History

The World Taekwondo Federation was formed in 1973 by the Korean Taekwondo Federation as a result of General Choi Hong Hi leaving Korea for Canada, taking the International Taekwondo Federation with him. From that time on, WTF Taekwondo developed completely separately from the ITF, thus forming a different style of Taekwondo.

The WTF is a Korean national sporting association and as such, only accepts national Taekwondo associations to its group. The training headquarters for the WTF is also located in Seoul, and is known as the Kukkiwon, which was formed in 1972. It is here where key training, research and standards are set for international WTF Taekwondo and the Dan grade syllabus and awards are centred from. Despite its separation from the ITF, WTF Taekwondo has continued to grow into an equally popular global martial art, with it now enjoying Olympic status. In 1988, WTF Taekwondo was first staged at the Seoul Olympics as a demonstration sport, again in 1992 in Barcelona and installed as an official sport in 2000 at the Sydney Olympics. Being on such a prominent international sporting stage has possibly made this style of Taekwondo the most recognisable. It has now been introduced into North Korea, normally known as an ITF stronghold; hopefully this can go some way into forging bonds between the two styles that were formally political opposites.

Principles and Training

WTF Taekwondo is a fully traditional martial art and according to the WTF, “Taekwondo is a Korean unarmed martial art. It is not only kicking and punching, but a way of thinking and living. The main goal of Taekwondo is to achieve total body and mind control through proper training.” It follows a rank system with the use of colour belts in the Kup grades and black belt in the Dan grades.

poomsae

These are the set patterns used by the WTF and are an important and integral part of the grading syllabus. They follow the idea of a set series of movements against a group of imaginary opponents with each movement having a self-defence application. As well as forming the core basis of WTF Taekwondo training, they can be viewed as an art form that is judged aesthetically in competitions. See below for a list of Poomsae names, along side their corresponding grade.

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