World
Tae Kwon Do Federation (WTF) and International Tae Kwan Do Federation (ITF) are
the two largest Tae Kwon Do (TKD) associations in the world. I will attempt to share how Han Moo Kwan (HMK)
is different from these “styles” of TKD.
I will start by discussing over the next two blogs, the top level
overview of the WTF styles and some key differences with HMK. I will follow up at a later time with a
discussion of ITF and their differences with HMK.
In
the first part of this blog, I will provide a brief overview of how WTF came to
be, name the key areas where WTF and HMK are different, and go over the first
area where we differ.
WTF
was established by the World Taekwondo
Headquarters, Kukkiwon in 1973. In 1978, the Kukkiwon,
was able to band 10 kwans in Korea together and unify the teachings under one
structure and governing body; Korean Han Moo Kwan was one of those kwans that
joined WTF. The Kukkiwon is also the
governing body that promotes all members of the WTF. According to the Kukkiwon website (www.kukkiwon.or.kr (Ref. 1)), WTF
has approximately 9.2 million members in over
8,000 dojangs in 205 different nations worldwide. In the United States there are 304,311 members
and over 3,700 dojangs. You can read
more about the history and details of WTF on the Kukkiwon website (Ref. 1) or on
the HMK website (www.hanmookwan.org/about_us.htm (Ref. 2)).
In
the late 1970s, an ambassador of WTF traveled to the United States and
approached Mr. Kim, our founder, with a mandate that he convert our Club to the
standards of the new organization. Mr.
Kim politely declined. As a means to
understand why he may have come to that conclusion and for an overall better
understanding among HMK Club members of our art form compared to WTF, I am
going to share some key differences between the two. Those areas area:
- Focus
- Sparring differences/rules
- Forms (Hyung)
- Ranking
1.
Focus
Much if not all the
differences between WTF and HMK, in my opinion, stem from the difference in
their focuses.
One of WTF’s goals was
to spread the art form internationally and a great way to exhibit and demonstrate
is to hold competitions. And there is no
bigger international competition stage than the Olympic Games. Korea petitioned and gained approval to add
Tae Kwon Do to the Olympics, starting as a demonstration sport in the 1988 and
1992 Olympics, and a full medal sport in the 2000 Sydney, Australia games. Since WTF heavily focuses on competition and
the sport of the art form, a key focus is striking the other opponent in the
right target areas to gain points (which also allows more objective grading
criteria).
The current WTF
competition rules, World Taekwondo Federation Competition Rules &
Interpretation, (Ref. 3) is
86 pages in length covering various topics including but not limited to: Competition
Area, Weight Division, Valid points, Duration of Contest, Permitted techniques
and area, Prohibited acts and penalties, Decision, Knockdown.
This has focused
the style to be more about the feet than hands (due to the fact most people
have more reach with their feet), and about speed, but not necessarily
power. And while those that learn WTF do
also learn self-defense, because they limit the techniques for competition, I
contend it also limits the effectiveness of the style for self-defense
purposes. In additional, since WTF
schools focus on competition and spreading the art form, those schools rarely
if ever, teach and practice the energy side.
HMK continues to
focus on an art form for adults who are more interested in learning and
training for self-defense purposes. In
my opinion, competitions have many rules that could be counter to training for
self-defense purposes and the two different focuses tend to not mix well. Because
the Club’s focus is on self-defense, we only limit a few techniques or targets
for safety reasons. In addition, in HMK,
the energy side is taught and considered a critical skill to be able to demonstrate
to progress in the art form. You can
read more about what sets HMK apart from other schools on the HMK Association
About Us webpage
(www.hanmookwan.org/about_us.htm (Ref. 2)). In fact, HMK Club members
would probably not do well in competitions – mainly due to the rules. More on that subject when I go over sparring
differences/rules in Part II of this blog along with the two areas where HMK
differs from WTF.
Regards,
Kelly
“True karate is this: that in daily life one's mind and
body be trained and developed in a spirit of humility, and that in critical
times, one be devoted utterly to the cause of justice.” ~ Gichin Funakoshi
(1868-1957), founder of Shotokan Karate
References:
2.
Han Moo Kwan Association About Us webpage, www.hanmookwan.org/about_us.htm
3.
World Taekwondo Federation Competition Rules &
Interpretation, January 2015
