The Kroean Venn Diogram

Taekwondo’s history is rich and full of intrigue. There are many arguments imbedded in the art and many answers to all sides’ of the questions. I find it problematic that we can’t just view TaeKownDo holistically, as I believe the General would have wanted us too, but instead we must contribute to the collective as individuals. From my position, and as I have read, the idea behind unifying the Kwon’s was to help adapt a national identity. With that being said the question must be examined as to what martial arts also came from the Kwon’s? You can dive into the history of Hapkido, tangsudo and Taekwondo all tried to attach themselves to Taekkyon. Moreover you will find links to Japanese and some Chinese arts as well. Hapkido looks a lot like TKD but the take downs are a mix of Jujitsu and Akido. TKD has some of these throws too but does not emphases them. And Tang Soo Do is basically, as I understand it, just a Kwon that did not play along. They all want to try and differentiate themselves from each other but that is not my intention. What I see is a handful of martial arts, steaming from the same part of the world, that overlap as thought there was a Venn diagram laid on top of their descriptions. What I simply propose is this; first, understand that TKD originated from the minds of Korean Karate masters. Second, understand that the idea to nationalize an art must have been prevalent in thought, at that time, or we would not be with three "different arts" currently. And lastly, promote the since of martial arts not the side that won the national identity crisis. Once you understand these things you will see that TKD class is a whole lot easer to teach. You will go from having a pool of TKD thought to having a tool box of TKD, Hapkido, Tangsoodo, Karate, and Taekkyon philosophies to pull from. So I would like to leave you with a string of videos to illustrate my points. I will have more thoughts this year and I will put up some more original material.

Mr. Mustache