Tae kwon do is a Korean martial art focused on foot and hand techniques. It originated from five kwans or schools in Korea following World War II. In the 1950s and 1957, leaders pushed for unification and standardization under the name tae kwon do. Core philosophies guide practitioners in courtesy, integrity, patience, self-discipline, and indomitable spirit. A typical tae kwon do class involves warm up exercises, individual techniques practiced across the room, and sparring matches to improve fighting skills. Practitioners progress through belt ranks from novice to expert over years of dedicated training and mastery of forms, sparring, and self-defense techniques.

1. What is it
Tae kwon do is a Korean martial art that combines combat and self -defense with exercise to improve
one’s body and mind.
The meaning of the name is also significant to the martial arts as it describes the style.
As Tae mean “to strike with the foot”, kwon “to strike with the fist”, and do mean “way of life”. So the
total meaning of the name loosely translated is “the way of the foot and the hand”.
This name is generally credited to Choi Hong Hi with is considered to be the founder of tae kwon do by
most.
Swales
To investigate what this mean I decided to take a closer look at the community that revolves around tae
kwon do. This was done by looking closely at what made up the community and what it is about. The
aspects of the community I decided to look at where taken form John Swales and his “The concept of
discourse community”. During this piece he describes six characteristics that he thinks make up a
discourse community. These characteristics are what I used to get my ideas and the things that I wanted
to look at about the tae kwon do community.
Methods
To find this information I researched the how tae kwon do came to be which was what was described
before. This information was based off of a Wikipedia page that had the general knowledge I then took
this knowledge and applied my emotions of it to give it more meaning. However this only gives
background information and historical significance. To get more relevant information while attending
the UNCC tae kwon do club meeting and observed club dynamics by sitting down and watching instead
of participating. The club ranges from people who have just started tae kwon do to people who have
been doing it awhile. Within the club the age and majors differ as some are freshman and some are
seniors. To get a better look at the varety of club member and to compare a novice to an expert I
interview one of each. To get the expert point of view I interviewed the president of the club Matthais
Tillmann. The novice I interview was a new member who would prefer not to be named, Jess*. To
improve the validaty of the inteviews I recorded them.
Origin
After the occupation of japan in Korea, during which Korean marital arts were prohibited. New schools
started appearing in Korea called Kwans, five such schools appeared.
 Song Moo Kwan
 Chung Do Kwan
 Moo Duk Kwan
 Chang Moo Kwan

2.  Yun Mu Kwan
These five original Kwans are from what tae kwon do originated from. As the term had yet to originate
they were still referred to as kwans.
Then in 1952 after witnessing a demonstration by the military south Korean President Syngman Rhee
urged the kwans to merge the styles. It then became a reality in 1955 when the Kwans unified under
then name Tae Soo do. It wasn’t till 2 year later in 1957 when Choi Hong Hi advocated for Tae Kwon Do
did the name change. Following this in 1959 the Korea Taekwondo Association was established to
facilitate the unification.
During this time 4 annex emerge as additions to the Kwans as they were offshoots to the originals.
 Han Moo Kwan
 Oh Do Kwan
 Kang Duk won
 Jung Do Kwan
Then in 1966 the international Taekwon-do federation was established and led by Choi Hong Hi. As he
endeavored to spread Tae kwon do he lost support from the ITF. It then became an independent
organization to which it remains to this day.
Differences and similarities
The main difference between tae kwon do and other types of martial arts is the it emphasis head-height
kicks, along with jumping and spinning kick. These are usually done in a fast motion putting more
emphasis on speed then power.
This focus on speed leading into agility is a defining characteristic of tae kwon do. This is believed to be
able to increase the power of a kick more, since it isn’t dependent on the striking objects mass.
Another important aspect is relaxing in between techniques then tightening up just as your technique
would connect to generate more power.
While this isn’t exclusive to just tae kwon do it is an important part of how techniques are done.
Another concept that is important in marital arts is the yin yang motion. This is best described as when
punching while the one arm is going forward you pull the other one back to generate more power while
twisting your hips with the punch.
Philosophy
As with most marital arts there is a set of principle that a practitioner of the style has to follow or try to
achieve.

