In April 1955, a committee was organized by Gen. Choi Hong Hi to choose a
unifying name for the art practiced by the original Kwans. Attending this
meeting were various business leaders and also Chung Do Kwan instructors
GM Son Duk Sung and GM Hyun Jong Myun. Gen. Choi, as chairman of the
committee, is credited with suggesting the name "Tae Kwon". The committee
unanimously agreed. However, the name was not immediately accepted by the
other Kwans.

Various organizations were formed over the years to bring the Korean
martial arts under one roof: the Korea Tang Soo Do Association, the
Korea Kong Soo Do Association, Korea Soo Bahk Do Association, and the
Korea Tae Soo Do Association. Finally, the Korea Taekwondo Association
was born out of the Korea Tae Soo Do Association in 1965.

In 1966 the International Taekwon-do Federation (ITF) was formed by Gen.
Choi as a private organization. Gen. Choi focused his efforts and that
of the ITF on popularizing Taekwondo outside of S.Korea. In 1972, Gen.
Choi and the ITF left S.Korea and resettled in Canada.
In 1971 S.Korean President Park Chung Hee declared Taekwondo to be
Korea's national sport and funds were allocated to create the world
headquarters for Taekwondo, the Kukkiwon, completed in 1972. In 1973
the World Taekwondo Federation (WTF) was formed with Dr. Kim Un Yong as
President. Taekwondo is an official olympic sport in Sydney 2000.
Other than the WTF and the ITF there are numerous smaller Taekwondo
federations and organizations, e.g. the American Taekwondo Association,
the Global Taekwon-do Federation, Universal Taekwondo Federation, US
Taekwondo Association, US National Taekwondo Federation, Unified
Taekwon-do International, World Taekwondo Association, etc., however all
these Taekwondo groups use somewhat similar techniques and approaching to
teaching and training.

Training frequently emphasizes sparring, forms, and basics.

Influence:

Taekwondo was strongly influenced by Okinawan Karate and Japanese
Karate-do, because of the 50 year Japanese occupation of Korea. It was
forbidden to train in Korean martial arts during the Japanese
occupation, so many people were trained in Japanese martial arts. Also
many Koreans were sent to Japan for education and military training and
were taught Japanese martial arts during their time in Japan.

Description:

Taekwondo is a version of unarmed combat designed for the purpose of
self-defense. It is the scientific use of a body that has gained the
ultimate use of its facilities through intensive physical and mental
training.

The purpose of Taekwondo instruction is to help cultivate a person into
a physically, morally, and socially idealistic human being. Physically,
it promotes health, self-defense ability, and enhancement of physical
abilities. Mentally, it aids in social, emotional, and intellectual development.
The basic movements of Taekwondo are stances, blocks, kicks, and
strikes. The basic attacks are arm applied techniques such as punching
with a fist, striking with the edge of the hand or other part of the
body, basic kicking, and jump kicks.

Poomsae training is an important part of Taekwondo as offensive and defensive
techniques can be practiced and trained even without a training partner or
instructor being present. During Poomsae training one must learn the pattern
and understand fully the significance of the moves in the pattern.

Sparring is often strongly stressed once a student begins to learn the
basic movements and techniques of Taekwondo. This sparring may take the
form of use of street self-defense techniques or sport sparring
techniques. Kicks are often stressed in Taekwondo as a person legs are
much stronger than their arms, thus kicks are frequently able to do more
damage to an attacker than punches.

Self-defense techniques such as fighting while in a sitting position, defense
against a short club, and defense against a knife.

URLs: www.wtf.org
www.kukkiwon.or.kr/eng/
www.itf-information.com
www.itf-generalchoi.com