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History of Korean Striking Arts
While the practice of martial arts has ancient roots in Korea, the naming and systemization of Taekwondo occurred relatively recently, and the Olympic sparring rules are being revised even today. See Korean martial arts.

As far back as the Goguryeo Dynasty (37 B.C. – A.D. 668) and Silla Dynasty (57 BCE - 935 CE), Subak techniques were used to train Korean warriors. During the early Joseon Dynasty (1393 - 1910), Subak was divided into Taekyon (a striking art) and Yusul (a grappling art). Through the years, however, Yusul was practiced with decreasing frequency and, eventually, only the Taekyon aspect of Subak remained, facing extinction.

In the late 18th century, King Chongjo ordered the compilation of the Muyedobotongji (武藝圖譜通志), an official martial arts text which identified many disciplines. Taekyon survived during the last part of the Chosun Dynasty via the secret practice of certain Korean families and street gangs.

This Taekwondo practitioner performs a side kick to break boards.During the Japanese occupation of Korea (1910-1945), many Koreans were exposed to Japanese martial arts such as Karate. As the Japanese moved deeper into the continent, Karate was adopted and mixed with more traditional Korean martial arts such as Taekyon, as well as traditional Chinese martial arts studied by Koreans in Manchuria and China.

Around the liberation of Korea in 1945, five martial arts schools under the style name of Kong Soo Do or Tang Soo Do, called Kwans, were formed by men who were mostly trained in Japanese Karate. The Kwans and their founders were the Chung Do Kwan (LEE, Won Kuk), Jidokwan (CHUN, Sang Sup), Chang Moo Kwan (YOON, Byung In), Moo Duk Kwan (Hwang Ki), and Song Moo Kwan (ROH, Byung Jick).

Around 1953, shortly after the Korean War, five more Kwans formed. These 2nd generation Kwans and their principle founders were; Oh Do Kwan (CHOI, Hong Hi & NAM, Tae Hi), Han Moo Kwan (LEE, Kyo Yun), Kang Duk Kwan (PARK, Chul Hee & Hong Jong Pyo), Jung Do Kwan (LEE, Young Woo), and Kuk Mu Kwan (KANG, Suh Chong).

In 1955, these arts, at that time called various names by the different schools, were ordered to unify by South Korea's President Syngman Rhee. A governmental body selected a naming committee's submission of "Taekwondo" as the name. Both Sun Duk Song and Choi Hong Hi both claim to have submitted the name. The name sounds like the ancient Korean martial arts of Taekyon, as Taekwondo has direct relation to Taekyon in the techniques.

In 1959, the Korean Taekwondo Association (KTA) was formed in an attempt to unify the dozens of the kwans as one standardized system of Taekwondo. The first international tour of Taekwondo, by General CHOI, Hong Hi, founder of the Oh Do Kwan (founded, 1953-4), and 19 black belts, was held in 1959. In 1960, Jhoon Rhee was teaching what he called Karate ( the names Tae Kwon Do and Tang Soo Do were unknown in the west at this time) in Texas, USA. After receiving the ROK Army Field Manual which contained martial arts training curriculum under the new name of Taekwondo, from General Choi Hong Hi, Rhee began using the name Taekwondo.

Despite this unification effort, the kwans continued to teach their individual styles. The Korean government ordered a single organization be created and, on 1961 September 16, the kwans agreed to unify under the name Korea Tae Soo Do Association (which changed its name back to the Korean Taekwondo Association when Choi became its president in August 1965). The Korean Athletic Union recognized Taekwondo as a sport in 1962, elevating it to the status of national sport, with seven weight divisions, in 1964.

A goodwill trip to the Communist government of North Korea in 1966 caused General Choi to fall out of favor in South Korea. General Choi founded the International Taekwondo Federation (ITF) in March of that year, in Seoul, Korea with associations in Vietnam, Malaysia, Singapore, West Germany, the United States, Turkey, Italy, Egypt and Korea. The ITF endorsed the Oh Do Kwan style developed by Gen. CHOI, Hong Hi and NAM, Tae Hee which used a rearranged version of the Karate forms of the Kwans called Chang Hon Hyungs, then later changed to Tuls. The Oh Do Kwan was the only Kwan to use Nam and Choi's Chang Hon forms. Later, Gen. Choi fled South Korea and moved to Canada, moving the headquarters of ITF with him. By 1971, ITF had more than 65 member countries.

