Tae Kwon Do means the art/way (Do) of kicking (Tae) & punching (Kwon). It is known, particularly, for its exceptional kicks. It is a Korean martial art with a complex history.

MARTIAL ARTS HISTORY/COMPARISON: Marital arts is divided up into different “styles” and they inevitably influenced & evolved from one another. Martial arts began in the late 500s CE when Buddhism spread into China from India during a period of disunity between the powerful Han & Tang imperial dynasties. A need for exercise, mental focus (mind-body), & self-defense among monks led to the development of Kung Fu (“skillful activity”), probably from Indian fighting techniques & Yoga. If you think about some yoga poses, they look an awfully lot like Kung Fu moves. Yoga (a series of physical, spiritual, & mental practices) dates to pre-Buddhist ancient Indian civilization but continued to evolved with Indian civilization to become an important component to Buddhism and Hinduism.

An apocryphal tale has it that a Buddhist monk named Bodhidharma (Bodhi = wisdom; dharma = ethical code) in the 500s moved from India to China & found Buddhist monks there in need of physical exercise & mental discipline. He supposedly taught them, from his own experiences, yoga & Indian fighting techniques. This became Kung Fu.  The Indian Mauryan Empire (India’s first empire 322-184, B.C.E.) had helped to spread Buddhism from India outwards and it had a tradition of maintaining a good army with a caste of warriors with specialized skills. Many of these traditions carried to the next major period in Indian history. This was India’s Gupta Empire (320-647 C.E.), a height of civilization dominating the region while China was weakened between dynasties. This would be the time period of Bodhidharma.

As Buddhism spread throughout China so did Kung Fu among the monks & monasteries and it morphed and evolved into different styles itself; even dividing along northern & southern Chinese cultural/social lines. White Crane & Southern Shaolin Kung Fu (the 2nd called incense shop boxing today) landed in Okinawa, an island with a geographical position that meant it had significant international links (particularly Chinese & Japanese links) that would influence the invention of Karate there, which by the 1920s diffused to Japan. The Okinawans between the 1600s and early 1800s called their combined Chinese-Okinawan (plus other international influences) martial art family Tōde (“China/Chinese Hand”). Okinawans eventually started naming their specific, local martial art styles after Okinawan cities: Naha Te, Shuri Te, Tomari Te. “Te” means hand. When Karate diffused to and started to be taught in the 1920s in Japan, the broader term “Tode” couldn’t be used because it linked to China, and Japan at the time had nothing but disdain for that country. The word was revised by the mid-1930s in such a way in Japanese so that “China Hand” was re-translated as “Empty Hand” or Kara-te. Shotokan Karate (named after the Okinawan master, Gichin Funakoshi who taught it; actually named for his school) has become the dominant style of Karate in Japan with Okinawan roots.

World War II then had a significant impact in spreading karate as a popular martial art. U.S. Marines and other soldiers who had engaged the Japanese in ferocious fighting in the Pacific Theatre took an interest in Karate and helped to bring it to the U.S. where it started to catch on quickly, first in the western U.S. before spreading everywhere else; it also became a global phenomenon. It made its way into Cold War fiction (James Bond novels & movies), then movies like Bruce Lee’s (—> best Bruce Lee scene) and television to become a huge cultural phenomenon that stimulated the opening of Karate (and other martial arts) schools. (See the bottom of this webpage for newspaper articles reflecting its dissemination.)

Tae Kwon Do History:

Firstly, one must be careful with less discriminating popular notions of Tae Kwon Do history because it was intentionally wrapped in falsehoods and exaggeration to promote and empower Korean nationalistic sensibilities after the trauma of decades of Japanese occupation. Tae Kwon Do is not thousands of years old; but neither is Japanese Karate. Tae Kwon Do evolved as a Korean nationalistic and patriotic attempt to unify disparate Korean martial arts styles taught in different schools (or kwans) after World War II (1939-1945). The most common martial art style in Korea was Tang Soo Do. The name Tang Soo Do is simply the Korean translation of “China Hand” — “Tang” stems from the Chinese Tang Dynasty (618-907 CE), the most influential dynasty, “Soo” is hand, and “Do” is way of — so it is essentially the Korean version of Japanese Shotokan Karate (The Way of the China Hand). It is literally Korean Karate, with similar forms and all; but unlike the Japanese version it incorporates advanced kicking. It was taught specifically by the Chung Do Kwan, the largest of the kwans. There were originally 8 or 9 different kwans, each of which had their own unique twist on Tang Soo Do stemming from various influences. There were various names for these, from Tang Soo Do to Tae Soo Do to Kong Soo Do to Kwonbop. There were also much older native Korean styles like Tae Kyon and Subak, the true histories of which we know little. Tae Kyon, an ancient kicking game, focused on kicks and circular movements, Subak used hand techniques, and China influenced both most obviously with the circular movements (karate tends to be linear). There was also an ancient elite youth group, supported by the Silla Kingdom (675-918), called the Hwa-Rang (“Flower youth”). It stressed unity among Koreans. They were young aristocratic men in something of a mixed Buddhist-Taoist-Confucian nationalistic group engaged in fancy dress, ritual, and dance and probably including some kind of martial skills that some in the modern era for reasons of nationalism have compared unconvincingly to the Japanese Samurai.

