Taekwondo Kata

Taekwondo is a Korean martial art.

Its name means "the way (do) of the foot (tae) and the fist (kwon)", with foot and fist used in the sense of kicking and punches. But contrary to what one can often read, it is not Korean, but Sino-Korean: Taekwondo is actually the Korean reading of the Chinese ideograms (hanja) opposite.

More concretely, one can summarize by saying that Taekwondo is the art of using with maximum efficiency all parts of the human body capable of serving as weapons of defense or attack, especially the hands and feet .

The Taekwondo practitioner is Taekwondo-in (Taekwondo-in) or Taekwondoist (French version but also encountered among Anglophones ... and perhaps elsewhere).

One can, to simplify, consider that there are 3 "categories" in the martial arts:

- the arts of projections and dislocations: one neutralizes his opponent by projecting it, or immobilizing it by techniques of dislocation (also called "keys"),

- the feet-fist arts: one uses his feet and his fists, or even other parts of the body, to strike and to overcome his opponent

- weapons arts: we defend ourselves with the aid of one or more weapons, that are sharp (s), blunt, jet, ...

Of course, there is nothing static, and if certain disciplines fall very largely into a category, such as Judo and Aikido (essentially based on projections and dislocations), or Kendo (handling the saber) Others fall into several categories such as Hapkido where all three aspects are worked, although not necessarily in the same proportions.

Taekwondo, for its part, is a martial art, which is hardly surprising for a discipline whose name means "the Way of the fist and the foot". There are key techniques, but they are a minor and less thorough component. On the other hand, the handling of a weapon, whatever it is, is not included in the formation of taekwondo-in.

The practice of a martial art can involve certain risks, one can not deny it, but some precisions are necessary.

The real question is: "Is Taekwondo more dangerous than other sports? To this, one can answer with certainty that not.

The main risk of injury is fighting, but between the protection and supervision of teachers, the risks are very limited to training.

On the other hand, as a whole, Taekwondo working the whole body, it would have more tendency to prevent injuries than to provoke them, as explained in the benefits.

So why does Taekwondo sometimes suffer from a dangerous and violent image of "sport"? This is probably due in part to the impressive KOs that were seen at the Olympics. It must be believed that the kicks returned to the face mark more the spirits than the KO on punches of the boxing, that Sébastien Chabal fracturing the jaw of a New Zealander during a tackle in rugby, or that the Double fracture of the tibia of Djibril Cissé during a game of football although friendly.

In any case, we noticed in our clubs that most of the injuries were either due to a pre-existing fragility, or simply that they did not arrive in Taekwondo, but in another sports activity. And, in proportion to the number of licensees, there are fewer injuries per year in Taekwondo than in football.