taekwondo - The development of taekwondo, Organizations, Features, Ranks, belts, and promotion, Olympic competition rules

A martial art developed in Korea by General Choi Hong Hi. It officially became part of Korean tradition and culture in 1955, and is now popular as a sport. The International Taekwondo Federation was founded in 1966.

Taekwondo
Taekwondo sparring match, WTF rules
Korean name
Hangul:	태권도
Hanja:	跆拳道
Revised Romanization:	Tae gwon do
McCune-Reischauer:	T'ae kwŏn do

Taekwondo (also spelled tae kwon do or taekwon-do) is a hard martial art originating in Korea. An amalgamation of Chinese, Japanese, and traditional Korean fighting styles, taekwondo has become the world's most commonly practiced martial art, and is the national sport of Korea as well as an Olympic sporting event. 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. advanced kicks include jump, spin, skip, and drop kicks, often in combination. Taekwondo training also includes a comprehensive system of hand strikes and blocks, but generally does not emphasize grappling until the higher belt levels.

The development of taekwondo

The origin of Taekwondo is disputed due to the sensitivity regarding foreign influence on Korean culture. Practitioners of Taekwondo put greater empasis on Taekwondo being sourced from ancient Korean martial tradition, while the extent of Japanese Shotokan Karate being origin is disputed.

Traditional roots

The oldest Korean ancestor of taekwondo is an amalgamation of unarmed combat styles developed by three rival kingdoms in the earliest days of known Korean history.

Modern taekwondo

By the end of the Korean War, nine more martial arts schools (known as kwan) had opened, and South Korean President Syngman Rhee ordered that the various schools should unify under a common name. Shortly after, taekwondo made its debut in North America, where Jhoon Rhee was teaching the art in Texas, but calling it karate (the name taekwondo was unknown in the West at the time). 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.

In 1972, the Korea Taekwondo Association Central Dojang was opened.

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 practice for the sake of tournaments.

Organizations

The largest taekwondo tournament organization is the World Taekwondo Federation, headquartered in South Korea. Although the terms "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. 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 & 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.

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.

Taekwondo as a sport and exercise is popular with people of both sexes and of many ages.

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 &

Some of the best-known taekwondo techniques include:

Front Kick (ap chagi): This is a very linear 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 (dolyo chagi): The practitioner raises their knee, turns, pulls their toes back 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. Crescent Kick (Bandal Chagi): Another kick that has increased in popularity due to sparring competitons. Axe Kick (Naeryo Chagi): There are two variations of this kick; 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 Spin Kicks (tora chagi): There are a number of spinning kicks that involve the rotation of the entire body 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), jump side kick (ee dan yop cha kee), flying side kick, jump roundhouse (ee dan dol ryu cha kee) jump spinning hook kick, shuffle jump kick, jump (or counter) back kick, and jump spinning side 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).

The grading in taekwondo consists mainly of patterns, techniques and theory.

Kup 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.

The correspondence of belt color to Kup varies drastically from school to school, and can even change within the same school over time. The traditional and most common rank-color correspondence found in both Kukkiwon and ITF schools are:

Kup	Color
10th	White Belt
9th	varies
8th	yellow belt
7th	varies
6th	green belt
5th	varies
4th	blue belt
3rd	varies
2nd	red belt
1st	varies

The method by which colors are assigned for intermediate belt rankings (odd-numbered Kup) is far less uniform.

Even the typical even-numbered Kup colors 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 ("7th Kup") instead of by belt color.

Dan belts

The black belt system is more formal and standardized across the different schools of taekwondo. For example, a 5 dan is a very rare rank, generally awarded posthumously only to persons who have made great contributions to taekwondo. The WTF, WTF Member National Associations and the Kukkiwon issue many honorary dan to political and non-political persons who make a contribution to the growth of taekwondo. Age Limits for Poom or Dan Promotion

Poom/Dan	Minimum Time Required for Promotion	Age Limits for Promotion
		Start from Dan	Start from Poom
1st Poom	N A	N A	Less than 15 Years Old
1 Poom	1 year	N A	15?
2 Poom	2 year	N A	15?
3 Poom	3 year	N A	18?
1st Dan	N A	15 years and above	N A
1 Dan	1 year	16 years and above	14 years and above
2 Dan	2 year	18 years and above	15 years and above
3 Dan	3 year	21 years and above	18 years and above
4 Dan	4 year	25 years and above	22 years and above
5 Dan	5 year	30 years and above	30 years and above
6 Dan	6 year	36 years and above	36 years and above
7 Dan	8 year	44 years and above	44 years and above
8 Dan	9 year	53 years and above	53 years and above
9 Dan	N A	60 years and above	60 years and above

For Kukkiwon practitioners, all ranks of 1st dan and above must be registered with the Kukkiwon if the black belt wishes for his rank to be acknowledged at other dojangs, or if he wishes to participate in the Olympics.

The Kukkikwon requires special promotion tests to advance to the 8 dan who is also at least one dan rank higher than the person testing.

Dan titles

For those who have passed the sabum test at the Kukkiwon Academy, these are the official sabum classifications:

4 Dan "Sabum 3 Class Course 6 Dan "Sabum 2 Class Course 8 Dan "Sabum 1 Class Course

Officially, the Kukkiwon recognizes the following titles for dan ranks:

1 Dan: "Master" 5 Dan: "Grandmaster"

In America, the following is an example of how schools may assign titles to Dan ranks:

1 Dan: "Assistant Instructor" 3 Dan: "Instructor" 5 Dan: "Master" 8 Dan: "Grand Master"

"Assistant Instructor" and "Instructor" are unofficial rank titles, and although dan holding these titles often help with instruction, this arrangement is independent of the Kukkiwon's official "Instructor" program in which one receives certified training in conducting taekwondo classes.

ITF schools use a different standard ranking system:

1 Dan: "Assistant Instructor" (Boo-Sabum) 4 Dan: "Instructor" (Sabum) 7 Dan: "Master" (Sahyun) 9th Dan: "Grand Master" (Sasung)

Modes of address

The word "master" carries a different connotation in Korean than it does in English.

Title	Meaning
Panjanim	Higher Ranking Student
Sunbaenim	Senior Student
Kyosanim	Assistant Instructor
Sabumnim	Teacher
Kwanjangnim	Kwan Leader
Kuk Sa Nim	National Teacher

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.

Media depiction

Despite martial arts movies being seemingly dominated by Chinese martial arts, taekwondo is actually one of the most popular martial arts employed in film. This has a lot to do with 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.

In Not Another Teen Movie a white boy pretending to be Asian makes a racist statement to a Korean student, who promptly side kicks him in the face.

Taekwondo is also fairly common among fighting video games.

In the Mortal Kombat franchise, characters Sonya Blade, Mokap, and Nightwolf use taekwondo as part of their fighting style.

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. Punches or kicks to the body are 1 point, with jump kicks to the body being I point.