In 1966-67, the Korea Taekwondo Association changed from the Pyong Ahn and related Hyungs to the newly created 8 Palgwe and 9 Yudanja Poomsae.

In 1972, the Korea Taekwondo Association Central Dojang was opened. A few months later, the name was changed to the Kukkiwon. Kukkiwon literatly means "National Technique Center" and is the World Taekwondo Headquarters. At that time, 8 new Poomsae called Taegeuk replaced the Palgwe Poomsae. In 1973, the World Taekwondo Federation (WTF) was formed by the nations of Korea, USA, Uganda, Mexico, Austria, and the Republic of China. It was originally headed by Kim Un-Yong (later a member of the IOC). The 1st World Taekwondo Championship was held at the Kukkiwon with participation of 35 delegates from around the world.

Even though the Kukkiwon curriculum of Taekwondo is broad, with research and practice of many aspects of the martial arts, only a newly created type of sparring called "Shihap-Kyorugi" was accepted by the WTF as a competition event in the World Championships. This new full-contact, non-stop sparring competition format used in this first and subsequent WTF events, led the WTF to successful acceptance into the Summer Olympic Games.

In July 1980, the International Olympic Committee recognized the WTF and Taekwondo sparring was accepted as a demonstration sport at the 1988 Seoul and the 1992 Barcelona Summer Olympic Games. It has been an official full medal Olympic event since the 2000 Sydney Olympic Games. Taekwondo is one of two Asian martial arts (Judo being the other) in the Olympic Games. Taekwondo was admitted to the Asian Games as an official event in 1984.

In 2006, the WTF has over 180 Member National Association with approximately 50,000,000 members.

Taekwondo is famed for its employment of kicking techniques, which distinguishes it from martial arts such as Karate or certain southern styles of Kung Fu. The rationale is that the leg is the longest and strongest weapon a martial artist has, and kicks thus have the greatest potential to strike without retaliation.

Taekwondo as a sport and exercise is popular with people of both sexes and of many ages. Physically, Taekwondo develops strength, speed, balance, flexibility, and stamina. An example of the union of mental and physical discipline is the breaking of boards, which requires both physical mastery of the technique and the concentration to focus one's strength.

Stretching during warm-ups is one way Taekwondo develops flexibility.Although each Taekwondo club or school will be different, a Taekwondo student can typically expect to take part in most or all of the following:

Learning the techniques and curriculum of Taekwondo
Both anerobic and aerobic workout, including stretching
Self-defense techniques
Poomse, or patterns (also called forms) -- either tuls, hyongs, palgwes, or taeguks
Sparring, including step-sparring and/or free-style, arranged, hoshinsul and more
Relaxation exercises
Breaking (using techniques to break boards for testing, training & martial arts demonstrations)
Exams to progress to the next rank
A focus on mental, & ethical discipline, justice, etiquette, respect, and self confidence.
Some of the most well known Taekwondo techniques include:

