Many say Tae Kwon Do originated in the Silla Kingdom, Korea during the sixth century. The Silla Kingdom was the smallest of the three kingdoms: Baekchae, Koguryo, and Silla, and was always in fear of being overrun by its much larger neighbor, Koguryo. So during the 6th century, Chin-Hung, the ruler of the kingdom of the time, organized a military group of selected young strong men to participant in a regular physical and moral discipline practice which was called t’aekyon (Vision Martial Arts Center).

Some think that the only reason Chin-Hung came up with this style was because the military need an effective way to defend th

"Well, at that time in San Marcos -- it was a very small city -- nobody ever really heard of karate. But when I demonstrated tae kwon do as a freshman, after that everybody came to my dorm room and they wanted to start a club. And so that's how it all started. Pretty soon, there were about 40 or 50 in the club (Complete Martial Arts, website)."

There were quite a few changes when Tae Kwon Do became competitive, mainly in sparring. Sparring was originally a light contact way of fighting because neither opponent wanted to physically hurt the other and it was for practice. Sparring became more physical, with the inclusion of padding, was when competition arose. In order for someone to win in a sparring match without being badly hurt or killed, the ITF came up with point sparring and Olympic sparring during the 1970’s. In Olympic sparring, the two opponents wear a blue or red tag. There are two rounds, each lasting a minute and thirty seconds with a thirty second break in between. The opponent that has the most points at the end the match is the winner. Each opponent is allowed to drink water during the thirty-second break. Point sparring is a bit simpler. Again both opponents wear blue or red tags. There are three rounds lasting two minutes each with a minute break in between. The object is to get three points before the other opponent. If three points are reached before the third round then third round is not need. In case of a tie in either point or Olympic sparring a round will be added. The first person to score a point wins (Master Jhoon Rhee).

Unfortunately, Choi's leadership of the KTA didn’t last long; he lost his status in 1966. A goodwill trip to North Korea by a Tae Kwon Do demonstration team caused Choi "to fall from grace in the eyes of the South Korean government." He resigned as the President of the KTA in 1966 and founded the International Tae Kwon Do Federation (ITF) on March 22 of that same year. He then moved the ITF headquarters to Toronto, Canada (Complete Martial Arts, website). Tae Kwon Do slowly made its way into the United States. In 1946 to 1947, Hong Hi Choi taught martial arts to both Koreans and Americans stationed at Tae-Jon. When the Americans returned home, those who learned enough to passed it on taught others. This was nothing formal or established (The Martial Spirit an introduction to the origin, philosophy, and psychology of the martial arts 13-20). It wasn’t until 1956 that Jhoon Rhee arrived in Texas for military training by the USAF. While there, he taught what was possibly the first American class in Tae Kwon Do. He was called back almost immediately to complete a year of active duty in the Korean Army, but he then returned to Texas in late 1957 to attend San M

Some topics in this essay:
Tae Kwon, Austin Texas, Arts Center, Martial Arts, Jhoon Rhee, tae kwon, Koguryo Silla, San Marcos, martial arts, Russia Rhee, Texas College, Georgia Choi, jhoon rhee, master jhoon rhee, complete martial, master jhoon, complete martial arts, martial arts center, vision martial, taught martial, arts center, arts website, martial arts website, taught martial arts, hi choi,