundalk, MD.

Sparring jun-bee! - ready! sicjak! - begin! kalyo! - break! kesok! - continue! kuman! - finish!

General competition

Olympic competition rules

The sparring regulations of the WTF, adopted by the International Olympic Committee, emphasize full contact blows, allow knockout and other logistics of the Olympic sports. These rules are different from taekwondo sparring based on poomsae technique, grabbing self-defense. There are over 18 different types of taekwondo sparring.

The official, current WTF competition rules can be found at the WTF website. These rules govern many aspects of tournament sparring, summarized below:

• The competition area measures 10m x 10m.

• The contestant shall wear the trunk protector (hogu), head protector, groin guard, forearm guards, shin guards, and a mouthpiece.

• The duration of the contest is non-stop three rounds of two minutes each, with a one-minute rest period between rounds. In case of a tie score after the completion of the 3rd round, a 4th round of two minutes will be conducted as the sudden death overtime round.

• Permitted and prohibited techniques:

  • Fist techniques are only allowed with a closed hand, and only with the leading part of the hand (no backhand or hammer techniques).

  • Foot techniques are only allowed by using the parts of the foot below the ankle bone (no shin or knee techniques).

• Permitted areas

  • Trunk: Full force attack by fist and foot techniques on the areas covered by the trunk protector are permitted. Attacks on the part of the back not covered by the trunk protector are permitted so long as they are not direct hits to the spine.

  • Head: Full force, knock out attack to the head is only allowed by foot techniques. Attack to the back of the head is prohibited, as are all hand techniques to the head.

• Points are awarded when permitted techniques deliver full force, abrupt displacement and trembling shock to the legal scoring areas of the body. Points may be awarded by judges for a successful technique as follows:

  • One point for attack on trunk protector.

  • Two points for attack on the head.

  • One point if a punch is thrown and stops the opponent in their tracks.

  • One additional point if the opponent is knocked down and the referee counts.

  • Declared winner if knock-out of the opponent with foot kicking to the legal area of head and face.

• Deduction of points. Two types of penalties may be assigned for prohibited acts, "kyonggo" (warning penalty) and "gamjom" (deduction penalty). Two "kyonggo" deduct one point, rounded down (an odd "kyonggo" is not counted in the grand total), and a "gamjom" deducts one full point. When a contestant has been deducted four points, the referee shall declare him/her loser by penalties.

  • "Kyonggo" penalties include: evading by turning the back to the opponent; falling down; avoiding/stalling the match; grabbing, holding, or pushing; attacking below the waist; pretending injury; butting or attacking with knee; hitting the opponent’s face with the hand.

  • "Gamjom" penalties include: attacking the opponent when the round is stopped; attacking a fallen opponent; intentionally attacking the opponent’s face with the hand.

• In the event of a tied score after the sudden death round, the judging officials decide the match based on the initiative shown during the final round.

Media Depiction

Despite martial arts movies being seemingly dominated by Japanese and Chinese martial arts, taekwondo is actually one of the most popular martial arts employed in film, largely because of the impressive kicking techniques used in taekwondo.

Among Hollywood films, one of the best and purist depictions of taekwondo can be found in the film Best of the Best and the sequels, although the art is referred to as karate throughout. Possibly the most famous superkickers of Hong Kong martial arts cinema (e.g. Hwang Jang-Lee) are practitioners of taekwondo. Hwang and many other Korean taekwondo practitioners have been in Jackie Chan and Bruce Lee films and have profoundly influenced martial arts kicks in the media. Taekwondo is also seen in Chuck Norris, Jean-Claude Van Damme and Tony Jaa movies, as well as many Hong Kong action films.

Taekwondo is also fairly common among fighting video games. In the Tekken series, the character Hwoarang uses taekwondo as his fighting style and can be seen doing sections of ITF forms, such as won-hyo tul and hwa-rang tul. His master, Baek Doo San also utilizes the style in a more Moo Duk Kwan variation of taekwondo.

In the Mortal Kombat franchise, characters Sonya Blade, Mokap, and Nightwolf use taekwondo as part of their fighting style. These styles, however, aren't a completely authentic depiction of taekwondo.

Some of SNK's franchises such as King of Fighters and Fatal Fury ("Garou" in Japan) also have plenty of taekwondo fighters in their rosters, most notably probably being Kim Kaphwan; his sons, Kim Jae Hoon and Kim Dong Hwan; his top students, May Lee and Chae Lim; his "test subjects", Choi Bounge and Chang Koehan, and his rival, Jhun Hoon.