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Taekwondo Essay

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Introduction One of the most popular sports at present is Taekwondo. It is loosely defined in Korean as "the way of the foot and fist". It is from the word "Tae", which means "foot", "Kwon" for "fist" and "Do" for "the way or method". (Southwick, 1998) Thus, taekwondo is a free-fighting combat sport using bare hands and feet to repel an opponent. (Lee, 1995) It requires proper and skillful execution of techniques such as punching, jumping kicks, blocks, dodges, parrying actions with hands and feet. Taekwondo is a sport that uses the entire body as a weapon to attack and beat the opponent with his hands, feet, elbows, knees or any part of his body. A person who knows Taekwondo should be able to stand against any opponent, but its code …show more content…

As such, King Chin-Hung organized a group of young warriors called the Hwa Rang, meaning the flowering manhood. This group, mainly composed of young aristocrats were trained in Taekkyon and Subak, the earlier forms of Taekwondo. (World Taekwondo Federation,2009) They were also given five principles by Wong Kwang, a Buddhist monk: be loyal to your king; be obedient to your parents, be honourable to your friends; never retreat in battle; and kill with justice. (Barnaby, 2003) The practice of these martial arts then became a stepping stone in influencing the unification of the three kingdoms. They remained popular throughout the years. Then came the Japanese occupation of Korea, Japan decreed that Korean martial arts be banned from all sectors of Korea as a safety measure against Korean uprising. In spite of the ban in effect, there were still several hidden practitioners of both martial arts (Lee,1995). Some even flew to China to continue practicing Taekkyon and Subak. As Korea regained its independence, the ban on these martial arts has been lifted and Koreans resumed their practice of these two martial arts. To further regain the Korean martial arts, Grand Master Choi Hong Hi, an army general, decided to fly to different countries to make a research about martial arts. After seventeen years of questing, he came back and introduced the name Taekwondo in a press conference in April 11, 1955. World Taekwondo Federation

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