Taekwondo is a korean martial arts that carries 5000 years of history. Taekwondo is a defence technique that teaches more than just a physical combat. It is a disciplined practice of enhancing our spirit and life through training our body and mind. Today, more than 150 countries around the world practices Taekowndo daily. As a result, Taekwondo have become a global sport standing among the official games in the Summer Olympics.
Tae (태) means “foot”
Kwon (권) means “fist”
Do (도) means the “way” or “art”
Putting these words together, Tae Kwon Do means the the way of foot and hands. But to understand the true iconology of the art you will need to understand its philosophy. The philosophy of Taekwondo is not about simply learning to fight and defend yourself. Taekwondo philosophy is taught through the way we live life. Living your life to the full as we train our body and mind through taekwondo and experiencing all different kinds of obstacles that may come in our way and breaking those barrier and standing tall with our “Hon” (spirits) high. This way, we will never forget and we will never give up. That is the way of the martial artist.
Korea was colonized by Japan until 1945 and during that time Taekwondo was rather called “subak” or “taekkyon” and was banned to be practiced. Upon liberation of Korea from the Japanese rule, people of Korea began to recover what was originally theirs. The lands, languages, traditions, folk songs, games as well as Korean martial arts. First president of Korea since the liberation was SeungMan Lee (1948-1960). On occasion of his birthday, President Lee clearly distinguished Taekwondo from Japanese Karate and made Taekwondo Korea’s official sport.
Chan Lee Taekwondo would like to divide Taekwondo into three parts:
A) Well - Being
B) Sport
C) Performance
Well- Being:
Taekwondo is a mental training sport that helps to not only enhance the body but person’s mind as well. We called that hon(혼): Spirit. People mistaken learning martial arts for the combative part of the sport but that is not the only case to practice taekwondo. At Chan Lee Taekwondo, we try to build a close community. By exercising and working together we start the bond of becoming a martial artist. what does it mean to be a martial artist? Martial Artists know to control their Hon. As we train daily, practitioners starts to see the change in their personality. Shy son became a leader in his class, student who’ve always been concerned of being overweight is now a threat to everyone in sparring for his fastest and most powerful kick, young adults who lacked courtesy and respect learned to be disciplined and show patience in learning. In the end, those changes in their character shows a big development in their social life. Well-being; this is not just talking about the healthiness of ones body but also of ones spirit.
Sport Taekwondo:
There is two different federation in taekwondo; WTF and ITF. Chan Lee Taekwondo is under and follows the rule of World Taekwondo Federation. WTF Taekwondo is recognized in many international level of games. In North America, we can train our team for following Taekwondo Championships: Junior and Senior Canadian Nationals, Jr & Sr World Championship, Jr. & Sr. PanAm Championship, Sr. PanAm Games (Canada hosted the 2015 Pan American Games in Toronto, In taekwondo our top athletes in Canada won 1 silver and 1 bronze). There also is a Youth Olympics for Juniors under the age of 18 and the ultimate dream for all athletes... the SUMMER OLYMPICS! In 2008, Team Canada fought and achieved our first olympic Silver medal in -67kg by Karine Sergerie. Sport Taekwondo is very competitive and have a greater vision for young athletes. Chan Lee Taekwondo hopes to bring more awareness to Canadians about this sport and is training our best at our dojang to build national champions.
RULES OF OLYMPIC SPARRING:
Olympic sparring is a full contact event and it takes between two competitor in a octagonal ring. competition is a 2 minutes of 3 rounds with 1 minute rest time. Points are rewarded for permitted, accurate and powerful technique to the legal scoring area.
1 point for kick or punch to the chest
3 point for kick to the face or 360 turning kick to the body
4 points for 360 turning to the head
Performing Taekwondo:
If you think sparring is amazing you haven’t seen anything yet! You need to experience the incredibility of Taekwondo performance. Please youtube! Most famous Taekwondo demonstration team in the world is K-Tigers and Kukkiwon demonstration team. Little elementary students to young adults performing skills that you never knew it was possible for human body. Choreographed dance, breaking, poomse, self-defence and many more fantastic acrobatic skills. Chan Lee Taekwondo feels that performing taekwondo with our students is another very important aspects of learning martial arts. Children learning to stand in front of a big audience, performing skills they’ve learned and having fun is a experience that no one can feel unless they try. And most likely, the experience they’ve felt will stay with them as a important life teachings. Thus, as a start, our dojang grows Chan Lee Demonstration Team. Our Team have a experience performing at many schools across calgary and at events that happens near our community. The biggest performance we took on stage is the Stampede Parade. After observing our young kids, teenagers and adults perform, our dojang have many new members who will join at all different age and levels. People who’ve never tried will join, person who practiced long ago will come back to fulfil the goal they had to put behind, and many teens and young adults join together or as a family with a new purpose.
After reading this if you are still debating either this sport will be the right choice for you that is okay. But, do not regret for not trying. It doesn’t have to be today, you can start any time, at any age because self-improvement and learning doesn’t stop until our life ends. I hope Taekwondo bring you new vibrancy to your life.
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