Taekwondo Basics. Scott Shaw

1951, due to his age, Lee Won Kuk asked one of his senior students, Son Duk Sung to take over as the chief instructor of the studio. Son Duk Sung accepted this offer and thereby became the second grandmaster of the Chung Do Kwan.

      Many of the Korean schools of martial arts closed their doors during the Korean War, and the Chung Do Kwan was no exception. It did not reopen until 1953. By this point, however, Lee Won Kuk rarely visited the school because of his advanced age. Son Duk Sung and the instructors Son had personally trained became the primary teachers of the kwan. As time progressed, several advanced students of the Chung Do Kwan branched off and founded their own kwans.

      The Chosun Yun Moo Kwan—Ji Do Kwan

      The evolution of chosun yun moo kwan began in 1931 when Lee Kyung Suk, a Korean who taught judo, was allowed to establish the Chosun Yun Moo Kwan school in Seoul. He successfully operated this school of judo for several decades.

      At the end of World War II, Lee Kyung Suk asked Chun Sang Sup to set up a course of kwon bop at his school. This program was named Chosun Yun Moo Kwan Kwon Bup Bu.

      Chun Sang Sup began his martial arts training in judo while in high school. He then moved to Japan to attend Dong Yang Chuck Sik College. It was during this period that he was exposed to Shotokan karate, and he is believed to have earned a black belt.

      Upon returning to Korea, Chun is believed to have secretly taught Shotokan karate to private students, beginning in approximately 1940. Because privately teaching karate was outlawed by the Japanese occupying forces, his teaching was not formally recorded until he established his training method after World War II.

      Chun Sang Sup enlisted the help of Yoon Byung In to teach karate at the Chosun Yun Moo Kwan. Yoon was a fourth-degree black belt in Shotokan karate.

      Yoon Byung In taught at the Chosun Yun Moo Kwan for approximately one year before breaking away and forming his own school, known as the Chang Moo Kwan. Chun Sang Sup again returned to full-time teaching responsibilities.

      Chun's instruction continued until an evil twist of fate found him kidnapped and imprisoned by the North Korean military during the Korean War. He was never heard from again and was eventually believed to be dead.

      Upon the loss of Chun, Chosun Yun Moo Kwan Kwon Bup Bu teaching passed to the hands of Yoon Kwe Byung, one of Chun's senior students. He renamed the school Ji Do Kwan, "Wisdom Way School."

      During the 1950s, when the various kwans of the Korean martial arts began attempting to merge under one banner, Yoon Kwe Byung was against unification. Yoon wanted the Ji Do Kwan to remain free from organizational control, but the other senior members of the Ji Do Kwan disagreed. As a result, Yoon was ousted from his presidency, and Lee Chong Woo was elected the new president of the Ji Do Kwan.

      Lee Chong Woo forged the Ji Do Kwan into one of the leading schools of martial arts in modern Korea. Its practitioners were noted for their consecutive wins at South Korean tournaments. Lee also went on to hold several pivotal positions within the Korea Taekwondo Association and the World Taekwondo Federation.

      The Moo Duk Kwan

      There are two distinct divisions of Moo Duk Kwan, both of which evolved from a single source in modern Korea. The first is most commonly known as Tang Soo Do. The second is the Moo Duk Kwan division of taekwondo. To understand how these two separate governing bodies came into existence, we must first view the birth of this system of self-defense.

      The founder of Tang Soo Do Moo Duk Kwan was Hwang Kee. Hwang was an expatriate of Korea during much of its Japanese occupation. He details that he first secretly studied the Korean arts of soo bak do and tae kyon in his homeland, before leaving Korea in 1936 to work for the Southern Manchuria Railroad in China.

      In early interviews, Hwang Kee stated that he studied numerous systems of Chinese martial arts while living in China. Later, it was revealed that he had also studied a system of karate while he was there. Is it significant that this was revealed later—or it is at least notable.

      Hwang returned to Korea near the end of Japanese occupation and formalized his system of self-defense on his birthday, November 9, 1945. In 1946 his system began to be taught at the Yong San Railway Station in Seoul. It was called Tang Soo Do Bu, and he titled his martial arts organization Kyo Tong Bu Woo Hae. The Korean term tang soo literally translates as "knife hand," and the Japanese character used to depict this term is the same one used for karate.

      Since Hwang Kee's first school was in a railway station, many of his first students were railway employees. The school flourished for many years. Then, like most schools of martial arts on the Korean peninsula, it was closed on June 25, 1950, at the onset of the Korean War.

      In 1953, when the school reopened, Hwang Kee had changed the name of the system to moo duk kwan. He also changed the name of his organization to the Korea Soo Bahk Do Association. By 1955 this organization had ten gymnasiums, but its central headquarters remained near Seoul Station. During this same year, the Korea Soo Bahk Do Association hosted its first Sino-Korean martial arts championship.

      By 1965, the various kwans of the modern Korean martial arts were merging under the banner of taekwondo. Hwang Kee resisted this trend, wishing to maintain control over his organization. As a result, two of his advanced students—Im Young Tek and Hong Chong Soo—broke away from their teacher, formed their own branch of moo duk kwan, and became a part of the Korea Taekwondo Association. From this act, two distinct systems of self-defense, both called moo duk kwan, emerged.

      Many advanced practitioners of tang soo do moo duk kwan followed this lead and broke away from Hwang Kee. They each became part of the taekwondo branch of moo duk kwan.

      Although the two moo duk kwans are relatively similar in style and structure, and most Korean moo duk kwan masters draw their lineage from Hwang Kee, the two moo duk kwans possess different forms and a somewhat different focus. The taekwondo branch of moo duk kwan does, however, possess substantially more members—approximately 500,000.

      One interesting note is that tang soo do, unlike the other Korean martial arts, does not use the traditional black belt in its ranking system. Hwang Kee believed that black is the color in which all other colors merge—that is, any color that is mixed with black also becomes black. If an individual wears a black belt, it means that he has mastered the art. However, no one can ever truly master the martial arts, because they are a continual learning process. Therefore, advanced tang soo do practitioners wear a navy blue belt.

      The Chang Moo Kwan

      The Chang Moo Kwan was founded at the YMCA in the Jong Ro section of Seoul in 1946 by Yoon Byung In. In Japanese-occupied Korea, Yoon is said to have studied a Chinese system of self-defense known as joo an pa. This system is more commonly known as chuan fa. He then moved to Japan to attend Nihon University. While there, he studied karate under the direction of Toyama Kanken, the founder of Shotokan karate.

      When Korea gained independence, Yoon returned to his homeland and taught karate at the Chosun Yun Moo Kwan Kwon Bup Bu for approximately one year. He broke away from this school, and in 1946 opened the YMCA Kwon Bup Bu or Chang Moo Kwan. This school initially had over 500 students, but Yoon's training method was so severe that fewer than 200 students remained after only a few months.

      In 1946 Lee