For those who don’t know about Taekwondo, it is one of the most systematic and scientific Korean traditional martial arts, that teaches more than physical fighting skills. It is a discipline that shows ways of enhancing our spirit and life through training our body and mind. Today, it has become a global sport that has gained an international reputation, and stands among the official games in the Olympics.
Taekwondo Is composed of three parts:
“Tae” means “foot,” “leg,” or “to step on”
“Kwon” means “fist,” or “fight”
“Do” means the “way” or “discipline.”
So literally translated, Taekwondo means “Foot”, “Fist”, “Way”.
Taekwondo has been developed over the 5000-year long history of Korea. Taekwondo began as a defense martial art called “Subak” or “Taekkyon,” and developed as a way of training body and mind in the ancient kingdom of Koguryo, under the name of “Sunbae.” In the Shilla period, it had become the backbone of Hwarangdo that aimed at producing leaders of the country.
Taekwondo today is similar to the martial arts in other Oriental countries and shares some features with them, because in the course of its evolution it has gained many different styles that existed in the martial arts of the countries surrounding Korea, like Japan and China.
But Taekwondo is very different from many such oriental martial arts. First, physically it is very dynamic with active movements that include a mirage of foot skills. Second, the principle physical movements are in simpatico with that of the mind and life as a whole. Third, it possesses dynamic poses from another perspective.
*The text on this page has been adapted from the text on the www.wtf.org website.