Taekwondo

Taekwondo (known also as Tae Kwon Do or Taekwon-Do) is the Korean national sport and most commonly practiced form of Korean martial art (mudo). It is also one of the world's most commonly practiced sports. It was invented by the South Korean army as a system of unarmed combat, borrowing methods from several martial arts.

In the Korean language, Tae means "to kick or destroy with the foot"; Kwon means "punch or smash with the hand or fist"; and Do means "way" or "art." Hence, Taekwondo is taken to mean "foot, hand, art." A less literal translation is often given as "The art of kicking and punching" or "The way of the foot and the hand." Another, more commonly used translation, is "The way or art of destruction with the hands and feet."

Tae Kwon Do is popular throughout the world, and the Kukkiwon-World Taekwondo Federation's form of Tae Kwon Do is currently an Olympic sport. WTF Tae Kwon Do has received criticism for not teaching enough street-effective techniques including a subset of tournament rules which are very limited (WTF Taekwondo tournament rules do not allow punching to the head).

Because of great doctrinal and technical differences among Tae Kwon Do styles, practitioners believe that criticism from other styles of martial arts should only be levelled at individual schools. The art in general has received criticism rooted in Tae Kwon Do's emphasis on high kicks, which, to some, are considered impractical against moving and defensive opponents. Naturally, Tae Kwon Do's defenders would consider its emphasis on high, far-reaching kicks with a small, mobile stance to be an advantage in martial arts combat. There definitely is an emphasis on leg usage in Tae Kwon Do (both in the style of WTF Taekwondo and that of its major competitors, the American Taekwondo Association, or ATA, and the International Taekwon-do Federation, or ITF), including jump kicks but even more often spinning kicks and combinations of any kind. The typical Tae Kwon Do stance is light footed.

Tae Kwon Do is used in unarmed combat training in some armies, such as those of France, the Republic of Korea, and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, with ITF being much more popular in North Korea, and WTF much more popular in South Korea (and actually world wide if compared to ITF).