In more recent history, since the early 20th century (1910), Japan gained control of Korea as a colony and then treated Koreans brutally, banning all things Korean including martial arts (sending them underground). Many Koreans left the country, some going north to Manchuria or China (like Hwang Kee) and some even going to Japan. Some Koreans of means completed educations in Japan– typically in Japanese high schools & universities — as a necessary move to advance in a Korea dominated by Japan. In Japanese schools they learned Shotokan Karate. They then returned home with this knowledge and so Japanese Shotokan karate had a clear and major influence on the early development of Korean Tae Kwon Do as a national martial art. Chinese martial arts had a similar influence on Koreans so that Tae Kwon Do became a unique mixing of home-grown Korean arts, Chinese arts, and a big dose of Japanese arts. In 1955, after the Korean War (1950-53), the 8 various Korean kwans tried & failed to unite under a new name. This is when “Tae Kwon Do” was born, 11 April 1955, called that probably because the name was so reminiscent of the native style called Tae Kyon and it also singled out and highlighted, like Tae Kyon, advanced kicking techniques unlike Japanese karate. There would be no single martial arts style called Tae Kwon Do, however. The art, like in the broader history of the evolution & diffusion of martial arts, would splinter into various versions of Tae Kwon Do all or many using the same name.

Tae Kwon Do, named and promoted early on and significantly by General Choi Hong-Hi — a controversial figure himself, who had earned a black belt in Shotokan karate in Japan before moving back home to Korea — along with others developed 24 new forms (albeit based on the karate ones, thus the older style of performing them has a karate feel with lots of karate techniques) and gave them names rooted in Korean nationalism and history. Choi and his compatriots wanted Korean forms rather than using the standard Japanese karate forms. The first form they created, a higher-rank form (the forms were not devised in their current order) was not coincidentally named “Hwa Rang.” General Choi in 1954 created the Oh Do Kwan (“Gym of Our Way”) as a military martial arts gym and home to what would be his style of TKD and he would teach it, rather than Japanese karate, to his soldiers. Not all of the original kwans were happy in Tae Kwon Do. Some kwans dropped out of the attempted unification, like the Chung Do Kwan, the oldest kwan, which continued independently as Tang Soo Do Korean karate. The Moo Duk Kwan, the 2nd oldest kwan under Hwang Kee, also refused to meld with Tae Kwon Do although some of his students chose to do so. It would further evolve into what some call Moo Duk Kwan style of Tae Kwon Do. General Choi promoted his particular version of Tae Kwon Do by serving as the first president of the Korea Tae Kwon Do Association (KTA) from 1959 to 1961. For a few years years Choi left to be the South Korean ambassador to Malaysia. During this time he and other Korean martial artist together continued to develop the new TKD forms. For instance, the form Hwa Rang was created first in 1955 followed by Chung-Mu; Gae Baek in 1961. During Choi’s Malaysia years came 15 more forms: Chon-Ji, Dan-Gun, Do-San, Won-Hyo ( based on the karate form Heian Nidan), Yul-Kok, Chung Gun, Toi-Gye, Kwang Gae, Po Eun, etc. These are often called the “Chang-Hon forms”; the penname of Gen. Choi.  Choi then returned to Korea to lead, all but briefly, the KTA. In 1965 he promoted TKD through a global goodwill tour and in 1966 he published in English his TKD encyclopedia, documenting his particular style of the art. In 1966 Choi was forced to step down from the KTA.

