- Taekwondo is a very popular and widespread martial art, sadly is one of the most mcdojoed martial arts too. but i gonna focus on real taekwondo here, the korean martial art of lying a smackdown with fast and powerfull kick's.
From wiki:
with a heavy emphasis on kicks. Taekwondo was developed during the 1940s and 1950s by various Korean martial artists, as a blend of the indigenous Korean fighting styles of taekkyeon, gwonbeop, and subak, with influence from foreign martial arts, such as Karate and Chinese martial arts.
The oldest governing body for Taekwondo is the Korea Taekwondo Association (KTA) which was formed in 1959 by a collaborate effort by representatives from the nine original kwans, or martial arts schools, in Korea. The main international organizational bodies for Taekwondo today are the International Taekwon-Do Federation (ITF), founded by General Choi Hong Hi in 1966, and the World TaeKwonDo Federation (WTF), founded in 1973 by the KTA. Gyeorugi ([kjʌɾuɡi]), a type of sparring, has been an Olympic event since 1992. The body known for Taekwondo in the Olympics is the World Taekwondo Federation.
After witnessing a martial arts demonstration by the military in 1952, South Korean President Syngman Rhee urged that the martial arts styles of the kwans be merged. Beginning in 1955 the leaders of the kwans began discussing in earnest the possibility of creating a unified style of Korean martial art. The name Tae Soo Do was used to describe this notional unified style. This name consists of the hanja 跆 tae "to stomp, trample", 手 su "hand" and 道 do "way, discipline".
In 1957, Choi Hong Hi advocated the use of the name Tae Kwon Do, i.e. replacing su "hand" by 拳 kwon "fist", the term also used for "martial arts" in Chinese (pinyin quán). The new name was initially slow to catch on among the leaders of the kwans. In 1959 the Korea Taekwondo Association (KTA) was established to facilitate the unification of Korean martial arts. In 1966 Choi established the International Taekwon-Do Federation (ITF) as a separate governing body devoted to institutionalizing a common style of taekwondo.
Cold War politics of the 1960s and 1970s complicated the adoption of ITF-style taekwondo as a unified style, however. The South Korean government wished to avoid North Korean influence on the martial art. Conversely, ITF president Choi Hong Hi sought support for the martial art from all quarters, including North Korea.
[b]In response, in 1973 South Korea withdrew its support for the ITF. The ITF continued to function as independent federation, then headquartered in Toronto, Canada; Choi continued to develop the ITF-style, notably with the 1987 publication of his Encyclopedia of Taekwondo. After Choi's retirement the ITF split in 2001 and then again in 2002 to create three separate federations each of which continues to operate today under the same name.
In 1973 the South Korean government's Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism established the Kukkiwon as the new national academy for taekwondo. Kukkiwon now served many of the functions previously served by the KTA, in terms of defining a government-sponsored unified style of taekwondo. In 1973 the KTA supported the establishment of the World Taekwondo Federation (WTF) to promote taekwondo specifically as an international sport. WTF competitions employ Kukkiwon-style taekwondo.
For this reason, Kukkiwon-style taekwondo is often referred to as WTF-style taekwondo, sport-style taekwondo, or Olympic-style taekwondo, though in reality the style is defined by the Kukkiwon, not the WTF.
Since 2000, taekwondo has been one of only two Asian martial arts (the other being judo) that are included in the Olympic Games. It became a demonstration event at the 1988 games in Seoul, and became an official medal event at the 2000 games in Sydney. In 2010, taekwondo was accepted as a Commonwealth Games sport. [4
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Source:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taekwondo
Taekwondo is usually one of the first martial arts children doo, since is very popular, it's very easy to find a school, and his prices are very acessive.
Was a very influent martial art in the choreografy of north-american martial arts movies:
Best of the best are very good movies btw.
Taekwondo as a competitive sport has a very-deep talent pool, and is a sport that fosuces on speed and precision:
Here is Steve Lopez:
Kim Tae-hun
Choi Yeon-ho
And of-course taekwondo has made his way on the video-games, Kim Kaphwan from the king of fighters(I know that is a badas franchise name), is one of the most famous virtual taekwondo fighters:
Another one is Hwoarang from Tekken:
To taekwondo practicioners, the martial art will give flexibility, speed and dexterity, is a very-good sport to develop those qualitys, using exercises and drills:
