What is taekwondo?

Taekwondo is an originally Korean martial art and literally means the way of the foot and hand. In many cases this style is also called Korean karate. This style is mainly characterized by the many leg techniques. Taekwondo itself has many styles and groups.

Origin

Like many areas, Korea has an ancient history of martial arts. The original martial art, which is still practiced today, is Taekkyon. This resembles a battle dance using only leg work.

Korea was conquered by Japan in 1910 and only liberated in 1945. The Japanese government turned Korea into a colony and banned all original Korean culture. The inhabitants of Korea had to adapt in terms of language, culture, education, etc. The original martial arts were also banned and Japanese martial arts such as karate and jujutsu were introduced. Many Korean young men also went to Japan to study and some also learned the native martial arts there.

Korean karate

After the liberation of Korea, there were some Koreans who opened their own martial arts schools. A school or clan was called ‘kwan’ in Korean. The most famous Kwan to date is Moo Duk Kwan. Japanese karate was practiced in these kwans, but because after the liberation of Korea everything from Japanese culture was now excluded, some called their Kwan ‘Korean karate’. The various Kwans wanted to organize themselves into a federation and originally wanted to call their martial art Korean karate. This made this martial art unpopular and the Kwans leaders realized that they had to remove anything ‘Japanese’ from their curriculum. For example, they did not recognize the origin of these techniques and rewrote history, claiming that the origin literally came from China. For example, the name was changed from kongsoodo (way of the empty hand) to tangsoodo (way of the Chinese hand). Some kwans decided to use the name soobahkdo.

To this day, there are schools that use all kinds of names. However, the original style forms are the same as those from karate (e.g. heian or pinan became pyung ahn). In all honesty, these styles should be called Korean karate. As in many other styles, some kwan’s have of course undergone changes over the years. For example, new styles have been added, weapons are sometimes used, etc. In a similar way, Korean hapkido emerged, which has its roots in traditional jujutsu.

Naming and different federations

In order to make the martial art even more of the cultural heritage of Korea and to try to get all kwans under one organization, it was decided, under the influence of some masters and politicians, to come up with a new name and also to change the style forms (which are of course strongly based on were on the original). For example, the name taesoodo was first used but quickly changed to taekwondo.

The name taekwondo was first introduced on April 11, 1955. Not all kwans agreed with this and some wished to keep their original names or styles. Under the leadership of Choi Hong Hi, the name taekwondo quickly became popular thanks to his military rank and political talent. In 1966, the International Taekwon-Do Federation was founded, headed by Choi Hong Hi until his death. After his death, this federation fragmented and most fragmentations continued to call themselves ITF Taekwon-Do. To this day, the debate continues as to which is the official federation.

Because Choi Hong Hi fell out with the South Korean government, it was decided to expel Choi Hong Hi and his federation. South Korea founded the World Taekwondo Federation (now called ‘World Taekwondo’). The styles from ITF were changed again and ITF and WT now seem to use 2 different martial arts despite the same name taekwondo.

When we want to divide taekwondo into style groups we can determine the following:

Korean karate (also called tangsoodo, kongsoodo or the name of the kwan – such as moodukkwan, chungdokwan, jidokwan, ..).
style forms: hyungs – these are mainly the same as the kata from Japanese karate.
sparring: participation in all kinds of competitions in non-contact, semi-contact, light-contact and full-contact.
other components: step sparring, self-defense, falling techniques and breaking tests.
Korean karate is characterized by the specialization of the leg techniques.
Korean kickboxing
all parts as in Korean karate, except the style forms.
ITF Taekwon-Do
style forms: Tul – based on the hyung. Each tull has its own story and philosophy.
sparring: semi-contact and semi-contact with continuous system
other events: step sparring, self-defense and breaking tests
WT (Olympic) taekwondo
style forms: poomse – based on hyung and tul.
sparring: olympic taekwondo
Other events: step sparring, self-defense and breaking tests

Info

Tom Van De Sijpe

Contact: info@won-hyo.be