001_084_Taekwondo0907 30/7/07 3:08 pm Page 12 TAEKWONDOTAEKWONDO DOESN’TDOESN’T GOGO BACKBACK 1,0001,000 YEARS!YEARS! By Don Warrener “MY DREAM IS ONE TAEKWONDO!” Taekwondo’s Grandmaster Choi Hong Hi was most certainly a leader and visionary for one of the world’s most popular martial arts. He was the one who realised that Korea needed its own martial art with its own name and it was he who was able to bring about the joining together of the different martial arts in Korea under one roof. 12 | September 07 | Taekwondo and Korean Martial Arts 001_084_Taekwondo0907 30/7/07 3:08 pm Page 13 Moo Duk Kwan, Oh Do Kwan, Tang Soo Park has dedicated the new series to our dream of establishing a Korean hand-to- Do, and Chun Do Kwan were the original founder - General Choi Hong Hi. hand system of combat.” styles that contributed towards and were Park said, “Many Grandmasters and incorporated into the new. Masters have lied about Tae Kwon Do’s “Yes it is true!” said Park, “that our Tae roots. The fact that Tae Kwon Do does Kwon Do does have much more kicking Choi realized that he needed an individ- not go back 1,000 years should not than the other arts but the truth is that ual - an individual who was tech- embarrass us! Tae Kwon Do is new and our Tae Kwon Do came from Japanese nically gifted and who it is exciting!” Karate in the same way as Karate came embraced his own ideals of from Okinawan Karate, and the same as honor, integrity, humility and “In fact Tae Kwon Do goes back to the Okinawan Karate came from Chinese discipline - to help him propa- end of WW2 when our founder was in Kung Fu. This is nothing to be ashamed gate Korea’s new art. The per- prison in Kyoto, Japan and a fellow of because it is the truth!’” son he chose was Jong Soo Park Korean named Kim - who was a guard - - the first heavyweight Champion befriended him and taught him the of Korea (1963) and one of the kind- basics and the forms of Japanese est, most intelligent, honest people I karate (probably what later have ever met. became known as ‘Shotokan’. General Choi was sen- Park began his training in the 1957, tenced to death but fortu- training and demonstrating the patterns nately he was released at of Tae Kwon Do the very day the art was the end of WW2 and founded in 1964 in Seoul, Korea. He returned to Korea where became part of the first Korean Tae he began his life’s Kwon Do Demonstration team that trav- elled around the world in 1964. He was asked to return to Germany that same year and the art training there. Then he introduced Tae Kwon Do to Holland before finally moving to his present home in Toronto, Canada. TAE KWON DO IS A KOREAN ART NOT A SOUTH KOREAN OR NORTH KOREAN ART! Park sees modern Tae Kwon Do as one of the ways North Korea and South Korea can hopefully some day be reuni- fied into one Korea. He said, ‘When I sat at the bed of the founder, he told me straight to my face that he wanted one Tae Kwon Do - not two!’ Choi was very sick at the time. Since then, I have dedi- cated the rest of my life to just that. Park continues, General Choi’s last wishes were to unify the International Tae Kwon Do Federation (ITF) and the World Taekwondo Federation (WTF). Over the years Tae Kwon Do Olympic style has been criticized and Grandmaster Park agrees that in some ways it is not a true representation of Korean Tae Kwon Do. But he’s not just focussed on that! He continues to train, to research and to teach his art. His technical skills are still there, and although at the age when most men are sitting back and talking about the good old days, he’s making plans for his masters’ level summer training camp and working on his series of instructional DVD’s called ‘Mastering Tae Kwon Do’. These include not just the normal competition aspects of the art but also self-defence, throwing, chokes, locks, patterns and combination kicks. Taekwondo and Korean Martial Arts | September 07 | 13 001_084_Taekwondo0907 30/7/07 3:08 pm Page 15 “It is important that Koreans do not make invented the spinning hook kick and more exciting to watch than many oth- up stories like that! We are a proud and we had to give that a name too. We ers. Karate or Judo may be great martial honest people and we should stand tall were doing this for General Choi’s first arts - but they are not as exciting as the and be proud of the truth about our art.” book on Tae Kwon Do, which was orig- endless combinations of Tae Kwon Do. inally released in 1965. If you look at We are in the Olympics now and we “I was there on the day that Tae Kwon the book, you will see that I am fea- must apply some fine tuning to allow us Do was formed! All the Grandmasters tured in it as the technical model for to dominate.” present agreed that General Choi’s many of the photos. This was General selection of ‘Tae Kwon Do’ was the Choi’s desire.’ Go to www.jongsoopark.ca for infor- best name for this new Korean art. I mation on Grand Master Jong Soo Park. was also there when we had to come “Our double, triple, combination kicks, Visit the Rising Sun Web site at up with all kinds of names for the kick- combined with hand techniques make it www.risingsunproductions.net to ing techniques. I was the one who very unusual, and in my opinion, much read all about his new DVD series Taekwondo and Korean Martial Arts | September 07 | 15.