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Taekwondo or Taegwondo (태권도; 跆拳道) is the Korean national sportmartial art, and is also one of the world's most commonly-practiced sports. In the Korean language, Tae (跆) means "foot", Kwon (拳) means "hand" or "fist", and Do (道) means "way". Hence, Taekwondo is taken to mean "the way of the hand and the foot."
Although this sport has not fared well in no holds barred martial arts competitions like the the Ultimate Fighting Championships many people do enjoy participating in our sport. It is a great form of exercise for families.
In terms of effective street defense, Judo, Jujitsu, Brazilian Jiujitsu,Boxing, Highschool Wrestling, Submission or Combat Wrestling, and Sambo are much more effective self-defense alternatives commonly taught. This is not a weakness of Taekwondo as it is an Olympic medal sport.
History
The roots of Taekwondo can be traced back to the period of the Japanese rule of Korea when some Koreans learned karate in Japan. They returned to Korea and began to teach karate. After World War II, they had to de-japanize their martial arts. Koreanization of karate was performed by replacing Japanese names with Korean ones, denying its Japanese origin and positioning their martial arts as the successor of probable martial arts recorded in historical sources. They especially emphasises taekkyon, a Korean street performance.
Taekwondo was formed on April 11, 1955, when most Korean martial arts masters decided to unite all the various fighting styles (such as Gong Soo, Taekyeon, Kwon Beop soo bak do Tang Soo Do etc.) under the name "Tae Soo Do" . This name was changed in 1957 by General Choi Hong Hi to Taekwondo.
Organizations
Although there are many different federations and associations, Taekwondo can be broadly divided into two schools: International Taekwondo Federation (ITF, founded 1966), and World Taekwondo Federation (WTF, founded 1973). Again, broadly speaking, the difference between ITF Taekwondo and WTF Taekwondo is the patterns (the pre-set, formal sequences of movements students learn). ITF has 24 patterns (which represent the 24 hours in a day, or the whole of a person's life), whilst WTF uses the Poomses form of patterns (which originate from the Chinese book, I Ching). The main difference between these two styles of pattern is that ITF patterns use a "stepping motion" for hand techniques, which include moving the body in a sinusoidal motion in order to use bodyweight to increase the effectiveness of the techniques. WTF is the only taekwondo body recognised by the South Korean government and it's rules have been adopted by the International Olympic Committee. Only students whose training is recognised by the WTF can take part in the olympic games.
Features
Taekwondo is famed for its employment of leg techniques, which many believe distinguishes it from martial arts such as Karate or Kung Fu. Hand techniques are also used a great deal, and so Taekwondo should not be considered to be confined to leg-work. Taekwondo was designed to be effectively employed by people regardless of their sex, height, weight or age, and so Taekwondo is popular with people of both sexes and of all ages.
Although each Taekwondo club or school will be different in some ways, a Taekwondo student can typically expect to take part in most or all of the following:
- Learning the techniques of Taekwondo
- Exercise!
- Some self-defence techniques for the world we live in today
- Sparring (free-style controlled fighting in a safe environment, usually using safety gear, with either no-contact or very light-contact)
- Relaxation exercises
- Breaking (using the techniques to break boards etc. to gain knowledge of how you are developing and to improve confidence)
- Regular gradings (tests to progress to the next grade/belt and to gain confidence with your development)
- A friendly and mutually-respectful atmosphere
- Learning the theory and history behind Taekwondo