An Overview of Taekwondo, Its Origin, Features and Techniques

Taekwondo is a martial art form that was founded on April 11, 1955, by the South Korean army general Choi Hong Hee. In Korean Tae (Tae) means kicking, Quon means fist or hand kicks, Do is the way. So there are two components of Taekwon Do (Taekwondo): the first is the use of arms and legs for self-defense, and the second is the Do life path, which includes a moral and ethical education of the personality, an intensive mental training to develop a higher consciousness by understanding the Taekwon Do culture and philosophy. The name itself already contains the essence of Taekwon-do (Taekwondo), namely the harmonious development of the human being both physically and mentally. On 22 March 1966, General Choi Hong Hisosa, the founder of Taekwondo, called a founding conference to establish a public association to develop Taekwondo (Taekwondo) in the world. At this founding conference, it was unanimously decided to name the legal personality of the new organization in International Taekwon-Do Federation with the abbreviation ΙTF. For the ITF, this means that the organisation represents exactly the martial arts and sport that its founder himself created. At the same conference, General Choi Hong Hee was elected President of the ITF International Taekwon-Do Federation and re-elected every four years, remaining ITF President until his death on 15 June 2002.

In the short period of Taekwon-Do's existence, the martial arts are quite young compared to many others - they have gained enormously in popularity, and today there are about 40 million people involved in them worldwide. Taekwondo is an all-round martial art consisting of five disciplines. The competition program includes four disciplines: Sparring competition (Masogas), formal complex competition (Thule), Brettchenbrech competition (3 different strokes for women and 5 different strokes for men) and special technique competition Taekwon-do (T-ki - Brettchenbrech with long jump and height - 3 different jumps for women and 5 different jumps for men). Besides the competition disciplines, the training program also includes self-defense techniques (Hoshinsul), which are a logical application of the previous disciplines in real situations. Taekwon Do (Taekwondo) is perhaps the only martial art whose teaching methods, besides philosophy, the order of belt assignment and all its components, breaking, fighting, basic techniques, special techniques, form complexes, self-defense techniques are described by the founder himself in a book - Encyclopedia Taekwon Do, which consists of 15 volumes! Of course, the existence of the encyclopedia cannot replace the instructor, but it allows to avoid distortion of the classical technique, allows everyone to correct and improve his skills, to avoid mistakes and profanation. With the help of the encyclopedia, the art becomes accessible to everyone, there is no possibility to speculate about the closedness of the system, to hide your ignorance under the pretext of secrecy. There are no secrets in Taekwon Do, except for one thing - full dedication to the training process. A student who succeeds in forcing himself will sooner or later achieve the desired results, which may seem supernatural to a normal person.

In Taekwon-Do, there is a unique system of belt distribution: There are 10 categories of 'rashes' for colored belts and 9 degrees (dans) for black belts. Depending on the intensity of the training, the black belt can be obtained from one year (if you train 4 hours 6 times a week) up to 4-5 years, if you train 1.5 hours 2-3 times. To get the 2nd Dan you have to wait 1 year regardless of the technical level, the 3rd Dan - two years, the 4th Dan - three years and so on. The holders of 1st to 3rd Dan can be considered as assistant teachers (Bossa bom). The holders of 4th to 6th Dan are considered to be teachers (sa bom) and those of 7th to 8th Dan as masters (sa hun im). Holders of the 9th Dan are considered great masters - sa sleep im. All this shows that it takes at least 7 years to obtain the Taekwon-Do teacher title (4th Dan and higher), enough time to distinguish the professional from the amateur.

Taekwon Do (Taekwondo) is based on knowledge of anatomy, biomechanics, physiology and physical education. The scientific approach makes the art alive. As much as science evolves, so too does the art, of course the classical technique, Tula, the foundation of TKD, least of all, it is the core, the basis on which all instructors rely. But which methods, which stresses and what to focus on, the instructor chooses. Different trainers are different personality types, they are different methods, different approaches. This enables each student to find a school that is more suitable for him or her. Perhaps this characteristic stems from an old Korean tradition of teacher selection, in which a monk, after several years of pre-school education, had to go around as many monasteries as possible and learn from many teachers in order to choose one, call him his teacher and learn from him as long as the teacher sees fit.

There is a misconception that there is no hand technique in Taekwon Do. Of course, a well-designed powerful foot technique is a special distinction, a kind of trademark, but it does not mean at all that less time is spent on the hand technique in training. Those who are familiar with Taekwon Do often say that there are strong kicks and very strong hand kicks. Taekwon Do (Taekwondo) has an appealing effect besides its effectiveness. The culture of movement impresses the viewer and gives pleasure to the inhabitants. Here the full development of body and mind is combined with the joy of technique and movement. I hope that this article will help all Taekwon-Do students to better understand the art they practice and will be an incentive for those who are not yet familiar with it to come to Do-Yang and see what has been said.