Taekwondo, Tae Kwon Do or Taekwon-Do is a Korean martial art, characterized by punching and kicking techniques, with emphasis on head-height kicks, jumping spinning kicks, and fast kicking techniques. The literal translation for tae kwon do is "kicking," "punching," and "the art or way of.
Like Tang
Soo Do, Taekwondo always requires wearing a uniform, known as a dobok. It is a
combative sport and was developed during the 1940s and 1950s by Korean martial
artists with experience in martial arts such as karate, Chinese martial arts,
and indigenous Korean martial arts traditions such as Taekkyon, Subak, and
Gwonbeop. The oldest governing body for Taekwondo is the Korea Taekwondo
Association (KTA), formed in 1959 through a collaborative effort by
representatives from the nine original kwans, or martial arts schools, in
Korea. The main international organisational bodies for Taekwondo today are the
International Taekwon-Do Federation (ITF), founded by Choi Hong Hi in 1966, and
the partnership of the Kukkiwon and World Taekwondo (WT, formerly World
Taekwondo Federation or WTF), founded in 1972 and 1973 respectively by the
Korea Taekwondo Association. Gyeorugi ([kjʌɾuɡi]),
a type of full-contact sparring, has been an Olympic event since 2000. The
governing body for Taekwondo in the Olympics and Paralympics is World
Taekwondo.