11 – Taekwondo (1940s)
“The most difficult part of traditional taekwondo is not learning the first kick or punch. It is not struggling to remember the motions of a poomsae or becoming acquainted with Korean culture. Rather, it is taking the first step across the threshold of the dojang door. This is where roads diverge, where choices are made that will resonate throughout a lifetime.” Doug Cook, Taekwondo Master
There are several crucial points that are shared between the two histories of Muay Thai and Taekwondo. As Muay Thai is considerably younger in an organised form than many expect, so is Taekwondo: despite enjoying a meteoric rise to the Olympics, the sport has only been in existence since the middle of the Twentieth century. Similarly to Muay Thai, however, the roots of the art of Taekwondo do go back well before the codified version of the current techniques came into existence.
Taekwondo might only have been formulated in the last century, the roots of martial arts in Korea go back far further. The traditional wrestling of the Peninsula, Ssireum, dates back into antiquity, while the striking style, Taekkyeon, can be traced to slightly later, although still over two thousand years. As the martial history of Korea advanced, weaponry was added to the unarmed fighting styles, adding to their potency, with a commensurate set of rules and values that ensured the laws of war were adhered to.
As Korea fell prey to its near neighbours – mostly from China and Japan – huge influences from the martial arts of their conquerors became integrated into their styles. The anticidents of Taekwondo lie as much in the traditions of Karate and Kung Fu as they do in Ssireum and Taekkyon. Organised Ssireum first began in the period of Japanese occupation in the early 20th century, around the time that Judo was spreading around the globe, with many practitioners taking part in both disciplines. Thus was the hybrid art of Hapkido born. It was in this period that the use of gi clothing and ranking belts also entered Korea.
When the Japanese were finally ejected from Korea at the end of the Second World War, martial arts clubs known as Kwans began to spring up all over the Peninsula. They did not form one unified art, but rather had their own club style. At a display of martial arts in 1952, the Korean President Syngman Rhee decreed that all the kwans take on the same style to create an authentically Korean martial art, and it was through this that Tae Soo Do – as it was originally known – as born. The name was changed soon afterwards and in 1959, the Korean Taekwon-Do Association was inaugurated.
There were still hiccups: as the kwons were growing, the country was ravaged by the Korean War, and once the Korean Taekwon-Do Association had been decided upon, there was an immediate backlash from inside South Korea against anyone from a North Korean background having anything to do with the rules of this new sport. The International Taekwondo Federation (ITF), however, which had been founded in 1966 to develop a globally-recognisable style, insisted that the North Korean be allowed to take part. South Korea left the ITF and developed their own governing body, the World Taekwondo Federation, with the ain of getting the sport into the Olympics. They were successful in the year 2000, with the first medals for Taekwondo awarded at the Sydney Games.
Taekwondo is not the youngest of our martial arts yet. The last in our list comes from as recently as the 1990s and forms the logical consequence of all of what we have covered so far: mixed martial arts.