Front Kick (ap chagi): This is a very linear kick. The practitioner raises their knee to their waist, pulls their toes back and quickly extends their foot at an opponent. It is also known as the snap kick.
Roundhouse Kick (doll rye chagi): This kick is when one raises the knee, turns, and extends the foot out attacking with the instep. Also known as the Instep Kick
Side Kick (yup chagi): A very powerful kick that has somewhat fallen out of favor as competition has become progressively faster. The technique is very similar to the Roundhouse, first the practitioner raises his knee and turns but instead of striking with the instep, they strike with the side of their foot.
Turning Kick: The practitioner raises their knee, pulls their toes back and extends the kick horizontally across his target.
Hook Kick (ap hurya chagi): A less popular kick traditionally, it has found increasing favor in modern competitions. The practitioner raises the knee in a fashion similar to the side kick, then extends the foot in a dorsal arc (would be clock-wise for the right foot) with the heel as the intended striking weapon. This is also known as the Front Hook Kick.
Axe Kick (nerio chagi): Another kick that has increased in popularity due to sparring competitons. The knee is raised in front of the body, the leg then extended and pulled down with the heel pointed downward. It is typically targeted toward the head or shoulders and requires significant flexibility to employ effectively. There are many styles of axe kicks. They are also known as downward kicks.
Crescent Kick (chiki chagi): There are two variations of this kick; outer cresent and the inner cresent. In outer, the practitioner raises the extended leg as high as they can, and slightly across your body, (a bit to the side of the intended target), they then sweep to the side in a circular (crescent) movement. For the inner, the motions are the same, but the direction of the kick changes, this time originating from the outside of the body, heading towards the inside of the body.
Spin Kicks (dwet chagi): There are a number of spinning kicks that involve the rotation of the entire body before the kick is released. Spinning kicks include the spinning side kick (dwet chagi), spinning hook kick (dwet hurya chagi), spinning axe kick, returning kick, and a number of other kicks of varying popularity.
Jump Kicks (eidan chagi): There are also a number of kicks that involve jumping before their execution. These include jumping front kick (eidan ap chagi), jumping side kick (eidan yup chagi), flying side kick, jumping roundhouse (eidan doll rye chagi) (sometimes referred to as butterfly kick, although this term is at times used for a distinct kick separate from the jumping roundhouse), jumping spinning hook kick, shuffle jump kick, and jump spinning side kick.

The colored belt system is an artifact of Japanese influence on Korea during the occupation, and thus ultimately from Jigaro Kano, the founder of Judo. Some organizations' leaders, like General Choi, assigned meanings to the various colors of the ranks[2], representing the progression of a student from the snows of winter (white belt), through a cycle of the seasons representing the student's growth (yellow, green, blue, red), into the maturity of the black belt. The interpretation of the colors of the belt vary from school to school, and are sometimes omitted from instruction, as they did not have meaning when they were originally chosen. Neither the World Taekwondo Federation nor the Kukkiwon assign official meanings to the colors.

The correspondence of belt color to Gup varies drastically from school to school, and can even change within the same school over time. Belt colors are most useful in allowing students and instructors within a school to quickly determine rank. The traditional and most common rank-color correspondence found in both Kukkiwon and ITF schools[3]:

Gup Color
9th White Belt
8th Yellow Belt
7th Varies
6th Green Belt
5th Varies
4th Blue Belt
3rd Varies
2nd Red or Brown Belt
1th Varies

The method by which colors are assigned for intermediate belt rankings (odd-numbered Gups) is far less uniform. The two most most common approaches are to assigning a new color for each odd rank, such as a "Purple Belt" for 7th Gup, or to marking the increase of rank with a stripe on the belt.

There is little uniformity in the colors of the intermediate belts. A "purple belt" could mean 7th Gup in one school and 3rd Gup in another, and may not even exist in another. The use of stripes also varies. The stripe can be a thin lateral stripe at the end of the belt, or a long stripe that runs the length of the belt. Its color also varies, but a common method is to use the color of the next even-numbered Gup. A 7th Gup belt could be a yellow belt with a thin green stripe at the end, or a yellow belt with a long green stripe running its length[4]. "Mixed" belts are also used, which contain the colors of both even-numbered Gups that the intermediate rank is between [5]. Schools that use the thin lateral stripe sometimes mark it with nothing more than a piece of tape, which saves the student the expense of purchasing a new belt.

The typical even-numbered Gup colors are sometimes omitted completely for the sake of simplicity, particularly the green belt. For clarity, Taekwondo practitioners should always refer to their rank by number ("7th Gup") instead of by color ("Purple Belt").

The time required to advance in each Gup level also varies from school to school, but typical rates are quarterly or monthly. Not all students advance at each promotional testing, and students at advanced Gup ranks often wait one or more testing periods for their next promotion. Students with good attendance and strong aptitude may earn faster promotions than those with irregular attendence or effort. Gup rank advancement records are kept by the school of origin, and sometimes by the association headquarters.

