Combat Taekwondo

The real Taekwondo in combat skill has proven its effectiveness as in various recorded counts of incidents by Grandmaster Nam Tae Hi and other Taekwondo Pioneers in the early days.  In the very early era, it must have been related to the war techniques, the reason of war.  Then as the weaponry developed, firearms flourished, then only martial art was kind of faded away.  But then military martial art died out in the rise of gun powder; leaving only the self-defense component still remaining in the practice of martial art.   200 years ago, martial arts training was limited ot the military not to the general public.  It was quite obvious that General Choi wanted his army to be able to learn the tactical self defense, to stand up against the opponents they were fighting during the Japanese invasion period.  This was the purpose of the Original Taekwondo, it actually comprised of combat reason, to combat, to win, through self defense and techniques to defeat the opponents, for the course of upholding justice and defending the national patriotism.  The original taekwondo therefore is the military taekwondo as the real history of Taekwondo intended it to be.
The physical side of Taekwondo, what it initially seemed difficult if not impossible to do, but one through repetitive training, diligent effort of practice, later became proficient in the movement and technique.  If one is willing to put in the required amount of work, one can do it, can achieve the goal of training.  This then translates into other parts of a person’s life, be it a project one undertakes to do, or a path one aims to travel, etc. the same philosophy of taekwondo can be applied as well.   The physical fitness of a Taekwondo martial artist is best exemplified by Pioneer Grandmaster Kong Young Il in his routine of a thousand kicks in 45min every alternative day at 78 years young.
Military Taekwondo and modern Kukki Taekwondo might have developed separately from each other to some degree.  The Taekwondo Pioneers in history were teaching hand to hand combative skills to soldiers, whereby some key members in the Taekwondo Pioneers eventually became the ITF but some of them got assimilated into the Kukkiwon.  On the civilian end, the other Kwans developed and practiced in accordance to their own standards and contextual needs. The Kukkiwon’s focus later became more on a national sport than an effective martial art for self-defense or combat purpose, which had led some to believe that the Kukkiwon Taekwondo cannot be considered as something related to military Taekwondo because that combative effectiveness is not present.
That being said, it is not difficult to agree that the South Korea’s soldiers are not any less respected for their martial prowess or ability than their North Korea counterpart.  The martial skill training is still based off Taekwondo in both practices in relation to the standardized Taekwondo of the KTA, which to a large degree is actually regulated by the Kukkiwon.  Thus, it is obvious that if the same techniques are being used by the South Korean army, they obviously can’t be discounted as ineffective.  However, it is equally obvious that they do have different emphasis in their training, more so for athletic purposes than the military originality 200 years ago.  As a matter of fact, many of the technical pioneers of Kukkiwon Taekwondo actually served in the military and were trained in military Taekwondo.  Therefore, it is not difficult to agree that the difference can only be on emphasis ground, not technical ground.  One can view Kukkiwon Taekwondo as the Combat Taekwondo in selective survival context.  Such selective survival context in turn has toned down the original combative mode of Taekwondo to a diminishing level because of a contextual moral code of a predetermined peace and harmony social living standard.  Today, Kukkiwon Taekwondo is also known as “Sport Taekwondo” for the same reason that the society is encouraging peace and harmony over hatred and chaos state; as though we are constraining a Rottweiler to be friendly or simply handling it on tight leash.
Today, the concept for sport to be entertaining has become more all-encompassing to meet the more rugged demand of the audiences in the spectator seats.  The criteria to decide the value of a sport is not its original purpose when the sport was developed, but its commercial value, its appeal to the audiences.  Kind of like gun although was invented as weapon in the war conflict has now become a tool in target shooting ground.  As a weapon, gun is viewed as a tabooed object, whereas in the target shooting ground it is viewed as a tool for recreational purpose or to win a shooting competition.  The target shooting precision of its technology is even more demanded than its predecessor war weaponry application. 
Combat Taekwondo in today’s context should be viewed the same.  The fact that the hardcore sports like MMA, UFC, Muay Thai, Sanda, etc. flourished in the recent years, Combat Taekwondo skills are now much more sought after than its toned down Kukkiwon counterpart.  UFC officially evolved in 1993 and it has 278m fans in 2017, whereas Taekwondo officially evolved in 1955 and it has 387m viewers in 2016 Rio Olympic Games. 
As martial artists, we surely do not encourage sports betting, yet it is important to recognize that the size of the sports betting is a gigantic market.  International sports betting is estimated to have a market capitalization of $250 billion.  In 2009, the sports betting market was valued at $20 billion. By 2016, it was valued at $40 billion. With a present market capitalization of (conservatively) between $60-73 billion in the USA alone, the market has conservatively grown at a rate of $10 billion per year. If this pace continues, American sports betting will occupy an increasingly significant share of the world market.

A fraction of this size is the market potential of Combat Taekwondo, such commercial value will surely attract many to take up training in Combat Taekwondo, although not all will be eying at capturing a piece of the pie from this market potential.  Be it for the love of Taekwondo and the desire to return to tis root, for tactical purposes in law enforcement, for self-defense, for competition readiness, for strength & functioning, for health & fitness, or any self-determined reason, Combat Taekwondo is becoming a rising martial art and nothing is able to stop it.

 

ITC is infused by a newly founded platform of a true living legend in the history of Taekwondo, a Taekwondo Pioneer who is still actively teaching around the world with this unique traditional martial art of Korea origin. 

ITC is paying tribute to KONG YOUNG IL TAEKWONDO in the World Taekwondo Organization with Combat Taekwondo as its core training curriculum. 

Contact us if you or your organization want to be infused into the World Taekwondo Organization as affiliated member, associate, or working partner under the wings of PGM Kong Young Il to promote Kong Young Il Taekwondo with us.