Choi continued to promote his TKD and on 22 March 1966 organized his International Tae Kwon Do Federation (ITF). It would serve as a centralized body to both promote and govern his version of Tae Kwon Do. Choi also wrote an army training manual aimed at teaching South Korean soldiers his Tae Kwon Do. General Choi had big ambitions for Tae Kwon Do, not just as a military art but perhaps a vehicle to facilitate the reunification of Korea. General Choi, a strong and sometimes difficult personality, soon won political enemies in the South Korean regime and particularly after he (perhaps recklessly) made moves to spread his TKD involving North Korea that led many during the Cold War to question his patriotism. He ultimately left Korea in 1972 for Canada taking his ITF with him.

During the early 1970s the Korean government, an unsavory dictatorship at the time, decided to take control of Tae Kwon Do. In questionable moves it did away with the independent kwans and created the centralized World Tae Kwon Do Federation (WTF). It wanted to promote Tae Kwon Do as a national sport, and essentially exiled the ITF style of Tae Kwon Do. WTF Tae Kwon Do then sought to distance itself further, at least on the surface, from Tae Kwon Do’s significant Japanese influence but also from the version of Tae Kwon Do associated with the controversial Choi given both Korea’s fraught history with Japan and internal Korean politics. The new WTF style Tae Kwon Do created new forms to move away from the ones obviously based on Japanese karate, & changed some techniques. Not only did WTF Tae Kwon Do continue to evolve but so did Choi’s exiled Tae Kwon Do: in the 1970s into the 1980s, General Choi and his International TKD Federation (ITF) tweaked and altered traditional Tae Kwon Do to further differentiate it from Japanese karate and the South Korea-based WTF Tae Kwon Do when he introduced sine-wave (up and down, springy) motions to his Tae Kwon Do techniques to generate power which was a blatant departure from traditional karate core-of-body, hip twists, etc. (Personally, I think it is ineffective & causes one to be off balance and slow.) The ITF Tae Kwon Do schools associated with Choi’s organization switched to sine-wave techniques (mainly in Canada and Europe), others did not. They were either those schools that had drifted away from Choi’s organization — forming their own organizations or joining others — or chose not to switch.  Additionally, various Korean Tae Kwon Do masters, for a variety of reasons, with post-war Korea experiencing political and economic turmoil left in search of new prospects. They took with them the various & unique Tae Kwon Do styles they practiced, most of which embraced non-sinewave techniques. The old Oh Do Kwan affiliated schools, for instance, did not switch to sine-wave. Tae Kwon Do schools, in another example, that descended from Moo Duk Kwan & accepted Choi’s forms also did not adopt sine-wave techniques. The evolutions here are varied and complex. In essence, these various Tae Kwon Dos landed in different part of the world, seeding the various Tae Kwon Do variations there; these different TKD styles then grew, blossomed, and disseminated further.

The Tae Kwon Do that dominates in South Korea today is different from the original style (which I practice) so influenced by the Japanese. In Korea, starting in 1973 with the WTF (called World Taekwondo today), it intentionally become more sports-based (think Olympics) than martial art-based and it has changed its techniques and patterns away from Choi’s original creations which had a lot of obvious similarities to Shotokan Karate.

How one SPELLS the name of the Korean martial art gives a clue as to what type it is: if it is “Taekwon-Do” then it is the ITF version (Choi’s) of the art with sine-wave technique; if it is spelled “Taekwondo” then it is the WTF style (Olympic) art; if it is spelled “Tae Kwon Do” then it is not directly affiliated with either ITF or WTF & likely its practitioners do not use sine-wave technique. 

Tae Kwon Do of whatever variety is part and parcel of Korean identity and all of it has been wrapped up in political controversies leading the art, itself, to split into different Tae Kwon Do styles (it has also spilt in the traditional manner as it diffused to other countries). So if you watch Olympic Tae Kwon Do, for instance, it is less traditional sparring (different from karate sparring, “kumite”) and more along the lines of trying to touch or slap the head and torso with kicks. This is a recent evolution. Look to 1980s Olympic TKD and you’ll see it has more of a sparring feel. Yet it is still very much rooted in nationalism: it is the (proudly) Korean Olympic event. One way to think of it, perhaps, is a return to Tae Kyon, an ancient kicking game.

