Taekwondo As A Kicking Art

FearlessFreep

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I read this posted on a mailing list [The Dojang]. No source was given, but I thought it interesting reading. I thought it really interesting some of the background behind was TKD is so kicking oriented
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TAEKWONDO AS A KICKING ART
The history of modern Taekwondo has been one of constant transition. Both WTF and ITF Taekwondo are very different from the arts taught in the original Kwans established in Korea in the 1940’s and ‘50’s. One of the major differences – and, indeed, the one that most clearly distinguishes Taekwondo from all other martial arts – is its emphasis on kicking, particularly high, spinning and jumping kicking techniques. The reasons for the shift from a style in which hand technique occupied a greater proportion of the syllabus to an art characterised by a considerable kicking content are numerous. In this month’s article our intention is to give a broad indication of how Taekwondo became the kicking art that it now is.
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The origins of modern Taekwondo as a predominantly kicking style can be found, among other factors, in the Korean people’s innate enjoyment of the method. A large, vigorous people by Asian standards, their physique and temperament seem to lend themselves naturally to wide, sweeping circular movements and leaps.
This tendency was embodied in Taekyon, a combative form first named as such in the early 19th Century. Korean historians often use the names of native martial arts somewhat loosely, but it seems probable that Taekyon developed from earlier unarmed combat methods known as Kwon Bop or Soo Bahk. While many portray Taekyon as an ancient warrior art, the limited historical evidence that is available suggests that it was essentially a recreational or tournament activity, in contrast to the other arts already mentioned. Bouts took place both informally, to settle disputes, or as part of organised youth festivals. Contestants would attempt to knock each other down using kicks, sweeps and throws. Wide, circular and spinning movements were favoured over linear techniques, and kicks to head level were assigned greater value than lower kicks. Taekyon was outlawed by the Japanese occupying authorities in the 1920’s and teaching of the art all but disappeared until a resurgence in the late
1950’s.
Taekyon can be seen, however, as a kind of culmination of the preference for kicking technique in Korean martial arts. The high degree of acrobatic skill required for this method is also apparent in the numerous tales of warriors felling or killing outright adversaries on horseback, which abound in Korean military history, another indication that Korean fighters have always held kicking methods in high esteem. In fact, in the early- and mid-20th Century, Taekyon even enjoyed the dubious honour of being a preferred streetfighting method of thugs and gangsters. The need to defend against these kicks is quoted as one of the reasons why Choi Yong Sool, the precursor of modern Hapkido, began to incorporate kicking technique into the Daito-Ryu Aiki-Jutsu which he had learned in Japan.
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An often overlooked aspect of Korean kicking tradition is its longstanding use as a martial art in the modern sense, that is, as a means of physical and spiritual development based on combative movements. The training necessary to become proficient in Taekyon and other arts with a substantial kicking content obviously required and promoted many of the qualities sought in modern martial arts training and physical education methods. Cardiovascular fitness, muscle tone, healthy joints, speed, strength, coordination, balance, flexibility, humility, perseverance, discipline and emotional control are all natural products of a strenuous training regime involving large amounts of kicking.
Koreans have always used the physical exertion of combat systems to develop desirable traits in practitioners. The Hwarang, the flower of Korean youth, trained in empty hand martial arts presumably not due to their application on the battlefield, where weapons would render them all but useless, but for their educational benefits. Up to and during the Japanese occupation of Korea, Taekyon is thought to have been preserved by Buddhist monks, who must be assumed to have adopted it because of its positive effects on their own spiritual development. Taekwondo is taught in the modern Korean military, not as a combative method for wartime but in order to ensure physical fitness and instil the indomitable spirit into the soldiers.
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All in all, acrobatic kicking skills are seen by Koreans as something particularly their own, an identifying mark for Korean martial arts and a source of national pride. Founding Taekwondo masters like Choi Hong Hee and Hwang Kee were keen to establish a link between their new art and Taekyon. Pioneers of American Taekwondo like Jhoon Rhee and Henry Cho included a wide range of high and jumping kicks in their syllabus, despite teaching what amounted – at least at first – to a “Koreanised” version of Japanese Karate. Modern Hapkido is considered to be derived from a combination of Choi Yong Sool’s Aiki-Jutsu with Taekyon kicking technique which Ji Han Jae (one of Choi’s main disciples) learned from a Buddhist monk, and credits itself with the popularisation of the 360º wheel kick among others. Modern Taekwondo exhibitions, particularly those performed by Koreans, are largely based around seemingly impossible combinations of board-breaking kicks, delivered in the midst of multiple
jumps, spins and somersaults. Spectacular kicking has become synonymous with the Korean arts, and this association has been actively sought by their practitioners.
Modern Taekwondo’s emphasis on kicking is a direct result of the aforementioned factors. In the second half of the 20th Century the martial arts in general have undergone a transformation from the simple, unspectacular and often brutal self-protection systems of the past to the globally accepted and commercially attractive mass recreational disciplines of the present. Taekwondo has been especially forward-looking in this sense, remaining relatively unified in its goals (in comparison to other arts) and seeking international expansion and recognition as a bona fide sporting and educational method.
Naturally, any such initiative requires distinguishing features in order to establish its own identity in the public eye. One of the ways in which Taekwondo was made to look less like Japanese Karate was to take advantage of the wealth of native Korean kicking technique, and to emphasise this aspect within the existing framework. With time, kicking grew in importance in competition Taekwondo and featured more heavily in the hyungs and pumses than in the older patterns. As a result of the growing popularity of the tournament sport in particular, a large part of regular training is taken up by kicking drills and physical conditioning to enhance kicking ability.

This tendency has continued in the last 20 years or so to such an extent that Taekwondo – particularly the WTF variety, but also the ITF – could be said to have moved away from its origins as a self-defence system to become closer to Taekyon, the tournament activity in which contestants attempted to knock each other down with kicks. Taekwondo’s undeniable progress as an international sporting and artistic phenomenon has meant the inevitable loss of a significant part of its original practical self-defence content. One of Combat-TKD’s principal goals is the recovery of this lost tradition, while respecting the tremendous value of the modern kicking art.
 

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