Tae Kwon Do/American Karate

      My main extracurricular activities include training in both Tae Kwon Do and American Karate. I guess you could say that I have a passion for competition and training in these two martial arts gives me ample opportunity for competition as well as allowing me to better myself as a person. I would encourage anyone to take up a martial art of some kind. I promise that it will change your life forever. Now, I would like to talk a little bit more about the history of Tae Kwon Do because it has such an amazing history and background.

      Tae Kwon Do has a very rich and interesting history. It dates back over 4,000 years in Korea and is perhaps the most popular martial art practiced in the world today. The art offers many benefits to its practitioners such as physical conditioning, self-confidence, the opportunity to make new friends, and discipline. Tea Kwon Do is based on five tenets, which are courtesy, self-control, integrity, indomitable spirit, and perseverance. Now that I have briefly discussed the benefits and tenets of Tae Kwon Do, I would like to focus the rest of this paper on the history and origins of Tae Kwon Do.

      Over 4,000 years ago Korea was introduced to martial arts. These martial arts started out with defensive postures known as tae kyon (Park & Seabourne, 1997). These defensive postures were used by the Hwarang-do society, which was introduced by King Jin Heung of the Silla dynasty (Park & Seabourne, 1997). The Hwarang-do had several tenets. Among those tenets were respect for parents, loyalty to the nation, and obedience (Park & Seabourne, 1997). The Hwarang-do was primarily responsible for the spread of tae kyon throughout Korea (Park & Seabourne, 1997). The name of tae kyon was replaced by subak during the Koryo dynasty, which lasted from 918 to 1392 (Park & Seabourne, 1997). During this time the focus was on military fighting and competition. Competitions and demonstrations were used to gain popularity for the art form. Lee Duk Mu authored the first Korean martial arts textbook, Muye Dobo Tongji, in 1790 (Park & Seabourne, 1997). This book contained an entire chapter devoted to Tae Kwon Do.

      The practice of subak began declining in Korea until the Japanese invasion and banning of the practice of all Korean martial arts in 1909 (Park & Seabourne, 1997). The ban on subak brought a renewed interest to the art and it began to be practiced in secret (Park & Seabourne, 1997). After Japan freed Korea in 1945, Korean martial arts began to grow and became a part of military training within 10 years of the freeing of Korea (Park & Seabourne, 1997). During this time there were some disagreements between the different schools of Korean martial arts, so they meeting in 1955 to unify the various schools, or Kwans (Park & Seabourne, 1997). In 1957, Tae Kwon Do was named as the official name for Korean martial arts (Park & Seabourne, 1997). During the 1960's the Korean Tae Kwon Do association was formed and held many demonstrations that made Tae Kwon Do popular all over the world (Park & Seabourne, 1997). In 1972, the first world Tae Kwon Do championships were held in the Kukkiwon, which was a gymnasium specifically designed for the teaching of Tae Kwon Do Students. Tae kwon do was accepted as one of the sports sponsored by the Amateur Athletic Association in the United States. Sixteen years later, in 1988,it made its first appearance as an exhibition Olympic sport at the summer games in Seoul, Korea (Park and Seabourne, 1997).

      Since then, interest in Tae Kwon Do has skyrocketed. It is currently being practiced by more than twenty million people in one hundred and twelve countries (Park & Seabourne, 1997). It has also become a medal sport in the Olympics as well as being a part of other major competitions, such as the World Games.