History of Tang Soo Do
General Background
The name of the art that you practise is Tang Soo Do which means ‘Way of the Chinese Hand’. The school that originally taught our style of Tang Soo Do is the Moo Duk Kwan school, which means ‘House of Martial Virtue’. This school was founded by Grandmaster Hwang Kee in 1945. Tang Soo Do training takes place in the Dojang (training hall).
Everyone who practises Tang Soo Do wears a Dobok (karate suit) and their belt (De). The colours of the belts represent different seasons of the year and show the instructor how long the student has been training. The suit (Dobok) that our students wear is white (to show that all students are equal) has the ATMA badge. The crane in the centre of the badge represents the lifetime study of martial arts and the lighter blue colour around the edge shows that there’s always something more to learn. The 14 leaves around the edge of the badge represent the 14 states of Korea. The 6 berries around the edge of the badge represent the 6 continents of the world. The 3 berries on one side of the badge represent the 3,000 Li (distance) between North Korea and South Korea. The fist on the badge represents Tang Soo Do and justice. The blue around the edge of the badge represents the oceans and the Dan Grades. The words around the edge of badge originate from the life codes of a group of warriors called the Hwarang warriors. These codes are:
- Loyalty to country
- Obedience to parents
- Trust amongst friends
- Courage in battle
- Honour your art (fight for the right reasons)
All of our students practise the traditional forms. These are patterns of movements made up of blocks (Mahk Kee), punches (Kong Kyuk) and kicks (Cha Gi). The first form our students learn is called basic form. Basic form has 20 movements and contains the 3 basic stances- Hu Gul Jaseh (back stance), Kee Mah Jaseh (horse riding stance) and Jun Gul Jaseh (front stance). The next set of forms is called the Pyung Ahn forms – Pyung Ahn means ‘peaceful confidence’. Originally, this was one form called Chanan. There are now 5 Pyung Ahn forms which were created by Master Itosu (‘Idos’ in Korean) in the late 1800’s and are symbolised by the turtle. Other forms Bassai- means ‘to storm a fortress’. This form is symbolised by the cobra due to the sudden striking movements and contains 52 movements. Nihanchi-this was originally one form. There are now 3 Nihanchi forms which teach combat techniques for small areas such as alleyways or corners. These forms are symbolised by a horse and the name means ‘Iron horse’. Sip Soo- means ’10 hands’ and is symbolised by the bear. Jaon- means ‘Temple bells’ and is symbolised by the goat.
Did you know? All the answers to the questions you will be asked about the art of Tang Soo Do for your GUP gradings is contained in this General Background article! If you would like to download a PDF version of this article to print off and study then please use the link below :)
