What is TRADITONAL TAE KWON DO?

Most people don't realize there are many different styles of Tae Kwon Do. Some examples are Moo Duk Kwon , Chung Do Kwon, Hwa Rang Do, Olympic style, etc.

The Style that we teach is called Moo Duk Kwon Tang Soo Do. Grandmaster Choi Sin Ill decided to call our school Tae Kwon Do and not Tang Soo Do, since most people didn't know what Tang Soo Do was at the time. In fact some Tae Kwon Do Instructors simply called their school " Karate " for that same reason. We teach the same Martial Art that made Tae Kwon Do Very popular thru 1970s - 1990s. Tae Kwon Do is made up of two ancient Korean Martial Arts, one is called Taekyun, and the other is called Soo Bak Gi. Taekyun is made up of mostly foot techniques, and Soo Bak Gi is mostly hand techniques. Both of these Martial Arts are over 2 thousand years old. The term  "Tae Kwon Do" broken down, means Tae To kick or smash with the foot,  Kwon to punch or destroy with the hand or fist Do, the way or the method. Both of these forms of Korean Martial Arts were combined in 1955 to form Tae Kwon Do. It is said that Karate came from Soo Bak Gi.

 Today's MMA Schools refer Traditional Tae Kwon Do as Combative Tae Kwon Do. In fact, some MMA fighters will train in traditional schools to learn how to punch and moreover, how to kick.

Today, most people's perception is all Tae Kwon Do is the Olympic Style. The Olympic style was introduced in 1988 in Seoul Korea Olympic Games. Soon, Olympic style divided Tae Kwon Do into two categories; Olympic And Traditional Styles. The Olympic style TKD is very popular, but does not represent the art as a whole.

 A common misconception is the following are styles of Tae Kwon Do. These are actually ORGANIZATIONS.

WTF, which is actually the World Tae Kwon Do Federation 

ITF, the International Tae Kwon Do Federation

ATA, the American Tae Kwon Do Association