What is traditional Taekwondo?

The definition of traditional Taekwondo is not complicated.  It means overcoming oneself and becoming one with body and mind through the thousands of repeated Taekwondo skills with proper attitude and mental discipline. Traditional Taekwondo training involves using one’s hands and feet without weapons to learn defensive and offensive techniques. When a traditional Taekwondo practitioner enters the dojang, they wear a dobok and practice barefoot. The traditional Taekwondo training hall is called a dojang and the walls are hung with the flag of the country to which it belongs and the flag of the country where Taekwondo was born. The organization's flag implies the identity of the dojang, such as the philosophy and the curriculum of Taekwondo training.
Traditional Taekwondo practitioners bow before getting on the training floor and bow again when getting off the floor. The traditional Taekwondo program comprises five subjects: Poomsae, Gyeorugi, Hosinsool, Gyeokpa, and Moral or Virtue. At the end of class, students kneel on the floor, recite the Ten Students Commitments, and pay tribute to the flags and the teachings of the master. For traditional martial artists, dojang is a sacred place to hone one's body and mind. Therefore, when a traditional Taekwondo practitioner enters the dojang, he/she is expected to give all attention to the training, not allowing the mind to drift away.
Traditional Taekwondo practitioners use traditional Taekwondo terms. For example, they call Grandmaster “SaBu-nim”, Master “SaBum-nim”, Instructor “Jogyo-nim”, and students “Jaeja”. On the other hand, in sports Taekwondo, Masters/Grandmasters are referred to as coach and students as athletes.
Traditional Taekwondo training emphasizes educational value.  We create and operate a system for grade students to do well in school and teach other students to become indispensable people in this society through a healthy mind and body gained from traditional Taekwondo practice.  The characteristics of traditional Taekwondo are activities that have physical, mental, social, and self-defense values, and have the essence of martial arts education that emphasizes mental and moral values ​​through mind and body training rather than winning in sport Taekwondo competitions. In other words, it emphasizes a valuable way of life that is not shameful as being human in the name of traditional Taekwondo as the right path that martial artists should follow.
Its characteristics can be divided into five types. The first of which is the strict Master System. Originally, the words, attitudes, and rules were very strict and developed from a relationship between disciples who were taught by a Taekwondo master who guarded the dojang through a strict Master's System, and then became the traditional Taekwondo of today. Secondly, as mentioned above, there were no weapons. The characteristic of traditional Taekwondo is that it does not use weapons but trains using hands and feet and bare body for defense and attack. The third is balance and harmony. Traditional Taekwondo practice seeks physical balance and mental harmony. The fourth is mental strengthening. The emphasis on moral discipline and mental strength in the traditional Taekwondo training process is a major feature. Social values are the fifth. Traditional Taekwondo training emphasizes courtesy, respect, humility, patience, concentration, self-denial, and self-discipline, and teaches the spirit of law-abiding and social responsibility. As such, traditional Taekwondo exists in various forms and has its own characteristics and philosophies.
In conclusion, traditional Taekwondo training is a means of discovering and growing oneself by refining one's body and mind, and by communicating with one's inner self, experiencing beyond one's physical limitations, and elevating one's character, knowledge, and morality to a higher level, which eventually leads to self-perfection. The purpose of this is to establish the self of the individual correctly and to educate people with true and pure love through traditional Taekwondo.

By SaBu-nim Jun Lee, 9^th Dan