 

Note the similarities between the Shotokan Heian Nidan form in the first video and the older (non-sine wave style) Tae Kwon Do form Won Hyo in the second. Japanese Karate’s influence on traditional Tae Kwon Do is clear. On original Tae Kwon Do’s evolution from Japanese karate see The Evolution of Taekwondo from Japanese Karate.

See also the 5-part: “Storming the Fortress: A History of TKD.”

Traditional Tae Kwon Do belt ranks & forms (hyung, tul) associated with them (Chang Hon is Gen Choi’s penname):

ITFPatternsPoster: (click here for a higher quality version).

 

A note on ranks. Traditionally, Tae Kwon Do has used “gup” ranks below black belt (“kyu” in Japanese karate). 10th gup being white belt & 1st gup being the rank just before black belt. The gup ranks descend, in other words. Some schools, however, have added more than 9 or 10 ranks &, therefore, have dispensed with the gup system. Belt ranks, in any event, are merely an individual school’s means of measuring advancement through a particular martial-arts curriculum.

The black belt ranks are called “dan” (meaning level), an old ranking system used across martial arts that first started with judo & then was pick up by all the others. Japanese arts, generally speaking, have 10 dan ranks; Korean arts, generally, have 9 (but not always). Korean arts generally use golden stripes to denote non-master dan ranks, then red stripes for master ranks. The dan ranks ascend from 1st dan through 10.

Higher dan ranks are referred to as “master,” but which rank denotes master varies by martial arts style & organization.  ITF TaeKwon-Do formally starts master ranks at 7th dan. Other TKD & karate organizations, including WTF, start master at 4th dan through 6th dan. ATA Tae Kwon Do starts master at 6th degree.

Grandmaster is a life-time achievement rank; with ITF it is restricted to 9th dan only, but in other styles (like WTF) 7th-9th dan are grandmasters. The grandmaster rank is typically not awarded to anyone under the age of 50. Master ranks are denoted with red stripes on the black belt in Korean arts.

Excellent video; 9:04 for Korean arts below

 

 

Naming of the Traditional TKD Forms:

Chon-Ji: (created 1962-64) Literally “Heaven & Earth,” representing the beginning. Thus the first form.

Dan-Gun: (created 1962-64) Named for the legendary founder of Korea some 4,000 years ago. It has 3 high punches to the front & 3 high blocks to the rear symbolizing his famously climbing a mountain.

Do-San: (created 1962-64) Named for a Korean patriot devoted to education & independence.

Won Hyo: (created 1962-64) Named for the monk who brought Buddhism to Korea some 1,500 years ago.

Yul-Kok: (created 1962-64) Named for the “Confucius of Korea.” The form diagram is the Korean word for “scholar” & its 38 movements represent the 38th parallel where he was born.

Chung-Gun: (created 1962-64) Named for the Korean patriot who assassinated the 1st Japanese governor of colonized Korea. Its 32 movements represent his age when arrested & executed in 1910 for the assassination.

Toi-Gye: (created 1962-64) Named for the Korean scholar of neo-Confucianism. It’s 37 movements represent where he was born & the diagram is also “scholar.”

Hwa-Rang: (created 1955) The first TKD form created, named for the Silla Dynasty “Flower Youth.” Its 29 movements symbolize the 29th infantry division where TKD blossomed.

Chung-Mu: (created 1955) Named for a noted admiral of the 16th century, Yi Sun-Shin, who fought the Japanese in Korea. The form ends with a left-handed attack symbolizing Yi’s death (left is associated with death in Korea), having been shot in battle.”Chungmu-gong” was the title posthumously given him, as others of like valor, “Lord of Loyalty & Valor.”

 

BLACK BELT FORMS (thru start of 2nd dan):

Kwang-Gae: (created 1962-64) FIRST DAN; Named for a Korean king who regained lost territory. Its diagram symbolizes expansion & recovery of territory. Its 39 movements symbolize the year 391 C.E.

Po-Eun: (created 1962-64) FIRST DAN; Named for a noted poet known for his undying loyalty. The form is linear, and exactly the same each direction.

Gae-Baek: (created 1961) FIRST DAN; Named for a general of 1,400 years ago; its movements symbolize strict discipline.

Eui-Am: SECOND DAN; Named for the leader of the 1919 Korean independence movement.

 

Tae Kwon Do forms here.

 

A history of Tae Kwon Do patterns: (from Anslow, The Encyclopedia of TKD Patterns)

 

I’m writing a History of Tae Kwon Do in North America. (click on the map)

 

My own martial arts history: CLICK HERE!

