Great info! When you say a more "dynamic" form of Taekwondo, what does the word "dynamic" mean in this case?
Perhaps I could have phrased that better. When you look back at Korean history, they were occupied by Japan from the early 1900s until the end of WW2. The Japanese had a policy of killing off anyone that would or potentially could resist them, and that included a lot of the teachers of the traditional Korean martial arts, particularly
Taekkyeon. As a result, when TKD was originated, the result was a martial art that had heavy Japanese karate influence and leaned more toward hand techniques. Grandmaster H. U. Lee was somewhat of a Korean martial arts historian, and he wanted to go back to the classical kicking styles of the earlier arts. As a result, he developed the Songahm (Pine Tree) style, which has an increased emphasis on kicking from White Belt onward.
For example, if you look at Chun-Ji, the White Belt form from Chang-Hun style, there are no kicks (
start at about 1:00 to see the form).
Now look at Songahm 1, the White Belt form from our style. Note the front kick and the side kick in the form (
start at about 1:16 to see the form).
Does this make our forms better? No, they're just a different application of the philosophy behind the style and a way of training the basic movements. After all, "a punch is just a punch and a kick is just a kick" (quoting an obscure martial artist here
). And if I may quote another obscure
D) martial artist with a minor change in wording: “The ultimate aim of martial arts training lies not in victory nor defeat, but in the perfection of the character of its participants ”
I got a little long-winded here, but I hope that I answered your question eventually!
