Tae-Kwon-Do Training

Tae-Kwon-Do – Korean Martial Arts

Tae-Kwon-Do is a martial art of Korean origin. The translation of this martial art is a combination of "to strike with foot", "to strike with fist" and "art". In other words, you can loosely define this martial art as the art of the fist and the foot, or otherwise the martial art of punching and kicking. In terms of the number of practitioners, many people consider Tae-Kwon-Do to be one of the most popular martial arts. The basic principles of this sport combine sport, self defense, combat techniques, meditation, and exercise and combat just like most other martial arts do. This sport is also used as part of the training process for individuals in the military in South Korea.

Tae-Kwon-Do puts a large amount of emphasis on kicking techniques, and this is what sets it apart from most other martial arts styles. The rationale behind this emphasis is that the leg is both the strongest and the longest weapon that a martial artist has at his or her disposal, and so the kicks would have the greatest potential for executing powerful and successful strikes without the ability for the opponent to retaliate. Historically, Koreans have believed that the hands were too valuable for involvement in combat, which is why kicking is primarily emphasized in their martial arts.

Each teacher of Tae-Kwon-Do will be distinct in what they emphasize, but most of the core concepts of this sport remain the same from style to style. Learning this sport involves learning patterns and forms, self-defense techniques, arranged sparring, free-style sparring, point sparring, throwing techniques, falling techniques, breaking techniques and focus on discipline. Breaking techniques may include tiles, blocks, bricks and boards and can be broken up into power breaking and speed breaking. Power breaking puts emphasis on breaking as many boards as the student can, while speed breaking involves focus on speed rather than sheer force.

In Tae-Kwon-Do, ranks are typically separated into both junior and senior sections and student and instructor sections. Each consists of ten different ranks, and like many other martial arts, different colored belts. These color belts can be different depending on the school of study. Rather than using colored belts, some groups use colored stripes on the belts to indicate the current rank. Rather than going from first to tenth, in Tae-Kwon-Do the students go from tenth to first. The tenth geup is indicated by a completely white belt, while the first geup is typically indicated using a red belt with black stripes.