 

 

 

Here is a good run-down of the broader family of Tae Kwon Do I practice.

 

 

 

 

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The Techniques of My Style of Tae Kwon Do

My style of Tae Kwon Do is rooted in the original art (non-sine wave) and original Chon-Ji style forms. There are many ways to evaluate techniques of an individual style. One is in chambering — the preparation for executing a strike or block. There are three basic ways one might chamber their fists, for instance: knuckle-to-knuckle, knuckles to mid-arms, knuckles to ear.

At my original school in the 1980s, we chambered the first way. At my new school, in the same family tree, we chamber the second way but they used to do it the 3rd way. Whichever one matters little. It’s preference.

By way of stances, unlike Japanese karate and WTF Tae Kwon Do, my style of Tae Kwon Do uses wide and deep stances. Also unlike karate, the rear foot in a front stance has toes pointed forward rather than at an angle. Moving in stances uses a step-behind style, rather than the step-in-front karate style. Moving forward, or backward, in a front stance cane be done in one of three ways: (1) stepping straight forward with the rear leg, (2) making a circular movement forward with the rear leg, (3) make a triangular movement forward with the rear leg to the other leg then out. I use style 2, since I learned it as a kid, and I think it looks smoother in forms.

When punching in a stance, one keeps the shoulders “square,” not reaching for it with one shoulder. This is unlike many karate styles that reach a bit. My style of Tae Kwon Do is quite squared off, geometrically speaking.

In terms of self-defense, many Tae Kwon Do schools use simple block-and-strike techniques. My style of Tae Kwon Do — given its origins with Kang who was both a TKD and hapkido black belt — the self defense incorporates a lot of classic hapkido techniques: wrist locks, arm locks, pressure points, grabs, throws, take-downs, etc. My original school used a seemingly endless number of these, whereas my current school assigns certain techniques to a belt rank.

 

ONE STEPS & FIGHTING TECHNIQUES: Most martial arts employ one-step sparring techniques: drills to simulate execution of techniques in terms of distancing, timing, & position. The 30 one-step sparring techniques we practiced at my first school (and still do in my new school given their common lineages) were devised by Grand Masters Shin Duk Kang & Frank DiMatteo in the 1970s and they published them in the first book below in 1978. If one takes a moment to study them, Kang’s & DiMatteo’s one-steps are quite elegant & thoughtful. They build a student up from one technique to another as the student reaches a higher skill level. They are also executed always with, for example, a high strike followed by a low strike or vice versa. There is a pattern, symmetry, and elegance to the originals. A lower one-step skill is often repeated in a more complex way in a higher one-step (one steps 8 and 12, for example, build on each other; I call them “cousins”). The more advanced one-steps might require one to start at a slightly different distance from the opponent to execute the skill correctly and accurately (one-steps 10, 11, 15, and 16 for example). Some of Kang’s one-steps incorporate hapkido techniques: one-steps 18 & 24, for example, incorporate wrist/arm-lock take downs.

One steps are often changed by an individual master/school based on their particular interests. This is the case with my current school with some of these one-steps, and was even the case in my original school. I first learned all the original techniques, then one day my teacher said we were adding take-downs to all of them. He was interested in making them more advanced than they originally were designed. Which is fine.

Kang also devised a set of Free Fighting Techniques. They are essentially more advanced and complex one-steps better designed for actual sparring. In my original school we used these 25 “fighting techniques” as we called them. They, too, were published (in the the second book shown below).

One steps example (#30):

 

Fighting Techniques example (#19), see me do this one in the video below:

 

BELOW: fighting techniques (boy on right): 6-10. One-steps (boy on left): 21-25.

When it comes down to it, given how martial arts styles morph and change through the process of international and domestic diffusion, I suppose my style of Tae Kwon Do is unique (what style isn’t, eh?). It’s rooted in ITF Tae Kwon Do, but it isn’t quite ITF — it’s not sine-wave and uses more advanced self-defense techniques. It’s taught in a school disinterested in the profit motive; it’s taught from a love for the art. Some schools, typically big chains, can become more interested in collecting fees than in turning out skilled students. I think the best descriptor for my particular style of TKD is accurate. My current teacher calls it American Tae Kwon Do. It formed here from unique circumstances, not governed or dictated by an international body.

 

A 1973 ( so traditional TKD ) Tae Kwon Do demonstration.