A WAY OF LIFE  

Contrary to the teachings of many instructors, specially from the sport style, Taekwon-Do did not originate thousands of years ago in ancient Korea. Rather, Taekwon-Do is a modern martial art  developed by the General Choi Hong Hi, since  his return to Korea from Japan, after the end of II World War,  where he learned Karate (Shotokan).

Gen. Choi  combined Karate techniques which emphasizes on the use of hands and  the ancient Korean martial art called Tae kyon , characterized by  the use of kicks. Been one of the founders members  of the new South Korean Army,  he created the OH-DO Kwan o school, with the mission of teaching the new martial art to the soldiers under his command and eventually, to the whole army, specially to the Korean Troops in Vietnam where the power and effectiveness of Taekwon-Do was proofed in closed combat during the Vietnam  war.

On April 11, 1955, General Choi, then a two stars general  the South Korean army, began to unify different Kwans  (Schools) of martial marts , giving  the name of Taekwon-Do,  founding few years later the Korean Tae Kwon Do Association,  He being its president. Then in 1966, The International Taekwon-do Federation was founded with the mission of spread this Martial Art across the planet. Gen. Choi  became its President until his death in 2002.

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.