Taekwondo
Taekwondo is a Korean martial art and the national sport of South Korea. In Korean, tae means "to strike or break with foot"; kwon means "to strike or break with fist"; and do means "way," "method," or "art." Thus, taekwondo may be loosely translated as "the way of the foot and fist" or "the way of kicking and punching."Taekwondo is the world's most popular martial art in terms of the number of practitioners. Its popularity has resulted in the varied development of the martial art into several domains: as with many other arts, it combines combat techniques, self-defense, sport, exercise, meditation, and philosophy. Taekwondo is also used by the South Korean military as part of its training. Gyeorugi a type of sparring, has been an Olympic event since 2000.
Taekwondo is known for its emphasis on kicking techniques, which distinguishes it from martial arts such as karate or southern styles of kung fu. The rationale is that the leg is the longest and strongest weapon a martial artist has, and kicks thus have the greatest potential to execute powerful strikes without successful retaliation. Historically, the Koreans thought that the hands were too valuable to be used in combat.
A taekwondo student can typically expect to take part in most or all of the following:
Learning the techniques and curriculum of taekwondo
Both anaerobic and aerobic workout, including stretching
Self-defense techniquesÂ
Patterns (also called forms)
Sparring which may include 7-, 3-, 2- and 1-step sparring, free-style sparring, arranged sparring, point sparring, and other types
Relaxation and meditation exercises
Throwing and/or falling techniques
Breaking using techniques to break boards for testing, training and martial arts demonstrations. Demonstrations often also incorporate bricks, tiles,
blocks of ice or other materials. Can be separated into three types: Power breaking - using straightforward techniques to break as many boards as possible
Speed breaking - boards are held loosely by one edge, putting special focus on the speed required to perform the break
Special techniques - breaking fewer boards but using jumping or flying techniques to attain greater heights, distances, or to clear obstacles
Exams to progress to the next rank
A focus on mental and ethical discipline, justice, etiquette, respect, and self-confidence
Some schools teach the use of the "sine wave" when performing patterns; this involves raising one's center of gravity between techniques, then lowering it as the technique is performed, producing the up-and-down movement from which the term "sine wave" is derived. Other schools teach that one's center of gravity should remain generally constant throughout the performance of a pattern except where the pattern's description states otherwise.
