EternalRage

Oh whoops, thanks, I forgot all about that. Yeah so apparently after the first time Hwang Kee tried to get an organization up and running (Korea Soo Bahk Do Association) and failed, about half the Moo Duk Kwan decided that a government backed unified system didn't sound so bad. After all, the government restricted any opening of Tang Soo Do/Soo Bahk Do schools, and froze most of their activities. Some members of the SBD Federation as well as other Tang Soo Do associations often portray some lingering bitterness towards the Moo Duk Kwan members who left for TKD, but honestly who could blame them? The government set up state of the art facilities, finances, advertising, etc etc. So about half the Moo Duk Kwan joined the TKD movement, setting up Moo Duk Kwan Tae Kwon Do branches and schools. Richard Chun, author of Moo Duk Kwan Tae Kwon Do Vol 1 & Vol 2 (Ohara Publishing) as well as Tae Kwon Do is one of the more popular Moo Duk Kwan Tae Kwon Do practitioners. I myself got started in Moo Duk Kwan TKD under Grandmaster Ye Mo Ahn's chain of schools in Dallas, TX before joining a Soo Bahk Do school in college.

Tang Soo Do (aka Soo Bahk Do - founder renamed it in June 1970, but many that broke off from founder's organization kept the original name) was the style practiced at the Moo Duk Kwan, founded November 9th, 1945 by Hwang Kee (deceased, July 2002). Tae Kwon Do was founded in the latter 1950s by efforts from Korean government and a General Choi Hong Hi of the South Korean army. After the Japanese Occupation of Korea ended in 1945, the cultural ban on Korea by Japan was lifted, and the oppressed Korean arts started to flourish. Martial arts schools opened up everywhere, the main 5 being the Chang Moo Kwan, Chung Do Kwan, Oh Do Kwan, Ji Do Kwan, and the aforementioned Moo Duk Kwan. The Korean government felt that it needed to reestablish the nation's identity through various cultural venues. For martial arts, it meant uniting all the Kwans together under one name, Tae Soo Do (later renamed Tae Kwon Do). Hwang Kee and the Moo Duk Kwan fought for their right to stay separate from the Tae Kwon Do movement in the Korean Supreme Courts and won their battle. Therefore, Tang Soo Do remains a separate art. The World Tae Kwon Do Federation (WTF) style TKD is probably what you refer to as "competition TKD" - training is mainly focused on developing fast economical kicks for competition olympic sparring. WTF TKD is mainly focused on competition, so all training is focused around the framework of the rules of competition, hence little emphasis on hands, groundwork. Tang Soo Do still mostly adheres to its original traditions, opting not to evolve into a sport like TKD (and hence did not lose most of its fighting practicality). Tang Soo Do incorporates more hand techniques and kicking techniques utilizing more hip for power and stability (TKD kicks tend not to since at most amateur and beginner levels, such hip kicking would be slower than the "skip kicking" characteristic of today's olympic TKD). Non competition oriented TKD is hard to find, other than that of the International Tae Kwon Do Federation (ITF) - originally based on the Oh Do Kwan (highly militaristic dojang). Their training is mostly more traditional, resembling Tang Soo Do closer than the WTF Olympic TKD. As for the histories of TKD and TSD, TSD sometimes likes to focus on the fact that they are not sport oriented and how they survived the TKD movement. TKD histories, especially WTF, do not like to focus on the General Choi history. Therefore, history depends on which style, organization, or school you attend, because the first several generations of TKD and TSD practictioners are mostly still alive and will probably shape the history they want passed on to future generations.

I don't do either WTF or ITF, but every Wednesday I go to their sparring nights and I am able to discern key differences between the two for this question you posed: The ITF have adhered more to its military based traditions, being a derivative of the Oh Do Kwan. The WTF, formed by the Chang Moo Kwan, the Chung Do Kwan, and the Ji Do Kwan, has evolved into a combat sport. This is evident in sparring, where the WTF of course is olympic sparring (predominantly kicks to head and chestgear, no kicking legs, no punching head, no clinching, no takedowns, no grappling). The ITF generally is the same except there are less restrictions on protective gear and punching to the head is allowed. So in answer to your question, ITF footwork from what I have observed is rapid linear movement, capitalizing mostly with hands after closing the distance with their legs. They are not so unlike Wing Chun actually, I have even seen ITF practitioners punch to the point where it looks like numeric chain punching. The WTF footwork I have observed over the last several weeks has been mainly as you state, switching of stances and bursts of lunges in order to manipulate distance to maximize points for "skip kicking." I believe that most sparring strategies - footwork, techniques utilized, etc - are defined in part by the ruleset. This accounts for the difference in the two - ITF includes the hand game.

I like 3 station board break where you do a "split kick" (basically a side kick and front kick at same time - front split) and then a roundhouse with the sidekicking leg.

Depends on where you train... I trained under Master John M. Clayton (Cheung Lineage) and he never advocated the "hunchback" look.

Going back to the original question, from the Tang Soo Do Soo Bahk Do Moo Duk Kwan Volume 2 (US Soo Bahk Do Federation) Naihanchi = horse Jin Do = crane RoHai = crane/stork Sip Soo = bear Kong Sang Koon = eagle Sei Shan = praying mantis Wang Shu = sparrow Jion = I'm not really sure what the picture is... looks kind of like a mountain goat or something similar O-Sip-Sa-Bo = tiger Chil Sung = seven stars (Big dipper + north star) - not in volume 2, from Dan Shim Sa packet Yuk Ro Cho Dan = Du Mun = Great Gate Yuk Ro E Dan = Joong Jol = Cutting the Middle Yuk Ro Sam Dan = Po Wol = Embrace the Moon HwaSun = "flower pure"

I'm taking this out of the "manual for gups" from the US Soo Bahk Do Moo Duk Kwan Federation, Inc. under Grandmaster HC Hwang: 10th gup - white 9th - white with blue stripe 8th - orange 7th - orange with 1 stripe 6th - green 5th - green with 1 stripe 4th - green with 2 stripe 3rd - red 2nd - red with 1 stripe 1st - red with 2 stripes chodan - midnight blue with each degree of midnight blue you have corresponding white stripe (ie 2nd dan - 2 white stripe) 10th to 3rd gup - minimum 3 month between gup test 3rd to 2nd - 6 month minimum 2nd to 1st - 6 month minimum 1st to Cho dan - 1 yr minimum 1st dan - more than 42 month required 2nd - 2 or more yr after 1st 3rd - 3 or more yr after 2nd 4th - 4 or more yr after 3rd 5th - 5 or more after 4th 6th - 6 or more after 5th 7th - 7 or more after 6th Try searching for soo bahk do links, not belt order for soo bahk do. also soobahkdo.com doesn't have any info on testing requirements or belt rankings, you have to go to individual school sites. Soo Bahk Do is a good system, as long as you find a good teacher. If you get interested in looking for one, ask me about who you find, I might know them.