I'm trying to put together an article on the 'handshake' between KMA history on the one hand and TKD technique, and its practical applications, on the other. In thinking about this stuff, I've been considering a link between the old, old kata Empi and the very modern TKD hyung Koryo. What I'm curious about is whether anyone has an 'inside track' on the thinking that went into Koryo. This hyung was one of the very early 'strictly Korean' advanced forms introduced by the KTA at the beginning of the 1970s, as part of the deliberate, public and very non-amicable divorce of the TKD forms from the Japanese avatars that the former had been quite transparently based on up to that point. It seems clear though that some of the Eunbi hyung movements (derived from the Okinawan Empi kata) were adopted for Koryo, and that the mid/high front snap kicks in the first half mirror the Eunbi reinterpretation of Empi knee strikes as high(er) kicks, incongruously interposed between close-in grabbing moves.
It looks to me as though Koryo was put together by a committee, and I'm pretty sure that's literally true. But does anyone have any sense of the details here...?
It looks to me as though Koryo was put together by a committee, and I'm pretty sure that's literally true. But does anyone have any sense of the details here...?