In the Korean language Tae means “to kick or smash with the foot” Kwon means “to punch or to smash with the fist” and Do means “art or way”. So loosely translated to English Tae Kwon Do means “the art of kicking and punching”.

Tae Kwon Do is characterised by it’s dynamic kicking using the legs, with their greater reach and strength than the hands, as a primary weapon. Despite it’s reputation for dynamic kicking Tae Kwon Do also teaches students many other offensive and defensive techniques including punches, blocks, sweeps, throws and joint locking.

There are 2 distinctly different styles of Tae Kwon Do, International Tae Kwon Do Federation (ITF) style and World Tae Kwon Do Federation (WTF) style. One of the main differences between these two styles are their rules for competitive sparring; under WTF rules competitors fight with full contact however they are not permitted to punch to the head. Whereas under ITF rules competitors fight with medium contact but are allowed to punch to the head. Although this may sound somewhat ineffectual it does make a big difference to how a match is fought and many WTF fighters would struggle to fight under ITF rules and vica versa. Along with the difference in rules, the ITF and WTF use a different set of patterns. Patterns are where all of the basic movements and stances in the martial art come from so as you may imagine having different patterns results in the two styles also having different movements and stances. Along with the technical difference between the two styes there are also differences in their attitude towards training; WTF style Tae Kwon Do is an Olympic sport and training at WTF schools is often very much geared towards competition and sport. Whereas ITF style schools often focus on the more traditional aspects of training such as patterns.