What is Tae Kwon Do?

[terryl965]

This is a passage in The complete One & Two Step Sparring written By Master Hee Il CHO
Copyright 1988 Master Hee IL Cho

TAE - means kicking or smashing with the foot
KWON - Means punching with the fist
DO - means the art or method of.

Combined, Tae Kwon Do means the art or method of kicking and punching, using the hands and feet. However, this is only the swallowest of meanings. Many people practice Tae Kwon Do as if it was written either TAE Kwon Do or Tae KWON DO, focusingon purly the physical aspect of the art. Tae Kwon Do, however, should be writtenTae Kwon Do because it is an Art. There are levels and levels of understanding which makes it an art in the truest sense of the word; closer to painting it is than exorcise. Tae and Kwon are merely the sport aspect of the discipline. They will not last.Do, on the other hand, will live beyond the failing of the physical aspect of the body.

Just would like to get everybody views about this statement, do you believe it true or not and give reasons and examples of why.
Looking forward to your responses.
Terry

 

[aplonis]

Any living art belongs to its living practitioners more than it does to the dead, however honored those dead may be. Any art has both the right and the duty to evolve. Only Confucians see it as otherwise and we all know how stagnant that culture was.

In the school which it is my privilege and honor to participate, our GM, Monte Beghtol, 9th Dan has a phrase, "If it works on me today its Tae Kwon Do tomorrow". We are all very fond of that philosophy.

While our testing criteria are mostly traditional Chung Do Kwan with some Tang Soo Do thrown in, the training experience is both wide and vast. We benefit from shared experience of MMA artists trained in Aikido, Hakko Ryu, BJJ, Shotokan, et cetera.

So Tae Kwon Do does not have to be just one thing. It is a fluid and dynamic concept. It does have a distinctive character, being mainly a stand-up art with stances like so, and like so...but these are foundations and not contstraints.

Gan Uesli Starling
http://wmtkd.us
Kalamazoo Chapter
Western Michigan Tae Kwon Do