TaeKwon-Do is:

 

The mental training and techniques or unarmed combat for self-defense as well as for health. It involves the skilled application of punches, kicks, blocks, and dodges with bare hands and feet for the rapid destruction of moving opponent or opponents.

 

The word TaeKwon-Do can be broken down into the following definitions :

 

 

Tae = jumping, flying to kick or smash with foot
 

Kwon = fist, to punch, or destroy with the hand or fist
 

Do = art or way

 

The origin of Taekwon-Do dates back thousands of years. A mural on the wall of a tomb built in the Kingdom of Koguryo (37 BC) shows two figures in Taekwon-Do stances and hand motions. The ancient martial art called Tae Kyon lasted until the 1900s. During the occupation of Korea by the Japanese, the practice of Tae Kyon was banned. With the occupation, Tae Kyon barely survived, and in 1945, after the Japanese left Korea, the old traditions were revived.

 

Soon after the liberation of Korea in 1945, General Choi, Hong Hi was named as a founding member of the new South Korean Armed Forces. There, he was able to refine and develop new martial art techniques, and have these evolve into a new martial art -- Taekwon-Do. In 1955, the name TaeKwon-Do was coined by General Choi, Hong Hi. 

 

In our founder's words, TaeKwon-Do is an art of self-defense which aims at a noble moral re-armament, high degree of intellectual achievement, graceful techniques and beauty of physical form. It can be considered as part of one's daily life, just as are breathing and thinking. The physical techniques of TaeKwon-Do are based on the principles of modern science, in particular Newtonian physics, which teaches us how to generate maximum power. Military tactics of attack and defense have also been incorporated.

General Choi developed many of the modern techniques which were refined and tested in the Korean armed forces. TaeKwon-do is now the national Korean martial art of self-defense. Although its history spans back thousands of years into ancient systems of self-defense, it has been blended with modern day physics into one of the most powerful martial arts in existence. General Choi passed away in 2002, while still active as President of the International TaeKwon-Do Federation (ITF), the international governing body for traditional Taekwon-Do. General Choi is recognized in the Encyclopedia Brittanica as the founder of modern day TaeKwon-Do.

 

The information on this page is taken all or in part from the Encyclopedia of TaeKwon-Do, by Grandmaster Choi Hong Hi.