First, let me set the scene. I am not a Taekwondo Learn. Nor even a Black Belt. In actuality, I don’t have a belt at all. Without a doubt, I have hardly ever experienced a Taekwondo belt. So why, you are entitled to inquire, am I creating an post about Taekwondo?
The motive is straightforward. In my working day task at a foremost Uk staff developing company, a incredibly big number of our broader celebration crew users in excess of the a long time are Taekwondo practitioners. Most of them are of black belt position and two of them have truly obtained on their martial arts CV that they have represented England. The rationale for this is straightforward. A person of the two is our Customer Products and services Supervisor and she has roped in some of her Taekwondo pals. Essentially, I experience qualified to create this by a number of 3rd-celebration connections.
So listed here is what I have gleaned from them. In retaining with the the greater part if not all martial arts, Taekwondo presents a mixture of activity, self defence and method to everyday living in normal – a philosophy if you will. One variable that mas built it so well known all-around the planet and much from its Korean roots is that it is a extremely social exercise, bringing alongside one another persons from all walks of existence and even generations. Though it is an Olympic sport involving professionals and viewed by hundreds of thousands, it is also a quite participative exercise that can be liked by all. The tenets of the artwork persuade camaraderie and even teamwork, so there’s a connection to my working day career there!
So what is it? Nicely, it is a martial art that originated in Korea. Its literal translation is “the way of the foot and the fist”, with Tae this means to crack with the foot, Kwon indicating the similar but with the fist and Do providing the way. Interestingly, it was born in the very same yr as me. 1955. It is absolutely putting on its years better than me! Choi Hong Hi, a South Korean General and martial arts pro. I gather that Choi is a thing of a controversial determine within just Taekwondo and not all factions perspective him as its creator, but I’m heading with the local movement in this article.
When I say it was born in 1955, that is just not strictly legitimate. It gained its title then, but basically it has been around for well around a thousand years. Back again in that working day it was termed Taek-Kyon. Basically, the men and women who unified Korea from the initial a few kingdoms that existed managed to do so largely by force and the pressure in question had Taek-Kyon at its disposal. The martial artwork helped the rather youthful (by age of its customers) army of the Hwarang-Do unify Korea. Once they had accomplished this, they began to distribute the word and get men and women throughout the kingdom engaged with the marital artwork.
It survived a close to extinction party when the Japanese occupied Korea in Yi Dynasty occasions soon immediately after the convert of the 20th Century (1910 to be specific) and really took off the moment the occupation finished in the mid 1940s.
As I create, Taekwondo is savored in an organised fashion by people in nearly 70 distinct nations around the world. Including this one, of system. And if the spirit and camaraderie of my colleagues listed here is nearly anything to go by, it is not going absent any time soon. So in respond to to the question I increase in the title, it appears to be to me to be a martial art for all that engenders a excellent spirit amongst those people who apply it jointly. Even these who have never taken a lesson in their life can advantage from that if they know men and women who are currently into it.
