Taekwondo W.T.

TKD is the Korean martial art, developed over many centuries. The words Tae Kwon Do mean: Tae: Kick with the feet Kwon :Kick with the hands Do: It is the way, the art, the mind, in order to perform all of the above. To describe the origin of TKD one should deal with Korean history. In the old days, the current area of Korea was divided into three kingdoms. The Silla Kingdom (57 BC-936 AD) in the southeast, the Koguryo Kingdom (37 BC-668 AD) in the north, and the Baek Je Kingdom (18 BC-660 AD) in the southwest. Koguryo was the largest kingdom in area. The ancestors of the Koreans in these kingdoms in their effort to defend against their enemies and in the disputes that existed between the kingdoms, created various martial arts with different names such as: TAEKYON, HWARANG-DO, SOOBAK DO etc. In 668 AD the Silla kingdom prevailed over the other two and thus the three kingdoms were united into one. The Silla period lasted until 936 AD. and is considered the golden age of Korean history. It is worth noting that in the kingdom of Silla they developed the elite Hwarang warriors who were chosen young people with special abilities and practiced in martial arts, archery, weapons, calligraphy, painting and sciences. After the end of the Second World War and the end of the Japanese occupation there was an interest in making Taekyon accessible to the public and a general dissemination quickly followed. Then arose the movement led by General Choi Hong Hi with the ultimate goal of re-ranking Taekyon and planning a broad external organization. As part of the new classification, General Choi with the help of a committee, whose members were important personalities of Korea, changed the name to TaeKwon Do which means "Way of the Foot and the Hand". In 1965 a mission of high Dan officials started from Korea to spread TaeKwon Do around the world. Grandmaster Kwon, Jae-Hwa was also a member of the expedition. Since then, the Korean martial art has been taught in Europe as well.