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Taekwondo (Hangul: 태권도; Hanja: 跆拳道, which means "foot, hand, the way" or "the way of hand and foot") is a real-life martial art that appears in Tekken

In Korean, tae (태, 跆) means "to stomp" or "to strike or break with the foot"; kwon (권, 拳) means "to strike or break with the fist"; and do (도, 道) means "way of life". Thus, Taekwondo may be loosely translated as "the way of the foot and the hand." The name Taekwondo is also written as Taekwon-do, Tae Kwon-do, or Tae Kwon Do by various organizations.

Description[]

Taekwondo combines combat and self-defense techniques with sport and sparring. It is characterized by its emphasis on speed and agility, with head-height kicks, jumping and spinning kicks, and fast kicking techniques. To facilitate fast turning kicks, Taekwondo generally adopts stances that are narrower and hence less stable than the broader, wide stances used by martial arts such as Karate.

In the characteristics of Taekwondo, almost all kicks can be executed, such as jump kicks, spin kicks, jump spin kicks, or multi-rotational spin kicks, and can also be performed by either the front or rear leg in a given stance. Hand strikes are performed at a close distance in a number of ways: from standing, jumping, spinning, and rushing forward. Various surfaces of the hand may be engaged as the striking surface depending on which area of the opponent's body is being targeted.

Styles[]

The first unified style of Taekwondo was officially founded by South Korean general Choi Hong Hi in 1955, who unified various Kwans born after the Japanese occupation of Korea after World War II. Each of the Kwans practiced their own style of martial arts, mostly based on Shotokan Karate and Taekkyeon.

Afterwards, political issues led to the birth of different "styles", different from each other more for their philosophy than for their actual fighting aspects.

  • I.T.F.: The I.T.F. (International Taekwondo Federation) was founded as a means to promote and encourage the growth of Taekwondo by General Choi, alongside twelve other masters. However, the cold war politics of the 1960s and 1970s complicated the adoption of I.T.F. as a unified Taekwondo style: the South Korean government wished to avoid North Korean influence on the martial art, while General Choi Hong Hi sought support for the martial art from all quarters, including North Korea. In response, in 1973 the South Korean government withdrew its support for the I.T.F. and General Choi was exiled. Afterwards, General Choi Hong Hi established the new I.T.F. headquarters in Vienna and continued to promote, develop, and refine his traditional style of Taekwondo until his death in 2002. Since I.T.F. practitioners employ, to this day, Choi's style of Taekwondo, this style is often referred to as "Traditional Taekwondo" when compared to W.T.
  • W.T.: After General Choi's exile, the South Korean government's Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism established the Kukkiwon as the second, new, government-sponsored unified style of Taekwondo, less combat-oriented and more sport-oriented than the I.T.F. style, and the W.T.F. (World Taekwondo Federation) was established to promote Taekwondo specifically as a sport. The F was dropped from the name in 2017 to avoid negative connotations with W.T.F. Since W.T. competitions employ Kukkiwon-style Taekwondo, this style is often referred to as "W.T. style" (though in reality, the style is defined by the Kukkiwon, not the W.T.). In 1980, the Internetional Olympic Committee recognized W.T.F. as an Olympic discipline. Since then, Kukkiwon-style Taekwondo is sometimes referred to as Olympic Taekwondo.

Differences between I.T.F. and W.T.F.[]

  • The W.T.F. claims that Taekwondo's development was a collaborative effort by a council consisting of members from the nine original Kwans, while the I.T.F. credits Choi Hong Hi solely.
  • The patterns practiced by each style (called poomsae 품새, or teul 틀, respectively in W.T.F. or I.T.F.) are different. Patters, better known by the Japanese term "Kata", are sets of prescribed formal sequences of movements that demonstrate mastery of posture, positioning, and technique.
  • There are differences in the sparring rules for competition; specifically, W.T.F. style competition (the style used in the Olympics) is generally more sport-oriented and less combat-oriented than other styles.

In the Tekken series[]

Since the various styles are relatively similar, it is hard to determine which Taekwondo style is practiced in-game by Hwoarang and Baek Doo San. Nevertheless, one can assume that Hwoarang practices the I.T.F. style and Baek Doo San practices Moo Duk Kwan Taekwondo from some little details (it must be kept in mind that this is purely speculation based on hints, as no official statement has ever been given by Namco regarding their style of Taekwondo).

Hwoarang's movements are motion captured by Hwang Su-Il, a famous I.T.F. Taekwondo champion.[1] Furthermore, Hwoarang can be seen in the Tekken 3 Embu video practicing Hwa-Rang Tul, a pattern exclusive to the style.[2][3] Hwoarang has the same name as the pattern, perhaps on purpose. Finally, I.T.F. style uniforms are trimmed with a black border along the bottom of the jacket, like Baek and Hwoarang's uniforms.

Although Baek has the black border trim, his uniform is much like the Moo Duk Kwan style. Baek uses less agile movements, unlike an I.T.F. fighter, and a traditional looking open handed stance. It is not entirely clear if this is the case, as not enough information can be found on the Moo Duk Kwan style. It should also be noted that Moo Duk Kwan Taekwondo is different to the organization with the same name that teaches Soo Bahk Do.

Practitioners[]

Non-playable[]

Trivia[]

  • Mr. Baek, Baek Doo San's father, was a Taekwondo champion until and injury put him out of work. He taught Taekwondo to his son, and Baek in turn opened a school where he taught Hwoarang.
  • During the staff roll in the arcade version of Tekken 3, the word was misspelled as Taekon-do, missing the W. This mistake was fixed in the PlayStation release and subsequent games, including the Arcade History version of Tekken 3.

References[]

External Links[]

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