Are there different kinds of TaeKwon Do?

Question

Are there different kinds of TaeKwon Do?

Answer 1

Yes. Taekwondo can be traced back to an early Korean form of fighting called Around the 1950's General Hi Il Choi further developed it into the martial art we know today. Before it became regulated, there were several different "kwans" or schools that each taught variations of the art.
Today there are still several forms but two are predominant International Taekwondo (governered by the International Taekwondo Federation) and World Taekwondo (governed by the World Taekwondo Federation)

I am in WTF myself, which is the type of Taekwondo done in the Olympics. In sparring, competitors wear full sparring gear including chest guard. Contact is harder in WTF than in ITF. Strikes are allowed to the chest and head but the only strikes permitted to the head are with the foot (no punches).

In ITF, competitors don't wear the chest guard, so contact is necessilarly lighter, but strikes to the head with the hand are permitted.

The forms in WTF and ITF are also different.

Hope that helps.

Answer 2

Yes and to add what some folks have said, there are advertisers who say they teach TKD and are not. Then there are those that teach Korean Karate (TKD but I'm not sure what type) and others who blend or combine arts with TKD. The long of the short is most arts (like religons) split at one time or another to form similar (or very disimilar) arts.
If you are interested, attend a class, ask the students and teacher lots of questions and see if it fits your needs.
As far as the history... Victors determine history, the loser never do. Korea existed before being conquered... they resisted occupation for a while. Karate was ripped from a small island conquered by the Japanese and made into a Japanese art... but I digress. Rant away on this if you like (won't change any facts what so ever). But this honestly may not affect how the art is taught. The teacher/coach will have the biggest impact there.
Peace.

Answer 3

This is a yes and no answer to this one I'm afraid. Historically, TKD is the culmination /creation by Gen Choi. If you look up Wikipedia, you can get a more detailed answer to where it came from, what organizations exist, and so on. In the end it breaks down to this though.

There is one base idea that is Tae Kwon Do, which involves basic techniques, forms, breaking, sparring, etc... Each school has subtle differences depending on philosophy of the Kwangjangnim, or Sabumnim who runs it. Some of these are ideas such as Taeguk vs Palgue. Some of these are the focus, olympic style vs traditional. In the end though, there really is only one TKD.

Answer 4

Okay, so it seems that we're all getting a bit "My martial art is better than your martial art" here.

There are essentially two different types of Tae Kwon do.

World TKD Federation (WTF)
and
International TKD Federation (ITF).

Some say that WTF = South Korea
and
ITF = North Korea.

But nothing is ever as simple as that. Shortly after TKD was presented to the Korean army as a fighting system, Korea was split North and South. The two styles evolved independently of each other, WTF in the South and the style adopted by ITF in the North.

WTF style evolved as a sports oriented style, and a crucial point in its development was when it first featured in the olympics.

ITF style kept its military heritage and emphasis on tradition and retains the same patterns (tul) devised at its inception.

It can be argued that there is a lot more to it than this, particularly since the recent death of Choi Hong Hi and the power struggle that ensued within the ITF, but both styles are very similar in their approach to self defence.

Best regards.

Answer 5

There are different Federations but there is only one Tae Kwon Do. Each federation will be made up of sevearl schools and each school will teach it's own version of Tae Kwon Do (I did the ITF that still incorporated grabs in their forms), because in all honesty a teacher is teaching what he was taught to his own level of understanding.

Anyone ever heard of the concept of Replicative Fading? A copy of a copy of a copy is not as clear as the original. Some don't even realize that certain katas originally had a grab, thus they don't think of Tae Kwon Do as having grabs or holds... that block/elbow combo was meant to be a block/grab-pull them into your elbow combo.

Tae Kwon Do, historically was a system of fighting developed for the Korean military with an effort to achieve, with bare hands, what conventional weapons (like knives and clubs) were used for in combat.

The term "Tae Kwon Do" translates to mean "The Art of Destroying with Hand and Smashing with Foot"

Answer 6

I am always amazed to see how little of you know anything about your art.... Yupchagee was the only one even close.

"the art of pounding with hand and smashing with foot?" where do you buy your drugs from... LOL I WANT EM!

TKD is also a bastardized form of Hard style Karate, but they are so prejudice that they will never tell you that. They learned it durring occupation.

WTF DOES NOT kick or hit harder than ITF. If anything I would say the opposite. I am part of a WTF school. Its called "tap dance sparring". I dont even like the fact that they say people "sparr" in TKD, because its so far from sparring it makes me sick.

Answer 7

Unfortunately, there are a ton of different TKDs. I would reccommend you read General Choi Hon Hi's Memoirs. They are very interesting reading and goes into detail about his development of the ITF and the promotion of TKD world wide. He also gives superior insight to the development of the WTF. After the General died in 2002 a major "schism", if you will, occurred in the ITF leaving 3 major "ITFs" and a great number of NGO (National Governing Organizations) that began to be self-sufficient in their promotion of TKD.

Answer 8

The America Taekwondo Association is different. They called it Songahm Taekwondo.

Answer 9

Yeah you could say that there are different types of the discipline, but mostly it's the organizations that govern the schools and how they go about teaching the basis and ideals of TKD

There's only one type of Tae Kwon Do, but there are many ways to teach it, it just depends on what organization places emphasis on the way to teach the discipline.

Answer 10

tea kw on do begins with the way we kwow it today 1n 1940's before that was taekion which had many styles but it wasn't union so Koreans masters decide to make one style tae kwon do.
at 60's they have some disagrees about the way of their fights so the make I.T.F and W.T.F the second is the Olympic sport .the other one is as good as the second but at the fights they don't use complete protect gear and they allows punches on the face.also they have different poomse