TaeKwon-Do History and Theory

"TaeKwon-Do" literally translated means The art of Foot and Fist Fighting. Though it is a martial art, its discipline, techniques and mental training are the mortar for building a strong sense of justice, humility, integrity and environmental understanding.

"It is the mental conditioning that separates the true practitioner from the sensationalist content with mastering only the fighting aspects of the art" - Gen. Choi Hong Hi.

TaeKwon-Do can and should be a way of life and is therefore not a sport. The sporting aspects of TaeKwon-Do should be seen as an integral part of the art and should be used only to promote the art and spread friendship throughout the many TaeKwon-Do cirles of the world.

Physically, TaeKwon-Do is the scientific and coordinated use of the body in methods of self-defence. It uses the principles of breathing and sine-wave movements to focus (maximise) body speed and power.

TaeKwon-Do is a self-defence system that uses mainly leg techniques for both defence and counter attacks. It has more than a 100 well-defined kicking techniques - more than any other martial art. TaeKwon-Do has spectacular and very effective jumping, spinning and flying techniques.

Although TaeKwon-Do was only recently introduced to the world, martial arts has for centuries been an integral part of Korean society, culture and heritage.

-----TaeKwon-Do originated in Korea.-----

To see the TaeKwon-Do tenets and the oath, click here.

To see the meanings of each belt colour, click here.