3. They vary from style to style but all have the same underlying meanings as to what should be done with
the teachings.
For reference sake I am going to use Choi Hong Hi original five tenets from which modern day ones are
based off of.
 Ye-Ui, courtesy
 Yom-chi, integrity
 In-Nae, perserverance, patience
 Guk-Gi, self-disciple
 Beakjul-bool-gul, invincibility of sprit
The reason for pronouncing the original name then what it means in English is to show how these te rms
are important and how theirs is a transition from their original meaning to the current as must
translations lack the actually meaning.
While this may not be all of the traits that modern marital arts follow it is the basis for them and most of
them include these terms in some form or another.
Club
To see what this looks like in a current day setting I went and observed the Charlotte tae kwon do club
which I am part of.
As with many marital arts classes the class started by lining up in front of the instructor, president in this
case, and bowing into them as they are the person who will be teaching.
Next began by stretching and warming up their muscle so that they didn’t pull something during the
activities as some of them can require muscle to be relaxed to do them. This was done by each person
splitting up and warmup individual however they felt like it. While this isn’t how it is commonly done
this is how they club did it. In classes the leader of the class usually led the group through a routine of
stretches to stretch the muscles that are important.
After stretches the member lined up at that back of the room and got into a fighting stance, which is a
stance where one leg is forward bent while the other is diagonally to the left. Once in the stance the
instructor showed what technique they would be doing, which was a punch to start off. They then began
moving down the floor punching this was done by taking a c-step where the back foot moves to the
front foot and then into a front stance. This was then done some more with different techniques going
down and back.
This then led into the next activity which was more techniques. Instead of doing them across the room
however the lined back up in front of the class room in a riding stance, which is when you stand legs
parallel shoulder width apart slightly bent. They start with a high block, which is where you hand is

4. brought from belt level up to over your head to block a downward strike. This was done a minute
straight to work on technique and endurance. They did this same activity with different block to work on
them.
They then go back against the wall again and do kicks across the room racing to see who gets done first.
As their hasn’t been a water break yet, first place gets that, while second and third have to do additional
exercises. The first kick combination that they did was front kick, round house, punch. After everyone
finished with their prizes from the first kick race another one took place. This continued a few times with
different combinations.
These are all typical activities that a tae kwon do class would to during a session to work on techniques
and exercise.
Other curriculum and terminology
While those are the only activities that I observed during that session of the club there are additional
activities that play a big part in tae kwon do.
The first of these important activities is forms, which is a combination of techniques done in a certain
way. This is mainly used to teach the introductory techniques and practice doing techniques to
strengthen the body in mind so that they can be done without thinking. Below is a video of a form being
done.
The other important activity and the one everyone likes to watch is sparring, which is when two people
put on padded gear and fight each other. While part of tae kwon do knows when not to fight it helps to
have some fighting experience, which is the reason for sparring. As you can know all the techniques in
the world but when it comes to fighting if you have no experience what it’s like to be in that sort of
situation you won’t know how to respond when the times comes.
In tandem with this is self-defense techniques which are techniques that are used to response to certain
situation that you may find yourself in during a fight. This mainly involves how to get out of things such
as a grab or a choke and how you can then turn this on your enemy. An example of this is shown in the
video below.
Hierarchy
Within a community there is usually a way to tell the difference between an new member and a
experienced member. Swales talks about this in his sixth characteristic where there has to be a good
number of both types and the community will not function or last.

5. This is represented in the tae kwon do community by the rank a person has in the community based off
of what belt they have. The belt as with other marital arts is a way of representing how much experience
a member has in the community.
To get an idea of how this is in the club I interviewed a novice and an expert member of the club. The
novice that I interviewed Jess* is someone who just started the club and doesn’t have any prior
experience doing tae kwon do. While the expert I interviewed is the president of the club and the one
who directs the club during a practice, Matthias.
During the interview I asked them both the same questions to see how the responses would differ from
the different perspective the both give. A question the shows this difference is that when asked what
the meaning of the club was the response was different form each of them. When Jess* was asked she
responded by saying it was about building self-confidence. While that is true its only one of the
meanings that is to be taken from tae kwon do. When this same question was asked to Matthias he
responded by describing roughly the same traits that are described in the philosophy, courtesy,
integrity, perseverance, self-control and indomitable spirit. As seen by the difference in the answer that
were given after participating in the community for a longer time you learn more about what the
community is really about.
While knowing more is a big part of being a more experienced member the main part of it is being able
to teach the newer member about the things you have learned and impart your knowledge to them. As
Matthias said during his interview own of the things he enjoyed was watching people developed i nto the
community and become more diverse with their knowledge. As it is with any community if you don’t
have member to teach what you know the community will die out as there is no one to teach others
once you are gone. This is the main idea behind swales sixth trait.
Conclusion