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TAEKWON-DO

Taekwon-Do History

On April 11th, 1955, the name Taekwon-Do was officially adopted for
the martial art General Choi Hong Hi had developed using elements
of the ancient Korean martial art of Taek Kyon and of Shotokan
karate, a martial art he had learned while studying in Japan.

The philosophical values and the goals of Taekwon-Do are firmly
rooted in the traditional moral culture of the Orient. On the technical
side, defensive and offensive tactics are based on principles of
physics, particularly Newton's Law, which explains how to generate
maximum force by increasing speed and mass during the execution
of a movement.

Wanting to share the results of his philosophical reflections and his
technical experiments, General Choi planned and wrote a unique
reference work, the Encyclopedia of Taekwon-Do. In its fifteen
volumes, he explained in detail the rules and practices of this art.

Always striving for excellence, General Choi presented Taekwon-Do
as in a state of continuous evolution, open to changes that would
improve its effectiveness. He wrote that anyone who believes he has
fully discharged his duty will soon perish. Likewise, any undertaking
that is perceived to have reached its objectives is likely to lose
momentum, stagnate, and die.

Since the beginning, Taekwon-Do has never stopped evolving, driven
by the strong will and a lot of hard work by its Founder. The leaders
of the ITF today also recognize the need to evolve and they are
equally passionate about the future of the organization.