About Taekwondo

‘The Art of the Foot and the Fist’

Tae Kwon-do is a fast-paced, high kicking, exhilarating martial art and a great way to get in shape. Isometric and dynamic tension exercises allow you to gain strength and muscle tone while sparring provides an intense cardiovascular workout. Moreover, Tae Kwon-do can teach you to discipline your mind and body. So why not try Tae Kwon-do in Oxford at OMAA today!

Benefits of Tae Kwon-do

Improve physical fitness
Tae Kwon-do is a martial art and a sport. Classes combine learning strikes and blocks with sparring. The training helps to improve strength, cardio-vascular fitness, stamina, flexibility and coordination.

Teach self-defence
Tae Kwon-do can teach you to recognise situations in which self-defence might be necessary. And while we recommend that you remove yourself from these situations, it can provide you with the skills and techniques to defend yourself intelligently.

Develop mental discipline
Tae Kwon-do, like most martial arts, is not just a system of self-defence or combat but comes complete with its own moral philosophy. The five central tenets of Tae Kwon-do are courtesy, integrity, perseverance, self-control and indomitable spirit. These are as important to the art as the physical forms and techniques you will learn and can help to develop mental discipline.

Build confidence and self-esteem
By helping you to improve your physical fitness and teaching you to defend yourself in a variety of situations, Tae Kwon-do can help to build confidence and self-esteem.

Tae Kwon-do Skills and Techniques

A typical Tae Kwon-do class in Oxford at OMAA begins with a brief warm up including stretching and cardiovascular exercise. The instructor will then demonstrate one or two new moves to the class. Students will then spar against each other by skill level to practice the new techniques and perfect moves learnt in earlier classes.

Stance
Learning the appropriate Tae Kwon-do stance is important because it provides the basis for executing strikes and blocks with maximum strength and efficiency.

Kicks
Tae Kwon-do kicks can be executed as jump kicks, spin kicks, jump spin kicks or multi-rotational spin kicks. Some of those covered in OMAA classes are: the front snap kick, the side piercing kick, the roundhouse, the reverse turning, the hook kick, the axe, the crescent, spin kicks, the tornado kick and jump kicks. The key to effective kicks is speed, strength and height.

Hand Strikes
Tae Kwon-do is the art of the foot and the hand and hand strikes are as important as kicks. They are particularly useful at close distances. There are two main types of hand strikes: open hand and closed hand. They can be executed in a number of ways, from standing, jumping, spinning and rushing forward. The key to an effective hand strike is strength, speed and accuracy.

Blocks
Blocks are used to deflect an incoming attack and are each designed to counter a specific strike. The different blocks covered include: single forearm block, low block, rising block, palm block, knife hand block, double forearm block, double knife hand block and nine block. To be effective blocks have to be fast, strong and well-timed.

Sparring
Once some basic techniques are learnt, it’s time to get into the ring and test your skills against an opponent. Sparring not only helps you to improve and perfect your technique, it also teaches you to focus and stay calm under pressure.

History of Tae Kwon-do

Tae Kwon-do originated in South Korea in the mid-1950s. Traditional Korean martial arts like subak and taekkyeon had been banned during the Japanese occupation (1910-1945). After the occupation ended new Korean martial arts schools (kwans) began to open. These kwans drew on various influences including the ancient Korean arts, karate and other popular Asian martial arts. In 1952 the South Korean government organised a martial arts exhibition after which it was decided to reintroduce martial arts training to the military. Nine kwansemerged during the 1950s to fill this need and their styles were eventually unified under a single system called Tae Kwon-do. In the 1960s emissaries were sent around the globe to disseminate the new martial art and it quickly gained in popularity. Since its inception, the art has developed in two branches: traditional Tae Kwon-do which refers to the martial art as developed by the South Korean military and sport Tae Kwon-do which places greater emphasis on speed and competition. During the Seoul Olympics in 1988 it appeared as a demonstration event and in 2000 it became an official medal event. In 2010 Tae Kwon-do was accepted as a Commonwealth Games event.