Taekwondo as we know it today, was created on 11th April 1955 by General Cho Hong Hi. The style we practice at the Elite Combat Taekwondo Association is based on World Taekwondo Federation (WTF) Jidokwan Taekwondo, Jidokwan being one of the largest schools (Kwans) of Taekwondo in South Korea.
Taekwondo as we know it, was created by masters who had been heavily influenced by the study of Japanese Karate, thus, many of the techniques we use, come from Karate techniques that have been modified for Taekwondo. Korea was occupied by the Japanese, and the study of Karate was promoted during the occupation, no other martial arts practice was allowed.
We can trace Korean fighting arts back some 2000 to 3000 years, giving it a long history, Taekwondo is a part of Korean heritage and has a place in its society.
WTF Taekwondo is now an Olympic sport, and is one of the most practised martial arts in the world, as well as being taught as an effective self-defence and combat system world-wide by security and military forces.
T’aeGuk-Ki (Korean Flag)
The meaning of the Korean National Flag is very philosophical. The origin comes from the Oriental philosophy called Eum-Yang, in Chinese pronunciation Yin-Yang. In Korea, the symbol of Yin-Yang, and sometimes the flag itself, is called Taeguk and summarises the thoughts of I Ching. The name means as much as the flag of Great Extremes.
The flag consists of three parts: The white background, the red and blue circle in the centre and four trigrams, one in each corner of the flag.
The white background means peace.
The red and blue circle in the centre is called Taeguk, the origin of all things in the universe. The central thought is perfect harmony and balance: A continuous movement within the sphere of infinity, resulting in one unit. The blue part of Taeguk is called Eum and represents all negative aspects of the balance that is typical for the symbol. The red part is called Yang and describes all positive aspects.
The four trigrams at the corners (Kwe) also represent the concepts of opposites and balance. The trigrams are heaven (upper left) and earth on the opposite corner, water (upper right) and fire on the opposite corner. Looking at symbols of the trigrams, you can see that they are opposites as well. Three unbroken bars (heaven) vs. three broken bars (earth), etc