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Dan belts
The black belt system is more formal and standardized across the different schools of Taekwondo. Generally, a Dan black belt is either an unadorned black belt (the same for all ranks), or has a stripe across the tip for each rank (usually gold, silver, red or white). For example, a 5th Dan could have five lateral gold stripes across the end of the belt. Many black belts also have the name of the school on the right side of the belt, and the Taekwondo practitioner's name on the left. The names can be written in any language, though having the school's name in Korean and the practitioner's name in his native language is common. According to General Choi, "The reason for nine black belt degrees is that the number three is a powerful number in the orient, and therefore three threes must be the most powerful." The 10th Dan is a very rare rank, generally awarded posthumously only to persons who have made great contributions to Taekwondo. It should not be confused with the Honorary Dan. The Kukkiwon has only awarded four standard 10th Dans, all posthumously, to the following men: Byong Lo Lee, Chong Soo Hong, Il Sup Chun and Nam Suk Lee. The WTF has also awarded two "honorary" Kukkiwon 10th Dans, both to individuals who were members of the IOC[6]. The WTF, WTF Member National Associations and the Kukkiwon issue many honorary Dans to political and non-political persons who make a contribution to the growth of Taekwondo.

Generally speaking, one must wait one year per current Dan level to progress to the next level. For example, a 3rd Dan must wait three years before he can progress into 4th Dan. There can also be an age requirement. For example, one must be at least 30 years old to qualify for 6th Dan in the Kukkiwon. The Kukkiwon allows shortened promotion times for exceptional accomplishments. For example, a practitioner who wins the World Championships is accorded a 80% discount on both the minimum time to advance and minimum age requirements[7], up to a maxmimum promotion of 7th Dan.

For Kukkiwon practitioners, all ranks of 1st Dan and above must be registered with the Kukkiwon if the black belt wishes for his rank to be acknowledged at other dojangs, or if he wishes to participate in the Olympics. A "wallet certificate," which looks like a photo identification card, is often carried by practitioners to prove their rank when they attend tournaments or transfer schools.

The Kukkikwon requires special promotion tests to advance to the 8th Dan and beyond. These tests must be taken at the Kukkiwon. For lower Dans in category 2 nations of the World Taekwondo Federation, tests can generally be administered by any Kukkikwon-certified black belt of at least 4th Dan who is also at least one Dan rank higher than the person testing. However, in category 1 nations, only the National Taekwondo Association of the WTF can apply to Kukkiwon for the Dan/Poom test.

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Dan titles
For those who have passed the Sabum test at the Kukkiwon Academy, these are the official Sabum classifications:

4th and 5th Dan "Sabum 3rd Class": Graduate of 3rd Class Course
6th and 7th Dan "Sabum 2nd Class": Graduate of 2nd Class Course
8th and 9th Dan "Sabum 1st Class": Graduate of 1st Class Course
Officially, the Kukkiwon recognizes the following titles for Dan ranks:

1st Dan - 5th Dan: "Master"
6th Dan - 9th Dan: "Grandmaster"
In America, the following is a typical system of how schools may assign titles to Dan ranks:

1st Dan - 2nd Dan: "Assistant Instructor"
3rd Dan - 4th Dan: "Instructor"
5th Dan - 7th Dan: "Master"
8th Dan - 10th Dan: "Grand Master"
"Assistant Instructor" and "Instructor" are unofficial rank titles, and although Dans holding these titles often help with instruction, this arranagement is independent of the Kukkiwon's official "Instructor" program in which one receives certified training in conducting Taekwondo classes. The certified instructor program (which must be taken before one can establish a new Taekwondo school in Korea), is only offered to practitioners who are certified 4th Dan and who have passed a week-long course held annually at the Kukkiwon[8].

ITF schools use a different standard ranking system:

1st Dan - 3rd Dan: "Assistant Instructor"
4th Dan - 6th Dan: "Instructor"
7th Dan - 8th Dan: "Master"
9th Dan: "Grand Master"

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