Tuesday 23rd July - Harewood - Master Walker (Dai) returns for a second week

Did you know Master Walker ran a mini kicking seminar at the pre-grading class in March? Having trained in another Martial Art - Taekwondo - he has a breadth of experience in Korean martial arts.

Did you know that Taekwondo split from Tang Soo Do and up until the 1960s there was hardly any difference between the two.

Tae Kwon Do came about when the Koreans decided that what they were practising was too "Japanese" and even the names for their arts, Tang Soo Do and Kong Soo Do ("empty hand way") were just Korean transliterations of "Karate-Do." Therefore, they founded a 'new' art, Tae Soo Do (later renamed Taekwon-Do) and created new forms, the Chang-Hon forms. Then Gen. Choi, Hon-Hi fell out of political favour, fled the country and took the ITF with him. Back in Korea they founded the Kukkiwon in 1972 and the WTF in 1973 to serve as the technical headquarters and centre for the sport of Taekwondo, respectively. They created the Palgwe (which were judged to be too "Japanese" also) and then Taeguk forms. The rules for the sport were changed to favour foot techniques to differentiate it from Karate and also to try to bring back some of the concepts from Taekkyon, an older Korean Martial art from which Tae Kwon Do took its name.